Abierto: extendido

Trasluz

espíritus caídos - blue devils

El Blues, literalmente “azules”, significa también melancolía en ingles, se desarrolló a través de los espirituales, canciones de oración, canciones de trabajo, rimas inglesas, baladas escocesas e irlandesas narradas y gritos de campo. La utilización de las notas del blues y la importancia de los patrones de llamada y respuesta, tanto en la música como en las letras, son indicativos de la herencia africana-occidental de este género.

Lamentos, o gritos de campo de los esclavos en las plantaciones de algodón, tabaco y maní, en los estados de Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia o Alabama…

Cantos con estructura armónica europea y el patrón de llamada y respuesta y la utilización de notas blues de raíz africana:

-los gritos de llamada y respuesta, expresiones funcionales de un estilo con acompañamiento o armonía y alejados de la formalidad de cualquier estructura musical.

- las notas de blues tiene la función de chocar con los acordes que se usan en la armonía para a compañar las melodías. Este choque armónico genera la sonoridad dramática característica de este estilo.

“Work songs”, los cantos de trabajo asociados a las cuadrillas de trabajadores negros y a las brigadas de prisioneros desparramados por las polvorientas carreteras del sur, interpretando ritmos uniformes, con frases improvisadas por una voz solista y un estribillo con el que respondían el resto de los trabajadores – probablemente en el Mississippi. El “holler” blues es más un estilo a capela, con el cantante interpretando para sí mismo con un elevado tono de voz y una mayor libertad en el ritmo – posiblemente en Texas. Pero lo único que se sabe con seguridad es que hasta ese momento tanto las “work songs” como los “hollers” se interpretaban sin ningún tipo de acompañamiento instrumental.

El blues ha evolucionado de una música vocal sin acompañamiento a la integración de instrumentos: guitarra, banjo, violín, instrumentos de cuerda que estaban generalmente permitidos a los esclavos.
En el caso del blues de Mississippi y Texas era común el martilleo de las teclas del piano y las cuerdas de la guitarra junto con el uso de un tubo de cristal o metal, una navaja o un anillo que deslizaba a lo largo de las cuerdas para producir un sonido quejumbroso.

Voz y guitarra:

- el uso de melismas y una entonación nasal,

- el tocar la guitarra, mediante una cuchilla afilada (W. C. Handy). Se deslizaba una hoja de cuchillo sobre las cuerdas y el músico podía obtener un sonido lastimero parecido a un gemido humano o al de un field-holler.

El blues era ante todo una música vocal y requería una calidad vocal en los instrumentos. La flexibilidad de la guitarra satisfacía esa exigencia. La afinación típica, mi-si-sol-re-la-mi, se alteraba tensando o destensando las cuerdas hasta que el instrumento quedaba afinado a una cuerda.

El gut-bucket blues era un instrumento musical casero (con forma de bajo) fabricado a partir de un cubo de metal el cual era utilizado para limpiar los intestinos de los cerdos y para preparar chinchulín (tipo de comida que se asociaba con la comunidad negra). De este intrumento deriva un genero los blues gut-bucket, que solían ser depresivos y trataban de las relaciones ásperas y difíciles, de la mala suerte y de los malos tiempos.

...“Early this morning
When you knocked upon my door
And I said “Hello, Satan,
I Believe it´s time to go”...

Robert Johnson

¿Se leería alguien en el Mississippi Fausto? Como cantaba Robert:

“You may bury my bury my body down by the highway side
so my hold evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride”

El blues del profundo sur, del delta del Mississippi, se expresaba con total desnudez, cada nota sale del alma y el canto es apasionado y áspero. Los ritmos son enérgicos, se tocan pocas notas y la guitarra repite insistentemente una breve frase musical después del canto, donde no importa demasiado el compás.

Clarksdale, situada en el cruce de las carreteras 61 y 49, en el corazón del Delta y de su cinturón de algodón, fue el lugar donde nacieron los “blue devils”: Charley Patton, Muddy Waters, Son House, Skip James, Tommy Johnson, Bukka White o Robert Johnson… Fue justamente en el cruce de la 61 y la 49 donde Robert Johnson hizo su pacto con el diablo para tocar la guitarra como pocos. Al parecer, desapareció un tiempo y regresó dejando a todos con la boca abierta cuando rasgaba su vieja Gibson.

El inicio de todo lo que se siguió después es absolutamente rural, con origen en las plantaciones de algodón, muy lejos aún del sonido urbano de las guitarras eléctricas distorsionadas. El blues rural comenzó a grabarse a partir de 1923 y estos músicos negros fueron los maestros de un lenguaje que más tarde el jazz, el rock o el punk echarían mano una y otra vez.

patterns in a chromatic field

Brötzmann-Kondo-Nielsen Love-Pupilo

Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson

Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Roger Turner, Pat Thomas

BARRY GUY NEW ORCHESTRA

Bobby Previte - Airstrip One

PETER BRÖTZMANN INTERVIEW WITH KEN VANDERMARK

April 20, 2001

Vandermark: Peter, at one point you were telling me that in the early part of your playing, when you were working as a visual artist and playing music, you were having a difficult time getting some kind of acceptance from your peers in Europe at the beginning. And you mentioned to me that Carla Bley and Don Cherry were two people who recognized strength in your work. Can you talk about that period at all?

Brotzmann: Sure, sure, I’d like to. In the mid 60’s, I think it was ’66 to be correct, Carla was touring with a group called Jazz Realities. That was Steve Lacy, Carla, I think at that time it was Kent Carter on bass, and Alda Romano on the drums. Around my hometown Wuppertal, at that time, I went to art school. We had a lot of really well organized jazz clubs, and the radio Cologne, the WDR, was not far away. And so, at that time, we had a lot of really great musicians down there from Europe and from the states. It was a very active scene. Carla showed up with this . . . quartet it was at that time I think. I took my alto and I was just sitting in without even asking. That was not really a nice thing for them [laughs], but I must say it was quite a wild session then and I think Steve Lacy liked it most.

A year later, I got a phone call from Carla asking if I and Peter Kowald, my bass player in the very early years—and more than a bass player, he was really a good comrade in these heavy times—would join the next year’s band. The ’67 year. So of course we said yes and somebody planned a kind of European tour. But it turned out it was so badly organized that everything went wrong. Stockholm to Rome and things like that [laughs], all in rotten cars! I mean, it really was a bit too much. And Carla brought the baby she just had with her so we organized a baby sitter, which all the guys liked very much [laughs]. So some more complications arrived, but we did the job. And I must say I still like Carla’s piano playing. I like the way she is putting her tunes and her pieces together. And I must say I still have a lot of respect, even if she, at the end, was not very content with the result of that. She mentioned it later in some of the interviews about that time.

The whole tour ended in Berlin. I remember that quite well. It was the time of the Berlin jazz festival, and our group got to play at this very famous art gallery. And the only guys who showed up for that last concert were Kowald and I because the rest were in such a desperate condition that they just didn’t show up [laughs]. So that was that experience. But I learned a lot from that.

Another person that you mentioned before, Don Cherry, was an even bigger help and really a good friend because, as you must know, in these middle ‘60s, Kowald and I tried to play some music nobody wanted to listen to, especially not the musicians around. That was the end of hard-bop time. There were all the quartets and quintets like Gunter Hampel, Manfred Schoof, [Alexander Von] Schlippenbach, to mention a couple of names. They played hard-bop more or less. And so what we tried to do was already a very free form kind of thing and even the handling of the instruments was really not happening in the usual way . . . because we didn’t know better [laughs], or we really had some other things in our minds. So Don always encouraged us very much. The good thing was that he was living in southern Sweden and the work was more or less in Germany at the old radio stations at that time, setting up concerts, and recording sessions and things like that. So on the way to Cologne or on the way to Baden-Baden where Joachim-Ernst Berendt made the program, he passed by at my place and stayed a couple of nights with the family. We developed quite a nice friendship. And that helped me and our kind of music quite a lot because the others stopped laughing about us. They started to take us seriously.

