The Complete Machine Gun Sessions cover

The Complete Machine Gun Sessions

Released

Peter Brötzmann’s Machine Gun is his second album, but it’s such an emphatic, line-in-the-sand gesture, it feels like a debut. The horns come out blasting, but the more you listen the more you realize how structured and disciplined the music is. It owes a surprising amount to the hard-riffing blues of Illinois Jacquet, Big Jay McNeely and other bar-walking saxophonists of the 1940s. And it’s not a constant hurricane of sax-on-sax violence, either; pianist Fred Van Hove and the two bassists get plenty of spotlight time. This disc includes the album, the two alternate takes that exist, and a live version of the title track that predates the studio session.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
The Struggle Continues cover

The Struggle Continues

Dewey Redman Quartet
Spiral Mercury cover

Spiral Mercury

Chicago/São Paulo Underground, Pharoah Sanders
Offering - Live at Le Guess Who cover

Offering - Live at Le Guess Who

Moor Mother, Nicole Mitchell
Dialectic Soul cover

Dialectic Soul

Asher Gamedze
Body and Soul cover

Body and Soul

David Murray Quartet
Even Better cover

Even Better

Michael Formanek, Mary Halvorson, Tim Berne
Juan Condori cover

Juan Condori

Dino Saluzzi Group
Gratitude cover

Gratitude

Cassie Kinoshi, SEED Ensemble
Hum cover

Hum

Alain Johannes