Peter Brötzmann (b. March 6, 1941 in Remscheid, living in Wuppertal) is regarded as one of the most influential German jazz musicians. In the early 1960s, he was part of the Fluxus movement as an artist and as an assistant to Nam June Paik. Whereas in his childhood Brötzmann initially taught himself how to play the clarinet, he later devoted himself more and more to the saxophone and an increasingly free style of playing. In 1961, Brötzmann formed a trio with Peter Kowald and Dietrich Rauschtenberger, from 1965, he and Kowald performed with Sven-Åke Johansson. Together, in 1966, they were among the founding members of the Globe Unity Orchestra, which played a major role in shaping the European free-jazz tradition. Under his own label BRÖ, Brötzmann released his first LP For Adolphe Sax in 1967 and, recorded by an octet in 1968, Machine Gun, which to this day is considered to be a milestone in the history of modern jazz in Europe. In 1969, Brötzmann founded the label Free Music Production (FMP) in Berlin with Jost Gebers and others, which was primarily dedicated to the promotion of Free Jazz. At the same time Brötzmann cultivated closer contacts with the Dutch music scene and subsequently formed a trio with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove for several years.

With his innovative improvisations, Brötzmann repeatedly generated important impulses, for example when regularly performing at the Total Music Meeting or at the Berlin Jazz Days, as well as during extensive tours through the USA and Japan starting in the 1980s. In the late 1990s, Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson became the nucleus of the Chicago Tentet, which existed until 2012 and represented the Who is Who of contemporary improvised music. Throughout his career, Brötzmann has collaborated with numerous other leading lights in free music, including Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, Louis Moholo, Bill Laswell, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton and Rashied Ali. On the occasion of the exhibition A 37 90 89 – The Invention of the Neo-Avant-Garde at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Brötzmann’s performance in the historic project space A 37 90 89, where he gave a free jazz concert in 1969 with Fred Van Hove, Peter Kowald and Ivo van der Borcht, will be commemorated with a concert.

A documentation of the concert is available on DVD at n.b.k.