S/D Peter Brotzmann

this kind of music is so much better live than on record that the records, in the digital age, feel kind of sad to me. like, they existed to help generate some cash flow for the musicians who made them, and to give them something to sell at gigs, and, often & most importantly imo, to document things that had happened in the live arena which would not happen again and which represented growth-points/advances. I don't know, but I'd imagine, that when the bottom dropped out of physical sales, it really really dropped out for free jazz physical sales. but anyway if you happen to live in a town where you can see free improv often enough that it becomes familiar, that's an experience worth having -- I was in Chicago in '95/'96 seeing Vandermark & Gustafsson when he came through & others and the live experience felt like The Actual Deal and the recordings more like souvenirs.

This is otm. Especially since a lot of great 90s free jazz albums--and reissues--were CD only (I'm thinking of labels like Eremite) and remain so to this day. I'm guessing there aren't a lot of people scouring the racks for Sabir Mateen and Susie Ibarra CDs now, which is a shame.

"Souvenirs" is exactly the right word, and I've certainly bought CDs that ended up as such. I remember coming home from one of the Vision festivals with handfuls of latter-day Alan Silva and Raphe Malik CDs, and I can't say I spent a lot of time listening to any of them. On the other hand, those gigs I witnessed are burned permanently into my brain.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/broetzmann__peter/Broezmannscan02rdfin-ben.jpg

Well the Brotzmann/Haino show tonight in SF was a hell of a thing.

hey did you see any other librarians there? a librarian friend of mine was there.

he was very excited to be there and i am not a big fan of either but i was kinda jealous because it sounds like quite an experience

was it like just endless intense free skronk blowing?

Saw them together a few years ago - Haino definitely wasn't playing at his normal peak volume, and at times they were almost like a mutant version of Sonny Rollins/Jim Hall - that's to say the whole thing was jazzier than I maybe would've expected. Still plenty fierce in places of course, w/ Brotz more than holding his own.

Happy 80th to the Brotz! (Tomorrow, actually.) I wrote something.

Great piece, HB Brotz, thank you for yr huge and endlessly rewarding discography

Speaking of which I am just now getting around to this trio with Maâlem Moukhtar Gania & Hamid Drake that came out last yr and is just great

https://idischidiangelica.bandcamp.com/album/the-catch-of-a-ghost

Holy shit I didn't know that existed somehow, the WELS concert is a desert island disc for me, I'm losing it.

So...this happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_vruhZkAO4

Making fun of free jazz like it's 1965. (To be fair, it's probably one of the larger audiences Brotzmann has reached.)

Sounds like Brotz (per his exchange with Heather Leigh that she posted) doesn't really care, which isn't a big shock.

Like I mentioned on Twitter, if this same thing had happened when I was in high school and Jay Leno played a bit of "Nipples" and said it was awful, I would have hit the ground running the next morning trying to find a copy and I'm sure kids are doing the same thing today.

And for the record I hated Fallon before it was cool

I'm just surprised that Questlove sat there and chuckled along without saying anything, that dude knows Brotzmann's legacy/collabs for sure.

The jazz "jokes" would have been dated during the Steve Allen-era Tonight Show

Re: Questlove, not entire surprised as it reminds me of why Wynton Marsalis quit The Tonight Show - he got sick of having to suck up to a smarmy ass wipe like Leno. Fallon is basically Leno-lite.

*entirely

Yeah, I guess it's not his place to push back on the boss' stupid bits like that, just bugs me knowing he has a much deeper appreciation for music than that dumb skit allows for.

if this same thing had happened when I was in high school and Jay Leno played a bit of "Nipples" and said it was awful, I would have hit the ground running the next morning trying to find a copy and I'm sure kids are doing the same thing today.

I doubt very much that they are

You don't think there are weird kids these days who like dissonant music? There might not be a lot of them but I'm positive they exist.

I'm just going to guess that weird kids who like dissonant music aren't watching Fallon at all now that shit like that is easily avoided (until something like goes viral, that is).

The problem is that now social media is full of cranky middle-aged fuckers typing in all caps about HOW DARE JIMMY FALLON MAKE FUN OF THE GREAT PETER BRÖTZMANN and nothing makes a teenager/young person LESS likely to investigate something than seeing an old person rave about it.

The funny thing to me is I literally played Machine Gun for my older kid just last week. He dug it.

The problem is that now social media is full of cranky middle-aged fuckers typing in all caps about HOW DARE JIMMY FALLON MAKE FUN OF THE GREAT PETER BRÖTZMANN and nothing makes a teenager/young person LESS likely to investigate something than seeing an old person rave about it.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, September 9, 2021 3:35 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes clearly it is the jazz police who are the problem

I'm a sovereign jazz citizen and I'm placing you all under arrest

https://cdn.smehost.net/milesdaviscom-uslegacyprod/wp-content/uploads/1985/04/youreunderarrest.jpg

Brotzmann feels like a serious outlier among those 4. I suspect Questlove and Dumbass Fallon are probably both fans, testing the waters to see if they could get away with playing difficult free jazz on NBC in 2021. They've become jaded with the monotony of their depressingly bleak programming.

Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba Heyba heeba hobba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba

https://www.stereogum.com/2119421/jimmy-fallon-did-a-bit-about-a-song-by-obscure-slint-offshoot-king-kong/news/

Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba Heyba heeba hobba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba

Schwarzwaldfahrt inspired my neighbors to call the jazz police on one occasion.

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S07E07/1159090.jpg?b64lines=SSBoZWFyZCBKaW1teSBGYWxsb24gbWFkZSAKZnVuIG9mIFBldGVyIEJyw7Z0em1hbm4gYW5kIAphdGUgYWxsIHRoZSBQZXRlciBCcsO2dHptYW5uIAphbmQgdGhleSBoYWQgdG8gY2xvc2UgCnRoZSBQZXRlciBCcsO2dHptYW5uLg==

Fallon was so mean about like, literal children. What a prick. Why would you do that? The whole bit is mean-spirited and shitty.

Schwarzwaldfahrt inspired my neighbors to call the jazz police on one occasion.

was wondering when this fab record was gonna get a mention

^^^ sickest jams

The whole bit is mean-spirited and shitty.

otm, I've never watched the show beyond the occasional viral musical clip, but that is a seriously low-rent segment, just dunking on musicians. wtf. I thought his whole shtick was that he was like an inoffensive nice guy

idk, man, it's a cheap bit but then again most Fallon things kind of revel in cheap emotions (nostalgic recognition, juxtaposition, epic baconness, applause) that aren't exactly "jokes" per se.

Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba Heyba heeba hobba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba

Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba Heyba heeba hobba hooba hooba hobba
Heyba heyba heyba hooba hooba hobba

whichever boomer hipster on Fallon's staff that got King Kong and Brotzmann played is definitely responsible for getting a Mark Prindle CDR on the segment a few months back

Are boomers aware of Mark Prindle? He's in his 40s.

'The Jazz Police' was the original title for 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' iirc

Thanks ums

hooba

'The Jazz Police' was the original title for 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' iirc

Wasn't that a Cheap Trick song?

Colbert really put a lot more effort into the same kind of bit: https://www.cc.com/video/o1qorx/the-colbert-report-who-s-not-honoring-me-now-the-macarthur-foundation

Baby hooba hooba
see my little tartie
we'll be talking later we've got plans for you now

'The Jazz Police' was the original title for 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' iirc

Wasn't that a Cheap Trick song?

― birdistheword, Friday, September 10, 2021 7:31 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

It was a jazzy album Sting made after he left The Police, I was making a crap joke, sorry.

that is the one weak track on Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man" --

:-(

Facts: a statement from Peter Brötzmann about his health situation pic.twitter.com/dXYyYm7DE9

— Heather Leigh (@wishimage) March 23, 2023

man, I hope he is on the mend, this is a major dude.

Truly sucks to hear this, and hoping for the best. That one time I caught him with Keiji Haino was a hell of a night.

don't like to chime in on RIP threads usually but this one hurts. my neighbors called the cops once when i played one of his records kinda loud, i wasn't absolutely blasting it or anything. i'll never forget that.

I have mentioned it elsewhere but this record is the one that first opened me up to his work. I was 19 and just bobbing through the freeform CDs and picked it out cuz I usually liked Okka Disk stuff. among my favorite records upon first hearing it and one that has always been close.

https://peterbroetzmann.bandcamp.com/album/the-wels-concert

Yeah, I just wrote a long piece about his work with Gnawa musicians, and even got a short quote from him via email, from last month.

my neighbors called the cops once when i played one of his records kinda loud, i wasn't absolutely blasting it or anything. i'll never forget that.

Ha, I listened to No Nothing (one of his solo records, and a favorite of mine) a lot at home one summer with the windows open, and the neighbors asked my mom if I’d just taken up the saxophone and was struggling with it.

Peter Brötzmann (1941–2023)

As a tribute to the German saxophonist who has died at the age of 82, we have made David Keenan’s epic two-part 2012 interview, and Daniel Spicer’s guide to Brötzmann’s many recordings, free to read in our online library:https://t.co/RoMUBJrgqq

— The Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) June 23, 2023

Peter Brötzmann (1941–2023)

As a tribute to the German saxophonist who has died at the age of 82, we have made David Keenan’s epic two-part 2012 interview, and Daniel Spicer’s guide to Brötzmann’s many recordings, free to read in our online library:https://t.co/RoMUBJrgqq

— The Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) June 23, 2023

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/an-exceptional-human-being-tributes-to-peter-brotzmann

Slightly belated obituary in the Guardian in the course of which it's
revealed that Bill Clinton was a fan! Who knew?!?!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/11/peter-brotzmann-obituary

Also I saw Joe McPhee play last night and he talked quite movingly about Brotzmann.

"revealed that Bill Clinton was a fan! Who knew?!?!"

Lol

Somehow I remember hearing about that.