Tracklist :
1 The Crust 6:18
2 Flim-Flam 11:04
3 3 Points 21:04
4 The Whammies! 8:03
5 Rimace Poco 8:39
6 The Gleam 10:51
Credits :
Alto Saxophone [Right Channel], Soprano Saxophone [Right Channel] – Steve Potts
Soprano Saxophone [Left Channel], Composed By [All Compositions By] – Steve Lacy
When Rif was first issued on LP in 1987, it marked the first of numerous turning points for Dutch composer and bassist Maarten Altena. The ensemble for this date came from vastly different musical worlds such as pop, theater, improvisation, and post-bop jazz, among others. This assemblage, and this term is used in the sense of visual art, was for the express purpose of looking at what could be done within the limits of the octet structure. How big could you make it without overdubbing? How much could you throw at the wall and still make it stick? How many layers could be piled on top of one another before they all collapsed? Altena decided on a set that juxtaposed fixed compositions such as the noir-ish jazz of "Boa," with the minimal melodic framework of "Rondo," which then opened onto a vast improvisational field. Harmonic ranges were articulated on charts and time frames, other than that, only a skeletal, monody (all musicians playing along the same line contributing whatever they feel is necessary) was imposed. Otherwise, there are no rules. Altena also included the compositions of bandmates, pianist Guus Janssen's and violinist Maartje ten Hoorn's in his mix along with the closing piece, "Re-Mix" (nearly a game) by classical composer Steve Maartland for dimension. Musically we cross over all genre lines, so much so that they cease to matter. What is left -- and it is plenty -- is the process of "music-making," the business of how to play together and still be true to the improvisational spirit a piece calls for. For an example of this, note the juxtaposition of the microtonal study of the ballad in "Ruis," and the conjecture that soling instruments need not have structural, timbral, or intervallic priorities in "Rif." The dynamics are radically different in each work as is their approach to restraint, but it is in the freedom of the latter that makes the discipline of the former possible. Tonality and its dissonances are only part and parcel of the individual voices that are "consonant" with one another in both pre-composed and improvised works. That consonance or, unified willingness of purpose, creates the almost limitless possibilities for tonal and harmonic exploration. The elegance and playfulness of Rif is startling, given what Altena had accomplished on his previous recordings. If anything, Rif is what firmly established him not only as a composer but also as a bandleader, as later recordings would attest.
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Tracklist :
1 Boa 5:57
Written-By – Maarten Altena
2 Rondo 7:09
Written-By – Guus Janssen
3 Ruis 6:44
Written-By – Maarten Altena
4 Rif 11:26
Written-By – Maarten Altena
5 De Yup 5:16
Written-By – Maartje Ten Hoorn
6 Marre 7:36
Written-By – Maarten Altena
7 Dek 3:52
Written-By – Maarten Altena
8 Re-Mix 4:28
Written-By – Steve Martland
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Michael Moore
Bass – Maarten Altena
Percussion – Michael Vatcher
Piano, Synthesizer – Guus Janssen
Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Peter van Bergen
Trombone – Wolter Wierbos
Trumpet, Horn [Alto] – Marc Charig
Violin – Maartje Ten Hoorn
Paul Bley's elongated career has seen him careening across the Western musical horizon in so many settings, it's almost impossible to categorize them all. This 1990 date, recorded over two days, features Bley in one of his most playful settings. With collaborators Franz Koglmann and Hans Koch, Bley places himself in three distinct settings to explore, of all things the atonality proposed by Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern early in the 20th century. However, this is hardly a "classical" recording. It comes out of the jazz idiom that so firmly roots Bley; rhythmic intent is inherent in every one of these proceedings. Perhaps this is most evident on the eight solo pieces, which are merely numbered to distinguish them from the