Gumpert / Sommer Duo plus Manfred Hering, The Old Song (side A)

The piano / sax / drums trio format had grown popular in free jazz and related improv circuits in the early-70s.  Von Schlippenbach Trio's Pakistani Pomade dates from 1972, and the Cecil Taylor Unit's freeblowing Akisakila came a year later.  Also in 1973, the Gumpert / Sommer duo teamed with alto saxist Manfred Hering for this record.  While its format and dynamic intensity rivals that of its contemporaries, the musicianship on The Old Song has a very different feel.  Günter "Baby" Sommer's drumming relies less on creating a sense of flowing movement, and more on the gestures of which it is composed.  While the structures rely on pattern and even rhythm, the purpose of these patterns is never to create feelings of propulsion or movement — they exist more as a reference to this form than as an underlying pulse.  Sommer's piano playing is also a bit out of place in a free context — even more than Irene Schweizer, he often employs a lyrical and almost romantic vocabulary evocative of Martial Solal.  Perhaps because he's a guest and not a regular group member, Hering seems to follow the other players more often than he pulls in a third direction.  The trio generally do manage to pull their seemingly incongruous styles into logical collaborations, often with one personality driving.  The lo-fi nature of the recordings is emphasized when Sommer's playing grows loud, as it tends to drown the entire group in the distortion that its volume introduces.  The austerity of the front cover is beautiful and uninviting.