The Germany free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann has died, The Guardian reports, citing the musician’s label, Trost Records. A cause of death was not announced. The musician was 82 years old.
Peter Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, West Germany, in 1941, and, before breaking into the jazz world in the 1960s, he was studying to be a painter. He was seen as an acolyte of Fluxus because he assisted one of the movement’s pioneers, Nam June Paik, at a Galerie Parnass exhibition in 1963. “I took part in some Fluxus activities in Amsterdam the following year,” Brötzmann recalled in a 2019 interview. “At that time my goal still was to be a painter, music was always on the side and very important, but it was not the main thing.” Paik, he said, encouraged him to pursue music.
Brötzmann released his debut album, For Adolphe Sax, in 1967 through his own label, Brö. He recorded the album, titularly dedicated to the inventor of the saxophone, with bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson. The following year, the Peter Brötzmann Octet released the landmark free jazz album Machine Gun. The record’s title came from a nickname that trumpeter Don Cherry had given Brötzmann. Revisiting Machine Gun for Pitchfork in 2017, Mark Richardson wrote:
Members of the octet—namely tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, drummer Han Bennink, and pianist Fred Van Hove—reconvened with Brötzmann the next year for his final record of the 1960s, Nipples. Over 50 years later, Jimmy Fallon featured Nipples in The Tonight Show’s “Do Not Play List” segment, which neither amused nor bothered Brötzmann. “We both know that the world is full of ignorants and stupidos, one more or less, who cares,” he said.
Throughout his career, Brötzmann released over 50 albums as a bandleader. His most recent releases, Catching Ghosts and Naked Nudes, came out this past April and March, respectively. Brötzmann also recorded with Cecil Taylor, Keiji Haino, and more, and he was beloved by former President Bill Clinton, among many others.
