March 06, 1941 – June 22, 2023

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Saxophonist Peter Brotzmann passed away on June 22, 2023 in Wuppertal, Germany at the age of 82.

He was born on Mar. 6, 1941, in Remscheid, Germany, and originally studied painting.

As a teenager, he saw Sidney Bechet perform and soon afterwards taught himself to play clarinet and tenor-saxophone.

Brotzmann was always most interested in free-form improvising, he developed a ferocious sound, and throughout his career, he played with the most adventurous performers including bassist Peter Kowald, guitarist Derek Bailey, saxophonists Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Ken Vandermark, and pianist Cecil Taylor.

His early albums For Adolphe Sax (1967) and Machine Gun (1968) were innovative and quite unrelenting; he led over 65 albums and appeared on scores more as a sideman or co-leader.

Brotzmann was a member of Han Bennink’s Instant Composers Pool, Last Exit (which included Bill Laswell), the Globe Unity Orchestra, his Albert Ayler-inspired Die Like A Dog Quartet, and the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet.

Although his playing never mellowed, he did record a surprising ballad album (I Surrender Dear) in 2019.

Here is a relatively brief Peter Brotzmann duet with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love from 2017 that starts out almost mellow, giving listeners a good introduction to the innovative saxophonist.

-Scott Yanow

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