Initially influenced by musicians like Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk, German pianist Alex Von Schlippenbach began playing free jazz in the 1960s. In '66, he set up the Globe Unity Orchestra to play at the Berlin Jazz Festival. Through the '70s and '80s, the Orchestra established itself as the world’s leading free jazz big band, and many outstanding European players have passed through, including Kenny Wheeler and Peter Kowald, as well as occasional American guests like Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton. Von Schlippenbach has also worked frequently in a duo with drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, and in 1990 recorded the remarkable SMOKE with Sunny Murray. The turn of the millennium found Von Schlippenbach performing and recording the complete Thelonious Monk ouevre.