Home » Jazz Articles » Peter Brötzmann
Jazz Articles about Peter Brötzmann
Favourite Releases of 2023
by Maurice Hogue
For a show that doesn't turn to tradition very often, there is one on One Man's Jazz: the first show of a new year features the host's favourite releases of the outgoing year. 2023 was an excellent year for new albums--post-pandemic inspiration perhaps? Regardless, big props are due to the artists who create this music and to those who support them. Aside from the opening tune, the tracks by sizzling alto player Patrick Bartley, Ouat, Krsytyna Stanko, trumpeter Alistair Payne, ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brotzmann May Be Gone But He Still Wants to Kill Yo Mama
by Patrick Burnette
At Mike's suggestion, we devote an episode to the recently departed European avant-garde powerhouse Peter Brotzmann. The sound quality is a bit off. Pat says he forgot to press “record." Listeners know he was probably just cowering behind the couch. Mike shows us the breadth of the fire-breather's career, touching on a mid-size ensemble session, an electric gig with rock elements, a more introspective duet, and Brotzmann's uncompromising debut. Pat whimpers. Playlist Discussion of Peter Brotzmann's album For ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brotzmann / Sabu Toyozumi: Triangle – Live at OHM, 1987
by Mark Corroto
Triangle--Live At OHM, 1987 is a recording of Peter Brotzmann in Japan. Here he is performing with master free jazz drummer Sabu Toyozumi. This is not the musicians first meeting. The pair have released a couple nearly impossible to find discs such as Live In Japan 1982 (Improvised Company, 1999) and Live In Okayama 1987 (Improvised Company, 2000) the latter CD with Derek Bailey. Thanks to NoBusiness Records from Lithuania we have this gem from December 1987 in ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brōtzmann, Liba Villavecchia, & Eric Hofbauer
by Maurice Hogue
This episode features a tribute to the magnificent Peter Brōtzmann whose brilliance was appreciated by so many. New albums sampled, aside from the opening track with the great saxophonist and percussionist Hamid Drake, are the powerful trio from Spain led by saxophonist Liba Villavecchia, Orquestra Del Tiempo Perdido from Netherlands, guitarist Eric Hofbauer whose album was inspired by the speech patterns of environment advocate, Greta Thunberg, and Poland's Marek Pospiezaski who pays tribute to women composers. And another track from ...
Continue ReadingBrötzmann / Leigh / Lonberg-Holm: Naked Nudes
by Mark Corroto
This new trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, pedal steel guitarist Heather Leigh, and Fred Lonberg-Holm operating both his cello and electronics, explore the musical equivalent of microgravity. Captured as part of the saxophonist's 80th birthday celebration concerts in August 2021 in his hometown of Wuppertal, Germany, the sounds achieve a perception of levitation. Credit the suspension of gravitational force to Leigh and Lonberg-Holm, both collaborators with Brötzmann; Leigh and the saxophonist have been working in duo together since 2015 and ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brötzmann / Keiji Haino Duo: The Intellect Given Birth To Here (Eternity) Is Too Young
by Mark Corroto
Forgiveness requested for referring to a lyric from Bruce Springsteen's composition “The Promised Land" to describe this duo recording by Peter Brötzmann and Keiji Haino: “There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor/I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm/Gonna be a twister to blow everything down/That ain't got the faith to stand its ground." Like a tornado, there is a powerful and captivating force about the two musicians' performance that entices you to lean face ...
Continue ReadingBig Bad Brötzmann Quintet: Bambule!
by Glenn Astarita
This set finds legendary free jazz innovator Peter Brotzmann leading his Big Bad Quintet, along with fellow German improvisational champions, keyboardist Oliver Schwerdt, drummer Christian Lillinger, bassist John Eckhardt and fabled British bassist John Edwards to round out a sweltering session, teeming with notions of turmoil, and enduring interchanges. Brotzmann is like a turbo-charged bulldozer flattening all the unwieldly routes throughout these two extended tracks. As the German translation of the album moniker infers, a non-violent prison protest. ...
Continue Reading
