Transcript in English
This piece was produced when Last Exit just released their second album ’The Noise Of Trouble’ in 1987.
It’s more or less a review playing excerpts which emphasise my opinion of this fantastic album.
The piece broadcasted on the national radio shortly after the release and Peter Brötzmann kickstart it with a quote I caught when interviewing him the year before.
This is a transcript for reading. Press the button below if you instead want to listen.
”It’s a dangerous music for us too. Because we never know what’s happening and take a lot of risks. But risk has two sides. it can be great, it can be bullshit”.
That’s what the German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann said when he was here playing with Last Exit almost exactly a year ago.
The reason I’m returning to that interview is that Last Exit just came out with their second LP. The quartet remains intact with guitarist Sonny Sharrock, drummer Ronald Shannon-Jackson and full-time producer and part-time bassist Bill Laswell.
New record ’The Noise Of Trouble’ picks up where their debut left off.
Brötzmann pointed out last May that the band was still completely fresh and hungry. So their ambitions were hardly even limited by the horizon.
With the new LP, the group has moved a few more steps down into the crowd, revealing perhaps more clearly than before the blues vein all members have strong ties to.
But which is of course interpreted based on Last Exit’s perceptions:
//music ”Take cover + Ma Rainey” (vcl Jackson)
First the song ”Take cover” and then Shannon Jackson on vocals in ”Ma Rainey”. ’The Noise Of Trouble’ was actually recorded live during Last Exit’s Japan tour last October.
And Last Exit exists precisely in the concert context, because even if it would be interesting to hear how a studio recording would sound, the group is more about the special chemistry that arises at the same moment the music is performed.
”Instant composing” as Peter Brötzman prefers to call it – an expression another excellent improvisational musician – Fred Frith – used during his visit to Sweden with his Skeleton Crew.
Among themselves, the group members in Last Exit very rarely talk about what an upcoming concert will be about. It sometimes happens that they make some comments after a gig, but there is no devised strategy, no plan for a common end goal.
So Last Exit’s stories sound different from night to night and are governed a lot by mood, intuition and temperament. As a listener, you hear the group’s voice more or less clearly depending on which part of your body you listen with.
Perhaps ’The Noise Of Trouble’ is a little closer to what the ear is used to, as here in the closing number ”Help me mo, I’m blind” where Herbie Hancock is a guest on the piano.
But, as Peter Brötzman points out; execution is not overly important as long as you have something important to tell the listeners.
– What kind of music it ever is, is to bring a message over, to tell some stories and not thinking aesthetic lines or whatever. That is very important.
//music (concludes with) ”Help me mo, I’m blind”
Original published in 1987, re-published here 2023 © MatsLundgren.se
