WOLFGANG DAUNER / EBERHARD WEBER / JÜRGEN KARG / FRED BRACEFUL

This album was released in 1969 and it has no title, but it is commonly referred to as the "Fur" album. Simply because the first word at the top of the album cover is "Fur", which is German for "For", and that is followed with a long list of names that the album is dedicated to. And no band name either, as they just went with the names of the four musicians. And who are these musicians you ask. Well, Wolfgang Dauner is the leader here, composing all but one track. He plays keyboards mostly but adds a little trombone and violin. His buddy Eberhard Weber is here on bass and cello. Both would be a part of ET CETERA, a band who released their debut in 1971.

And the drummer here is Fred Braceful who was also part of ET CETETRA, and later he would also be in EX MAGMA. The unknown for me was Jurgen Karg also playing bass. In fact on one track both he and Weber play bass. What fascinates me is that the only track on here that Dauner didn't compose was that third song called "Karg", which of course was a Karg composition. Fascinating because it's the only electronic piece on here. And Karg would drop his bass not long after this 1969 recording to focus on electronics, and becoming quite influential with his only solo release in 1978.

These four guys had already played together on Dauner's 1967 solo album called "Free Action" which was a Free Jazz record. It's also interesting to me that half of this band which included Braceful and Weber, would make an album in 1971 called "The Call". Karg and Dauner were replaced by two keyboardists, not needing two bass players this time. Again they went with their names as the band name, and we get Mal Waldron, a legendary electric piano player in the Jazz world leading the way. And speaking of legendary how about Jimmy Jackson from Pennsylvania on organ. And this is a straight-up jazz fusion album I gave 4.5 stars to. An incredible album! Jimmy has played in bands like AMON DUUL II, EMBRYO, PASSPORT and more.

Now I have to say that "Fur" is a tough one for me. Very experimental with lots of improvisation going on. It's like an extension of Dauner's 1967 record which was Free Jazz, and with a dedicated sax and clarinet player. It's interesting that that album has two drummers playing on it. Besides Braceful we get the future GURU GURU drummer Mani Neumeier doing his thing. And also Jean-Luc Ponty on violin! All playing Free jazz. Anyway, back to this 1969 album which is not for the faint of heart. Not much in the way of melody or even structure here. This is a very experimental album that one would probably want to keep in their Avant section. I wish "The Call" was on this site. They added "Fur" to Weber's discography thankfully.