DONCHERRYDISCOGRAPHY____

bengt berger/BITTER FUNERAL BEER

*ECM 1179

Anita Livstrand: voice, bells, axatse (rattle); Don Cherry: pocket trumpet; Tommy Adolfsson: trumpet; Thomas Mera Gartz: tenor sax, violin, drums; Bengt Berger: blekete master drums, Ko-gyil; Tord Bengtsson: electric guitar, violin; Matthias Helldén: cello; Ulf Wallander: soprano and tenor sax; Sigge Krantz: bass, electric guitar; Jörgen Adolfsson: alto and soprano sax, violin, sopranino; Christer Bothén: tenor sax, bass clarinet; Kjell Westling: sopranino sax, bass clarinet; Bosse Skoglund: drums.
The Ewe drum ensemble heard on Blekete and Tongsi:
Bengt Berger: master drum, axatse.
Anita Livstrand: sogo, axatse.
Matthias Helldén: dondos.
Tommy Adolfsson: sogo.
Thomas Mera Gartz: kidi.
Bosse Skoglund: kagan.
Sigge Krantz: kagan.
Christer Bothén: bells.

tracks

1. Bitter Funeral Beer - 9:16
2. Blekete -3.05
3. Chetu - 3.20
4. Tongsi - 5:01
5. Darafo / Funeral Dance (Dar Kpee) - 22:11

Music by Bengt Berger, Basad on Funeral Music From The Lo-Birifor, Sisaala and Ewe Peoples of Ghana.
The band consists of the group Arkimedes and other members of the Stockholm based musicians collective Ett Minne För Livet ("a lifetime memory") and is joined on this album by Don Cherry and Bosse Skoglund.
The voices of women of Kundar village, crying at the funeral of a small child are heart on Bitter Funeral Beer. They sing that the child did not know how to live, and ask the dead to help it.
Recorded January 1981 at Decibel Studios, Stocklhom, Sweden.
Produced by Manfred Eicher & Bengt Berger.
Engineers: Thomas Gabrielsson & Jan Erik Kongshaug.
Mixed at Talent Studio, Oslo.
Photos: Bengt Berger.
Design: Barbara Wojirsch.