Toshinori Kondo & Paul Lovens, The Last Supper (side A)

The Last Supper documents a 1980 duo concert in Bremen. Paul Lovens's endlessly inventive array of percussion sounds always amazes me—it never gives a remote hint of what he might be striking. It also features drastic, memorable shifts and variations, in both dynamic and texture. Toshinori Kondo definitely plays trumpet like no one else, with crazy blasts of sound that more closely resemble Brötzmann's approach the the saxophone than any of his predecessors. I feel like a minority of one for not being as enthusiastic about Kondo's playing as I am about Lovens's, but their collaboration here is a fine document of early '80s out improvisation. The Radio Bremen staff captured the detail in both musicians' playing, but the recording captured a bit too much of the shrill/harshness of their palette (trumpets can be particularly tricky, especially when played with such abandon).