I remember one concert in Cologne at the radio station. Schlippenbach’s quintet was playing with Gerd Dudek, Manfred Schoof, Jaki Liebezeit, and Buschie Niebergall, and my trio at that time of course was Kowald and . . . who was the drummer . . . I think Mani Neumeier, a Swiss guy who played with Irene Schweizer at that time. Don Cherry was in town. I think he played in some other place with Dexter Gordon. He showed up and didn’t tell us before, but when the trio played, Don was sitting in. And instead of sitting in with the more advanced guys he was sitting in with us. So all these little kinds of things helped my reputation a little bit [laughs]. After these kinds of things went over Schoof, Schlippenbach and the others started to cooperate with our trio, and that was more or less the basis of the Globe Unity.

To mention some other guys, Lee Konitz was a good help in these early times. He always said, “Brotzmann keep going, keep going. Don’t listen to the others. Just do your thing.” You can understand, as a very young and inexperienced guy everybody was nearly laughing about, this helps you a lot. So I’m very thankful.

Vandermark: Yes, well that’s why I was curious about that. It seems a lot of people who forge ahead on their own path many times find support from people. Like the thing with Lee Konitz, I didn’t know about that, and I think if you mention Lee Konitz and your name side by side, like me, people would be surprised that Lee Konitz would hear things in your music. But it makes sense because you’re both people who have kind of gone on your own paths and pursued the music very seriously. Getting that kind of recognition from musicians like that is very inspiring.

It’s 11:30, you’re listening to WNUR, I’m Ken Vandermark here in the studio with Peter Brotzmann who’s in town this weekend performing at the 5th Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music. He played an amazing set last night with Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, and William Parker. He will be back at the Empty Bottle tonight playing in a duo with Hamid Drake for the first time in a little while in Chicago anyway, right?

Brotzmann: That’s true. I mean, we started our duo here in Chicago . . . it might be 10 years ago, something like that. In between, I think we just played it once here. I didn’t know that I would play with Hamid at the . . . what was that place called?

Vandermark: Southend Music Works?

Brotzmann: Right. I was supposed to play with the East German piano player Ulrich Gumpert. That was before the reunion of the two Germanies and they didn’t let him out! So I was standing there asking around, “Isn’t there any player around I could do a duo with?” I called my New York friends and they said there is this drummer playing in Europe with Pierre Dorge, the Danish guitar player and his band, try him. And we tried. I think we played a two hour duo thing the first night and I think both of us had the feeling, “okay that could work.” Since that time, we've played quite a lot together. I’m looking forward to tonight, playing a nice duo, hopefully, again with Hamid.

Vandermark: We were talking earlier about the beginning of your career in Europe. You mentioned some of the stuff overlapping in the fact that you’re a visual artist as well as a musician and the importance of being aware of other art forms and other things besides music to sort of have impact on what you’re doing as a musician. Is that something that was common in that period? With musicians was there an awareness of that? Was it an important part of the action at that time?

Brotzmann: It’s of course hard to explain the difference, I mean, it’s nearly forty years ago. Especially in that time, it was quite a situation in Europe. I mean, here, the US had the Vietnam War going on, you had all the race things coming up, and in Europe it was the students’ revolution, which was not only about students. It was really a revolution in all fields of creative life and we had the feeling and the meaning and the illusion that we would be able to change the world to some better place, which, as I said, was an illusion.

But it was really a hot, steaming time, and in all the fields of life, daily life too, politics, in the arts, anywhere. Stockhausen, in Cologne, installed his electronic studio that he ran with Mary Bauermeister, his first wife. They ran a little theatre in Cologne which was called Theater am Dom, which means “Theater near the Cathedral” where I saw [John] Cage, David Tudor, and Stockhausen perform with Mary Bauermeister. I met for the first time a very important person in my life, Nam June Paik.

If you wanted, you got a lot of information about all kinds of arts, which nowadays I don’t see happening so much. There was a lot of exchange between different 'musics' and musicians. I mean, I was asked to play with a lot of later famous German rock bands and we had connections to Danish rock bands.

Anyway, we had important connections to the other European countries at that time like Holland and England. Peter Kowald was responsible more for the connections to the English guys like Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Johnny Stevens, and Evan Parker, just to mention some of them, and the South African guys Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi [Feza], and Louis Moholo . . . who seems to be the only one that’s left. And because I already had contacts through my painting business, I was more responsible for the contacts to Holland. I met Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink and a little later Willem Breuker. So there was an exchange of ideas, a lot of traveling around, a lot of playing around everywhere. But I must say, it happened mostly in Germany because we have this handful of German radio stations. At the time, you really could work there. The people gave you studios. They gave you . . . a little money, which is very important of course too [laughs]. So I could sometimes invite people from really all over Europe.

A big scene was going on in the studios in Baden-Baden radio with Joachim-Ernst Berendt, the big jazz journalist, writer, and leading artistic promoter of the Berlin Jazz Fest at that time. He made a lot of things possible inviting, for example, Don Cherry to set up everything from duos to large ensembles. I was able to put together 10-piece bands, 11-piece bands. Once I remember I had a 20-piece band for a TV show, which . . . is nowadays impossible [laughs]. Nobody can think of such a thing. This music was played on the radios and even TV. That was a time really cooking and, as I said, it was the first contacts we had to the American guys traveling through. A really big exchange was happening. You had that jam-session character in the clubs, which is gone now, I think. It’s a shame, but that’s how it goes at the moment.

To develop my personal style of playing, I used my contacts to the other arts, to the other, as we call it in Europe, 'contemporary' or 'serious' music [laughs]. All the famous painters are my age and I know them all from that time, which helped me to get rid of certain rules that jazz music still had at that time. We could develop our own thing and get rid of certain things we thought we didn’t need anymore. We’re coming back of course . . . but at the time it was necessary to get rid of them.

Vandermark: Can you give an example of what you mean to sidestep the jazz conventions? An example of something you might do?

Brotzmann: At that time, all the great, big American groups like Miles Davis, [John] Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, [Charles] Mingus, and Ornette [Coleman's] early groups all toured in Europe. And I think they were more avant-garde, at the time, than most of the European musicians who still hung around the Horace Silver-Art Blakey style, so for me it was really very important to listen especially to Dolphy. I had the luck and the honor to spend all night long with him when he played in the Mingus band in my hometown when we organized a concert there. It helped me really step further on talking to those guys and listening to all of that fantastic music. But at the same time, I remember concerts with Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Kenny Clark, Oscar Pettiford, for example, which made a big impression of course. Nowadays, I think for younger people, it’s easy to get informed by the internet and all that new technology, but we had the chance to have the live scene over there. And that was more than a big help. That really was something.

To add to that, at the same time, I was still very busy with my painting, and we had a very interesting, very avant-garde gallery in town, which had the first exhibitions of Nam June Paik and Josef Bois, and a lot of the guys you heard of later. And I had the chance to work for Nam June Paik because he stayed in town for several months and had a long exhibition there. Since I was still a student at the art school I had the chance to work with him and repair his funny installations everyday for that night! [laughs]. So I learned a lot from this guy. I didn't realize it at that time, but looking back, I think he and Don Cherry were my 'teachers' in a way. I learned a lot from them.

Vandermark: Well, it's interesting, that you mentioned Hawkins and Pettiford and Kenny Clark, people who are definitely attached to an earlier school of approaching improvised music than the one that we're talking about right now, but there's something in your playing that has always stuck me as being very connected to that earlier period, the period of the really great tenors: Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, people how played with incredible personality and distinction. I have a piece here cued up that I wanted to play for you, and I'm sure you've heard it before. It's Hawkins doing Picasso, I think the earliest solo saxophone piece that, at least, I'm aware of. Maybe we can talk a little bit about your solo music after listening to it and if there's any correlation between what he was doing at that time and your music. So this is Coleman Hawkins' solo piece Picasso.

[hear music]

That was Coleman Hawkins' and the classic Picasso. Peter, do you have any thoughts about his playing? Has it had any impact on you other than the fact that he was a great tenor player? Is there more to it than that for you? I remember talking with you and listening to some of the early Armstrong and Sidney Bechet stuff and it was clear how much you love that music.

Brotzmann: Yes, I mean, the first saxophone player that really impressed me a lot was Sidney Bechet. I had a chance to listen to him twice I think. Two times he came to my town with some French group. But he himself was really something. I'm not such a fan of soprano saxophone myself and it's not my tool anyway, but Sidney Bechet really impressed me a lot. And the second one was Hawkins. People sometimes ask me, "why don't you mention Lester Young so much?" I love Lester a lot, but I feel my personality more connected to Hawkins than to Lester Young. I don't know if I learned something from his playing, but listening to him was always a great inspiration and I think I liked his tone best of all the tenor players. I still do.

