When paying tribute to Peter Kowald, particular stories come to mind. The stories he narrates on his instrument as well as those that happened here and there which he has passed on to us. Like all musicians, like all true artists who push beyond what is there, Peter Kowald furthers the lines of tradition - by taking on the challenge and calling into question their conventions. In spite of the break with everything that the traditionalists consider binding or obligatory, Kowald refers back to the history of Jazz, to the unspoken imperative of expressing oneself directly and unmistakably, of playing oneself. A story both ancient and ever new, a story from Body and Soul, which only manages to convince, when its dynamics originate from the wave-like movements of one’s own life and work, and not from textbook-wisdom learnt by note.
Peter Kowald's adventurous list of references, on the one hand, relates back to the history of Jazz, and on the other, to the experience of the European 'Moderne'. Jazz as Fine Art, even as Avantgarde, lacks the servility, the attitude of the entertainer, the components of trying to please. This is the first test of strength: is it possible, out of both traditions - the tradition of Jazz, of story-telling, and the tradition of a radical understanding of art and perception of reality developed in other areas, to create something of one's own without getting caught up in the role of an imitator or being consumed by the permanent revolution? Kowald’s playing, his improvisations, his compositions, his way of composing, the stories he tells on his instrument, which demonstrate his courage to take risks, enlarge on this theme.
played with the Wuppertal patriarch Peter Brötzmann, soon afterwards also in a trio with Irène Schweizer and Pierre Favre, had his own groups, from the early beginning he played in the Globe Unity, and in smaller formations with Alexander von Schlippenbach, intense contacts with improvisers from England, Belgium, Holland: these are the well-known facts. The rise towards a new free form of Jazz, the late sixties - the 'luck', as he once put it, of being young and on one’s way during an exciting period. From there, a jump to a different level. Later, in another place, far away in Asian Tuva, Peter Kowald experienced something that he related to us in the form of a story. From a singer of traditional overtone-music he learned: "Music has to pass through a small hole, through a very narrow channel. It is difficult, but it has to get through. And once it is through, it can open itself out, and you can hear all the animals and the wind, the whole of nature. But first of all it has to pass through this little hole." Like all good stories, this one is also complex, like the stories Peter Kowald tells on his bass: multi-dimensional and cannot be reduced to one linear or superficial reading of a fable. It is about the experience of limits, about the reduction to the essential, as well as about the opening up of a confining system of co-ordinates: "Grenzüberschreitungen - Across the borders", was, by the way, a title Peter Kowald used as motto for certain of the Wuppertal workshops series initiated by himself, long before this term became almost inflationary. Free Jazz, let everything hang out with as much energy as possible: this followed the tradition of musicians like Albert Ayler and - risking a rather bold comparison - also the tradition of German Expressionism. This was the first movement across the border. The second one consisted of 'taking-back', the experience that in certain situations with less one can say more. At the end of the seventies Peter Kowald founded a trio with trumpet player Leo Smith and drummer Günter Sommer, a trio which not only put the instruments into equal relationship with each other, but also the different traditions and experiences of playing: World-music, not in the sense of a reduction to the smallest common denominator, but a process of learning based on mutual respect. Here, Peter Kowald does not use the material in the foreground anymore, but works with the essence of different musical cultures. In as far as one can put something like this into words, he is impressed, for example, by the fact that Leo Smith never seemed to want to get anywhere, but was always there already. From that point onwards, Peter started to bring his playing into a certain context of values, both as source of inspiration and as a source of questions.