Brötzmann/ Aaltonen/ Kowald/ Vesala – Hot Lotta (Svart/Blue Master Special)
A bottom brick in the towering Teutonic edifice of Brötzmann, Hot Lotta is early evidence of the German reedist’s transnational blueprint for collaboration. In the spring of 1968, German bassist Peter Kowald joined Finnish conscripts Juhani Aaltonen on winds and Edward Vesala on percussion in a quartet that artfully balanced blowtorch intensity of the leader’s previous efforts like Machine Gun and Nipples with the attention to detail and dynamics associative of European free improvisation. Jazz was an integral element as well, although often refracted and atomized in its absorption into the improvisation-inclusive tunes.
Aaltonen had been a regular member of keyboardist Hekki Sarmanto’s various fusion ventures while Vesala had traveled parallel circles in jazz and rock bands with an omnivorous style that also drew on Northern European folk music. Kowald’s kindred connections to Brötzmann date to the beginning of their recording careers. Outfitted with a German minibus under the auspices of the Goethe Institute (a reliable Brötzmann benefactor), the foursome motored the Finnish highways and byways on a ten-day tour. A Helsinki studio visit capped the itinerary and yielded the album in hand. Svart’s reissue includes a complete radio-ready session recorded according to Aaltonen just prior to the tour launch.
The four musicians share composer credits across the two sessions with tune frameworks frequently ceding to energized extemporaneous expression. Aaltonen was reportedly apprehensive in such fast company describing his own words, “An integral part of my musicianship has always been a maximum fear of failure combined with a minimal sense of knowledge.” An endearing reticence is audible in several of his entry points, but he usually holds his own opposite Brötzmann’s bruising barrage. Other differences also apparently arose with the Germans quickly evincing an insatiable affinity for Finnish vodka (Brötzmann’s raucous “Kippis” is an informal ode to their frequent inebriation) while the Finns inexplicably opted to abstain from libations.
Brötzmann recollects that Vesala was the likely catalyst for the group and the percussionist is often the linchpin of the ensemble alongside the elastic contributions of Kowald. Their staccato interplay on the opening cut “After Pam-Pam” stamped by Vesala’s chimes punctuation primes the ears for Brötzmann’s blunt tenor salvos. Aaltonen’s flutes make for another winsome source of contrasts, darting and diving in melodic airborne spirals around the churning, grinding energy summoned by his partners. Brötzmann limits himself to tenor across both sessions with the exception of Kowald’s “For Deep Deep Finnish Forest Cymbal Governor” jousting with Aaltonen’s tenor in dense and pithy tumult that stops on a proverbial Deutschmark. An early entry in the German’s vast oeuvre, but it’s still an instant enduring classic.
