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)

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WILDFLOWERS 1 – The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Douglas / LP1-1977)

Label: Douglas – NBLP 7045

Series: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions – 1

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded May 14 thru May 23, 1976 at Studio Rivbea, 24 Bond Street, New York.

Engineer [Assistant] – Les Kahn

Engineer [Chief] – Ron Saint Germain

Engineer [Remote Assistant] – Matt Murray

Executive-producer – Harley I. Lewin

Liner Notes – Ross Firestone

Mastered By – Ray Janos

Photography By – Peter Harron

Producer – Alan Douglas, Michael Cuscuna, Sam Rivers

A1 - Kalaparusha – Jays ...................................................................................... 6:00

        Bass, Electric Bass – Chris White

        Drums – Jumma Santos

        Tenor Saxophone – Kalaparusha (Maurice McIntyre)

A2 - Ken McIntyre – New Times .......................................................................... 7:25

        Alto Saxophone – Ken McIntyre (Makanda)

        Congas – Andy Vega

        Percussion [Multiple] – Andrei Strobert

        Piano – Richard Harper

A3 - Sunny Murray & The Untouchable Factor – Over The Rainbow ................. 5:30

        Alto Saxophone – Byard Lancaster

        Bass – Fred Hopkins

        Drums – Sunny Murray

        Tenor Saxophone – David Murray

        Vibraphone – Khan Jamal

B1 - Sam Rivers – Rainbows ............................................................................. 10:00

        Bass – Jerome Hunter

        Drums – Jerry Griffin

        Soprano Saxophone – Sam Rivers

B2 - Air – Usu Dance ............................................................................................ 7:45

        Alto Saxophone – Henry Threadgill

        Bass – Fred Hopkins 
         Drums, Percussion – Steve McCall

In the mid-1970s, a jazz renaissance blossomed in large New York loft spaces that the musicians had reclaimed from the depressed blocks of the trendy Soho and Noho areas. The Wildflowers sessions, originally released on Douglas on five LPs, captured performances by almost 100 musicians in numerous configurations. The recordings were made over two weekends at the most famed of the lofts, Studio Rivbea, the home and workspace of saxophonist-flutist-composer Sam Rivers and his wife, Beatrice. Rivers orchestrated the lineup, played host to patrons, and performed as well. The sessions featured many figures well-established in New York, including Rivers, drummer Andrew Cyrille, and pianist Randy Weston, but they also attracted players from the seedbed of so much African American aesthetic jazz exploration in the 1960s and '70s, Chicago.

In addition, Rivers invited to town some key players from Philadelphia and New Haven; there were several newcomers to New York, too, including, from out West, a very young David Murray. The music all had immediacy and urgency fitting to the aesthetic task at hand--to consolidate the gains of the free-jazz and New Thing movements of the 1960s. Indeed, many of the players remain key figures today in that project: Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, and Leo Smith among them. In addition to their performances, highlights of the package include Rivers's radiant meandering over his composition "Rainbow"; pianist Weston's impassioned homage to his father; and performances by important, but often under-recognized innovators, including saxophonist Ken McIntyre and pianist Dave Burrell. Here is a seminal document in American music...

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ROSCOE MITCHELL – L-R-G / The Maze / S II Examples (2LP-1978)

Label: Nessa Records – N-14/15

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1978

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

A/B - "L-R-G" recorded August 7, 1978, at Van Gelder Recording Studio.

C - "The Maze" recorded July 27, 1978, at Columbia Studios.

D - "S II Examples" recorded August 17, 1978, at Streetville Studios.