duos and trios. On the first, moving out from Monk and Lennie Tristano, Bley feels his way through one of Webern's tone rows in syncopation, swinging it through the middle with a lengthy quote from Albert Ammons. In the fourth trio, free improvisation comes from a serialist tone row and moves through all 12 tones before undoing itself in contrapuntal elegance and modal intervals based upon Scriabin's tone poems. Koglmann's duel with Koch is refreshingly funny here, a cat and mouse game in flats and sharps. In all, this is one of Bley's most curious and intimate works, where his own musical mind is given problems -- presented by serialism and its own undoing -- and his ways of resolving them or casting them out of his vocabulary. Brilliant.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <- 
A live set featuring duets by trombonist George Lewis and the reeds of Anthony Braxton might seem as if it would be a bit tedious, but the instant communication between the two keep the music continually fascinating. Braxton (who is heard on alto, sopranino, clarinet, contrabass clarinet, flutes, and contrabass saxophone) and Lewis engage in some colorful sound explorations on their compositions on a continuous basis for 41-and-a-half minutes, showing off not only their technique but their very sharp imagination. As an encore they surprised everyone by playing an effective three-and-a-half-minute version of Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee." Listeners with open ears will enjoy this colorful set. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1 Fred's Garden / Composition 6F 18:53
2 Composition 64 / Duet 1 22:27
3 Donna Lee 3:25
Written-By – Charlie Parker
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone, Contrabass Saxophone, Clarinet, Clarinet [Soprano], Clarinet [Contrabass], Flute – Anthony Braxton
Trombone – George Lewis
Braxton first met and played with synthesizer pioneer Richard Teitelbaum in the late '60s, when both were members of the outstanding electro-acoustic improvising group Musica Elettronica Viva. Unlike most practitioners from the jazz and rock communities who tended to use the instrument like some sort of psychedelic organ, Teitelbaum was one of the first improvisers who really fleshed out its entire sonic palette, using it as a generator of hitherto unheard electronic sounds. The two have played together both in duo format and as part of larger ensembles ever since; this recording documents one such duo meeting in 1982. It appears that this session took place around the time that Teitelbaum was experimenting with interactive computer systems which would record live musicians and respond, improvise if you will, in real time. On several occasions, Braxton's alto is looped and played back into the mix, though it's difficult to tell how much, if any, alteration is done. Teitelbaum's notably deft touch itself makes it hard to determine whether it's his reaction or the computer. Whatever the technical aspects of the recording, the musical results are first rate and always warmly imaginative. his approach is refreshingly nonacademic and both musician's pure enjoyment and listening ability is readily apparent. Though there is little reference to jazz traditions, there is a lovely nod to Riley-esque minimalism in some tracks and a surging piece riding high on waves of synthesized propulsion that's as close to rock as Braxton's ever likely to come. For listeners interested in this facet of the artist's musical world (the interaction with electronics) this is a vital release, but it's also a fine example of one of the points of merger between the jazz and classical avant-garde. Brian Olewnick
Tracklist :
1 Open Aspect #3 12:43
2 Open Aspect #1.2. 7:51
3 Open Aspect #2 13:50
4 Open Aspect #4 5:33
5 Open Aspect #5 10:24
Open Aspect #6 (7:29)
6.1 Open Aspect #6.1. 2:31
6.2 Open Aspect #6.2. 2:37
6.3 Open Aspect #6.3. 2:20
7 7 Open Aspect #1.1. 15:28
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
Composed By – Anthony Braxton
Synthesizer [Moog], Computer [Micro Computer] – Richard Teitelbaum
Tracklist :
1 Composition 6 N Dedicated To Jerome Cooper / Composition 6 (O) Dedicated To Frederic Rzewski 18:18