Vandermark: It's something to reckon with [laughs]. I was going to ask you about something that's almost opposite in a way. Many times people talk about your music referencing Albert Ayler and I know you talked about how you were on that path before you ever even heard his music. Also, you knew Frank Wright fairly well I think, from what you told me before. The music that you're working on seems connected to approaches that they had to the instrument, to the music, but in Europe there's a distinctly different approach to the saxophone maybe referencing extended techniques and some kind of concept of that extended playing. I've got a piece here with Evan Parker and Louis Sclavis playing together. We'll give it a listen and I was curious if you could comment a little bit on that because it's just a different thing. And it's different from what your approach to the horn. I wanted to see if there's anything in it that may be interesting to talk about. This is Evan Parker and Louis Sclavis from Duets: Dithyrambisch on FMP and we're going to listen to the piece "Trane and the Rive Gauche", obviously a take on [Jimmy] Guiffre's "Trane and the River."

[hear music]

Okay, that was Evan Parker and Louis Sclavis off of the Duets: Dithyrambisch record and while that was on, we were talking a little bit, Peter, about the idea of technique. To me, the issue is connected to ideas about conventional technique, things that, as you said, you can learn, versus ideas about technique as tools necessary to express experience. Many times it seems like Thelonious Monk or Pee Wee Russell or Albert Ayler or Frank Wright or maybe even yourself get criticized for having bad technique, when in fact, it seems to me, you're working with technique very outside the convention or conventional knowledge. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about this issue at all.

Brotzmann: Yes of course, because all throughout my career I was confronted with that question. "Hey you don't have any technique at all," from the beginning on and it still is happening. Maybe these people are right, I don't have very much of the conventional technique. Like, for example, our friends we just have heard, Louis Sclavis and Evan Parker. I never had a teacher for the horn, so I experienced everything myself, and I think that's what the interesting part in the arts, whatever arts it is, is about. And if you look at people like Frank Wright or Albert Ayler, they didn't have much technique in the sense of modern time's saxophone playing. They had roots somewhere in the blues, in gospel, in their own peoples' music and they tried to work with that. I think that's a much more interesting and much more important part of being creative in a way. I don't think, for example, Thelonious Monk had great technique, but for me, he's one of the greatest piano players of all times, if not the greatest! So technique doesn't mean anything. If you listen to very early blues recordings, I mean where the guy didn't even have strings on the guitar, what he was doing with that one string that was left, maybe what he was telling you, that was the essence of his life. And, I'll tell you, the older I'm getting, the more this matter is my interest, to get us as close as possible to what is it about. And you don't need technique for that. You need certain tools to express what you want to say, and if you don't have the tools, you have to work on them until they are there and then you can say what you want to say. And it's happened all my life and I think it's happening in everybody's life, in a way. I'm lucky to have started very early to discover that, and I'm still far away from my target, but I'm on my way. We will see. 

Vandermark: Alright, well, thanks for talking about that because I think that's one of the big misunderstandings in improvised music, jazz, whatever you want to call it, that difference between the Marsalis approach to technique and things that you can be taught and you can learn, as you said, and really trying to express who you are through the experience.

Brotzmann: Yes. That's why I have the feeling that the whole range of jazz music is getting a little poor. Most of the guys coming from the colleges, from Berkely and other schools--it's the same in Europe, maybe schools here are better, I don't know--form a certain kind of musician: they know everything up and on the horn, up and on harmonics, scales and everything, but nobody, or very seldom is there a guy, who is able to teach them what to do with it and what to do with their life and what it is about. I think we need many more of these kinds of people than we need all the nice, skilled teachers.

Vandermark: [laughs] Well you can't teach life, you know. That's what everyone, as an individual, has to grapple with. That's the toughest one maybe. Talking about personalities and individualities, I know that throughout your entire career you've been interested in working with larger bands. Right now you've got the tentet, but you've had . . .

Brotzmann: You should say we've got the tentet . . .

Vandermark: Okay, okay, thank you for including the rest of us too in that because . . .

Brotzman: No, the tentet's got us!

Vandermark: [laughs] That may be true! I think that based on your history that's something you've been interested in. There are obvious reasons, for example, having a larger palette of sounds, but is there anything in particular about large groups that you keep coming back to them. Why would that be?

Brotzmann: I think there are a couple of reasons. I think one reason for all kinds of music, and especially jazz music, is I see a very strong social function in working the way we do. If it's a small group from duo to quartet to quintet, I think the social connections between one another are very important. That doesn't mean that we all agree all the time to everything, and everybody has his own way of life of course, but the way we work together, we hopefully talk together too. I mean, we have to be open for everything. If we talk about politics, art, or girls, or music we have to be honest to each other. I think that's one point.

In the smaller groups, you develop your own style. You develop sounds. You have an idea about how it should sound. And then, of course, it's always a big experience to have not only one horn, but to have four saxophones and maybe a couple of trombones around and what you can do with that sound is always a great, great pleasure to find out. Being on the road with the tentet, for example, and since I played with Machine Gun, in '68, I always tried to put bands together, mostly ten, eleven piece bands. It's a question of money of course. Nowadays you can't go on the road with twenty people. Nobody's going to pay for that if you don't have friends at the Lincoln Center . . . [both chuckle]. But, you know, there's always chances. I'm so happy that the tentet started here in Chicago. In between, we have played a lot . . . not a lot, always can be more, should be more . . . but we have chances, possibilities in Europe, we might have chances here in the country, in Canada, wherever they want us we go.

And it's nice, because as you travel and work with these people you learn to know them very well. Not only music-wise. You learn the human being, which is, for me, always a part of jazz music too. I think all the great bands, whatever they did to each other, necessarily had that connection. I could never sit in a big band just coming to work and going home. That I can't imagine. I never could. 

Vandermark: Speaking of groups together for a long time and speaking of personalities, one thing about the tentet that I love so much is that it's a group of individuals. Everyone in the band has very distinct playing approaches and ideas, and that, for me, connects that group very much to Ellington's band even though musically, aesthetically there are differences there without question. I never talked to you about Duke Ellington, and I was wondering if there is anything in his music or his approach to leading a group that you've been inspired by?

Brotzmann: Always, always, but of course all you can do as a normal, hard-working musician is listen and look at how Ellington organized his band and how he handled his people. I think in both ways he did a fantastic job. So you can learn from that. I think we are far away from the great master Mr. Ellington, but we are on our way to getting our stuff together and if we have more chances to work on the music and chances to travel, that will make us come closer and closer to the ideal situation. You know, these bands like Ellington, Count Basie, just to name two of them, were stuck together for weeks, months in a lousy bus, driving from town to town. So of course you want to kill each other, but on the other hand, you learn to respect the other in all his manners [laughs] he carries around with him. I think we need that experience and that is a good experience for the music too because it makes you open and respect the other person and the other human being. 

Vandermark: And that's a beautiful thing. We're going to close out now because the news is going to be coming on in a few minutes, Peter, and we're going to finish off with actually something by Duke Ellington. I obviously set you up for the track [laughs]. This is from Suite Thursday with much of the music composed by Billy Strayhorn. We're going to listen to the last movement of the suite. Peter, it's been really great to have you here this morning. Thanks for getting up, well, you got up earlier. Thanks for coming by.

Brotzmann: I thank you for the chance.

Vandermark: Just to remind everybody, Peter will be playing tonight in a duo with Hamid Drake at the Empty Bottle festival and will be playing at noon Saturday, tomorrow, at the Cultural Center, in a solo concert. So both of those are a must and it's free which is totally staggering. So Peter Brotzmann solo in a beautiful hall at the Cultural Center tomorrow, I think that's 78 East Randolph. Thanks for listening and hope to see you tonight and tomorrow. This is Duke Ellington from Suite Thursday, Lay-By. Thank you very much Peter.

Brotzmann: Thank you.

Zu + Mike Patton

Zu + Mats Gustafsson

The Thing + ZU

Peter Brötzmann

Peter Brötzmann (Remscheid, 1941) es uno de esos, afortunadamente nada escasos, nombres capitales a los que hay que hacer referencia si se pretende hablar del jazz europeo surgido como respuesta continental al free jazz americano.

