''Bitter Funeral Beer'' is an album by Swedish ethnomusicologist, drummer, and composer
Bengt Berger
Bengt Berger (born 31 August 1942 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish jazz musician (drummer), composer and producer.ECM
ECM may refer to:
Economics and commerce
* Engineering change management
* Equity capital markets
* Error correction model, an econometric model
* European Common Market
Mathematics
* Elliptic curve method
* European Congress of Mathematics
...
label.
[ECM discography](_blank)
accessed September 15, 2011
Reception
The
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...
review by Brian Olewnick awarded the album 4½ stars stating "the combination of stunningly gorgeous repeating themes and inspired improvising make one wish the music would never stop. This recording, though little known, is one of the very finest items ever released by ECM. While wonderful in and of itself, it might also serve as a fine introduction to West African music, albeit via a circuitous route through Stockholm".
[Olewnick, ]
Allmusic Review
accessed September 15, 2011
Track listing
:''All traditional compositions arranged by Bengt Berger''
# "Bitter Funeral Beer" - 9:18
# "Blekete" - 3:05
# "Chetu" - 3:20
# "Tongsi" - 5:03
# "Darafo/Funeral Dance (Dar Kpee)" - 22:16
**Recorded at Decibel Studios in Stockholm, Sweden in January 1981
Personnel
*
Bengt Berger
Bengt Berger (born 31 August 1942 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish jazz musician (drummer), composer and producer.xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in t ...
(ko-gyil - Lo Birifor funeral xylophone)
*
Don Cherry
Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
-
pocket trumpet
250px, Pocket trumpet in B-flat, with a standard size bell and medium-large bore
The pocket trumpet is a B♭ trumpet that is constructed with the tubing wound into a much smaller coil than a standard trumpet, generally with a smaller diameter ...
*Tord Bengtsson -
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
,
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
*Jörgen Adolfsson - violin,
sopranino saxophone
The sopranino saxophone is the second-smallest member of the saxophone family. It is tuned in the key of E, and sounds an octave higher than the alto saxophone. An F sopranino (an octave above the F alto (also called mezzo-soprano) saxophone) ...
,
soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, so ...
,
alto saxophone
*Tommy Adolfsson -
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...
*Christer Bothen -
bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...
,
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
*Thomas Mera Gartz -
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
,
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
,
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
*Matthias Hellden -
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
*Ulf Wallander -
soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, so ...
,
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
;
*Kjell Westling -
sopranino saxophone
The sopranino saxophone is the second-smallest member of the saxophone family. It is tuned in the key of E, and sounds an octave higher than the alto saxophone. An F sopranino (an octave above the F alto (also called mezzo-soprano) saxophone) ...
,
bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...
*Sigge Krantz -
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
,
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gu ...
*
Bosse Skoglund -
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
*Anita Livstrand -
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production ...
,
bells
Bells may refer to:
* Bell, a musical instrument
Places
* Bells, North Carolina
* Bells, Tennessee
* Bells, Texas
* Bells Beach, Victoria, an internationally famous surf beach in Australia
* Bells Corners, Ontario
Music
* Bells, directly stru ...
, axatse (rattle)
References
{{Authority control
ECM Records albums
1982 albums
Albums produced by Manfred Eicher