Tarogato

Saturday night, with percussionist Gregg Bendian and bassist William Parker, he played a nearly model free-jazz gig: starting at absolute Mount Kilimanjaro intensity, two sets dipped and rose with the jagged topography of peaks and valleys, Brotzmann switching between tenor (his main ax), E-flat clarinet, alto sax, and tarogato (a wooden instrument about the size and shape of a soprano sax with a nasal, double-reedish sound).

With his huge, coarse tone and urgent phrasing Brotzmann sounds like he could dominate any group using anything he plays, which includes saxophones, clarinets, and the tarogato, an eastern European reed instrument.