Aunque con una clara deuda al saxofonismo ayleriano –querencia no solo indisimulada sino hecha grito y bandera en su proyecto “Die Like A Dog”- lejos del mero mimetismo posee una voz propia claramente definida que lo ha convertido en jefe de escuela.

A principios de los años sesenta lo encontramos en Wuppertal –otro nombre capital, aunque este hace referencia a una localidad alemana - por sus intereses pictóricos (su mano en el grafismo de su producción discográfica es tan personal como su soplido). Allí comienza a trabajar con el contrabajista Peter Kowald, para pronto formar un trío con el añadido del batería Sven Ake Johansson (y a estas alturas ya irían tres de tres, nombres de capital importacia a la hora de hablar…).

Pero sin ninguna duda el trío que se convirtió en toda una referencia fue el completado por Fred Van Hove al piano y Han Bennink a la bateria y activo desde la segunda mitad de los años sesenta hasta mitad de los setenta. “Balls” o “3 Points and a mountain”, “Outspan 2”… (fmp) son pruebas de la potencia e interacción de esta banda faro.

El trío es un formato en el que Brötz se encuentra cómodo. En la actualidad mantiene uno junto a William Parker y Hamid Drake, una rítmica de ensueño. Y una muestra de la energía y entendimiento del que son capaces, el fantástico “Never too late but always too early: dedicated to Peter Kowald” (Eremite). Pero su carrera está jalonada de muchas otras experiencias en las que los integrantes de las rítmicas vienen a ser el “quien es quien” del free-improvisación tanto europeo, americano o japonés. Kessler/Drake; Hopkins/Ali; Hopkins/Drake; Nielsen/Uuskyla; Phillips/Sommer; Scopelitis/Shoji; Haino/Hano…

Un trío no muy (re)conocido es el que formó en el cambio de décadas de los 70-80 junto a los representantes de la escena británica (onda sudafricana) Harry Miller y Louis Moholo. Sus dos discos en trío “The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat” y “Opened, but hardy touched” (fmp) inéditos en compacto merecen la pena ser buscados.

Este trío se despidió discográficamente formando la base de un grupo mas amplio en el que se dan cabida a mas sopladores/improvisadores. Se trata de “Alarm” (fmp). En el disco aparecen Breuker, Frank Wright, Kondo, Johannes Bauer, Alan Tomlinson y Sclippenbach (en otras grabaciones de directos aparece por ejemplo un joven David S Ware). Este tipo de grupos amplios con predominancia de sopladores bien baqueteados por la rítmica es una de las constantes en los proyectos de Brözmann.

Sin duda el trabajo mas influyente y uno de los mas populares de la discográfica de Brötzmann sea “Machine gun” (fmp), una corrosiva descarga de adrenalina fechada el revolucionario 1968 y firmada por Breuker, Evan Parker, Van Hove, Kowald, Niebergall, Bennink y Johansson además del propio Brötz. (En “Fuck de Boere”, Atavistic/Unhead Music Series, puede escucharse otra versión del “Machine gun” con el añadido de otro saxo G. Dudek).

En la actualidad y desde hace casi una decada mantiene el Chicago Tentet (octeto en un principio y con el añadido “+1” o “+2” en algunas ocasiones) que se estrenaba con un demoledor triple homonimo para Okka y al que le han seguido otros seis lanzamientos, muestra de la vitalidad de un proyecto en el que se alían improvisadores europeos y americanos del más alto nivel: Ken Vandermark; Mats Gustafsson, William Parker… o Joe McPhee.

En los terrenos de las grandes formaciones ha prestado su solismo de fuego a emblemáticas formaciones como son la Globe Unity Orchestra liderada por Schlippenbach –prototipo de big band free a la europea- o las grandes bandas “las orquestas europeas” de Cecil Taylor. The Wild Mans Band y sobretodo Last Exit son muestra de su pertenencia a grupos “cañeros”.

Pero tampoco se ha resistido a los formatos pequeños: el solo –en el que ha reincidido en varias ocasiones- o el dúo –uno de ellos recurrente y discográficamente bien documentado como es el completado por Han Bennink- que le permite en no pocas ocasiones participar en encuentros ocasionales, pequeñas giras…. La lista de colaboraciones más o menos ocasionales es extensa.

Peter Brotzmann's The Inexplicable Flyswatter

A mulher canhota

Errar

Mats Gustafsson

.

Born 1964 in Umeå, Sweden; all saxophones, fluteophones, flutes, weevil sax, amplified saxophones and live-electronics.

With the noble exception of Sven-Åke Johansson, the free improvised music scene in Sweden was not thought to exist until the appearance of the double LP, Sounds: Contemporary Swedish improvised music. This (deliberate) documentation of a three-day festival held in Stockholm in 1989 came from a discussion between the artist Edward Jarvis, Harald Hult and Mats Gustafsson. At that time, the music in Sweden was at a very early stage. Gustafsson had undertaken flute studies in his teens and played in various jazz-rock and punk units in Umeå in the early 1980s, starting to play improvised music with drummer Kjell Nordeson in 1982, beginning the AALY Trio in 1986. Performances/happenings with Edward G. Jarvis began in 1984 and Gustafsson moved to Stockholm in 1985, collaborating with Dror Feiler and Jörgen Adolfsson. The duo of Gustafsson and Christian Munthe - 'Two slices of electric car' (with latterly the 'electric' being replaced by 'acoustic' - had begun in 1986 and the trio Gush - Gustafsson, Sten Sandell and Raymond Strid - had started around 1988. Gustafsson had also been particularly inspired on first hearing Peter Brötzmann and his playing reflects the obvious energy associated with Brötzmann as well as more textural, timbre-focussed areas associated more with free improvisors. The short essay in Gustafsson, M., Hultberg, E., and Millroth, T. (below) points out that Gustafsson has come to improvised music by way of jazz, without himself actually treading the obvious jazz route (i.e. by following Ayler, Coleman and Coltrane who he was too young to be contemporaneous with).

Mats Gustafsson has since played widely with musicians from freely-improvised and jazz backgrounds, both in his native Sweden and increasingly, in the last fifteen years, abroad. He undertakes an extensive touring schedule having played over 1,500 concerts with music ensembles and solo projects internationally. These associations include duo, trio, quartet and large ensemble work with Paul Lovens; various combinations with Paul Lytton, involvement with Günter Christmann's Vario groups and festivals, in duo with Barry Guy in trio with Guy and Raymond Strid and as a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra since its inception in 2000. He has played in various groups with Roger Turner (1998 saw a brief tour in the UK of the trio of Gustafsson, Turner and Pat Thomas) and was a member of Derek Bailey's Company in 1990 in London. From a first trip in 1988 Mats Gustafsson has been a regular visitor to the US, forming a particular affinity with Chicago-based musicians such as Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang, Ken Vandermark, David Grubbs and Fred Lonberg holm and being a member of the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet since 1997.

Mats Gustafsson has worked extensively with artists from the worlds of dance (Lotta Melin, Kazuo Ohno, Tiger, Susanne Jaresand, GushTanz, Die AudioGruppe/AudioBallerinas, Birgitta Egerbladh, Claire Parsons), theatre (Saara Salminen-Wallin; Lars Rudolfson; Sven-Åke Johansson), poetry (Stig Larsson, Maria Gummesson; Sven-Åke Johansson; Jenny Morelli; Jaap Blonk; Terri Kapsalis; Mikael Niemi; Mattias Alkberg; Gerhild Ebel) and painting (Hanns Schimansky, Olle Bonnier, Ann Blom, Karin Almlöf, Inger Arvidsson, Anders Knutsson, Gerhild Ebel, Edward Jarvis, Håkan Blomkvist, Leif Elggren, Lars Kleen, Mathias Pöschl). Some of these combinations were brought together in his 1997 enhanced CD, Impropositions, released by the Swedish Music Information Center. Mats Gustafsson also works as a composer and a selective list of his compositions includes:

• Back - or for-word (1989), chamber piece for cello, piano, reeds, percussion, voice, video, performance artist
• Bortviska (1989), for large ensemble and conductor
• Viska (1990), solo piece for baritone saxophone
• Korpo II (1990/96), for tenor sax, bass and percussion
• Viska: too hands (1992), solo piece for tenor or baritone saxophone
• Viska: flphm (1992), solo piece for muted fluteophone
• Viska Mix IV (1994), solo piece for tenor saxophone, flageolet and fluteophone
• Bevllohallat Hhu/ö (1994), for baritone saxophone and fluteophone, dance and light design
• Structure a la Mallé (1995/96), for jazz ensemble
• Korrrp - scener vid en åtel (1996), solo piece for baritone saxophone and film by Gunilla Hamne and Torkel Lundberg
• Forskande ögen eller vem glor på vem? (1997), solo piece for tenor saxophone and film by Gunilla Hamne and Torkel Lundberg
• Hidros one (1997), piece for 9 improvisors and one conductor

