Peter Brötzmann
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Background information
Born 6 March 1941
Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Genres Jazz, free jazz, avant-garde jazz, free improvisation
Occupations Saxophonist, clarinetist
Instruments Tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, tárogató, clarinet, bass clarinet
Years active 1967-present
Associated acts Globe Unity Orchestra, Peter Kowald, Cecil Taylor, Last Exit, Derek Bailey, William Parker, Die Like a Dog Quartet, Sven-Åke Johansson, Evan Parker, Buschi Niebergall, Fred Van Hove, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker
Peter Brötzmann, Moers Festival 2010
Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.
Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.
Biography
Early life
He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement, but grew dissatisfied with art galleries and exhibitions. He experienced his first real jazz concert when he saw American jazz musician Sidney Bechet while still in school at Wuppertal, and it made a lasting impression.
He has not abandoned his art training, however: Brötzmann has designed most of his own album covers. He first taught himself to play various clarinets, then saxophones; he is also known for playing the tárogató. Among his first musical partnerships was that with double bassist Peter Kowald.
For Adolphe Sax, Brötzmann's first recording, was released in 1967 and featured Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson.
1968, the year of political turmoil in Europe, saw the release of Machine Gun, an octet recording often listed among the most notable free jazz albums. Originally the LP was self-produced (under his own "BRO" record label imprint) and sold at gigs, but it was later marketed by Free Music Production (FMP), In 2007, Chicago-based Atavistic Records reissued the Machine Gun recording.
Career
The album Nipples was recorded in 1969 with many of the Machine Gun musicians including drummer Han Bennink, pianist Fred Van Hove and tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, plus British free-improv guitarist Derek Bailey. The second set of takes from these sessions, appropriately called More Nipples, is more raucous. F*ck De Boere (Dedicated to Johnny Dyani) is a live album of free sessions from these early years, containing two long improvisations, a 1968 recording of "Machine Gun" live (earlier than the studio version) and a longer jam from 1970.
The logistical difficulties of touring with an octet resulted in Brötzmann eventually slimming the group to a trio with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. Bennink was also partner in Schwarzwaldfahrt an album of duets recorded outside in the Black Forest in 1977 with Brötzmann's sax and Bennink drumming on trees and other objects found in the woods.
Larger groups were put together again later, for example in 1981 Brötzmann made a radio broadcast with Frank Wright and Willem Breuker (saxes), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet), Hannes Bauer and Alan Tomlinson (trombones), Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano), Louis Moholo (drums), Harry Miller (bass). This was released as the album Alarm.
In the 1980s, Brötzmann flirted with heavy metal and noise rock, including a stint in Last Exit and subsequent recordings with Last Exit's bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell.
Brötzmann has remained active, touring and recording regularly. He has released over fifty albums as a bandleader, and has appeared on dozens more. His "Die Like A Dog Quartet" (with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake) is loosely inspired by saxophonist Albert Ayler, a prime influence on Brötzmann's music. Since 1997 he has toured and recorded regularly with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (initially an Octet) which he disbanded after an ensemble performance November 11, 2012 in Strasbourg, France.
Brötzmann has also recorded or performed with musicians including Cecil Taylor, Keiji Haino, Willem van Manen, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Conny Bauer, Joe McPhee and Brötzmann's son, Caspar Brötzmann, a notable guitarist in his own right.
Discography
Brötzmann has an extensive portfolio, and has appeared on well over 100 albums. Listed below is his discography, arranged by albums which he has released under his name as a leader or as a solo effort, specifically named bands he has been in, collaborations with other artists with whom he has released albums under distinct monikers, and finally, albums on which he has performed as a sideman. Several of the collaborations were one-off live shows, yielding only a single album release, as seen below.
