Pierre Courbois and Association

The Jazz-Rock Fusion project known as ASSOCIATION and, later, ASSOCIATION P.C., was started in 1969 by two Dutch jazz virtuosi: drummer Pierre Courbois and keyboard player Jasper Van't Hof. The lineup that produced its three high-quality Fusion albums included a core that included two German artists, Hans Otto "Toto" Blanke and German guitar and, later, bass wiz Siegfried "Siggi" (or "Sigi") Busch. The "P.C." stands for "Pierre Courbois" and was apparently added to serve notice who was the band's leader. Their early form of Jazz-Rock Fusion was very heavy-handed as Pierre and Jasper were all about emulating the loud, crashing rock-infused music that Tony Williams Lifetime had detonated into the world with their 1969 album release, Emergency! Toto was more about speed and, later, effects, and while Siggi, originally a guitarist, quickly became a master of bass funk.

ASSOCIATION (Pierre Courbois) Earwax (1970)

Now five months into my deep-dive into the history and world-wide effect of Jazz-Rock Fusion I am quite familiar with (and enamored of) drummer Pierre Courbois, guitarist Toto Blanke, and keyboard player Jasper Van't Hof. Thus, this was an album that I was greatly looking forward to. 

Line-up / Musicians:
- Pierre Courbois / drums
- Toto Blanke / guitar
- Jasper Van't Hof / electric piano
- Siggi Busch / bass (1-3)
- Peter Krijnen / bass (4-6)

1. "Spider" (4:20) a delightfully melodic, smooth, and impressive display of musical skills from all four musicians, all based in solid jazz fundamentals yet definitely crossing well-over. (9.75/10)

2. "Hit The P. Tit" (11:00) opens up with the rhythm section running at top speed while guitarist Toto Blanke's fuzz-guitar screams frenetically over the top and Jasper Van't Hof's sporadic electric piano chord hits peppering the field with the predictability of a severe thunderstorm. Drummer Pierre Courbois is also in Tornado Alley storm mode as he beats and smashes his drum kit every which way imaginable right up to the fourth minute double bass solo from Siggi Busch. I gotta hand it to Siggi: he puts together quite an unusual solo, complete with hammering and crazed bowing--for over 90 seconds. The rest of the band rejoins at the six-minute mark with some spy-music-like chord hits and brief music before backing off to allow Pierre a chance to show his mettle--also for about a minute-and-a-half. The band comes back together in the tenth minute, this time backing Jasper's electric piano with a little bit of electric Toto mixed in there for good measure. Normally, I'm not a fan of isolated instrumental solos, but I have to say that the solos on this song are interesting enough to have earned my attention and respect. (18/20)

3. "Elsen" (1:35) a gentle, almost pastoral weave that feels as if it was a piece of a jam that could or would never amount to anything. Nice work between Jasper and Toto. (4.25/5)

4. "Earwax" (7:19) more electrified 1960s jazz with some very nice, smooth-yet-virtuosic drum play beneath Toto's melodic George Benson-like guitar play. Jasper's electric piano play sounds like stuff from the 1960s "in" crowd or Ramsey Lewis. Electric bass player Peter Krijnen certainly has a different, more top-line melodic playing style than the Siggi of the first three songs. The drum solo in the middle of this one is less Tony Williams than more standard Buddy Rich. (13.5/15)

5. "Round A'bout Nine" (6:36) opens with some effected solo electric bass play from Peter Krijnen that reminds me of a cross between The Velvet Underground and Michael Hedges. The other band members proceed to add their incidental inputs as if they were throwing objects (and jets of water) at a tethered dog from outside the circle of its reach with the intention of provoking some kind of response. Interesting with some actually nice bass play from Peter, but the rest is a little too loose and, when not, Emergency!-like. (8.66667/10)

6. "Jazzper" (3:56) rhythmically this feels as if the band is trying for some kind of Latin-rhythm base but there is something not hitting. Toto's melodic play coupled with Jasper's Herbie Hancock-like electric piano play over some nice and creative Ron Carter-like jazz bass play is rather impressive--and enjoyable. Heck! They're all impressive! They're all very loose and creative feeling: as if they have a well-rehearsed and broad band of skills and chops to choose from as they improvise their way through their songs. (9.5/10)

Total time: 34:46

90.95 on the Fishscales = A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of very skillful and (mostly) pleasantly melodic jazz-rock fusion. Highly recommended for any J-RF fans.

ASSOCIATION (Pierre Courbois) Sun Rotation (1971)

Another go round with Pierre, Toto, Jasper, and, this time, all Siggi (who's picked up the electric bass). After the previous year's Earwax, I am very excited!