Gustafsson formed The Thing with Norwegians Paal Nilssen-Love and Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten in 2000 and, as well as performing as a trio, they work with frequent collaborators such as Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark and the Norwegian hard-core-combo Cato Salsa Experience. He has also been a frequent collaborator with Sonic Youth since 2000 undertaking recordings, concerts and festivals. He has initiated a number of "Silence" projects - Original Silence, Related Silence, International Silence and Another Silence - with a.o. Guy Picciotto, Ikue Mori, Caspar Brötzmann, DJ Olive, Thurston Moore, Terrie Ex, Jim OÕRourke, Han Bennink, Tim Barnes, Massimo Zu, Paal Nilssen-Love, Dror Feiler and Johan Berthling: different combinations of musicians and soundartists focusing on creative improvised noise and alternative rock-music.

Mats Gustafsson has initiated four record labels. He started Blue Tower Records with Harald Hult in 1989, Crazy Wisdom (no longer in existence) with Christian Falk and Conny C. Lindström in 1999, Olof Bright Editions with Thomas Millroth in 2000, and SLOTTET with Conny C Lindström and Maria Eriksson in 2006.

Further reading

Chaloin, Marc (1995), Mats Gusafsson. Improjazz, no. 19, (October), pp. 6-10. (in French).

Millroth, Thomas (2002). Swedish free impro. Full text available on this site.

Gustafsson, M., Hultberg, E., and Millroth, T. (n.d.), Solo improvisation & interpretation: essays. Almföf Edition. 48pp. ISBN 91 9719 200 7. In A5 format, this is a series of notes rather than essays, one page in length, sometimes accompanied by a photograph, of a wide range of improvisers and interpreters, e.g. Derek Bailey, Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell, Mats Gustafsson, Dror Feiler, Irène Schweizer, Joëlle Léandre, Robyn Schulkowsky.

Montgomery, Will (1997), Mats Gusafsson: flow motion. The Wire, no. 164, (October), p. 18.

Rösnes, Thore (1996), Jag vill beröra..., Gränslöst, no. 1, (March), pp. 9-13.

Recordings

1988, Now or never, Bauta Rec BAR 8803. Sten Sandell.

1988, Saw, Radium 046. The too much too soon orchestra.

1989, Tjo och tjim, Dragon DRLP192. Gush and Sven-Åke Johansson.

1989, Sounds: Contemporary Swedish improvised music, Blue Tower records BTLP 01/02. Includes two tracks from 'Two slices of electric car'.

1989, The Aerial no. 6, AER 1994/6. Duo with Ricardo Dal Farra.

1990, Try me, Blue Tower BTSHH 50. The Try me ensemble.

1990, From things to sounds, Dragon DRCD 204. Gush

1990/1991, Nothing to read, Blue Tower BRCD03.

1991, Dolphins, dolphins, dolphins, Dragon DRCD 215. Per Henrick Wallin.

1992, Letter 4, Leo CD LR190. Duo with Sainkho Namchylak.

1992, Mouth eating trees and related activities, Okka Disk OD12010. Gustafsson/Guy/Lovens.

1991/1992, Sometimes crosswise, Moers 02094 CD. Günter Christmann.

1993, Vario-34, Edition Explico exp 05/Blue Tower Records BTCD 06.

1994, Parrot fish eye, Okka Disk 12006.

1994, Gushwachs, Bead CD002. Gush and Phil Wachsmann.

1988/94, Of if - best of Improvised Friday, Blue Tower BTCD 05. Forthcoming.

1994/1995, You forget to answer, Maya MCD 9601. With Barry Guy and Raymond Strid.

1995, Blow horn, Okka Disk OD 12019. FJF.

1995, For Don Cherry, Okka Disk ODL 10003. Gustafsson/Hamid Drake duo.

1995, The education of Lars Jerry, XERIC XER-CD-100. Solo.

1995, Nickelsdorf Konfrontation, Silkheart 143. Joel Futterman-Kidd Jordan Quintet.

1994/96, The spirit of milvus milvus, Rub-a-Dub CD14. Christer Bothen.

1996, Opus apus, LJCD 5212. Jormin/Gustafsson/Jormin.

1996, Upgrade and afterlife, Drag City DC90CD. Gastr del sol.

1996, gryffgryffgryffs, Music & Arts CD-1003. Guy, Gustafsson, Strid, Crispell.

1996, Battuto, Random Acoustics RA 023. Gustafsson, Lonberg-Holm, Kapsalis, Corbett.

1996, Improvisors, Kontrans 143. With Jaap Blonk and Michael Zerang.

1996, Live at Fasching, Dragon DRCD 313. Gush.

1996, Live in Tampere, Dragon DRCD 327. Gush.

1996, Impropositions, Phono Suecia PSCD 99. Enhanced CD.

1996, Hidden in the stomach, Silkheart 149. Aaly Trio + Ken Vandermark.

1996, Concert in Berlin 1996, Wobbly Rail WOB007. Georg Gräwe Quintet.

1996, Electric eel, QBICO 30. Gush.

1997, Lennart, Blue Tower Records BTCDS 51. Two slices of acoustic car.

1997, Live in Holland '97, X-OR FR 5. With Misha Mengelberg and Gert-Jan Prins.

1997, Frogging, Maya MCD 9702. Duo with Barry Guy.

1997, The Chicago Octet/Tentet, Okka disk OD12022. Peter Brötzmann.

1997, One to (two)..., Okka Disk ODL 10002. Gustafsson/Christmann duo.

1997, Hidros one (1997), Caprice 21566.

1997/98, Three concerts per a A.T., Edition Explico 08. Three tracks with Christmann/Lovens.

1998, Stumble, Wobbly Rail WOB-002. AALY Trio + Ken Vandermark.

1998, 98 Duets, Wobbly Rail WOB004. Two duos with Jeb Bishop.

1998, Background music, hatOLOGY 526. Gregorio/Gustafsson/Nordeson.

1998, * water writes always in * plural, Concepts of doing 004. Vario 34-2.

1998, Apertura, Blue Chopsticks BC2. Duo with David Grubbs.

1999, They were gentle and pretty pigs, The Beak Doctor BD7. Goodman/Gustafsson/Cremaschi.

1999, Live at the Glenn Miller Café, Wobbly Rail WOB-008. AALY Trio + Ken Vandermark.

1999, Three rocks and a pine, Ninth World Music NWM 020. With The Wild Mans Band.

1999, Stone/Water, Okka disk OD12032. The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.

1999, Double or nothing, Okka disk OD12035. AALY Trio/DKV Trio.

1999, Sticky tongues and kitchen knives, XERIC XER-CD-101. Duo with John Corbett.

1999, Xylophonen virtuosen, Incus CD38. Duo with Jim O'Rourke.

1999, Windows: the music of Steve Lacy, Blue Chopsticks BC4. Solo.

1999, Port Huron picnic, Spool SPL 110/LINE 10. Trio with Kurt Newman and Mike Gennaro.

1999, Sounds 99, Blue Tower Records BTCD 09/10/11.

2000, The Thing, Crazy Wisdom 001. Trio with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love.

2000, I wonder if I was screaming, Crazy Wisdom 003. AALY Trio with Ken Vandermark.

2000, Inscape - Tableaux, Intakt CD 066. Barry Guy New Orchestra.

2000, Broken English, Okka disk OD12043. The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet Plus Two.

2000, Hidros 3, Smalltown Supersound STS080CD. Mats Gustafsson/Sonic Youth with Friends.

2000, Short visit to nowhere, Okka disk OD12044. The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet Plus Two.

2000, Two lightboxes, Locust 53. The Peter Brötzmann Tentet Plus Two + The Come Sunday Ensemble.

2000/2001, Look at the music, Olof Bright OBCD09. Two track on compilation CD.

2001, I love it when you snore, Smalltown Supersound STS063CD. Duo with Paal Nilssen-Love.