Brötzmann as a leader, and solo releases
For Adolphe Sax (1967)
Machine Gun (1968)
Nipples (1969)
More Nipples (1969)
F*ck de Boere: Dedicated to Johnny Dyani (1970)
Solo (1976)
Alarm (1981)
14 Love Poems (1984)
No Nothing (1991)
Dare Devil (1992)
The März Combo Live in Wuppertal (1993)
Nothing to Say - Dedicated to Oscar Wilde: A Suite of Breathless Motion (1996)
Sprawl (1997)
Right as Rain - Dedicated to Werner Ludi (2001)
Usable Past (EP) (2002)
Lost & Found (2009)
Bands with Brötzmann as a member
Brötzmann Clarinet Project - with John Zorn, and others
Berlin Djungle (1987)
The Chicago Octet/Tentet/Tentet Plus Two
The Chicago Octet/Tentet (1997)
Stone/Water (2000)
Two Lightboxes (2000)
Broken English (2001)
Short Visit to Nowhere (2001)
Images (2004)
Signs (2004)
Be Music, Night - A Homage to Kenneth Patchen (2005)
American Landscapes 1 (2007)
American Landscapes 2 (2007)
At Molde 2007 (2007)
Die Like a Dog Quartet - with Toshinori Kondo, William Parker, Hamid Drake
Die Like a Dog: Fragments of Music, Life and Death of Albert Ayler (1994)
Little Birds Have Fast Hearts, No. 1 (1998)
From Valley to Valley (feat. Roy Campbell, Jr.) (1999)
Little Birds Have Fast Hearts, No. 2 (1999)
Aoyama Crows (2002)
Full Blast - with Marino Pliakas and Michael Wertmüller
Full Blast (2006)
Black Hole (2009)
Sketches & Ballads (2011)
Globe Unity Orchestra
Live in Wuppertal (1973)
For Example (1973)
Hamburg '74 (1974)
Evidence (1975)
Into the Valley (1975)
Rumbling (EP) (1975)
Jahrmarkt/Local Fair (1977)
Improvisations (1977)
Pearls (1977)
Compositions (1979)
Intergalactic Blow (1982)
20th Anniversary (1986)
Globe Unity 67 & 70 (2001)
Globe Unity 2002 (2002)
Last Exit - with Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock, Ronald Shannon Jackson
Last Exit (1986)
The Noise Of Trouble: Live In Tokyo (1987)
Iron Path (1988)
Cassette Recordings '87 (1988) (reissued in 1995 as From The Board)
Köln (1990)
North Quartet
Malamute (2005)
Sonore - with Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson
No One Ever Works Alone (2004)
Only the Devil Has No Dreams (2007)
Call Before You Dig (2009)
Cafe Oto (2011)
The Wild Mans Band - with Peter Ole Jørgensen and Peter Friis Nielsen
The Wild Mans Band (1997)
Three Rocks and a Pine (1999)
The Darkest River (2003)
Flower Head (2007)
The Wuppertal Workshop Ensemble
The Family (1981)
Other collaborations
Bailey / Sabu / Brötzmann
Live in Okayama 1987 (2001)
Bergman / Borgmann / Brötzmann aka "Berg/Borg/Brötz: Mann/n"
Ride Into the Blue (1996)
Blue Zoo (1997)
Bergman / Braxton / Brötzmann
Eight by Three (1997)
Bergman / Brötzmann / Cyrille
Exhilaration (1997)
Borgmann / Brötzmann / Parker / Bakr
The Cooler Suite (2003)
Peter Brötzmann / Juhani Aaltonen / Peter Kowald / Edward Vesala
Hot Lotta (1973)
Peter Brötzmann / Gregg Bendian / William Parker
Sacred Scrape, Secret Response (1994)
Brötzmann / Bennink
Ein halber Hund kann nicht pinkeln (1977)
Schwarzwaldfahrt (1977)
Atsugi Concert (1980)
Still Quite Popular After All Those Years (2005)
Total Music Meeting 1977 Berlin (2006, archival)
In Amherst 2006 (2008)
Peter Brötzmann / Caspar Brötzmann
Last Home (1990)
Peter Brötzmann & Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Cyrille Meets Brötzmann in Berlin (1982)
Peter Brötzmann & Hamid Drake
The Dried Rat-Dog (1995)
Brötzmann / Drake / Kessler
Live at the Empty Bottle (1999)
B.E.E.K. (Brötzmann, Ellis, Eneidi, Krall)
Live at Spruce Street Forum (2004)
Brötzmann / Friis-Nielsen / Uuskyla
Noise of Wings (1999)
Flying Feathers (2002)
Live at Nefertiti (Ayler Records, 2002)
Medicina (2004)
Peter Brötzmann / Mahmoud Guinia / Hamid Drake
The WELS Concert (1997)
Peter Brötzmann & Shoji Hano
Funny Rat [K7] (1982)
Funny Rats/2 (2008)
Funny Rats/3 (2008)
Peter Brötzmann, Fred Hopkins & Rashied Ali
Songlines: Music Is a Memory Bank for Finding One's Way About the World (1994)
Peter Brötzmann, Fred Hopkins & Hamid Drake
