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Missus Beastly — Minden 1976
(Garden of Delights CD195, 1976/2023, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-08-05

Minden 1976 Cover art

At the end of January 1976, Missus Beastly had just completed recording of their third LP Dr. Aftershave and the Mixed Pickles, the last album that featured the quintet version of the band with alto sax and flute player Jürgen Benz, who had left to form a new band; that album also featured numerous guests, many from Embryo (Roman Bunka, Christian Burchard, Maria Archer, and others). Now Missus Beastly was suddenly a quartet, scheduled to play a show at Haus der Jugend in Minden on January 23, 1976, with half of their horn section missing. They weren’t ready to play any of the new material from the album, so what to do? The four remaining members just went for it and played a 75-minute jam, pretty much entirely improvised, cobbled together from ideas that the band brought together after the recent recordings, and although some ideas from Dr. Aftersave are here, the seven included tracks — which run as a single long continuum without breaks — are pieces that won’t be heard on any other Missus Beastly album. The group at this juncture features flute and soprano sax player Friedmann Josch, drummer Butze Fischer, electric bassist Norbert Dömling, and Burkard Schmidt on Fender Rhodes and synthesizer. This is one powerful set, folks, which at different points along the trajectory reminds any listener what an incredible group of musicians this was, just smoking hot jazz-rock, confident and masterful, and the recordings are superb, flawlessly preserved for all these years. With no vocals and no guitars, the best comparison is probably to Soft Machine circa Fourth or Fifth, around that period, although there are plenty of other comparisons that night apply here from one moment to the next (Nucleus, Passport, others). The tracks are all essentially untitled, like “Minden Mind – Part 1” through “Part 7,” but worthy of special note is Dömling’s bass solo right in the middle of the twenty-minute “Part 3,” just an incredible moment when most would certainly wish they were there!

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases, 1976 recordings

Related artist(s): Missus Beastly

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http://diregarden.com/god195.html

 

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