Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW March 15, 2020

Big Bad Brötzmann Quintet: Karacho!

Read "Karacho!" reviewed 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 28, 2019

Peter 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 20, 2016

Peter 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 29, 2016

Peter 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW February 28, 2016

Peter Brötzmann: Münster Bern

By Mark Corroto

One indisputable fact, there cannot be enough Peter Brötzmann solo recordings in this world. Okay, for those that might disagree, there are a few choice solo Brötzmann sessions that are a must. Count Münster Bern in that category. The saxophonist, a leader of the 1960s European free jazz movement and a Fluxus artist had released several solo studio sessions fifteen and twenty years ago. It has only been recently that he has allowed live dates to filter out. Prior to ...

ALBUM REVIEW July 3, 2015

Peter Brotzmann/Joe McPhee/Kent Kessler/Michael Zerang: Tales Out Of Time

By Mark Corroto

It is rare, in this new century, for us to look back at the significant recordings of living artists. The powers that be seem to always be pushing out new product to support a tour and get media attention. Then of course, once the artist has passed on, let the reissue series begin. Thank God for labels like Hatology and their commitment to keeping the music alive. This recording by Peter Brötzmann and Joe McPhee with bassist Kent ...

BOOK REVIEW October 31, 2014

We Thought We Could Change The World

By Sammy Stein

We Thought We Could Change The World Gerard Rouy 189 PagesISBN: # 978-3-95593-047-9 Wolke Verlag Hofheim 2014 There are many worthy books on jazz, its history and growth, that provide insight into how the art form has influenced other genres and developed in different locations. This effort is a worthy addition. In this personal and enlightening book Peter Brotzmann is in conversation with Gerard Rouy. Rouy is a French journalist ...