In the context of the political divides of postwar Europe, reed player Peter Brötzmann's powerful, incendiary voice on his instruments resonated deeply. His self-developed technique maximizes every possibility for personal inflection on his instruments, going well past the usual limits of commonly accepted styles. In terms of volume, range, breadth of tone, vibrato, and intensity, he creates music that obliterates the rules of genre and puts the listener in new realms of discovery, vulnerability, and feeling. Brötzmann's extensive discography shows a boundary-less collaborative spirit, & his example has ignited & energized the geographic & stylistic scenes in which he has involved himself. He has appeared on well over two hundred recordings, & performed & recorded with nearly every major figure in free jazz & improvised music of the last fifty years. As a trained & recognized visual artist Brötzmann does much of his own album artwork & has a long history of producing his own records, pre-dating the do-it-yourself aesthetic of punk rock & current trends of self-production by decades." — Patrick Wolff
Former POTUS Bill Clinton called Brötzmann "one of the greatest alive." (2001 Oxford American Music Issue).
Hallwalls Music Program is made possible through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency and a grant from the Cullen Foundation.