Artwork – Arnold A. Martin

Composed By – Roscoe Mitchell

Photography By – Ann Nessa

Producer – Chuck Nessa

A  -  L-R-G (Part One) .......... 18:49

B  -  L-R-G (Part Two) .......... 17:40

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Piccolo Flute, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Bass Saxophone

LEO SMITH – Trumpet, Trumpet [Pocket Trumpet], Flugelhorn

GEORGE LEWIS – Tuba [Wagner Tuba], Sousaphone, Trombone [Alto], Trombone [Tenor]

(Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder)

C  -  The Maze ..........20:40

JOSEPH JARMAN – Bells, Xylophone [Balafon], Horns [Bike Horns, Conch Shell], Cymbal [Cymbal, Chinese, Cymbal Rack], Congas [Drums], Bells [Hand Bells], Drums, Gong, Marimba, Percussion [Tom Tom], Vibraphone, Gong [Temple Gong]

ANTHONY BRAXTON – Drums [Bass, Snare], Cymbal, Glockenspiel, Percussion [Garbage Can Machine, Sloshing Can Machine, Wash Tub], Marimba [Marimba, Marimba Can Machine], Bells [Orchestra Bells], Xylophone

MALACHI FAVORS – Drums [Log Drum], Gong, Xylophone [Balafon], Percussion [Cans], Bells [Hand Bells], Shaker, Horns [Seal Horn], Tambourine, Gong [Temple Gong], Zither

THURMAN BARKER – Drums, Cowbell, Congas [Conga Drum], Gong, Glockenspiel, Bells [Hand Bells], Marimba, Slapstick, Triangle, Whistle

DON MOYE – Drums, Xylophone [Balafon], Cowbell, Congas [Drums], Cymbal [Cymbal Rack], Gong [Gong, Temple Gong], Bells [Hand Bells], Horns [Little Horns], Marimba, Triangle, Percussion [Wood Blocks]

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Glockenspiel [Buggle], Horns [Bicycle], Xylophone [Balafon], Cowbell [Cowbells, Swiss Cowbells, Swinging Swiss Cowbells], Cymbal [Cymbal, Finger Cymbal, Tuned Cymbals, Zizzle Cymbals], Congas [Drum], Percussion [Cycle Sprocket, Dinner Chimes, Frying Pans, Thunder Sheet, Temple Blocks, Wood Blocks, Wood Desk], Gong, Bells [Dome Bell, Hanging Bell, Large Swinging Bell, Swinging Bells], Horns [Press Horn], Triangle

HENRY THREADGILL – Gong [Gong, Cymbal Gongs], Cymbal [Finger Cymbal], Percussion [Garbage Can Bottoms, Hubkaphone, Rhythm Sticks], Bells [Hand Bells], Brass [Plumbing Brass], Dulcimer

DOUGLAS EWART – Percussion [Bamboo Table], Cymbal [Cymbal, Zizzle Cymbal], Cowbell [Cowbells, Wooden], Glockenspiel [Large, Small], Bells [Door Bell, Hanging Bells, Little Bells, Winding Bell], Gong, Marimba, Xylophone [Metal]

(Engineer – Don Puluse)

D  -  S II Examples .......... 17:15

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Soprano Saxophone

(Engineer – Mark Rubenstein)

Roscoe Mitchell is mostly, and rightly, reckoned with his work as a leading member of the hardscrabble, meta-instrumental, and enormously influential avant-garde jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago. However, Mitchell also owns a considerable stake in composed music of a kind considerable as classical, which makes use of written materials to drive determinate kinds of improvisation, or even some non-improvised interpretation in the conventional sense. Mitchell's serious work in so-called "serious music" was recognized at the academic level in 2007, when Mitchell was named to the Darius Milhaud Chair of composition at Mills College in Oakland, and many writers date Mitchell's shift of focus to the 1990s when he began to work with such non-jazz, creative musicians as classically trained vocalist Thomas Buckner. However, for Mitchell, contact with classical music disciplines goes back to his very early days as a student in Germany. Nessa's LP Roscoe Mitchell/L-R-G, The Maze, S II Examples documents a period in 1978, when Mitchell was beginning to work on his composed strategies with usual suspect figures from the jazz world, some from the Art Ensemble itself.

