March 28-April 3, 2002

musicpicks

Peter Brötzmann

Jazz

Contrary to popular complaint, free jazz comes in many shapes and sizes, some less cacophonous than others. That said, a few minutes with Peter Brötzmann are enough to send most unwary listeners into hysterics. Since his grand entrance in 1968 (with Machine Gun, on the upstart FMP label), the saxophonist has been a galvanizing force in improvised music. Having come of age in postwar Germany (he was born in Remscheid in 1941), Brötzmann honed a distinctly European take on free jazz -- an aesthetic less invested in spiritual or political concerns (à la Coltrane/Ayler/Shepp) than in cold, abrasive sound. There's no catharsis in Brötzmann's music, unless you count the adolescent thrill of transgression (his third and fourth albums were respectively titled Nipples and Balls). Yet there's a kind of genius in his best efforts, like the archival performances on Fuck de Boere, released on Atavistic's Unheard Music Series last year. As he approaches elder-statesman status, Brötzmann remains one of the avant-garde's most capacious (and, yes, capricious) personalities: In the '90s he led both the incendiary Die Like a Dog Quartet and the visionary Chicago Octet/Tentet. This week's duo performance with drummer Walter Perkins, although smaller in scale, will surely seem no less intense.

Mon., April 1, 8 p.m., $15, Tritone, 1508 South St., 215-545-0475.

—Nate Chinen

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there