Peter Kowald was a German free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

 music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

ian.

A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra

Globe Unity Orchestra

The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble.Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival...

, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz

European free jazz

European free jazz is a part of the global free jazz scene with its own development and characteristics. It is hard to establish who are the founders of European free jazz because of the different developments in different European countries...

 and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann

Peter Brötzmann

Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...

, Irène Schweizer

Irène Schweizer

Irène Schweizer is a notable Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, in 1941.She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvising Group, whose members include Lindsay Cooper, Maggie Nichols, Georgie...

, Karl Berger

Karl Berger

Karl Hanns Berger is a musicologist with a PhD in Music Sociology, jazz composer, jazz vibraphone and piano player.-Biography:...

, Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson

Fred Anderson may refer to:*Fred Anderson , former National Football League defensive lineman*Fred Anderson , Major League Baseball player...

, Hamid Drake

Hamid Drake

Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He lives in Chicago, IL but spends much of his time traveling around the world for concerts and studio dates....

, Karl E. H. Seigfried

Karl E. H. Seigfried

Karl E. H. Seigfried is a German-American jazz, rock, and classical bassist, guitarist, composer, bandleader, writer and educator based in Chicago....

, Conny Bauer

Conny Bauer

Konrad "Conny" Bauer is a free jazz trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Hannes Bauer....

, Jeffrey Morgan

Jeffrey Morgan (musician)

Jeffrey Morgan is a United States-born jazz musician...

, Wadada Leo Smith

Wadada Leo Smith

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter and composer working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation.-Biography:...

, Günter Sommer

Günter Sommer

Günter Baby Sommer is a German jazz drummer.He studied music in Dresden. He rose to fame in the GDR. He is part of the European free jazz avantgarde. He was part of the trio with Conny Bauer and Peter Kowald...

, William Parker

William Parker (musician)

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...

, Barre Phillips

Barre Phillips

Barre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....

, Joëlle Léandre

Joëlle Léandre

Joëlle Léandre is a double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation....

, Lauren Newton and Evan Parker

Evan Parker

Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...

. He also recorded a number of solo double-bass albums, and was a member of the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra until 1985. He also recorded a number of pioneering double bass duets with Maarten Altena, Barry Guy

Barry Guy

Barry John Guy is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe...

, Joëlle Léandre

Joëlle Léandre

Joëlle Léandre is a double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation....

, Barre Phillips

Barre Phillips

Barre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....

, William Parker

William Parker (musician)

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...

, Damon Smith and Peter Jacquemyn.

In addition, Kowald collaborated extensively with poets and artists and with the dancers Gerlinde Lambeck, Anne Martin (formerly of Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch

Philippina "Pina" Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director...

 Ensemble), Tadashi Endo

Tadashi Endo

Tadashi Endo is a butoh dancer resident in Göttingen, Germany. Endo is a Japanese national. He studied theatre direction in Vienna before touring Europe giving solo performances accompanied by leading jazz performers. In 1980, he was hired as head of a theater program for the city of Northeim,...

, Patricia Parker (founder of the Vision Festival

Vision Festival

The Vision Festival is the world's premier festival of experimental music , art, film and dance. Inspired by the 1984 and '88 Sound Unity Festivals. It was a direct out growth of the Improvisors Collective 1994 and '95. In 1996, Dancer-choreographer Patricia Nicholson Parker, initiated the First...

), Maria Mitchell

Maria Mitchell

Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, who in 1847, by using a telescope, discovered a comet which as a result became known as the "Miss Mitchell's Comet". She won a gold medal prize for her discovery which was presented to her by King Frederick VII of Denmark. The medal said “Not in vain do...

, Sally Silvers, Cheryl Banks (formerly of Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

's Arkestra), Arnette de Mille, Sayonara Pereira, and Kazuo Ohno

Kazuo Ohno

was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in the dance form known as Butoh. It was written of him that his very presence was an "artistic fact."...

. Specific works included Die Klage der Kaiserin (1989) with Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch

Philippina "Pina" Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director...

, short pieces (since 1989) with Jean Sasportes, The spirit of adventure (1990) with Anastasia Lyra, Wasser in der Hand (1990/91) with Christine Brunel, and Futan no sentaku/The burden of choice (1990/91) with Min Tanaka

Min Tanaka

is a Japanese actor and dancer. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 26th Japan Academy Prize for The Twilight Samurai.-Filmography:* The Twilight Samurai * The Hidden Blade * House of Himiko...

 and Butch Morris

Butch Morris

Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris is an American jazz cornetist, composer and conductor.-Biography:Before his musical career, Morris served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War....

.

Besides his duo work with singers such as Jeanne Lee

Jeanne Lee

Jeanne Lee was an American jazz singer, poet and composer. Best known for a wide range of vocal styles she mastered, Lee collaborated with numerous distinguished composers and performers which included Gunter Hampel, Ran Blake, Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, and many...

, Diamanda Galás

Diamanda Galás

Diamanda Galás is an American avant-garde composer, vocalist, pianist, organist, performance artist and painter.Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror", with her three and a half octave vocal range. She often screams, hisses and growls...

 or Sainkho Namtchylak

Sainkho Namtchylak

Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer originally from Tuva, a small autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing or Khöömei.-Style:...

, Peter was especially interested in his international improvising ensemble Global Village with musicians from different cultural regions of the world: China, Japan, Near East, South Europe, North and South America.

He died of a heart attack in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

in 2002.

Selected discography

• 1966 Alexander Schlippenbach: Globe Unity
• 1967: Peter Brotzmann: For Adolphe Sax
• 1968: The Peter Brotzmann Octet: Machine Gun
• 1973: Globe Unity Orchestra - Live in Wuppertal
• 1979: Leo Smith/Kowald/Sommer: Touch the Earth
• 1986: Global Village Suite
• 1996/2003: Duos 1 / Duos 2
• 1998: Fred Anderson Trio - Live at the Velvet Lounge
• 2003: Global Village