Erhard mentioned you are running a cafe in London, I'm not so well informed about 
what's going on on the island, nearly never work there, get
in touch, best regards B

This was the first email I got from Peter Brötzmann. It was in July 2009 – four months after I’d first tried to contact him via his manager at the time. It was a year since Oto first opened and we were entering this world through a funny little side door. We didn't have any of the networks or any kind of established reputation. We were only just beginning to get the word out that Oto even existed. Lots of my emails to people would go unanswered.

We started to discuss a possible residency and what came about through the exchanges that followed was that he felt his relationship with England and the UK had fizzled out and he didn’t feel very connected with the community here. What contacts he had if he met them at all he’d meet on the international circuit elsewhere.

Beside Evan I have no idea who is around on your island, can’t think 
about any I would be interested 
(forgot about Keith Tippett, question of a reasonable grand) 
And getting some of my usual comrades over to GB is a question of 
money

The London people I was suggesting he hadn’t heard of or had only heard of indirectly through other people. He was vaguely aware of Pat Thomas but hadn’t heard of Tony Marsh. I think he ultimately trusted this suggestion because of Tony’s relationship with Evan Parker. The initial idea was that Evan would also play, but we eventually established that he was otherwise engaged in France. He suggested Roland Ramanan who’d already played with the Tentet on one occasion. It’s funny to look back at those emails and see that the exchange about who would play runs right up until January when the residency took place.

That first residency really cemented the relationship firmly between Peter and Oto and the musicians that he played with here and was one of those emblematic residencies that established what Oto was, too º both in terms of the programme itself but also our hopes to facilitate new relationships between people that then have an independent life outside of the space.

In the months that immediately followed those first three nights, the options suddenly blew up and we were talking about every single possibility of what he might be able to do in the future.

Hamish, what I could imagine (for example) would be a DUO set with
Pat Thomas, liked what he did and he would have the chance to finish that grand piano. 

The Japanese players were coming up too and we talked about doing a festival with Masahiko Satoh and Takeo Moriyama. It’s funny that this is finally happening a decade later.

He’d dropped in that The Tentet would be playing Europe not with any suggestion that they’d play at Oto and I pounced on it.

Hamish,
you are crazy but it is a fascinating idea... 
For the 2011 ideas – it’s in my head (the japanese friends including Haino
and the 10tet even it’s in the clouds) 
Take care and soon......B 

The first residency of The Tentet was, of course, very memorable. It also felt to me – retrospectively – like quite an obvious ending of the group. I think what generally comes across really strongly with Peter is because there is such focus and integrity with what he’s doing, when something has run its course then it has run its course. He will be very straight forward about ending that and moving onto the next thing and you see this is over the decade of concerts here.

I still maintain (without knowing how much truth there is in it) that there is something about the naivety in which we went about things at the start of Oto. We weren’t saying here is a programme of important work that we are great authorities on, and I think there was an energy and excitement that came from learning about the music we were presenting through programming it. Of course, within the audience there are many people who have a huge experience of Brötzmann's work and had seen him numerous times, but what made it different for London (or perhaps more generally) was that there were quite a few people who were experiencing that learning together with us in real time.

One thing I like about Peter – and I see it looking again at those early emails before we'd actually met – he combines being very blunt and there being no bullshit with being incredibly warm. It relates to that totally cohesive thing about him. That all the elements aren't arbitrary: the artwork, the shoes, the belt, the cigar, how he plays and moreover how he conducts himself and relates to other people. It’s never just transactional. There is almost always in our correspondence something that doesn't relate specifically to the matter at hand – a description of where he is, a photo of the view from his hotel window, “regards to Keiko” or some little anecdote. I remember right up to the point of him coming for that first residency that there were lots of people warning me, “You do know what he’s like?” But it was nonsense. As soon as he bumbled off the Eurostar with his horns he was so warm and easy to be with.

Devon, August 2019.

Brötzmann At Cafe OTO covers a decade of performances by Peter Brötzmann at London’s Cafe Oto through photography by Dawid Laskowski and texts by John Chantler, Hamish Dunbar, Heather Leigh and Seymour Wright.

Available now via The Wire’s online bookshop.