What I meant was that within the world of free-jazz fans Brotzmann is "popular." It's all relative to the genre someone is working in. I do agree that he is doing some of his best playing recently. But hey, I like a lot of those Ramones records too. Rob Quoting Ryan Novak <ryan_novak@yahoo.com>:
------------------------------------ why should it be different for Evan Parker or Mick Jagger? Can't we just say Brotzmann is a great free-jazz stylist and his style is popular? ------------------------------------
Well, that's kind of funny to say free-jazz is popular, but in the avant-garde listening community the "newness" (which still must remain acceptable somehow though- say with lots of apparent forethought and not a bit of whimsy or humor) can count more than the quality.