I knew that quartet existed, but had actually never heard their records - probably because there are so many great European Brötzmann collaborations which are closer to my listening habits.
Having been (in what today feels like a former life) a jazz critic and later-on a jazz concert manager, I looked up what I wrote in 1984 about another Brötzmann quartet with Keith Tippett (p), Johannes Bauer (tb), and Willi Kellers (dr):
One of my eldest memories in connection with Peter Brötzmann - apart from his duos with Han Bennink - is a nasty comment from Michael Naura judging the Wuppertal school of jazz as boring, the musicians forgetting about their roots, citing Peter Brötzmann as not being able to play the blues.
That is certainly not the case. To the contrary, Brötzmann seemed to have eaten the tradition for dinner and letting it out with every note of the evening.
...
It was a great concert, despite the small venue and only a handful of listeners, but I do admit to the "Last Exit" collaboration being way bluesier - quite likely due to the higher percentage of African-American tradition in the personae involved.