2001, The music of Norman Howard, Anagram Records ANA LP 001. School Days and The Thing

2002, Chicago 2002, Emanem 4082. Paul Rutherford.

2002, Trees and truths, Olof Bright OBEP 6, 7, 8. Håkan Blomkvist/Mats Gustafsson.

2002, Friend of the bumblebee, Rönnells/Håll Tjäften TJÄFT 002.

2002, The Zanzibar excursion, STIM/SAMI. A promotional 32-minute DVD for DJustable.

2002, Off-road, Blue Chopsticks BC11. Duo with David Grubbs.

2002/2003, Images, Okka disk OD12047. The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.

2002/2003, Signs, Okka disk OD12048. The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.

2003, No one ever works alone, Okka disk OD12053. Sonore.

2003, Live at Blå, Smalltown Superjazzz STSJ099CD. The Thing.

2003, Norrköping, Atavistic ALP161CD. Gush.

2003, Blues, Atavistic ALP163CD. Gustafsson/Stackenäs.

2004, Garage, Smalltown Superjazzz STS078CD. The Thing.

2004, 13 Erindringer fra Hr. Grøns liv, Ninth World Music NWM 035. Torden Kvartetten

2004, Be music, night, Okka disk OD12059. The Chicago Tentet featuring Mike Pearson. Also issued on Jazzwerkstatt JW 002.

2004, Oort-Entropy, Intakt CD 101. Barry Guy New Orchestra.

2004, Critical mass, psi 05.06. Agustí Fernández/Mats Gustafsson.

2005, Slide, Firework Editions FER 1054. Solo on the slide saxophone.

2005, Catapult, doubtmusic dms-103. Baritone sax solo.

2005, ONJO, doubtmusic dms-102. Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra.

2005, Out to lunch, doubtmusic dmf-108. Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra.

2005, Plingeling/Plingaling, Olof Bright OBCD 12. Olle Bonniér.

2006, Free The Jazz Free The Jazz Discs FREE#1. Eric Oscarsson and the Perspectives.

2006, Only the devil has no dreams Jazzwerkstatt JW013. Sonore.

2006, American landscapes 1, Okka disk OD12067. The Chicago Tentet.

2006, American landscapes 2, Okka disk OD12068. The Chicago Tentet.

2006, Beirut-Ystad, Olof Bright OBCD 16-17.

2006, Tarfala, Maya Recordings MCD0801. Guy/Gustafsson/Strid.

2007, At Molde 2007 (10 years 10tet), Okka disk OD12072. The Chicago Tentet.

Peter Brötzmann

Biography

Born Remscheid, Germany on 6 March 1941; soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, a-clarinet, e-flat clarinet; bass clarinet, tarogato.

Peter Brötzmann's early interest was in painting and he attended the art academy in Wuppertal. Being very dissatisfied with the gallery/exhibition situation in art he found greater satisfaction playing with semi-professional musicians, though continued to paint (as well as retaining a level of control over his own records, particularly in record sleeve/CD booklet design). In late 2005 he had a major retrospective exhibition jointly with Han Bennink - two separate buildings separated by an inter-connecting glass corridor - in Brötzmann's home town of Remscheid.

Self-taught on clarinets, he soon moved to saxophones and began playing swing/bebop, before meeting Peter Kowald. During 1962/63 Brötzmann, Kowald and various drummers played regularly - Mingus, Ornette Coleman, etc. - while experiencing freedoms from a different perspective via Stockhausen, Nam June Paik, David Tudor and John Cage. In the mid 1960s, he played with American musicians such as Don Cherry and Steve Lacy and, following a sojourn in Paris with Don Cherry, returned to Germany for his unorthodox approach to be accepted by local musicians like Alex von Schlippenbach and Manfred Schoof.

The trio of Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald and Sven-Ake Johansson began playing in 1965/66 and it was a combination of this and the Schoof/Schlippenbach Quintet that gave rise to the first Globe Unity Orchestra. Following the self-production of his first two LPs, For Adolphe Sax and Machine gun for his private label, BRÖ, a recording for Manfred Eicher's 'Jazz by Post' (JAPO) [Nipples], and a number of concert recordings with different sized groups, Brötzmann worked with Jost Gebers and started the FMP label. He also began to work more regularly with Dutch musicians, forming a trio briefly with Willem Breuker and Han Bennink before the long-lasting group with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. As a trio, and augmented with other musicians who could stand the pace (e.g. Albert Mangelsdorff on, for example, The Berlin concert), this lasted until the mid-1970s though Brötzmann and Bennink continued to play and record as a duo, and in other combinations, after this time. A group with Harry Miller and Louis Moholo continued the trio format though was cut short by Miller's early death.

The thirty-plus years of playing and recording free jazz and improvised music have produced, even on just recorded evidence, a list of associates and one-off combinations that include just about all the major figures in this genre: Derek Bailey (including performances with Company (e.g. Incus 51), Cecil Taylor, Fred Hopkins, Rashied Ali, Evan Parker, Keiji Haino, Misha Mengelberg, Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Phil Minton, Alfred 23 Harth, Tony Oxley. Always characterised as an energy player - and the power-rock setting of Last Exit with Ronald Shannon Jackson, Sonny Sharock and Bill Laswell, or his duo performances with his son, Casper, did little to disperse this conviction - his sound is one of the most distinctive, life-affirming and joyous in all music. But the variety of Brötzmann's playing and projects is less recognised: his range of solo performances; his medium-to-large groups and, in spite of much ad hoc work, a stability brought about from a corpus of like- minded musicians: the group Ruf der Heimat; pianist Borah Bergman; percussionist Hamid Drake; and Die like a dog, his continuing tribute to Albert Ayler, with Drake, William Parker and Toshinori Kondo. Peter Brötzmann continues a heavy touring schedule which, since 1996 has seen annual visits to Japan and semi-annual visits to the thriving Chicago scene where he has played in various combinations from solo through duo (including one, in 1997, with Mats Gustafsson) to large groups such as the Chicago Octet/Tentet, described below. He has also released a number of CDs on the Chicago-based Okka Disk label, including the excellent trio with Hamid Drake and the Moroccan Mahmoud Gania, at times sounding like some distant muezzin calling the faithful to become lost in the rhythm and power of the music.

The "Chicago Tentet" was first organized by Brötzmann with the assistance of writer/presenter John Corbett in January 1997 as an idea for a one-time octet performance that included Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang (drums), Kent Kessler (bass) and Fred Lomberg-Holm (cello), Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams (reeds), and Jeb Bishop (trombone). The first meeting was extremely strong and warranted making the group an ongoing concern and in September of that same year the band was expanded to include Mats Gustafsson (reeds) and Joe McPhee (brass) as permanent members (with guest appearances by William Parker (bass), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet/electronics), and Roy Campbell (trumpet) during its tenure) - all in all a veritable who's who of the contemporary improvising scene's cutting edge. Though the Tentet is clearly led by Brötzmann and guided by his aesthetics, he has been committed to utilizing the compositions of other members in the ensemble since the beginning. This has allowed the band to explore an large range of structural and improvising tactics: from the conductions of Mats Gustafsson and Fred Lonberg-Holm, to the vamp pieces of Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake, to compositions using conventional notation by Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams, to Brötzmann's graphic scores - the group employs almost every contemporary approach to composing for an improvising unit. This diversity in compositional style, plus the variety in individualistic approaches to improvisation, allows the Tentet to play extremely multifaceted music. As the band moves from piece to piece, it explores intensities that range from spare introspection to all out walls of sound, and rhythms that are open or free from a steady pulse to those of a heavy hitting groove. It is clear that the difficult economics of running a large band hasn't prevented the group from continuing to work together since its first meeting. Through their effort they've been able to develop an ensemble sound and depth of communication hard to find in a band of any size or style currently playing on the contemporary music scene.

