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Jazz Articles about Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann / Maâlem Moukhtar Gania / Hamid Drake: The Catch Of A Ghost
by Mark Corroto
Nearly a quarter century after recording The “WELS" Concert (Okka, 1997), saxophonist Peter Brötzmann reconvened a three-continent trio to deliver a remarkable set of ecstatic-trance music. His European free jazz met American drummer Hamid Drake and African Gnawa music master Maâlem Moukhtar Gania at the AngelicA, Festival Internazionale di Musica in Bologna, Italy in 2019. Same amazing lineup (almost) and same amazing result. “Almost the same lineup" because vocalist and guembri musician Maâlem Moukhtar Gania replaced his father ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brötzmann / Paul G. Smyth: Tongue In A Bell
by Mark Corroto
There are only a handful of pianists the great reedist Peter Brötzmann has worked with. Back in the Machine Gun (FMP, 1968) days it was Fred Van Hove at the keyboards. Then there was Misha Mengelberg and Alexander von Schlippenbach, plus those Berlin sessions with Cecil Taylor, and the new millennium recordings with Japanese pianist Masahiko Satoh: Yatagarasu (Not Two, 2012) and Long Story Short (Trost, 2013). Add to that list Irishman Paul G. Smyth. This 2015 live ...
Continue ReadingBig Bad Brötzmann Quintet: Karacho!
by Mark Corroto
Good free jazz is like a trip to a carnival with its exotic and unfamiliar sights and sounds. Even for an experienced listener, the surprise of great instant composing never grows old. A prime example is Karacho! by the befittingly named Big Bad Brötzmann Quintet. Like visiting the carnival, there are innumerable sound experiences encased within an all-embracing vibe, not disparate parts that fail to integrate. Recorded in 2017 at the naTo club in Leipzig, Germany, pianist Oliver ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brötzmann: I Surrender Dear
by Mark Corroto
You can forgive yourself if you get the feeling that you're a bit of a voyeur while listening to I Surrender Dear, the solo recording by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. This sense of eavesdropping is due to the intimate sounds and the great man's choice of music. This intimacy is not something you generally associate with Brötzmann's music. Typically, one has to stand clear of the blast radius of his performance, but there is something redolent of the past about this ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brötzmann, Steve Swell, Paal Nilssen-Love: Live In Tel Aviv
by Enrico Bettinello
Un altro tassello si aggiunge alla già corposa discografia del sassofonista tedesco Peter Brötzmann, il terzo insieme a questo trio con il trombone di Steve Swell e la batteria di Paal Nilssen-Love. Rigorosamente dal vivo, catturato nel momento in cui questa materia incandescente viene lavorata dai tre musicisti. Un rituale sonoro e fisico che i tanti appassionati della musica di Brötzmann conoscono ormai da tempo, ma che non rinunciano a seguire, grazie alla solo apparentemente ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brötzmann / Heather Leigh: Ears Are Filled With Wonder
by John Sharpe
Iconoclastic German reedman Peter Brötzmann has appeared in almost every conceivable combination and circumstance over the years, from the maelstrom of Last Exit to the austere horn choir of Sonore, via hook ups with almost everyone in between, counting such free jazz luminaries as Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker. However on Ears Are Filled With Wonder, recorded during the German's residency in Krakow during November 2015, he finds an unlikely accomplice in Glasgow-based American pedal steel guitarist Heather ...
Continue ReadingPeter Brötzmann/Full Blast: Risc
by Mark Corroto
The Full Blast trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, Marino Pliakas, and Michael Wertmüller get an injection of fervency with the electronics of Gerd Rische. As if they needed any more ferocity. Risc is the fifth official release by the trio, and follows the ambitious Sketches And Ballads (Trost, 2011). Like Brötzmann's Last Exit recordings of the 1980s, Full Blast is a return to an electric interface between the great man and his cohorts. Here, the electric bass of ...
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