FRISQUE CONCORDANCE (GEORG GRAEWE/JOHN BUTCHER/WILBERT DE JOODE/MARK SANDERS) - Distinct Machinery

"It happened to be my birthday, that day in October 1992 when I had the great fortune of listening to the first incarnation of Frisque Concordance at the Ruhr Jazz Festival in Bochum (Germany), ingeniously curated by Martin Blume, who also played the drums in this quartet along with Hans Schneider on bass, offering his wonders . . . Here, on Distinct Machinery, Georg Graewe and John Butcher, the Concordance's core, team up with Wilbert de Joode and Mark Sanders, both another two constants in the wider Graewe universe for quite some time. Structurally the four-some and its two realizations is to be understood as a pars-pro-toto for how exactly this universe operates and evolves. Schneider was one of the very early members of this poly-centric bundle, dating back to the legendary FMP releases from 1976 and 1978 by Graewe's first quintet, a group the pianist had formed only a few days before his 18th birthday. Butcher, a collaborator for 30 years now, is (along with Frank Gratkowski) the