Gunter Hampel: Bounce review – Euro-jazz innovator in bold, painterly form

Multi-instrumentalist Gunther Hampel is sometimes regarded as the German Charles Mingus for the breadth of his influences, his unfettered improv, and charismatic impact on European free jazz. The maverick’s 80th birthday live show from Germany’s Theater Gütersloh is a typical Hampel brew of abrasive brashness and subtlety, bright Ornette Colemanesque themes, and extended passages of ensemble improv, often featuring his subtle vibraphone and flute-playing, his daughter Cavana Lee-Hampel’s free-scatting vocal agility, and formidable saxophone contributions from Johannes Schleiermacher. Ragged townships-like anthems turn to snappy Ornettish freebop or quiet vibraphone reflections. The 20-minute-plus Smiling Energy combines a strutting theme, a long and dreamy tone-poem blending voice, sax and flute and a drums-driven ensemble-improv swirl. Bounce is not for devotees of meticulous precision, but it’s skilfully bold, vividly painterly, and shows exactly why Hampel’s impact on post-60s European jazz has been so substantial.