Music – Peter Kienle

recordings

guitar music

all band projects (in alphabetical order)

3rd Man

In 1997 Jack Helsley initiated the recording of the first 3rd Man CD. Together with Pete Wilhoit on drums and Jack on bass, Peter recorded the project on two afternoons. It features originals by Peter as well as ex-Freesome bassist Dave Bruker. The CD was released in 1997 and received very positive reviews. The band 3rd Man was actually formed after the CD was done. While they played only infrequently, as all members were so busy with other things, a second CD, called Freed Men, was recorded in 2003 and as of 2013 the trio was still active.
BeebleBrox

In 1983 we started playing our own tunes in a thrown together band in Albstadt, Germany. We needed a band name for our first gig – everybody in the band had just read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. We agreed that we wanted our name related with that book: ‘BeebleBrox Spectacular’ was born.

In 1986 Monika Herzig joined the band. For reasons not remembered the band was renamed ‘Bubble Gun’. In 1988 that band broke up when Peter and Monika moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Shortly after arrival a brand new version of BeebleBrox was born with Robert Dickson on bass, Woody Williams on drums and Greg Riley on sax. Two years later, after many personnel switches, with Robert Dickson on bass and Don Davis on drums we recorded the first album: Entropy. Regrettably, there are only about two original tape copies left (it is available for the die-hard fans on CD-R). It was a very adventureous album with 30 minute long tunes and many odd meters (no vocals, though). Entropy was recorded in drummer Don Davis’ bedroom in Birmingham, AL, on my Yamaha four track cassette recorder.

1991 saw the release of The Thing. Still the same band in Alabama. That was recorded in our living room in Tuscaloosa, live to DAT. It really wasn’t a great hit although it contains a few cool tunes that would pop up in future BeebleBrox shows.

Later in 1991 we moved to Bloomington, IN, so Monika could pursue her academic career. BeebleBrox got reformed once again, this time with bassist Jonathan Paul and drummer Dan Vonnegut. In 1992 we recorded Bloomingtoon in Dan’s basement. For lack of funds we used the old four track cassette, but people in the business say it sounds great and the tape went through three printings.

When Jonathan Paul left Bloomington we again got pressed for a bass player. But in 1994, after many gigs with lots of different people in the band, we recorded Raw Material. This album brings together many of the musicians that have played with BeebleBrox in Indiana. We are through the first pressing on Raw Material – although we won’t tell you how many discs and tapes were made and how many were given away to press and radio people all around the world.

Just after Raw Material was in the can, bassist Jack Helsley moved to Bloomington. All of a sudden there was a real permanent band. Even drummer Dan came back. Together with Russ May on percussion we actually rehearsed every week and played loads of gigs. Finally in April that year (1995) we recorded again. This time at a friend’s studio. For the recording sax/EWI player Tom Clark joined the band. After Russ moved to Brazil, Tom became a full-time member of BeebleBrox. The next album was called Quantumn Tweezers and was released in March 1996. We received some nice reviews for Quantumn Tweezers (check out the Jazz Times December 1996 issue).

In May 1997 we released Indianapolis Intergalactic Spaceport. This again featured two different drummers (Paul Surowiak and Pete Wilhoit) and three bass players (Danny Kiely, Jack Helsley and Paul Sturm). Around the same time we took the band on a three week tour of Germany.

Dominant Domain was recorded in 1998 and had a few nice reviews, among others one in JazzTimes. It features tenorsax great Bob Berg on three tracks.

The latest release came out in 2002 and features all live tracks recorded in May 2001. It’s called RealBrox.
Bubble Gun

Around 1986 a somewhat stable configuration of BeebleBrox emerged after Monika Herzig had joined the existing band. The core of the group now consisted of Manfred Brietzke (guitar), Monika Herzig (keyboards), Peter Kienle (bass), and Jörg Bach (drums). Depending on availability Ekkehard Rössle or Uli Siebert on saxophones.

Peter’s switch to bass was not by choice but out of necessity – the band had two guitarists and no bass player. Old, old story. Based on that we decided to change the band name to Bubble Gun (at heart it was still BeebleBrox). For about two years Bubble Gun played a good assortment of shows but then ceased operations in the Summer of 1988, when Monika and Peter moved to the US.
Earplane

This group’s first performance was at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, in April 2007. It started out as a trio with Peter on guitar, Frank Smith on acoustic bass, and Lawrence Clark on drums. The repertoire consisted mostly of Brazilian influenced originals and cover tunes.

For many shows the highly flexible Tom Clark was added on saxophones. Earplane lasted until mid 2016 and was the brainchild of Lawrence and Peter.
Freesome

The earliest traces of Freesome can be found in a 1995 recording by guitarist Peter Kienle, bassist Dave Bruker and drummer Pete McKahnn. Bruker and McKahnn were the rhythm section of a well-known local group called the Jazz Dads. Both, a subset of BeebleBrox and the Jazz Dads were rotating through a weekly gig at a place called the Encore Cafe. Musicians in both bands were routinely subbing for each other. Later that same year the original trio performed on a live radio show at Bloomington’s WFHB. The repertoire was a mixture of a few standards and some Bruker and Kienle originals.

After Pete McKahnn moved away from Bloomington, drummer Danny Deckard joined the trio in 1997. They recorded two of Bruker’s originals which were released on the 1997 Jazz from Bloomington CD. May 1998 saw the release of the first official recording “Jazz Guitar Trio“, featuring new bassist Jack Helsley along with Peter and Danny.

Starting in August 1999 Freesome started a furious string of local and regional gigs, building a large repertoire of originals. Their unusually numerous followers can be attributed to tireless promotion and propaganda by the band’s biggest fan Andy Durta (and probably also to bassist Jack Helsley’s bottomless bag of jokes).

The trio operated until 2006 and recorded three more albums:
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Together with his old friend Manfred Brietzke Peter had a guitar duo, started in 1982, doing concerts. The duo was later expanded to a trio via inclusion of Peter’s ex-student Ulli Fischer and renamed The Real Guitarists. This trio had many successful gigs and kept Peter’s musical goals in perspective as they were making no compromise in what music they were playing – and audiences actually liked it. The Real Guitarists were playing originals and also tunes by John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, classical adaptions such as the Sabre Dance and whacky Christmas tunes including three part harmony singing.
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