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| Peter Brötzmann. Photo (c) Cristina Marx. |
The final day of our tribute to saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. See day one
here
and day two here.
Peter Brotzmann/Paal Nilssen-Love Sweetsweat (Smalltown Superjazz, 2008)
As a listener, as someone with deep love for free jazz and improvisation, I owe
a lot to Peter Brotzmann and his recordings. In fact I have been a fan of his
music for a long time and as an avid collector of physical objects, I came to
own a lot of his stuff. To cut a long story short, since a respectable amount
of words has been written and published about his work, I realized over the
years that apart from his well deserved place in European free jazz and
improvisation, two aspects of his choices stand out for me.
First that, even someone like him with an almost mythical status he was really
open to work, play and interact with much younger musicians. Secondly, that he
was much better (or, at least, this is how I enjoyed his music) in small
groupings, especially duos and trios. Combining the aforementioned two
(leaving outside the legendary duo with Han Bennink), I choose his later
period duo with Norwegian drummer/percussionist, one of the best around, Paal
Nilssen-Love. I was lucky to catch them live in 2013 and their sound still
resonates in my mind.
In this release, a live recording from 2006, their first together if I’m not
wrong, Brotz breaks almost every rule that has to do with the authority of the
“big name” or the “soloist” in jazz tradition. Even though his playing is
fierce, aggressive and full of energy, as always, he is deeply involved in
listening his fellow player-traveler (remember that he always was a soldier of
the road), leaving so much room for Nilssen-Love to present his spectrum of
ideas in free jazz drumming. Recorded by another great, Frode Gjerstad, the
listener gets to feel, clocking in more than an hour, the pathos of the duo,
their relentless attack on their instruments. I came to love the tarogato
through Brotz’s playing and he clearly transformed it from a Hungarian folk
instrument into a woodwind to channel energy into the air.
I believe that it is very difficult, even impossible to reinvent yourself
artistically. Peter Brotzmann achieved that –a measure of openness and
greatness- making the Brotzmann/Love sax and drums duo one of the most
important in free jazz. The music lives forever.
Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang — The Damage is
Done (Not Two, 2009)
Kessler on double-bass, and Zerang on drums. The formation played over several
years and had recorded two previous albums:
Tales Out of Time
(hatOLOGY, 2004) and Guts (Okka Disk, 2006). (Part of their performance
at Montreuil, France in 2009 is also featured in the
Soldier of the Road
Brötzmann documentary (Bernard Josse, 2011)). This 2-CD album consists of two
sets in their entirety recorded in the up-close confines of the Alchemia club,
Krakow, in 2008.
The band might be considered another subset of the Chicago Tentet, yet like
all the groups in which Brötzmann featured it has its own personality, a
meeting of voices that produces a distinctive blend. The album is also further
evidence of McPhee’s remarkably versatile musical temperament, a facility to
attune himself to any surroundings and both fit in and stand out. Here, he
underscores, matches, and challenges Brötzmann in an at times intoxicating
rapport. This can be heard on the opening title track, a lengthy sojourn where
for periods it sounds as if they’re locked in combat during a succession of
fiery statements and rejoinders. Elsewhere, they share tranquil reflections,
and the piece builds to its conclusion with a merger of quivering saxophones,
rapidly bowed bass, and totemic drums. In contrast, ‘Alchemia Souls” is a
colourful bricolage in the process of construction, ultimately transformed
into rough-hewn refrains.
The names of the four pieces that make up the second set form a longer
description, ‘A Temporary Trip / With Charon / On The Acheron / Into The
Hades’, illustrated in Brötzmann’s cover artwork. The reference to Greek
mythology is retrospective yet there is a sense of a journey of sorts, if not
along a river to the underworld then through waters whose currents move
between calm and turbulent. Throughout, there’s an astonishing level of
intuitive intelligence. All four musicians are able to grasp even small
changes in direction and adjust the balance of the narrative flow. We proceed
from spare, tentative phrases and Zerang’s roiling percussion, through blaring
horns over Arabic beats, then plaintive mourning, and a gradual descent into
the maelstrom where wild proclamations ring out. Hades itself is a place of
anguish, but despair eventually turns to bitter resolution and a suggestion of
hope as Brötzmann announces one of his dignified, touchstone melodies; joined
by McPhee they both rise before fading into silence.