Line-up / Musicians:
- Jasper van't Hof / E-Piano, Orgel (electric piano, organ)
- Toto Blanke / Gitarren (guitar)
- Sigi Busch / Bass, Kontrabass (bass)
- Pierre Courbois / Schlagzeug (drums) 

1. "Idee A" (4:30) engineered far more toward the accentuation of the electrified elements of the music than anything on Earwax (8.75/10)

2. "Suite":
a) "Scorpion" (6:47) spacey experimental soundscapes of a 2001: A Space Odyssey-like cinematic disorder opens up this suite as everyone in the band busies themselves with some unrestricted free-form play--yet there is a flow and tempo and even the shadows of some structural elements including harmony and interplay. The second half goes (13.25/15)
b) "Neuteboom" (5:42) buoyed by a very repetitive bass and circus-organ arpeggio line, guitar and electric piano are sent soloing while drummer and bandleader Pierre Courbois messes around with perfect timing beneath. Interesting--and a little annoying after five minutes of the same bass line--though not quite so much when Toto and Jasper begin to try to weave their way into the bass and organ's line. (8.75/10)
c) "Scorcussion" (5:56) Pierre is left alone to express on his drum kit. At the end of the third minute of Pierre's soloing Toto starts to inject some noise burst from his fuzz guitar while Jasper adds a spray of chords, flourishes, and crazed hits from his electric piano. At the end of the fifth minute everybody backs off to zero before Toto is given space for some target practice for his alien space ray gun. Despite my understanding the band's effort to take Herbie Hancock's spacey experimentation further, this is just not my cup of tea. (8.5/10)

3. "Silence" (0:18)

4. "Don Paul" (3:09) more jagged, angular jazz musings and exercises in cohesion and cooperation, this one opens a little too aggressively and then just as suddenly and quickly moves into a solo of Siggi's double bass. Eventually, he's joined by brushed drums and dissonant chord play from Toto's un-effected guitar. These guys are obviously so comfortable and proficient at their instruments that they can easily and smoothly do just about anything, but this is not the type of musical listening that I choose to come back to: there's just too much of the crazy Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! avant garde experimentation going on here for my liking. (8.375/10)

5. "Totemism" (16:45) These guys are obviously so comfortable and proficient at their instruments that they can easily and smoothly do just about anything, but there's just a little too much of the crazy Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! avant garde experimentation going on here for my liking. (Didn't I already say that?) Luckily, about two minutes into it the quartet gels into a forward-moving, single-direction motif over-and within which all of the individual musicians still find the freedom to move about and pave their own way. Having heard enough of Toto Blanke's guitar playing now to appreciate his skills, I have to say that when he plays like this--like 1960s jazz guitar with an experimental edge-- I am not a fan: impressed, yes, but not a fan. Jasper van't Hof is experimenting with way too much distortion on his electric piano which gives it a very "dirty" sound than I also do not like. This would probably be a very fun song to experience in a live jazz club scene but it is really not my kind of jazz (or jazz-rock fusion)--and here they're forcing 17-minutes of it down my throat! (30.375/35)

6. "Frau Theunisse"n (1:10) a FOCUS-like jam that seems to be coming out of some other jam (it's faded in to get started) but then is over far too quickly. (4.5/5)

Total time 44:17

86.84 on the Fishscales = B-/3.5 stars; a very good display of experimental, loosely-performed avant garde electrified jazz that feels like a detour down the wrong (but, I get it: necessary) direction. Check it out for yourself but this is no album that I will return to soon--maybe ever.

ASSOCIATION P.C. Rock Around the Clock (1973)

This Pierre Courbois album has the interesting distinction of having four songs (the first four) with wind player Karl-Heinz Wiberny and no keyboard player, followed by three songs without winds but with keyboard virtuoso Joachim Kühn sitting in with his (loud) electric piano. It is the third and final studio album released under the Association P.C. moniker despite the fact that the band continued to exist and play live shows with various lineups for another year or so. 

Line-up / Musicians:
- Toto Blanke / guitars, Ring-modulator, Nogoya-harp
- Joachim Kühn / E-piano (5-7)
- Siggi Busch / bass, Kontrabass
- Pierre Courbois / drums, percussion
- Karl-Heinz Wiberny / sax, basset-horn, flute, Chinese schalmei (tracks 1-4)

1. "Phenis" (5:03) Oriental-sounding guitar chords with Oriental-sounding cymbal play wrapping around Toto's guitar (the Nogoya-harp?). There is an element of Popol Vuh and other Eastern-influenced Kosmische Musik bands here. In the third minute Toto picks up his pace with lots of fast-picking and tremolo-strumming as drummer Pierre and bass player Siggi join in--Pierre taking over fully for about a minute to the song's end. There is supposedly some reed instrument present being played by Karl-Heinz Wiberny but I do not hear it. (My guess is that it would be the credited "Chinese schalmei" due to the overwhelming Chinese flavor of this song.) I actuall ylike this song--it does a pretty decent job of conveying, consistently, the Asian/Chinese feel and flavor from start to finish. (8.875/10)