Written-By – Anthony Braxton
2 All The Things You Are 14:12
Written-By – Jerome Kern
3 Composition 6 P I 13:46
Written-By – Anthony Braxton
4 Composition 6 P II Dedicated To Jeanne Lee 21:25
Written-By – Anthony Braxton
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
Double Bass – Dave Holland
Drums – Phillip Wilson (pistas: 1, 2)
Percussion, Marimba – Barry Altschul (pistas: 3, 4)
Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Contrabass Clarinet [Contrabasse], Soprano Clarinet, Clarinet [B-Flat], Percussion – Anthony Braxton (pistas: 3, 4)
Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Bass Clarinet, Gong, Percussion – John Stubblefield (pistas: 3, 4)
Voice – Jeanne Lee (pistas: 3, 4)
Tracklist :
1 Composition 101 16:50
Piano [Bösendorfer] – Marianne Schroeder
Soprano Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
2 Composition 139 12:27
Piano [Bösendorfer] – Marianne Schroeder
3 Composition 99 B (+ 97 C, 117 E, 117 H & 118 H) 7:42
Alto Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
Composition 107 (30:51)
4 Section A 4:19
5 Section B 4:57
6 Section C 9:03
7 Section D 7:27
8 Section E 5:05
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton (tracks: 4 to 8)
Artwork – Constant Könz
Composed By – Anthony Braxton
Piano – Marianne Schroeder (tracks: 4 to 8)
Trombone – Garrett List (tracks: 4 to 8)
In 1995 and 1996, Swiss pianist Hildegard Kleeb recorded a four-CD set
containing nine of Anthony Braxton's notated piano works composed
between 1968 and 1988, beginning with the piece that Braxton chose to
designate as his first numbered "opus": "Composition No. 1 (1968)." Art
Lange's textual commentary describes this thoughtful essay, with its
divergent intervals, as a "song." The sonata-like "Composition No. 5
(1968)" might well have been its sequel. "Composition No. 139 (1988)" is
a conventionally notated song-like cousin to the earlier works. All
three exist within Braxton's designated realm of "frozen improvisation."
These exercises in musical intuition appear to reflect the influence of
Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, even while
reflecting Braxton's own developing systems of creativity. "Composition
No. 10 (1969)," dedicated to Russian painter and theoretician Wassily
Kandinsky, uses a graphic score as a blueprint for improvisation. This
means that composer and performer collaborate in ways (and with results)
that cannot occur when every single note and dynamic directive are
written down. "Composition No. 16 for Four Pianos (1971)" was originally
improvised by the composer, and the nature of the graphic/symbolic
score allows for maximum freedom of interpretation. Kleeb's overdubbed
realization is gradual, employs silence as a structural element, and
lasts twice as long as the original. "Composition No. 33 (1974)"
introduces a horde of static nebulae. This work places unusual
responsibilities upon the interpreter, including phraseology, dynamics,
and tempi. Lange compares it with the works of Iannis Xenakis and Morton
Feldman. "Composition No. 30 (1973)" is a living embodiment of Arnold
Schoenberg's cardinal assignment: to search for the sake of searching.
The 82-page score is an expansive and freely formed catalog of ideas and
potential actions. "Composition No. 32 (1974)," resulting from a
76-page score, introduces note clusters which are generated with the
sustaining pedal held to the floor. Lange rightly compares this piece
with works by Cecil Taylor and Olivier Messiaen. The rafts of percussive
tonality are similar to those conjured by Braxton himself when he
demonstrated a thunderous keyboard technique with his Piano Quartet,
recorded live at Yoshi's Nitespot in Oakland, CA in June of 1994.
"Composition No. 31 (1974)" comes from an 85-page score dedicated to
Iannis Xenakis. Here we encounter the most charming surprise of all, as
Braxton is said to have cited Thomas "Fats" Waller as a major early
influence -- right up there with Schoenberg and Stockhausen -- as both
composer and improviser. Art Lange contributes wonderful insights as he
identifies substantial parallels between Waller and Braxton, including
"Collage Logic," "Language Forms, and "Shifting Points of Emphasis."
