Strong saxophone interplay from The Workers – one of them holding down a rhythmic framework, the other one going nuts on these 2021 recordings made at the Saarbrücken Free Jazz Festival.
The Swiss team of Urs Leimgruber and Alex Huber appeared in these pages on the Lightnings album (for same label), but here they’re joined by Christian Weber on bass and Omri Ziegle, the second sax player who also flutes a flute and yaps the odd utterance with his mouth-like appendage too, either adding solemn cryptic observations on the state of the world today or reciting free-form poetry with playful word association and simple rhymes (matching Kurt Cobain, cocaine, John Coltrane and the human brain…). In all this The Workers follow much the same plan as on their 2021 album Altbüron.
I like the way they keep changing direction, tempo and mood, even at the risk of letting the energy levels flag somewhat. Saarbrücken (WIDE EAR RECORDS WER071) is a single piece lasting over 50 mins. and arrives with spiky cover art by said Ziegle, with stylised lettering that recalls directly the covers of early Instant Composer Pool records by Han Bennink. It’s also daubed in such a way that suggests Ziegle thinks of himself as a radical, painting dangerous political slogans around the town in support of the oppressed working class. (29/11/2023)