2. "Polar Anna" (6:40) kind of an exhibition of hyper-fast rhythm section supporting some high-flying almost-free jazz from the soloists above--first sax player Karl-Heinz Wiberny (for the first four minutes) and then fast-picker Toto Blanke for the final three minutes. Not a very melodic song--very jazzy--but very impressive instrumental skills on display (especially from the bass and drums). (8.875/10)

3. "Mirrored Dimensions" (2:40) a spacey start turns industrial (long before there was such a thing as "industrial" music) but I guess it still retains its Kosmische links. I actually like this rather unique sound exploration: cymbals, deep warbly sax notes, bowed contrabass, and wildly bent electric guitar notes. Brilliant! (5/5) 

 
4. "Shirocco" (3:38) Siggi on double bass to open this one for about a minute of very cool sound exploration (untreated!) In the second minute he eschews exploration for more straightforward bass play, though still soloing, before Karl-Heinz Wiberny joins in with a very odd Oriental (Middle Eastern?) brass reed instrument. (Though it could be the Chinese schalmei, as credited in the album's liner notes, it sounds to me more like a bagpipe-like instrument.) The two play out as a loosely-structured duet in this loose, Middle Eastern sound palette. (8.75/10)

5. "Rock Around The Cock" (6:43) with a funky opening like this (sounds like Herbie's Head Hunters at their most funky with a super-funky bass player like Stanley Clarke) you'd never expect Bill Haley's song to be the template. As a matter of fact, we're over two minutes in and I'm still hearing nothing that remotely resembles the 1955 hit classic; I feel more as if I'm immersed in a super funky Mwandishi walkabout. Joachim Kühn's Eumir Deodato-like electric piano, Siggi Busch's funky bass, Pierre Courbois' Amazing Billy Cobham-like drumming, and Toto Blanke's raunchy Eric Gale/Larry Coryell-like electric guitar take this to a level that not many funk bands have ascended to! Despite my expectations being blown out of the water, I loved this song! (9.33333/10)

6. "Autumn In March" (7:45) scaled down slow and delicate instrument play opens this before the foursome are conjoined for the expression of a loosely-synchronized and rhythmically-linked jazz motif. Despite the fully electrified instrumental palette, these accomplished jazz artists are still very much playing jazz first and foremost, making this a clear representative of Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Miles Davis-like First Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion. Both Toto and Joachim's solos are very flashy, dissonant and discordant, as all adventurous, boundary-pushing jazz musicians were doing in the 1960s, yet highly skilled. Again: a very impressive display of musicianship that fails to strike much of my "enjoyment" chords. (8.75/10)

7. "Cap Carneval" (9:07) the album's final song (and the final song of the three that include keyboard genius Joachim Kühn) starts off with a kind of one-chord free-for-all: for two minutes drummer Pierre Courbois is going crazy wild below Joachim's "stuck" one-chord electric piano pounding while Toto and Siggi noodle around with equal abandon somewhere in-between. Then, in the third minute, it's Joachim's turn to noodle around with crazy reckless abandon while Pierre, Siggi, and Toto manage to "hold it together" with some frenetic though structured noodling beneath. I don't like the volume given Joachim's electric piano as he's able to so easily dominate the others. Still, Pierre and Siggi cannot avoid being noticed as their frenzied play is mind-bogglingly rapido. At 6:40 Joachim, Siggi, and Toto take a beer break while Pierre solos for a minute, but then they all come busting back in, racing to the end. (Which makes me wonder: who won? I'd guess Joachim.) Impressive but only enjoyable for the skills on display: there is little or no melody--even in chord progression. (What chord progressions?) (17.5/20)

Total time: 41:36

Though by no means a bad album, the music here is expressing a kind of fusion that is more akin to that of free jazz infused with World musical ideas and sounds (much as many German contemporaries were experimenting with at the same time.) Pierre Courbois' version of this East-West fusion, however, comes across as much more rooted in classic jazz or the more recent free forms of "free jazz" which, unfortunately, renders it practically dissonant, atonal, chaotic, and, for me, not very enjoyable. (I appear to need melody and structure.) I will never, however, argue that these musicians are not virtuosi of their respective instruments--which is what makes rating these songs and album so incongruous: I know they are geniuses, I just don't like all of their music on this album! 

89.444 on the Fishscales = B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of First Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion.