Manfred Schoof Quintet - Scales

A perfect album... they don't come along too often do they?  Luckily for you, today's offering is just that.  It defies genre as avante-garde is too narrow a descriptive.  No, "Scales" is all at once melodic, chaotic, free, constructed, inside, outside... you dig??

It's incredible that this was released in 1976, it still sounds incredibly modern and fresh.  Schoof's compositions and musical soundscapes are absolute sonic perfection.  His music is the ultimate expression as he conveys moody brooding right through to elated joy.  Infact all the players contribute incredibly to each tune, be it locking the feel or soloing in front.

Pilz's bass clarinet is a breathy and dreamy addition - perfect in creating the vibe Schoof has crafted.  I also want to say that Hubner's brushes are something to behold.  He is able to play incredibly tight and technical fills while remaining in the background.  Indeed, this band are tight and it's clear they have played together beyond the studio.  I feel the balance they achieve between freedom and arrangement is a perfect one, something I prefer far more to say Miles' Bitches Brew group.  There is a certain accessibility that Schoof has added to the songs.  When he is playing, the notes really convey an emotion that you can feel, as opposed to just listening to a technical performance.

ECM recently issued a 2 disc set featuring all 3 of Schoof's albums released during the seventies.  "Scales" was the first of these and in my opinion, the best.  This LP is absolute mint and the fidelity is like all ECM recordings... overwhelmingly amazing.  The dynamics are breathtaking and they will carry you away to another zone.  I am really proud of this transfer, it's surely one of my best.  Captured at 24/44.1 wav and dithered to 16/44.1 FLAC, this is a truly minty affair.  Enjoy!!!

The title track of Scales opens both album and set with a primal trumpet cry. It is Schoof’s calling card: a rip in the ether from which flows undeniable light. Van ‘t Hof poeticizes this light from a place beyond waking. And indeed, the more instruments are added, the dreamier the music becomes. Over time, Pilz’s gorgeous rasp adds tactility, so that surreal gestures begin to feel familiar. Pilz stands out also in “Ostinato,” which finds him sharing a stepwise ground line with Lenz. We are so fully mired in this swampy unison that when he breaks free from the waves, his voice feels like a shaded benediction in what is easily among the finest tracks in the ECM archive. Van ‘t Hof’s organ drone is also notable here. Over it drums seem to describe abandoned castles, stone by stone, until they loom before us unscathed by time. The keyboardist provides deep color shifts throughout the program, evoking early Steve Kuhn vis–à–vis electric piano in “For Marianne” and spacy atmospheres in “Weep And Cry.” The former’s cloud rolls give Schoof vast chromatic freedom, while the latter evokes sunset before cooling into a twilit canopy, now alive as the darkness reveals its dance through the bass clarinet. The scene closes its eyes with “Flowers All Over” in the album’s most joyous music. Schoof rides a harmonic dolphin, plunging variously into intuitive digs, likewise inspiring Pilz to grand emotional heights. - Tyran Grillo / Between Sound And Space

Manfred Schoof: trumpet & flugelhorn; Michel Pilz: bass clarinet; Jasper van't Hof: piano, electric piano & organ;  Günter Lenz: double-bass; Ralf R. Hübner: drums.

Japo / ECM Records

ECM 19004

1976

A1 Scales 10:33
A2 Ostinato 12:45
B1 For Marianne 6:58
B2 Weep And Cry (Composed By – Ralf R. Hübner) 10:15
B3 Flowers All Over (Composed By – Jasper Van't Hof) 7:30