Endangered? Take note.

It was recently brought to my attention that the historic Total Music Meeting has been put on the endangered list. When Bill Smith forwarded an e-mail to me from Helma Schleif and Wolfgang Fuchs entailing the grim situation, admittedly, I had little reference to draw upon for the music event, aside from the handful of recordings I've become acquainted with over the years.

Suffice to say some great music has spawned annually in Berlin for the past 35 years, and oh the relationships that have begun beneath its streamers. The short story is that the government has pulled all funding for the festival and so it is, for the first time, facing doom. And so it goes.

A Google® search hasn't revealed much, but I will post more about the specifics when I read them. Perhaps some of you could fill in some aesthetic blanks here by listing any recordings of which you are aware that have come from TMM Berlin over the years. This must be a considerable punch in the eye for Berliners and European musicians alike in light of Kowald's recent death.

The Schleif/Fuchs e-mail follows:

Dear friends,

The Total Music Meeting Berlin is acutely endangered in its existence. Berlin authorities have cut all fundings for the Festival which traditionally takes place since 1968 annually and parallel to the Berlin Jazzfest. The abandonment of the TMM aims at discriminating Improvised Music altogether in favour of a more ´compatible´ and ´entertaining´ concept of music as viewed by the local administration.

Since 2000 the Total Music Meeting is organized by Helma Schleif (FMP FREE MUSIC PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION & COMMUNICATION & ALL) together with Wolfgang Fuchs (artistic director of TMM) and G. Fritze Margull (artistic counsellor), the three of which form the TMM-Committee. They have since then broadened the profile of the TMM by presenting acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic ensembles from all over the world, giving master musicians and young improvisers an equal forum and by extending the musical program with workshops, lectures, panel discussions and exhibitions.

In 2001 George Lewis lectured on his VOYAGER-project (besides playing twice), and for the first time we showed a collection of paintings (´Visual Sounds´) by Improvising Musicians such as Bill Dixon, Tony Oxley, Floros Floridis, Peter Kowald, Paul Lytton, Alexander Schlippenbach, Sven-Ake Johansson, Uli Gumpert, Carlos Zingaro and Hans Reichel. Additionally we invited master photographer Roberto Masotti to show previous work and participate in the festival as its photographer. Evan Parker directed in 2002 a workshop for young improvisers which attracted musicians from the US, Italy, England and Germany. Last year's festival had been dedicated to Peter Kowald, a co-founder of the TMM, whose sudden death shocked and saddened the community worldwide. Almost all musicians participating had played with Peter in the past. A fulminant final concert had then been rendered by Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley paying homage to Peter and showing their solidarity with the TMM (which has received a lump sum by Berlin authorities of EURO 25,000 last year. In comparison: Berlin Jazzfest had a budget of EURO 560,000).

In the past three years all musicians who have participated in the festival have manifested their profound solidarity with and support by playing for a tiny fee, re-establishing eventually its very beginnings as improvising musicians´ festival.

This year's festival (November 6 - 8) will stage again international groupings and extraordinary fine players as well as the King Übü Örchestrü which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, featuring also vocalist Phil Minton, harpist Anne leBaron, and the double bass-players Fernando Grillo and Bertram Turetzky on this special occasion.

Major works of Scottish painter and improvising musician Alan Davie will be shown for the first time in Berlin, executed in collaboration with two renowned galleries and our festival venue Podewil.

In order to maintain and support the festival we have now established an association to raising funds for the Total Music Meeting. Renowned painters like Max Neumann, Hanns Schimansky, Hans Schnell and others have already signaled their help by donating works for sale.

You can be instrumental in the continuation of this festival by writing articles reporting on the situation which might be crucial in opening the eyes and ears of local and federal politicians to the immense musical and artistic value of Improvised Music.

Help us to convince them that this is Music that matters.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Helma Schleif (FMP FREE MUSIC PRODUCTION Distribution & Communication, a/l/l)
Wolfgang Fuchs (musician/composer; artistic director TMM)
G. Fritze Margull (artist, artistic counseller TMM)

For further information please contact:

Helma Schleif
FMP FREE MUSIC PRODUCTION Distribution & Communication & a/l/l
fmp.distribution@t-online.de
www.free-music-production.de

or

Wolfgang Fuchs
wolf.fuchs@gmx.net