Precious evidence that all music is relative; that the imagination is a
non-linear, living organism that cannot be confined by critically
cramped pigeon-holing, by historical delineation,or by market-based
categorization; and that the ritual and spiritual functions, as the
composer puts it, are of paramount importance. Composer Anthony Braxton
and his interpreter Hildegard Kleeb have given the world nine piano
rituals that can and will transform anyone who enters with an open mind. arwulf arwulf
Piano Music (I)
1-1 No. 1 (1968) 10:09
1-2 No. 5 (1968) 8:07
1-3 No. 10 (1969) 5:59
1-4 No. 16 (1971) 23:49
2-1 No. 33 (1974) 21:17
2-2 No. 30 (1973) 42:23
Piano Music (II)
3-1 No. 139 (1988) 14:39
3-2 No. 32 (1974) 34:56
4-1 No. 31 (1974) Part 1 29:05
4-2 No. 31 (1974) Part 2 23:25
Credits
Composed By – Anthony Braxton
Piano – Hildegard Kleeb
Producer – Anthony Braxton, Werner X. Uehlinger
Tracklist :
1 Part I 36:47
2 Part II 34:26
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone [B♭ And E♭], Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Arranged By – Anthony Braxton
Bass – John Lindberg
Percussion, Xylophone, Gong [Gongs] – Thurman Barker
Trombone, Trombone [Alto], Instruments [Little] – Ray Anderson
Braxton released a number of solo alto saxophone albums in the wake of his extraordinary For Alto recorded in 1968, all of which are both fascinating documents in their own right as well as glimpses into the mechanisms which underlie his music. This live set from Wesleyan University in 1992 is no exception. One evolutionary difference here is that around this time Braxton began incorporating into his solo concerts a strategy he had developed during the '80s for his quartet: collage procedures. This means that, while initially playing one composition, he allowed himself the option of interpolating others as he saw fit, making for an even wider array of "sound spaces" available for exploration. Indeed, the range he covers is amazing. The disc opens with one of the emotive, touching ballads that he has written and performed since his earliest recordings but which tend to be all too easily forgotten which critics refer to him as cold or calculating. There follow works dealing with rough and fast licks, drastic intervallic leaps, repetitive structures, trills, and many, many other aspects of the horn. All are investigated with a passion and intelligence rare in contemporary music. As is his wont, Braxton includes several standards: "Charlie's Wig," a little known Charlie Parker composition; "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You"; and "Just Friends," a piece often played by Warne Marsh, one of Braxton's idols on the saxophone and one of his true spiritual ancestors. Not only are these songs given sympathetic readings, but they're also treated as fertile ground for probing discovery in ways their composers never imagined but, one thinks, would be proud of. Wesleyan (12 Altosolos) 1992 fits quite comfortably into the extraordinary series of recordings of this artist which continued to unearth entirely new and wonderfully creative "language music" for the alto saxophone. Brian Olewnick
Tracklist :
1 No 170i 4:50
2 No 106d (+170b) 6:06
3 No 170a 3:23
4 Charlie's Wig 6:54
Written-By – Charlie Parker
5 No 170c (+77d + 99f) 6:04
6 No 170f (+138c + 106g + 119d + 99d + 119f) 8:28
7 I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You 5:00
Written-By – George Bassman, Ned Washington
8 No 170g 6:59
9 No 106j (+ 106m) 4:08
10 No 170h 5:28
11 Just Friends 6:57
Written-By – John Klenner, Samuel M. Lewis
12 No 118f 7:26
Credits:
Alto Saxophone, Producer, Written-By – Anthony Braxton
In the waning days of the 1993 tour, and the soon after disbanding of his finest -- and longest standing -- band, this single concert of the seven nights played at Santa Cruz. This double CD documents with a finality just what the quartet had achieved in its eight years together. Braxton had realized within this group of musicians a goal he had previously thought unattainable: the ability to interchange any composition from any of his periods with any other -- and within each other -- in a small group setting. And given the far-reaching musical tenets each of these "sets of compositions" notated by tracks are, that is no mean feat. The first set takes the now legendary "159" and adds to it the rhythm section improvisation from "30," and the piano saxophone duet from "108a." Braxton