Further information

Rouy, Gèrard (2001). Interview with Peter Brötzmann available on this site.
Brötzmann, Peter (2003), The inexplicable flyswatter: works on paper 1959-1964. Unheard Music Series. 48 pages. Corbett, John (1994), Machine gun etiquette, in Extended play: sounding off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein. Duke University Press, 0 8223 1473 8. pp. 246-259.
Corbett vs. Dempsey (2007), Brötzmann Paintings & Objects catalogue.
Edel-Rosnes, Gudrun (1995), Nar det later runt, starkt och skont - da tycker jag om det, Granslost, no. 1, (May), pp. 12-16, 50. In Swedish; including complete discography at early 1995.
Lake, Steve (1986), Last Exit: the living end. Wire, no. 29, (July), pp. 22-23, 25.
Loewy, Steven A. (1999), Leader of the pack: Peter Brötzmann unmasked. Coda, no. 284, (March/April), pp. 8-14 (includes two pages of reviews by James Hale).
Ohshima, Kouichi (1997), Peter Brötzmann discography. Improvised Company, Japan. Rusch, Bob (1999), Peter Brötzmann interview. Cadence, vol. 25, no. 2, (February), pp. 5-7.
Peterson, Lloyd (2006), Music and the creative spirit, Scarecrow Press, pp. 29-33, 43-55.

Recordings

For 1995 discography, see Edel-Rosnes, above; for 1997 discography, see Ohshima above.

Brötzmann/van Hove/Bennink group

1968, Machine gun, BRÖ 2/FMP CD24. Actually the Peter Brötzmann Octet, formed and recorded before the trio was formed but comprising the three members and stylistically connected to the trio's music.

1968, The complete machine gun sessions, ALP262CD. Peter Brötzmann Octet.

1968/1970, Fuck de Boere, UMS/ALP211CD. Peter Brötzmann Nonet/Group.

1969, International Holy Hill jazz meeting, Meno-Lichtenstein-&-CB 6769. Includes one track of the Peter Brötzmann Octet.

1969, Nipples, Calig CAL 30604/UMS/ALP205CD.

1969, More Nipples, UMS/ALP236CD. Quartet + Sextet

1970, Balls, FMP 0020.

1970, Balls, UMS/ALP233CD. Includes two previously unreleased tracks.

1970, Born free, Scout Records ScS 11. One track on festival album.

1971, The Berlin concert, FMP CD34/35. With Albert Mangelsdorff.

1971, International New Jazz Meeting auf Burg Altena, JG Records JG 027/028S. Includes one track of the Peter Brötzmann Trio.

1972, Free jazz und kinder, FMP S1/2.

1972, For example, FMP R123. One track with Albert Mangelsdorff on commemorative/compilation 3LP set.

1973, Brötzmann, van Hove, Bennink, FMP 0130/Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP244CD.

1974, Outspan no. 1, FMP 0180. With Albert Mangelsdorff.

1974, Outspan no. 2, FMP 0200. Including 01.49 of Backstreet girl by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard

1975, Tschus, FMP 0230.

Brötzmann/Bennink duo

1977, Ein halber hund kann nicht pinkeln, FMP 0420.

1977, Schwarzwaldfahrt, FMP 0440.

1977, Schwarzwaldfahrt, Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP254CD. Re-issue of FMP 0440 with additional material.

1977, Total Music Meeting 1977 Berlin, BRÖ-B.

1979, 3 points and a mountain, FMP 0670. With Misha Mengelberg.

1979, 3 points and a mountain... plus, FMP CD 107. With Misha Mengelberg.

1979, Han Bennink, Musica Jazz MJCD 1162. One Brötzmann/Mengelberg/Bennink track on this HB compilation CD.

1980, Atsugi concert, GuA-Bungue GBLP 3381.01.

2004, Eye & ear: artist <-> musician, Atavistic ALP176CD. One track on compilation CD.

2004, Still quite popular after all those years, BRÖ 4.

2006, in Amherst 2006, BRÖ-C.

Brötzmann/Miller/Moholo trio

1979, The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat, FMP 0690.

1980, Opened, but hardly touched, FMP 0840/50.

1980, Improvisation 2, DIW 405. Single track on compilation CD.

1981, Alarm, FMP 1030/Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP257CD. With Toshinori Kondo, Johannes Bauer, Willem Breuker, Frank Wright, Alex von Schlippenbach, Harry Miller and Louis Moholo.

Solo

1976, Solo, FMP 0360.

1984, 14 love poems, FMP 1060.

1984, 14 love poems plus 10 more: dedicated to Kenneth Patchen, FMP CD 125.

1990, No nothing, FMP CD32.

1994, Nothing to say, FMP CD73.

2000, Right as rain, FMP CD112.

The Chicago Octet/Tentet

1997, The Chicago Octet/Tentet, Okka disk OD12022.

1999, Stone/Water, Okka disk OD12032 (CD)/ODL12032 (limited edition vinyl). The Chicago Tentet.

2000, Broken English, Okka disk OD12043. The Chicago Tentet Plus Two.

2000, Short visit to nowhere, Okka disk OD12044. The Chicago Tentet Plus Two.

2000, Two lightboxes, Locust 53. The Peter Brötzmann Tentet Plus Two + The Come Sunday Ensemble.

2002/2003, Images, Okka disk OD12047. The Chicago Tentet.

2002/2003, Signs, Okka disk OD12048. The Chicago Tentet.

2004, Be music, night, Okka disk OD12059. The Chicago Tentet featuring Mike Pearson. Also issued on Jazzwerkstatt JW 002.

2006, American landscapes 1, Okka disk OD12067. The Chicago Tentet.

2006, American landscapes 2, Okka disk OD12068. The Chicago Tentet.

2007, At Molde 2007 (10 years 10tet), Okka disk OD12072. The Chicago Tentet.

Appearances with US musicians

1982, Andrew Cyrille meets Brötzmann in Berlin, FMP 1000.

1984, Look at the music, Olof Bright OBCD09. Track with Butch Morris and Garrett List on compilation CD.

1986, Olu Iwa, Soul Note 121139-2. As part of Cecil Taylor Group.

1991, Songlines, FMP CD53. With Fred Hopkins and Rashied Ali.

1992, Sacred scrape/Secret response, Rastascan BRD 015. With Greg Bendian and William Parker.

1992, Hyperion, Music and Arts CD-852. Trio with Marilyn Crispell and Hamid Drake.

1993, Die like a dog; fragments of music, life and death of Albert Ayler, FMP CD64.

1994, The dried rat-dog, Okka disk OD12004. Duo with Hamid Drake.

1995, Ride into the blue, Konnex KCD 5069. With Borah Bergmann/Thomas Borgmann.

1996, Blue zoo, Konnex KCD 5074. With Borah Bergmann/Thomas Borgmann.

1996, Eight by three, Mixtery M00001. With Borah Bergmann/Anthony Braxton.

1996, The Wels concert, Okka disk OD12013. With Hamid Drake and Mahmoud Gania.

1996/1997, Exhilaration, Soul Note 121330. With Borah Bergmann/Andrew Cyrille.

1997, Little birds have fast hearts No. 1, FMP CD97. Die like a dog Quartet.

1997, Little birds have fast hearts No. 2, FMP CD101. Die like a dog Quartet.

1997, The Cooler suite, GROB 539. Borgmann/Brötzmann/Parker/Bakr.

1998, The Atlanta concert, Okka disk ODL10006. Brötzmann/Drake/Hopkins. Released as LP only.

1998, Live at The Empty Bottle, Okka disk ODL10005. Brötzmann/Drake/Kessler.

1998, From valley to valley, Eremite MTE018. Die like a dog Quartet.

1999, Aoyama crows, FMP CD118. Die like a dog Quartet.

2001?, Inside out in the open, ESP - Disk 4042. DVD by Alan Roth.

2001, Never too late but always too early: dedicated to Peter Kowald, Eremite MTE037/38. Brötzmann/Parker/Drake.

2001, Northung, in Tone CD 5. Brötzmann/Parker/Wertmüller.

2002, The ink is gone, BRÖ 3. Peter Brötzmann/Walter Perkins.

2002, Live at Spruce Street Forum, Botticelli 1015. Peter Brötzmann/Lisle Ellis/Marco Eneidi/Jackson Krall.

2002, Tales out of time, HatOLOGY 589. Peter Brötzmann/Joe McPhee/Kent Kessler/Michael Zerang.

2003, The Bishop's move, Victo cd 093. Evan Parker Trio & Peter Brötzmann Trio.

2003, No one ever works alone, Okka disk OD12053. Sonore.

2005, Live at the 'Bottle' Fest 2005, BRÖ A. Duo with Nasheet Waits.

2005, Live in Beirut, Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH CD 03. Duo with Michael Zerang.

2005, Guts, Okka disk OD12062. McPhee/Brötzmann/Kessler/Zerang.

