ANTHONY BRAXTON – For Trio (LP-1978)

Label: Arista – AB-4181

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US/Canada / Released: 1978

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded on Sept. 22, 1977 at Streeterville Sound, Chicago, IL.

Art Direction – Howard Fritzson

Artwork [Front Cover Art], Photography By [Insert Photography] – Nickie Braxton

Engineer [Recording & Mixing Engineer] – Jim Dolan

Executive-Producer – Steve Backer

Mastered By – Bob Ludwig

Producer – Michael Cuscuna

A - Version I – Composition 76 ................................................ 20:22

      Anthony Braxton – piccolo flute, flute [C flute], soprano clarinet, soprano clarinet [B♭  clarinet], contra-alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone [E♭ soprano sax], alto saxophone, contrabass saxophone, performer [Tragata], gongs, percussion, little instruments

      Henry Threadgill – flute, flute [bass flute], alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, clarinet, performer [Hub "T" Wall], gongs, percussion, little instruments

      Douglas Ewart – piccolo flute, flute, soprano clarinet, soprano clarinet [B♭ clarinet],  bass clarinet, soprano saxophone [E♭ soprano sax, B♭ soprano sax], alto saxophone, bassoon, performer [Ewartphone], Gongs, percussion, little instruments

B - Version II – Composition 76 ................................................ 20:56

      Anthony Braxton – piccolo flute, flute [C flute], soprano clarinet, soprano clarinet [B♭  clarinet], contra-alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone [E♭ soprano sax], alto saxophone, contrabass saxophone, performer [Tragata], gongs, percussion, little instruments

      Joseph Jarman – flute, clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, vibraphone, Gongs, Percussion, little instruments

      Roscoe Mitchell – piccolo flute, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, gongs, percussion, little instruments

Side A – Anthony Braxton (Middle) / Henry Threadgill (Right Channel) / Douglas Ewart (Left Channel)

Side B – Anthony Braxton (Middle) / Joseph Jarman (Right Channel) / Roscoe Mitchell (Left Channel)

Always one to try for something different, for this album Braxton organized two trios of well known avant-garde jazz musicians (he himself played in both groups) and recorded two side-long versions of the same composition, one of which has little to do with jazz, at least superficially. The piece, which is listed as "Composition 76" in the superb discography compiled by Francesco Martinelli (Bandecchi & Vivaldi Editore, 2000), is designed as a series of "routes" through a form, with agreed upon signposts along the way but with wide allowances for how the performers arrive there. These signposts include unison vocal refrains, staccato rhythmic lines and soft, sighing plaints from the horns. The extremely high caliber of the musicians which Braxton chose for this project guarantee some inspired playing and great imagination in working their way through this often forbidding territory. While admirers of his more jazz oriented work might find the music here daunting indeed, it repays careful listening and also strikes one as a seminal work that prefigures many of the concerns he would deal with later on in his collage-form structures written for his classic quartet of the '80s and '90s.

(Review by Brian Olewnick)

If you find it, buy this album!