Peter Broetzmann FreeJazz, Revolution and the Politics of Improvisation

<b>Explores the heroic life and revolutionary music of the pioneering German saxophonist, and the radical social and political convictions that informed them.<br></b><br><i>Peter Brötzmann</i> is the first ever, full-length, English-language biography of one of the most fascinating and inspiring personalities in the history of Western improvised music – and one of the key artistic figures to emerge from the socio-cultural tumult of the 1960s.<br><br>Drawing on extensive interviews with Brötzmann and key associates, it traces the German saxophonist’s crucial role as a pioneer of European free jazz, his restless travels and collaborations and his eventual superstardom, examining the life and work of a fiercely uncompromising artist with a reputation for gruff intensity and total commitment.<br><br>Digging deep into the history and aesthetics of free jazz in Europe and beyond, it provides detailed analysis of music by Brötzmann and other major figures, while positioning Brötzmann’s work – and the wider free jazz milieu – in the context of the revolutionary left-wing, humanist and utopian ideals that inspired and underpinned it.<br><br>Both intimate and wide-ranging, it tells the story of a man and a music that changed the world.