Hard Bop With Volume: Full Blast Trio

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SO MUCH OF what passes for heavy music these days is either shrouded in gloom-and-doom or caked in face paint.

That is not the case with Full Blast Trio, the Swiss-German improvisational grind unit featuring saxophone powerhouse Peter Brotzmann. The threesome — rounded out by bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmueller — wield a pile-driving skronk-rock sound mightier than that of most metal bands, and play with their guard down.

"We have never rehearsed once," admits Pliakas. "Our music is instant."

Pliakas says he met Brotzmann for the first time onstage in the fall of 2004 and that the two immediately clicked. Wertmueller, a longtime Pliakas collaborator and friend, had been playing with Brotzmann for some time, and it wasn't long before a meeting of all three minds took place.

Schooled in music composition and steeped in jazz and rock idioms, Full Blast Trio's junior players open up new avenues for Brotzmann — giant of the European free-jazz scene of the '60s and '70s — to play in ways that resonate with today's listeners.

"He's not very much in touch with the rock tradition of the last 20 years," says Pliakas. "On the other hand, Peter's playing is very much compatible with our rock attitudes."

Pliakas and Wertmueller provide ample baseload power for Brotzmann to blow, but Pliakas says everybody's equal. "We just get onstage and let the music organize itself," he says, adding that all three are mindful of when not to play. "We allow for space. … It can be very fragile flowing at times," he says, explaining that the group also has a softer side.

But it's not called Full Blast Trio for nothing, and Brotzmann, whose explosive 1968 album "Machine Gun" is considered a landmark moment in free jazz, won't soon live down his reputation for raucousness playing with the group. Hard bop? Think speed bop. Full Blast Trio are the heaviest swingers in music land.

» Velvet Lounge, 915 U St. NW; with PRV Trio, the Undisco Kidds, Thu., 9 p.m., $12; 202-462-3213.
(U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Jonathan Rickman
Photo courtesy Hannes Reisinger