Peter Brötzmann and Nasheet Waits are developing a language together, and I highly recommend that you take a listen. On their recent duo tour, Brötzmann, Waits, and Michael Ehlers of Eremite Records stopped in De Pere to play at Luna and drink some serious amounts of coffee. Actually, Waits prefers tea over coffee, but Brötzmann more than made up for him with double espresso and quadruple Americano. Most importantly, the music was moving, mesmerizing, riveting, and revelatory. And beautiful beyond words, which gave me some trepidation over asking for a ten questions. I ended up handing Peter a typed copy of the questions and asked that he mail me the answers at his convenience. Only a few days later, ten answers hand-written on Hyatt stationary arrived. Here are the ten questions followed by Peter Brötzmann’s ten answers. Enjoy.

CACP 10 Questions developed by Mark Patel of the Center for Artistic Collaboration and Performance.

1) What have you been listening to lately?
2) What is your most memorable live performance?
3) What is your most memorable concert-going experience?
4) Who is the one musician with which you would most like to play?
5) Who is your biggest non-musical influence?
6) What is your first musical memory?
7) When did you know that you wanted to be an improvising musician?
8) What is your ultimate goal as an artist?
9) If music was banned tomorrow, what would you do?
10) Can music save people, and if so, how?

1. not too much—the old stuff: Ellington, Don Byas, C. Hawkins, Rollins, Kenny Dorham+ Monk/Coltrane/Shadow Wilson/Abdul Malik—Town Hall—new release [ed. note: Carnegie Hall on Blue Note]
2. always the last one—at your coffee-shop
3. in the early 60ties in ESSEN, Germany—a revival band: Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clarke
4. I’m glad to say I play with the ones I like most—though Ornette C. would be a challenge
5. Nam June Paik, Edward Manet
6. How the fuck should I know—maybe my mother humming some childrens song
7. Friday the 13th
8. For sure I will die
9. Go into my studio and start making Molotov- Cocktails, bombs and other nice stuff [ed. note: see Joe McPhee’s Ten Answers]
10. For sure it saves me

More of Brötzmann/Waits can be heard on a limited edition tour CD on Eremite—recorded at the Empty Bottle in Chicago.