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Peter Kowald

A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, Karl E. H. Seigfried, Conny Bauer, Jeffrey Morgan, Wadada Leo Smith, Günter Sommer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Joëlle Léandre, Lauren Newton and Evan Parker. He also recorded a number of solo double-bass albums, and was a member of the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra until 1985. He also recorded a number of pioneering double bass duets with Maarten Altena, Barry Guy, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips, William Parker, Damon Smith and Peter Jacquemyn. In addition, Kowald collaborated extensively with poets and artists and with the dancers Gerlinde Lambeck, Anne Martin (formerly of Pina Bausch Ensemble), Tadashi Endo, Patricia Parker (founder of the Vision Festival), Maria Mitchell, Sally Silvers, Cheryl Banks (formerly of Sun Ra's Arkestra), Arnette de Mille, Sayonara Pereira, and Kazuo Ohno. Specific works included Die Klage der Kaiserin (1989) with Pina Bausch, short pieces (since 1989) with Jean Sasportes, The spirit of adventure (1990) with Anastasia Lyra, Wasser in der Hand (1990/91) with Christine Brunel, and Futan no sentaku/The burden of choice (1990/91) with Min Tanaka and Butch Morris. Besides his duo work with singers such as Jeanne Lee, Diamanda Galás or Sainkho Namtchylak, Peter was especially interested in his international improvising ensemble Global Village with musicians from different cultural regions of the world: China, Japan, Near East, South Europe, North and South America. He died of a heart attack in New York City in 2002.

Damon Smith, Peter Kowald, Joëlle Léandre & Bertram Turetzky: Bass Duos 2000-2007

Read "Bass Duos 2000-2007" reviewed by Jeff Schwartz

by Jeff Schwartz
May 6, 2023

One function of recordings is to document a performer's development. Damon Smith's Bass Duos 2000-2007 not only captures his artistic and technical evolution, his choice of duet partners represents the expanded options for the bass in creative music since the 1960s. Two of the three discs in this set were previously released, but they have been remastered by Weasel Walter. The unreleased disc is excellent and, as Smith highlights in his liner notes, the combination of these ...

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Album Review

Peter Kowald / Vinny Golia: Mythology

by Nic Jones
August 16, 2009

Kowald and Golia have been valued players in the realms of the free for long enough to have established their musical identities, but what makes all the difference in this program is the extra-musical knowledge they bring to bear.

Golia brings a veritable arsenal of instruments whilst Kowald employs various techniques. Both of these points lend the music depth as well as the substance that can be taken for granted. As if to emphasize the importance of this, the track ...

282

Album Review

Peter Kowald: Open Secrets

Read "Open Secrets" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
April 26, 2009

Debate might rage over the suitability of any given instrument to solo performance, but Peter Kowald's Open Secrets presents the sound of a formidable technician without letting that dubious asset get in the way of musical expression. The results are compelling.

Calling Kowald a stalwart of the free music community is both helpful and inadequate. He has committed himself to that means of musical expression for decades, and this recital--the program has all the hallmarks of a recital about it ...

125

Album Review

Peter Kowald: Silence and Files

Read "Silence and Files" reviewed by Rex Butters

by Rex Butters
July 2, 2005

Peter Kowald's posthumous stock continues to rise with the release of Silence and Files, a live recording from a German village solo concert circa June, 2001. The late, lamented virtuoso takes a steel-nerved tour of the bass as infinite possibility, sweeping the listener along on the promise of unfolding surprise.

Kowald's approach to free playing burned past any possibility of head-trapped intellectual theory thumping into a possessed primal passion. He created obsessively, sculpting space with bass, moving through startling techniques ...

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Album Review

Peter Kowald: Duos 2

by Rex Butters
January 16, 2005

Duos 2 represents a posthumous sequel to Peter Kowald's 1998 FMP release, Duos. Kowald's missionary zeal spreading the gospel of freedom took him through several countries in old cars. Taped from '85-'90 and formerly available on vinyl, these recordings have Kowald hobnobbing with an elite corp of forward reaching artists from Europe, North America, and Japan, including Julius Hemphill, Jeanne Lee, Derek Bailey, Butch Morris, Toshinori Kondo, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, and Andrew Cyrille. With eighteen radically unique musical visions ...

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Album Review

Peter Kowald/Miya Masaoka/Gino Robair: Illuminations

Read "Illuminations" reviewed by Andrey Henkin

by Andrey Henkin
January 20, 2004

Japanese art’s most famous series is perhaps its “Views of Mount Fuji” by the woodblock artist Hokusai. In the series, he portrays the mountain from various locations in Japan; in certain cases as the prominent subject of the work; in others a distant point in the background of a teahouse or lake scene. One is swept up the beauty of the composition and the importance of context, even to something as large as a mountain. The international ...

Obituary

Modern /free jazz great, bassist Peter Kowald from Wuppertal Germany passed away at 2:00 am Saturday September 21, 2002 in NYC.

Source: All About Jazz
September 21, 2002

Peter Kowald bassist from Wuppertal Germany passed away at 2:00 am Saturday September 21, 2002 in NYC.

Kowald died of a heart attack at the home of Patricia and William Parker after playing a concert in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at B.T.M. with Masahiko Kono, Tatsuya Nakatani and Kazuhisa Uchihashi. Emergency workers tried to save him working intensely for 45 minutes.

Details regarding funeral arrangements and a memorial will be posted when we receive them.

Peter Kowald distinguished himself as one of ...
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