BrötzFest 2011

John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler – even in their most blustering moments, the key saxmen of American free jazz struggled to match the sheer ferocity of Peter Brötzmann. From the ear-blasting onslaught of 1968's Machine Gun onwards, the German wind player has been a towering force in European jazz and improv for more than four decades now. Though he celebrated his 70th birthday earlier this year, Brötzmann hasn't mellowed one bit with age, and his dates in Tokyo this week promise to be a bracing listen. The core trio on his 'A New Decade' tour features regular foils Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, plus a different selection of guests on each night: axemen Otomo Yoshihide and Keiji Haino on day 1, guitarist Jim O'Rourke and koto player Michiyo Yagi on day 2, and horn player Akira Sakata and pianist Masahiko Sato on day 3.