In 1978, Michigan-based indie Nessa Records had almost exclusive access to Mitchell and his associates, as the Art Ensemble of Chicago had barely begun its association with ECM -- the first fruits of which did not appear until 1979 -- and the group was reaching the end of a five-year hiatus that also witnessed the collapse of some of the labels it recorded for. The Maze brings the entire Art Ensemble membership, minus Lester Bowie, and other free jazz luminaries such as Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill, to serve as percussionists. Rather than being a rattletrap barrage of percussion as one might expect, The Maze is a carefully controlled polyphonic texture of percussion sounds that is mostly vertical and moves forward in a deliberate progression. The quality of the sound in this 1978 recording is astounding, made at the 30th Street Studio belonging to CBS Records. L-R-G (i.e., "L"eo Smith, "R"oscoe Mitchell, and "G"eorge Lewis), brings this high-powered trio of improvisers into contact with an orchestra's wealth of instruments, divided by range and type: woodwinds for Mitchell, high and low brass, respectively, for Smith and Lewis. Like The Maze, this is a slowly forward-evolving catalog of special sounds; however, in this case the sounds are specific to the players involved. S II Examples, likewise, began as a trio for soprano saxophones for Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and Anthony Braxton, but Mitchell realized his curved soprano provided him with some additional flexibility that the straight saxes favored and the others did not. So he decided to record it as a solo piece, and it is an extraordinary one; Mitchell's microcosmic understanding of gradations of tone is virtually encyclopedic, and the amount of wiggle room he has between two half steps is such that when he plays three or four "regular" notes by way of transition, it's an event.

In a superficial sense, Nessa's LP Roscoe Mitchell/L-R-G, The Maze, S II Examples does not represent a radical departure from Mitchell's work as a jazz musician, as does, say, Skies of America does for Ornette Coleman; those who follow Mitchell's work in jazz will well recognize him in comfortable voice here. Nevertheless, for listeners attuned to contemporary art music coming to Roscoe Mitchell with little or no knowledge of his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago should likewise easily understand how his rigorous approach in organizing improvised elements fits in with the rest of the classical avant-garde. Beyond that, Nessa's vinyl Roscoe Mitchell/L-R-G, The Maze, S II Examples is a splendidly recorded, and inasmuch as Roscoe Mitchell as classical composer is concerned, this is very close to where it truly starts.

Review by Uncle Dave Lewis

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ROSCOE MITCHELL – Nonaah (2LP-1977)

Label: Nessa Records – N-9/10
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A and B1, B2 recorded live on 23 August 1976 in Willisau, Switzerland (solo concert).
B3, C1 recorded on 17 January 1977 in Chicago, IL.
B4, D1 recorded on 22 February 1977 in Chicago, IL.
C2 recorded live on 15 January 1977 at Mapenzi, Berkeley, CA (solo concert).
D2 recorded on 22 January 1977 in Chicago, IL.

Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Roscoe Mitchell
Design – Arnold A. Martin
Liner Notes – Chuck Nessa, Terry Martin
Photography By [Cover] – Roberto Masotti
Producer – Chuck Nessa
Recorded By [Berkeley] – Roscoe Mitchell
Recorded By [Chicago] – Stu Black
Recorded By [Willisau] – Walter Troxler

"Nonaah is extraordinarily confrontational music--it presents instrument, composer and materials in a profoundly naked light. Perhaps more important than opening up one's preconceptions about the saxophone, it also complicates the AACM aesthetic."

One of the significant things that set AACM music apart from its brethren in New York in the 1960s and early 1970s was its use of space, of opening up the music so that things could occur within broad, environmental relationships. That sense of space was very important. In an entirely different take on "energy" music, the challenge of discerning what could be perceived as multiple, self-contained orbits was uniquely gratifying. To listeners weaned on the intervallic leaps of reed player Eric Dolphy and the ringing "wrong" notes of pianist Thelonious Monk, and the areas of quietude and vastness made perfect sense in the early music of reed players Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton.

On first hearing, Mitchell's Nonaah turns the perceived spaciousness of AACM-music on its end. Gone are the silences punctuated by little instruments or brief, anguished saxophone squalls that seemed to recoil as quickly as they appeared. Nonaah was something else entirely, an exorcism of the alto saxophone as much as putting the instrument through its paces. Released in 1977 on Nessa Records as part of a continual and tireless documentation of the music of the AACM, starting with Lester Bowie's Numbers 1 & 2 (Nessa, 1967), Nonaah consisted of a double vinyl set including solo alto saxophone, a saxophone quartet, duos with saxophonist Anthony Braxton and bassist Malachi Favors, and a trio with pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and trombonist George Lewis.

