A Bunch of Peter Brötzmann Videos: Part One
I am going to review, you guessed it, a bunch of Peter Brötzmann live videos that I watched courtesy of Youtube. Brötzmann is a German saxophonist became a core member of the first wave of European free improvisation and he is active to this day. His style is heavily influenced by Albert Ayler, which is mainly shrieky tenor sax. However, Brötzmann employs a lot more cacophony and sheer insanity from all the other instruments. On to the first reviews, which I will do in three parts.
Peter Brötzmann Quartet - Improvisation 10/17/1974 (Part 1/3)
This quartet has Brötzmann on reeds, Paul Lovens on drums, Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano, and Peter Kovald on the contrabass. This performance starts with a jolt as the bass, piano, and drums crash into each other as Brötzmann ferociously shrieks into his sax. He really knows how to make that thing wail. Peter Kovald bows his bass to make some screechy noises as well by grabbing his strings and bowing intensely. Alexander von Schlippenbach is on a grand piano and his playing is all over the place in a good way. He makes sure to blend low and high notes as sporadically as possible. Lastly, we have Lovens on a very interesting drum kit. I see the usual snare, kick, and toms, but he also has a bongo, cymbals that have been beat to hell, as well as a bunch of toys that Kovald uses to expand his kit.
After about a minute of improvisation, Brötzmann breaks into a solo that showcases his standard style. Too many notes to follow, squeaks and squeals ringing all over the place, and bam! the rest of the band joins in. Lovens is now placing pie tins on his snare and tom, which makes his drumset more clattery. Oh look at that, I see why his cymbals are all beat up now.
Another minute or so of improvisation goes by in this manner and Schlippenbach breaks into a great piano solo, similar to the style that he plays in thoughout the video. Then Kovald joins in on the fun and plays some screeches to to Schlippenbach's fluttery piano with the drums following. Loven's drumming is awesome, he's using a cymbal on top of his drum, as well as a woodblock, that's creative.
Things start to slow down, and Brötzmann joins in on the clarinet. At first Petey needs to step closer to the mic when he plays a long line of low notes, but then the squeaks come and he plays that thing like he's going to make it pay for what it did. There's some great Brötzmann/Kovald trade off on here.
The video ends kind of abruptly in this scene. These guys are mad musicians and this video has me itching to watch the next. I'll be covering it in my next journal entry. For now, here's another painting that I like. It's a Man Ray painting called Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz.