The Atlanta Concert (2001)
Brötzmann / Kondo / Pupillo / Nilssen-Love
Hairy Bones (2009)
Brötzmann / Laswell
Low Life (1987)
Peter Brötzmann / Fred Lonberg-Holm
The Brain of the Dog in Section (2008)
Peter Brötzmann / Werner Lüdi
Wie Das Leben So Spielt (1990)
Brötzmann / Mangelsdorff / Sommer
Pica Pica (1984)
Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler & Michael Zerang
Tales Out of Time (2004)
Guts (2007)
The Damage Is Done (2009)
Brötzmann / Michiyo Yagi / Nilssen-Love
Head On (2008)
Brötzmann & Miller
Brötzmann & Miller (2007)
Brötzmann / Miller / Moholo
The Nearer the Bone, the Sweeter the Meat (1979)
Opened, but Hardly Touched (1981)
Peter Brötzmann / Misha Mengelberg / Han Bennink
3 Points and a Mountain (1979)
Peter Brötzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love
Sweet Sweat (2008)
Woodcuts (2009)
Peter Brötzmann, Paal Nilssen-Love & Mats Gustafsson
The Fat Is Gone (2007)
Brötzmann / Oliver / Kellers
In a State of Undress (feat. Manfred Schoof) (1989)
Brötzmann / Parker / Drake
Never Too Late but Always Too Early (2003)
Peter Brötzmann / William Parker / Michael Wertmüller
Nothung (2002)
Peter Brötzmann & Walter Perkins
The Ink Is Gone (2002)
Peter Brötzmann & Tom Raworth
No Hard Feelings - For Steve Lacy (2007)
Peter Brötzmann / Ed Sivkov / Nick Rubanov
Petroglyphs (2004)
Peter Brötzmann, Nicky Scopelitis & Shoji Hano
Organized Chaos (2002)
Brötzmann / Sommer / Phillips
Réservé (1989)
Peter Brötzmann - Keith Tippett Quartet
appears on Bratislava Jazz Days compilation (1984)
Peter Brötzmann & Peeter Uuskyla
Born Broke (2008)
Brötzmann / Van Hove / Bennink
Balls (1970)
Free Jazz und Kinder (1972)
Brötzmann / Van Hove / Bennink (1973)
Outspan No. 2 (1974)
Tschüs (1975)
Brötzmann, Van Hove, Bennink & Albert Mangelsdorff
Couscouss de la Mauresque (1971)
Elements (1971)
The End (1971)
Outspan No. 1 (1974)
Live in Berlin '71 (1991, archival)
Peter Brötzmann & Nasheet Waits
Live at the 'Bottle' Fest 2005 (2005)
Brötzmann Wilkinson Quartet - with Simon Fell and Willi Kellers
One Night in Burmantoft's (2007)
Peter Brötzmann / Yukihiro Issoh / Tamio Kawabata / Ryojiro Furusawa
Vier Tiere (1993)
Brötzmann / Zerang
Live in Beirut (2005)
Crispell / Brötzmann / Drake
Hyperion (1995)
Frode Gjerstad / Peter Brötzmann
Invisible Touch (1998)
Sharp Knives Cut Deeper (2002)
Soria Moria (2003)
Keiji Haino & Peter Brötzmann
Evolving Blush or Driving Original Sin (1997)
Keiji Haino, Peter Brötzmann and Shoji Hano
Shadows (2000)
Alfred Harth / Peter Brötzmann
Go-No-Go (1987)
Achim Jaroschek / Peter Brötzmann
Neurotransmitter (1998)
Subtle Twister (2003)
Kellers / Brötzmann
Kellers / Brötzmann (1981)
Evan Parker Trio & Peter Brötzmann Trio
The Bishop's Move (2004)
Sabu Brötzmann Duo
Sabu Brötzmann Duo (1997)
Frank Samba, Dieter Manderscheid, Peter Brötzmann
Danquah Circle (2004)
Sharrock / Brötzmann
Fragments (2007, archival)
Nicolai Yudanov, Peter Brötzmann & Sakari Luoma
Fryed Fruit (2001)
As a sideman; guest appearances
B-Shops for the Poor - Visions & Blueprints (1992)
Thomas Borgmann Trio - Stalker Songs (1997)
Don Cherry, Krzysztof Penderecki & the New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra - Actions (1972)
Heiner Goebbels - Hörstücke (1994)
Barry Guy & London Jazz Composers' Orchestra - Study II, Stringer (2006)
Haazz & Company - Unlawful Noise (1976)
Charles Hayward - Double Agent(s) (Live in Japan Volume Two) (1996)
Ruf de Heimat - Machine Kaput (1996)
ICP Orchestra - Groupcomposing (1971)
ICP Orchestra - "Tetterettet" (1978)
ICP Orchestra - In Berlin (1979)
Michael Nyman - Michael Nyman (1981)
Misha Mengelberg - Japan Japon (1982)
Neils & the New York Street Percussionists - Neils & the New York Street Percussionists (1990)
Orchester 33 1/3 - Orchester 33 1/3 (1997)
Alexander von Schlippenbach - The Living Music (1969)
Manfred Schoof - European Echoes (1969)
Cecil Taylor - Olu Iwa (1986)
Cecil Taylor - Alms/Tiergarten (Spree) (1989)