"Jazz is an exchange of ideas. That's what makes it interesting."

June 24, 2023 9:44 AM

German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann has died at age 82. Known for albums like Machine Gun, Songlines, Born Broke, and the 2022 Oxbow collaboration An Eternal Reminder of Not Today (and many more), and live shows with Last Exit, William Parker, Hamid Drake, and countless others, he was a towering figure in the small world of free jazz. WKCR has a memorial broadcast scheduled from 4 pm to midnight (EST) today.
posted by box (19 comments total)

WOW, that Last Exit video. It’s like dropping a car going 150 miles an hour onto a freeway and seeing what happens. I was lucky enough to see both Peter Brotzmann and his son Caspar, together and separate. I didn’t really appreciate Sonny Sharrock at the time, but right now I’d give a tooth to be able to go back and see Last Exit.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 9:53 AM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

“Machine Gun” sounds like standing outside in a thunderstorm feels - I saw him a number of times over the years, most recently in 2014 with Drake and Parker, and he never lost that elemental power. RIP.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:04 AM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

I picked up a Last Exit record in the 80s that just blew me away. It was what metal could be if metal wasn't about skinny white dudes with hair and spandex singing stuff to appeal to teenage skinny white dudes with hair and spandex. Brotzmann was just blowing like a rocket exhaust. What a creative powerhouse. RIP
posted by 2N2222 at 10:20 AM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

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posted by djseafood at 10:48 AM on June 24, 2023

I missed an opportunity to see Brotzmann live here in Austin a few years back -- didn't learn about the show until after. Was so freakin' bummed out, but hoped I'd get another chance. Damn.

..
(nipples)

..............................................
(machine gun)
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:55 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

🎷.
posted by adekllny at 12:54 PM on June 24, 2023

He used to do a lot with the Chicago improvised music scene about 15 years ago, so I've been lucky enough to see him a few times. My wife once managed to fall asleep when we had seats ten feet away from him, which has become family lore that will be passed down to our children's children's children.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:02 PM on June 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

Towering figure, what an amazing body of work. Some of the best concert experiences of my life involved PB onstage. He seemed to get more and more powerful with age, hard to believe he's gone.
posted by remembrancer at 1:10 PM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Fuck De Boere is a personal favorite.

His recent work with Heather Leigh is also pretty rad. ”This Word Love” and the rest of Sparrow Nights are absolutely haunting.
posted by hototogisu at 1:17 PM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Also, The Wire put an interview from 2012 online and it’s excellent.
posted by hototogisu at 1:29 PM on June 24, 2023

Noisy .
posted by Gorgik at 2:03 PM on June 24, 2023

I like free jazz but don't know much about it... So appreciate the links.
But a probably already made 1950s dad joke came to me:

"Know why it's called Free Jazz? Cuz ain't nobody payin' for that!"

But seriously RIP, this is some tight shit, almost verging on a noise-ambient...
posted by symbioid at 7:03 PM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Bill Laswell just dropped the “Iron Path,” album to Bassmatter subscribers on Bandcamp. It’s a trip. Brötzmann is pushing the envelope without being totally inaccessible. I’ll definitely need to search out more of his work. Sad I’m just learning about him now, but I hope he’d be pleased to still be reaching new fans.
posted by jzb at 7:33 PM on June 24, 2023

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posted by fitnr at 7:46 PM on June 24, 2023

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posted by nightrecordings at 8:55 PM on June 24, 2023

His "Machine Gun" is so intense that it somehow makes Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" sound like The Ventures.

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posted by HunterFelt at 12:02 AM on June 25, 2023

I never saw him live, but my mate put together the Free Music Production retrospective at Haus der Kunst in Munich a few years back, so I got to see it when I visited. The first thing you saw, coming into the gallery, was a huge projection of footage from a gig, sometime in the 70s or early 80s, just Brötzmann's face in total, physical exertion. The sound that came out of that horn, my siblings in noise. The. Sound.

I got to hear a mountain of unreleased material as well, and really dive deep into his work and the work he championed. He was a singular, intense, almost mystical player - a martial artist of the sonic.

Vale, and blessed be.
posted by prismatic7 at 4:53 AM on June 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Was lucky enough to see him twice in duo formats. I know it sounds cliche, but he was such a force of nature you'd think he'd be around forever (even if in theory he was as mortal as the rest of us).

.
posted by gtrwolf at 9:16 AM on June 25, 2023

Some years back I went to Chicago to see Diamanda Galas. The next day we found out PB was doing a solo show at an exhibition of his paintings. Probably one of the greatest musical weekends of my life.

His paintings are fantastic too.

The normal . isn't loud enough, so I'm giving him a

●
posted by SystematicAbuse at 11:01 AM on June 26, 2023