Bitter Funeral Beer Band - Live In Nurnberg (Country & Eastern, 2007) ****

One of my favorite records of all times is Bengt Berger's Bitter Funeral Beer with Don Cherry, released on ECM in 1981. But today a live performance by the same band (but without Don Cherry) is available for download on eMusic.com. The performance does not have the same haunting quality as the ECM release, because of the absence of the real African funeral chants, and of course Cherry's soaring trumpet. Yet the discovery of this release is great fun. There is also another release "Live In Frankfurt", this time with Don Cherry, that can also be downloaded from emusic.com. But even without Cherry, the music stands in its own right and has aged well : the music is intense, sad, full of African rhythms, with repetitive elements à la Terry Riley, but free jazz as well. An absolute feast for the ear. Watch the video clip below. Great that this is now available.

The band :
Bengt Berger, Ko-Gyil (Lo-Birifor funeral xylophone),
Atsimevu (Ewe master drum);
Anita Livstrand, Ko-Gyil, voice, percussion;
Liselotte Norelius, percussion;
Thomas Mera Gartz,percussion, tenor sax;
Sigge Krantz, acoustic and electric bass, guitar, percussion;
Thomas Huhn, electric bass, percussion
Matthias Helldén, cello, percussion;
Tord Bengtsson, violin, guitar, percussion;
Thomas Gustafsson, soprano sax, tenor sax, percussion;
Björn Hellström, bass clarinet, flute, percussion;
Ulf Wallander, soprano sax, tenor sax, percussion;
Jörgen Adolfsson, soprano sax, alto sax, percussion;
Tommy Adolfsson, trumpet, percussion;
Kalle Ericsson, trumpet, percussion