Some 30-plus years ago, on February 17th 1988, in Munich, I went to see Jazz sensation quartet "Last Exit". The then latest brainchild of master producer Bill Laswell.
And I got the chance to talk to the guys in the band, Peter Brötzmann, Sonny Sharrock († 25. Mai 1994) and Shannon Jackson († 19. Oktober 2013) for my music tv show „off beat“ screening on Tele5 where we featured the event. Here are some exerpts.
Due to restrictions I will not show any of the recordings we did of their brilliant live performance that night. So sorry about that, but it’s too much of a hassle with this platform… Sorry also for the quality of the video. Most of these vintage recordings of my shows I only have as VHS copies and they did not age well.
Btw.: If you have recordings of „off beat“ on Tele5 do get in touch with me, we might strike a deal…
Mr Laswell is known to be no friend of interviews in front of a camera, so, sadly for me, he declined.
Peter and I had a little dispute over the description of Free Jazz - turns out, he just didn’t like that branding rather dubbing it improvising jazz. Fine with me!
I had him and his extremely talented son Caspar earlier - we got along well then, but he is known for his occasional grumpiness. He is so famous for being like that, there is a German - now official - word for it. If two people don’t get along well, some say „es brötzt nicht“. It doesn’t „brötz“… For non-Germans: A bit like it says in the bubble whenever Donald meets Daisy, just in the negative. Also used to describe a musician using his instrument in a „fat“ manor, aggressively and dominant.