and Crispell herald in "150," trading phrases and polytones as Dresser and Hemingway shift around trying to locate the two soloists in the framework they are playing. When they are heard and are given free passage into "30," they alight before moving each other into a counterpoint system that begs the re-entrance of Braxton and Crispell, who slip through the knots, "make it jazz," and hand it back through "108a" before Hemingway and Dresser take it out. And this goes like this throughout. Even where Braxton's designs are carried out within one composition, such as on "69f" or "161" or "172," where the new "Ghost Trances" -- pursued by a sextet after this group split -- period begins, the fluidity and harmonic languages created within the context of four musicians speaking through one another is ever present. For those who don't find Mr. Braxton's music "jazz" enough, or make it "too cerebral" in theory, the fact of the matter is, you're not listening. Find your way through Crispell's interaction with Dresser on "161" or Hemingway's with Braxton's flute on "40 (o)," and you will hear, in keeping with both the linear nature of jazz since the '60s and its more design-oriented functionality since the '80s -- which Braxton ushered in almost single-handedly for other improvisers -- the abstractions are obscured by the lyrical interplay coming from the bandstand. This is music projected from inside out toward an audience that doesn't have to think so much as emote what they hear. Braxton's systems are large and varied; the sheer psychic and physical energy the band has to endure in order to play this music is almost unimaginable. To listen and think this quickly is not mere communication -- it is telepathy. This is the quartet's farewell, and it is more than fitting; it's astonishing what they achieved in eight years. On the second CD's closer, "124+108c+147," you hear Crispell slinking through Hemingway's rimshots on "124" to solo with him as Braxton repeats a phrase that Dresser harmonically echoes in a trancelike fashion before exploding into "108c," where Braxton takes the lead and Crispell is shouting out long lines and tonal clusters to Hemingway like she's another drummer. Dresser takes these fragments and creates a series of chords for Braxton to improvise on the soprano before heading wildly into "147," one of this band's signature pieces. Here, all four members are given the opportunity to take the theme and deconstruct any or all of its parts within the safety of Braxton's harmonic system of improvisational intervals. That they all come near to each other before stopping on a dime should be no surprise -- though it does leave one breathless -- given the preceding wonder of the entire set. What a fitting finish for a truly legendary band.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1-1 Comp. 159 + (30 + 108a) / Comp. 40(o) / Comp. 69f / Comp. 173 / Comp. 69(o) / Comp. 52 1:16:06
2-1 Comp. 172 / Comp. 161 / Comp. 69m / Comp. 23c / Comp. 124 + (108c + 147)
Credits :
Bass – Mark Dresser
Composed By – Anthony Braxton
Percussion, Marimba – Gerry Hemingway
Piano – Marilyn Crispell
This mammoth document of the final year of the famous Anthony Braxton Quartet shows exactly why that group finally split: They had reached a creative apex as a group that -- arguably -- could not be furthered. The music on this collection features two live CDs and two studio CDs, and gives a completely different picture of the same band who recorded for Black Saint on the Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984 record.
The concert reveals the quartet able to execute any notion from Braxton's theoretical yet soulful music, almost instinctually. As the compositions get stacked up, such as "No. 67+147+96," it means that some element of each of those compositions enters into the playing of this piece, whether it be in Marilyn Crispell's piano solo or line, Mark Dresser's bassline or changes, or a particular shift in rhythm from drummer Gerry Hemingway. The empathy of the players saturates Braxton's music, and he appears, giant that he is, not so much as a soloist on his many saxophones and clarinets, but as another player in a band that spoke with multi-lingual possibilities, but with one voice. The interplay between Braxton and Crispell has reached a point in their relationship where, technically speaking, he is well aware that she is his equal as a technician of the