Brötzmann’s music embraced lofty ideas, unrepentant in their scale. Alone or
with his collaborators he gave voice to the exultation and loss in our lives,
and for that we should be grateful.
The quartet from Instants Chavirés in 2009:
Brötzmann , Adasiewicz, Edwards, Noble – Mental Shake (Otoroku,
2014)
I saw Brötzmann perform with vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz at the 2011 Vision
Festival and was blown away. I had never heard such a combination before and
the buoyant textures of the vibraphone and intensity of the saxophone left a
lasting impression. On Mental Shake, a recording from London’s Cafe OTO, free
jazz stalwarts bassist John Edwards and percussionist Steve Noble add robust
support to Broetzmann and Adasiewicz’s sound. In this first time meeting, Noble and Edwards’ support is infallible, their contribution on equal footing
with the other two and allows the vibraphone to become even more of a harmonic
element and for the saxophone to travel even farther afield. Presented as one
long improvisation across both sides of the LP, the music waxes and wanes with
unexpected melodiousness and breathtaking intensity.
Ears Are Filled With Wonder – Peter Brötzmann & Heather Leigh
context for him to explore some very exciting new timbres and tones
in extended improvisations. There are long stretches where I felt,
giddily, that I had absolutely no idea where they would go next.
In retrospect, there are indications Brötzmann was maybe not able
to hold notes as long or roar as gutturally as before. It’s hard
to know what’s there and what’s being imposed. What’s beyond a
doubt is the albums Brötzmann recorded with Leigh (including a
recent trio with Lonberg-Holm) are riveting; they capture
Brötzmann in fine form, with as many fresh ideas as when he first
arrived on the scene, nearly 60 years ago. Rest well, maestro.
Peter Brötzmann – I Surrender Dear (Trost, 2019)
great love for jazz standards. But Brötzmann did not attempt to
surrender to straight-ahead improvisations on iconic chord changes, and
obviously, he rarely sounds sentimental or nostalgic, or, in his words,
was playing “nice music for the people”, still, he sounds intensely
emotional and surprisingly peaceful and compassionate. This album
captures his complex and wise perspective of jazz and blues legacy and
jazz as a living tradition. Jazz for him was an art that can not be
codified into strict principles but a revolutionary art that keeps
questioning the past and the present, challenging and subverting simple
convictions. Brötzmann’s playing in recent years gravitated into
lyricism and he often said that he likes to play ballads. Needless to
say, his own kind of ballads, sober, painful and thoughtful ballads, and
he always was investigating and struggled with the melodic themes of
these angry, melancholic ballads with his tough, uncompromising voice.
Even when he plays standards like “Lady Sings The Blues” or “Lover Come
Back To Me” (sticking only to the tenor sax), it is still free music
(Brötzmann never liked the term free jazz). But freedom for Brötzmann
was always about the attitude, the same attitude that inspired Louis
Armstrong, Art Blakey, or Don Cherry, and not an academic theory. And
Brötzmann’s reflections on these standards (and one theme of J.S. Bach
tell a lot of intimate, sincere and tender stories
Catching Ghosts Brötzmann / Bekkas / Drake (2023)
Catching Ghosts is, I think, the last non-posthumous album of his to have ever been released and it showcases yet another adventure into unknown lands for him to embark in, accompanied by Hamid Drake’s expert and always tasteful drumming and Majid Bekkas’ soaring vocals and guembri, a beautiful West African instrument whose sound is somewhere in between a double bass and an oud, rhythmic and melodic at the same time, its interplay with the drums the highlight of the album.
Read the full review of Catching Ghosts.