2006, Only the devil has no dreams Jazzwerkstatt JW013. Sonore.

Last Exit

1986, Last Exit, Enemy 101.

1986, Köln, ITM 1446/Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP252CD.

1986, The noise of trouble, Enemy 103.

1986/87, Low life/Last Exit Jazzwerkstatt JW012. Reissue of duo with Bill Laswell/Last Exit's Köln.

1987, Low life, Celluloid CELL 5016. With Bill Laswell.

1987, Cassette recordings '87, Celluloid CELD 6140.

1986/87, Best Of live, Enemy EMCD 110.

1988, Iron path, Virgin 91015.

1989, Headfirst into the flames, MuWorks MUW 1013/DMG ARC 0701.

1989, Fragments, Okka Disk ODL10010. Sharrock/Brötzmann.

1990, Live at the Knitting Factory volume 4, Knitting Factory Works KFW 100.

Miscellaneous aggregations and shorter-lived groupings

1965, The inexplicable flyswatter: works on paper 1959-1964, Unheard Music Series. Includes enhanced CD with two audio tracks.

1967, For Adolphe Sax, BRÖ 1/FMP 0080. Brötzmann/Kowald/Johansson.

1967, For Adolphe Sax, UMS/ALP230CD. As BRÖ 1/FMP 0080 with extra track.

1967, Usable past, Olof Bright OBLP 1. Brötzmann/Kowald/Johansson.

1969, The living music, FMP 0100/UMS/ALP231CD. Alex von Schlippenbach group.

1971, Actions, Philips 6305 153. Don Cherry/The New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra.

1971, Actions, Intuition INT 3606-2. Don Cherry/Krzysztof Penderecki. CD issue of previous item.

1973, For example, FMP R123. Two orchestra tracks (Globe Unity and ICP-Tentet) on commemorative/compilation 3LP set.

1980, The family, FMP 0940. The 'Wuppertal Workshop Ensemble'.

1980, Brötzmann/Kellers, FMP 0800.

1982, Pica pica, FMP 1050/Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP258CD. With Albert Mangelsdorff and Günter Sommer.

1982, Sabu-Brötzmann duo, Improvised Company CD001.

1984, Berlin Djungle, FMP 1120/Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP246CD. Peter Brötzmann Clarinet Project.

1983, Trios, Incus 51. Company.

1984/1985, The Berlin Station, FMP SAJ 57. Two trios with Phil Minton and: Michel Waiswisz/Hugh Davies.

1986, Trollymog FMP 1260/FMP CD21. Duo with Peter Kowald.

1987, Go-No-Go, FMP 1150. Peter Brötzmann/Alfred 23 Harth.

1987, No material, ITM 1435. With Ginger Baker and Sonny Sharrock.

1987, Live in Okayama 1987, Improvised Company CD002. Derek Bailey/Sabu Toyozumi/Peter Brötzmann.

1988, Reserve, FMP CD17.

1989, Wie das leben so spielt, FMP CD22.

1989, In a state of undress, FMP 1250. With Willi Kellers, Manfred Schoof and Jay Oliver.

1990, Last home, Pathological PATH04. Father and son.

1991 Funny rat EGG 89002 (Cassette). Brötzmann/Hano.

1991 Funny rat Improvised Music from Japan IMJ-512. Brötzmann/Hano; one extra track from cassette release.

1991, Dare devil, DIW 857. With Haruhiko Gotsu, Tetsu Yahauchi and Shoji Hano.

1992, The März combo, FMP CD47.

1993 Vier tiere Clockwise 0010. Brötzmann/Issoh/Kawabata/Furusawa.

1994, Untitled, Blast First BFFP107. Compilation concert CD.

1995, Machine kaput, Konnex KCD 5070. With Ruf der Heimat.

1996, Evolving blush or Driving original sin, PSFD-79. Duo with Keiji Haino.

1996, Double agent(s), Locus Solus LSR 002. Charles Hayward; duo plus trio with Keiji Haino.

1996 Sprawl Trost TR 070.

1996 One night in Burmantofts Bo'Weavil Weavil 27CD. Brötzmann/Wilkinson Quartet.

1997 Stalker songs CIMP 160. With Thomas Borgmann Trio.

1997, The Wild Mans Band, Ninth World Music NWM 013.

1998 Neurotransmitter double moon Records DMCD 1006. With Achim Jaroschek.

1998, Invisible touch Cadence CJR 1099. Duo with Frode Gjerstad.

1999 Noise of wings Slask Records SLACD 019. With Peeter Uuskyla and Peter Friis Nielsen.

1999 Live at Nefertiti Ayler Records aylCD-004. With Peeter Uuskyla and Peter Friis Nielsen.

1999, Three rocks and a pine, Ninth World Music NWM 020. The Wild Mans Band + Mats Gustafsson.

1999, Fryed fruit, Red Toucan RT 9316. Yudanov/Brötzmann/Sakari.

1999 Subtle twister Konnex Records KCD5093. With Achim Jaroschek.

2000, Shadows, DIW 938. With Keiji Haino and Shoji Hano.

2000, Improvised music from Japan IMJ-10CD. Three trio tracks on this 10-CD set with Shoji Hano and Werner Lüdi.

2001 Flying feathers FMR CD91-i0402. With Peeter Uuskyla and Peter Friis Nielsen.

2001, Sharp knives cut deeper, Splasc(H) CDH 850.2. Frode Gjerstad Trio with Øyvind Storesund and Paal Nilssen-Love plus Peter Brötzmann.

2001, The darkest river, Ninth World Music NWM 027. The Wild Mans Band + Pierre Dørge.

2002, Danquah circle, Konnex KCD 5127. Trio with Dieter Manderscheid and Frank Samba.

2002, Petroglyphs, Long Arms Records CDLA 04051. Solo and with Ed Sivkov/Nick Rubanov.

2003, Soria Moria, FMR CD126-i0603. Peter Brötzmann/Frode Gjerstad.

2003, Medicina Atavistic ALP149CD. With Peeter Uuskyla and Peter Friis Nielsen.

2005, Malamute Kilogram Records 011. With Mikolaj Trzaska, Peeter Uuskyla and Peter Friis Nielsen.

2005, No hard feelings: for Steve Lacy Corbett vs. Dempsey CvsD 0009. Duo with Tom Raworth.

2006, Full blast Jazzwerkstatt JW001. Peter Brötzmann/Marino Pliakas/Michael Wertmüller.

2006, Born broke Atavistic ALP185CD. Duo with Peeter Uuskyla.

2007, Farewell, bootleg. Brötzmann/Pliakas/Wertmüller.

As sideman (!) or contributor

1967/70, Globe Unity 67 & 70, Atavistic/Unheard Music Series. Globe Unity Orchestra.

1969, European echoes, FMP 0010/UMS/ALP232CD. Manfred Schoof.

1970, Groupcomposing, ICP 006.

1973, Live in Wuppertal, FMP 0160. Globe Unity Orchestra.

1974, Hamburg '74, FMP 0650/Atavistic Unheard Music Series UMS/ALP248CD. Globe Unity Orchestra.

1976, Unlawful noise, KGB 7076. Kees Hazevoet/Haazz & Company.

1976, Unlawful noise, UMS/ALP219CD. Kees Hazevoet/Haazz & Company.

1977, In Berlin FMP SAJ-23. ICP Tentet.

1977, Tetterettet ICP 020. Instant Composers Pool Tentet.

1980, Study II/Stringer, Intakt CD095. London Jazz Composers Orchestra.

1982, Japan Japon IMA 1/ICP 024/DIW 1014. Misha Mengelberg and ICP Orchestra. Also issued on DIW 454 CD with two additional tracks.

1987/88, Hörstücke ECM 1452-54. Heiner Goebbels.

1988, Alms/Tiergarten (Spree) FMP CD 8/9. Cecil Taylor European Orchestra.

1988, Kisses, ITM 1430. With group Das Pferd.

1990, Neils & the New York street percussionists, ITM 1453.

1991, Visions & blueprints, No wave NWCD 2. With B-shops for the poor.

1992, Expo's jazz & joy, Call it anything/VeraBra 2122 2. Free jazz/hip-hop/rap.

1996, Orchester 33^1/3, pdn 006/RHIZ 000.

2002, Globe Unity 2002, Intakt CD 086. Globe Unity Orchestra.