Peter Brötzmann (* 1941) is a German jazz musician and an important interpreter and designer of European free jazz. He studied art at the Werkkunstschule Wuppertal and had intensive, formative contact with visual artists, including when he was Nam June Paik's assistant in Wuppertal and Amsterdam in the early 1960s and participated in Fluxus actions. In addition to being a musician, he worked as a graphic artist, painter, designer, curator, and object artist, exhibiting his work internationally. He is considered one of the most innovative and experimental musicians, who has radically and consistently broken with traditions, his instruments were especially saxophone, clarinet and bass saxophone. He is a founding member of the Globe Unity Orchestra and ran the record label Free Musik Productions in Berlin.
Brötzmann played in numerous formations, from duos to octets. As a soloist, too, he was frequently involved in new environments and thus came into direct contact with different approaches and forms of jazz and free jazz. He was in demand internationally, performing all over the world and collaborating with musicians of different origins, but especially with us-American and Japanese jazz musicians. He played at the relevant, major jazz festivals and was co-initiator of the Total Music Meeting, which was considered a counter-event to the Jazzfest Berlin (Brötzmann became involved with the Total Music Meeting after being disinvited from the Jazzfest Berlin because he refused to perform in a suit). He has released over 100 albums since 1967 from a wide variety of band and solo projects and has received several awards for his life's work as a jazz musician.