sacred that is sound. His solos on "No. 34A," "No. 23G (+147+30)," and "107B (+96)" are evidence. Crispell's momentum to strike at the space inside the group improvisation is also to turn it ever inward to focus on how these micro and polytonal shifts, when combined with the overdriven yet ultimately sympathetic washes of percussion from Hemingway and Dresser's constant pulse as it sifts through changes, are, in effect, realizing the chameleon-like place of harmony better than Braxton himself could ever articulate. This group is all lightning and fire; there is no hesitation, nor is there any room for it. They challenge each other and their leader to the breaking point, and somehow ride the wave into yet another new territory, where the process begins again. The studio discs in this collection show another side of the band. Here, dynamic and harmonic possibility are the concern of Braxton -- each note is played, at least in the opening lines, and is carefully nuanced as if it were finding its own place in space. There is a freedom for the composer to seek out color and dexterity, texture and surface, as the band is all about making it anyway. They know what's needed in a composition such as "No. 160 (+5) 40J," where Crispell adds a piano solo that quotes the harmonic structure of "No. 5," and, along with Dresser, flows through his gorgeous bowed cello solo from "No. 40J" through the middle section, where Braxton and Crispell bring the proceedings back. In each new Braxton composition, the players are welcome to quote from earlier material in the catalog, find the interval it best fits, and explore it in this new context, thereby making a rich intertextuality whereby the current composition is extended dynamically and musically. Also on this studio session, which was recorded over two days, Braxton himself is looser, picking compositions that seldom are touched live in order to be finessed in the studio -- usually it's the other way around, but his exploration of shape, polytonality, and rhythmic architecture is relentless. Listen to "No. 67" (dedicated to the actress Bette Davis) to hear one of Braxton's "sound environment spirals." Here, material -- created by all four members of the quartet and variants thereof -- explore repetition as a "physical" material and a vibrational factor in the creation of further sonorous material. First they play repeated phrases until near exhaustion sets in (Philip Glass has nothing on this band), and then are offered numerous options for changing tempo and shape (Hemingway has a real party with this, trying to dodge his bandmates, but never quite succeeding). The result? What does it mean? Simple: No person can play the same phrase over and over and the same way without that eventual variation. Eventually, variation becomes the sole M.O., and each player drifts further apart from the rest until they become unstuck completely. Once in free space, the swirling flutes, cascading piano lines, and dense thick intervallic chords humming bass harmonics, as well as flutes, call the entire thing further out on a star until Braxton re-enters with the alto to call the exploration to order. He locks horns with Crispell, and then launches into "No. 140 (+147+139+135)." And so it goes. Braxton's quartet was easily the most creative band he played with, and his longest running. Since that time, in duet and solo performance, he has found the fire he needs to continue exploring the musical ground his mind conjures up on composition paper. But he has been lost in band settings. Since 1994 he has not found a group that has, member for member, this much musical talent or empathetic dexterity. With this band, he never had to assert himself as a leader because they could instinctively follow his cues. Since that time, he has had to assert himself more and more. And while the music he's writing has every bit of the wonder, awe, and irritation of his earlier work, it has never been played with this virtuosity. This set is a worthy companion to the Leo Records "Coventry Concerts" series. What a swan song.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Studio (June 4 & 5, 1991)
1-1 No. 160 (+ 5) + 40J 11:26
1-2 No. 23M (+ 10) 15:03
1-3 No. 158 (+ 96) + 40L 17:04
1-4 No. 40A 8:24
1-5 No. 40B 12:13
2-1 No. 161 5:55
2-2 No. 159 12:47
2-3 No. 23C + 32 + 105B (+ 30) 23:48
2-4 No. 23M (+ 10) 10:28
2-5 No. 40M 12:03
Concert Live (June 2, 1991) - No. 67 (+ 147 + 96) / No. 140 (+ 147 + 139 + 135) / No. 34A / No. 20 + 86 / No. 23G (+ 147 + 30)
3-1a Untitled 13:22
3-1b Untitled 16:03
3-1c Untitled 17:28
3-1d Untitled 13:29
3-1e Untitled 11:35 
Avant-garde altoist John Zorn teams up with trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Bill Frisell to form a unique trio. Without the benefit of piano, bass, or drums, they interpret the hard bop compositions of Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, and Freddie Redd, generally not even the better-known ones. The performances are quite concise (Dorham's "Windmill" is covered in 40 seconds), respectful to the melodies, and unpredictable. There are hints of the avant-garde here and there, but also plenty of swinging, bop-oriented solos and coherent ensembles. Very intriguing music that is highly recommended to a wide audience of jazz and general listeners. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1 K.D.'s Motion 3'32
Kenny Dorham
2 Funk in Deep Freeze 4'31
Hank Mobley
3 Melanie 4'07
Freddie Redd
4 Melody for C 4'26
Sonny Clark
5 Lotus Blossom 4'08
Sam Coslow / Arthur Johnston
6 Eastern Incident 4'04
Sonny Clark
7 Peckin' Time 3'13
Hank Mobley
8 Blues, Blues, Blues 4'17
Freddie Redd
9 Blue Minor I 3'43
Sonny Clark
10 This I Dig of You 3'13
Hank Mobley
11 Venita's Dance 3'23
Kenny Dorham
12 News for Lulu 4'07
Sonny Clark
13 Olé 3'47
Freddie Redd
14 Sonny's Crib 5'22
Sonny Clark
15 Hank's Other Tune 3'52
Hank Mobley
16 Blue Minor II 3'26
Sonny Clark
17 Windmill 0'40
Kenny Dorham
18 News for Lulu 4'19
Sonny Clark
19 Funk in Deep Freeze 3'29
Hank Mobley
20 Windmill 1'03
Kenny Dorham
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Liner Notes – John Zorn
Arranged By – Frisell, Lewis, Zorn
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Trombone – George Lewis
This is the second of two CDs featuring the unusual trio of altoist John Zorn, trombonist George Lewis, and guitarist Bill Frisell. Recorded live in concert, the group interprets fresh renditions of hard bop oriented pieces by Sonny Clark, Hank Mobley, Big John Patton, Kenny Dorham, and Freddie Redd, in addition to one selection from Misha Mengelberg. The music swings in its own fashion and, although it tugs at the boundaries of the bop tradition, it mostly stays within its borders. Bill Frisell, operating as the entire rhythm section, is a wonder as usual. Recommended, as is the first volume News for Lulu. Scott Yanow
Paris
1 Blue Minor I 6'04
Written-By – Sonny Clark
2 Hank's Other Tune 6'21
Written-By – Hank Mobley
3 News For Lulu 5'26
Written-By – Sonny Clark
4 Gare Guillemins 3'47
Written-By – Misha Mengelberg
5 Minor Swing 5'40
Written-By – John Patton
6 KD's Motion / Windmill 5'02
Written-By – Kenny Dorham
7 Funk In Deep Freeze 4'36
Written-By – Hank Mobley
Basel
8 Eastern Incident 5'58
Written-By – Sonny Clark
9 Lotus Blossom 4'15
Written-By – Kenny Dorham
10 Melanie 6'40
Written-By – Freddie Redd
11 Olé 5'01
Written-By – Freddie Redd
12 Blue Minor II 5'04
Written-By – Sonny Clark
13 Peckin' Time 3'29
Written-By – Hank Mobley
14 Blues, Blues, Blues 4'42
Written-By – Freddie Redd
15 Melody For C 5'46
Written-By – Sonny Clark
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Liner Notes – John Zorn
Arranged By – Frisell, Lewis, Zorn
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Trombone – George Lewis
Originally released as a double-LP and then reissued as a single CD, this continuous 71-minute live performance from 1980 features pianist Cecil Taylor with a particularly intriguing sextet comprised of his longtime altoist Jimmy Lyons, violinist Ramsey Ameen, Alan Silva on bass and cello and both Jerome Cooper and Sunny Murray on drums. Not too surprisingly, the playing is quite intense and dense with only a few moments of lyricism popping through. Taylor sounds very much like a human dynamo while Lyons' solos are full of fragile beauty. This is brilliant music that will not sound "safe" or "easy listening" even a century from now. by Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1 It Is in the Brewing Luminous 1 09:59
Cecil Taylor
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Jimmy Lyons
Bass, Cello – Alan Silva
Drums – Sunny Murray
Drums, Balafon [African Balaphone] – Jerome Cooper
Piano – Cecil Taylor
Violin – Ramsey Ameen
One of the greatest slide guitarists of the early blues era, and a man with an odd fascination with the kazoo, Tampa Red also fancied himsel...