"Nonaah" itself is represented in both solo and quartet versions. The solo, which opens disc one, comes from a 1976 Wilisau concert, and lasts just over a half hour (including eight minutes of the Joseph Jarman composition "Ericka"). The title piece was previously referenced on the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Bap-tizum (Atlantic, 1972) and Mitchell's Solo Saxophone Concerts (Sackville, 1973), but this is its fullest explication. The piece begins with a jagged eight-note phrase, with its last note being held in gradually longer intervals. Each attack of the phrase itself becomes more distorted, each repetition goading the audience into a mixture of cheers and guffaws at some of the most naked saxophone playing they'd probably ever heard. At about five minutes in, the held tone becomes smeared, bent, and torqued; Mitchell begins rushing the phrase and the key becomes ambiguous. It is a furious troweling of hard ground—of forcing a very contained phrase into malleability and to either give up its fruits or die trying.

At nine minutes, Mitchell has exhausted this phrase, torqued it into recognizable but worked- over fragments. Here he moves on to the form of a plaintive ballad, running his keyed, reeded fingers over a delicate line, an insect with feelers for sound. Seemingly trepid, the intervals he's working with are incredibly vast, from low, velvety purrs to high-pitched, rounded pops. The next movement is faster, harsher and high-volume, buzzing and metallic. It seems to cull its language from both the original theme and the ballad portion, and is resoundingly physical—one can feel Mitchell's body contorting along with the phrases he's building up and tearing apart. One wants to say this is staunchly avant-garde music, and it is, but it's not without the trilled leaps of saxophonists Charlie Parker and Lester Young, the smoky, crushed fabric of a swing player, or the searing honk of R&B.

Jarman's staple "Ericka" is a ballad of extraordinary depth and beauty; Mitchell approaches it with warmth, stateliness and whimsy. His solo is full of curlicues, lines rushing down the staircase, and blurs in which notes pop out like flickers of light. By the end of the piece, Mitchell has found his way to clenched air and popping veins, energy being bottled and trying to escape both at once.

In January of 1977, Mitchell brought saxophonists Jarman, Wallace McMillan and Henry Threadgill together for a seventeen-minute saxophone quartet recording of the title piece. As the final work on the original double album, it marked an expanded exploration of the materials on side one. Operating at what appear to be slightly different intervals, the first movement is rendered like a rickety string quartet, clearly intertwined but operating with a logic that's distressingly internal. There's a bounce to it akin to a Steve Lacy piece gone horribly awry or a player piano stuck on repeat. The second section sounds lush, reminscent of Duke Ellington in its colorful expanse and woody timbres (you could almost swear there are a cello and violin present). Delicate measures and caressed intervals become brilliant orchestral floes, hints of saxophonist Johnny Hodges bringing the section to a unison close. To hear the contrasts between pointillist, scrabbling jounce and tone poem is something more pronounced in the quartet, proof (as if one needs it) of an excavating process leading to a compositional plenum.

Nonaah is extraordinarily confrontational music—it presents instrument, composer and materials in a profoundly naked light. Perhaps more important than opening up one's preconceptions about the saxophone, it also complicates the AACM aesthetic and vision. Rather than providing space, this is incredibly dense music, bristling with tension that is not overcome by ecstatic release. Nonaah is about as direct as one can get and, lest one forget, the music of Mitchell, Abrams, Jarman, Braxton and their cohorts is rebellious to this day.

_ By CLIFFORD ALLEN, Published: September 28, 2008 (AAJ)



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AIR – Live In Moers, Germany (May 29, 1977)

Label: Private recording / DP-0766

Format: CD, Album - Released: 1977

Style: Free Improvisation

Recorded live in Moers Jazz Festival, Germany on May 29, 1977.

Design by ART&JAZZ Studio Salvarica 

Artwork and Complete Design by VITKO

All compositions by Henry Threadgill

In front of you is another very, very rare recording of the original lineup AIR, not released on any record label, but played in Moers International Jazz Festival on May 29 in 1977.

01. Announcement (0:23)
02. Celebration (29:12)
03. No.2 (12:41)
04. Great Body of the Riddle or Where were the Dodge Boys when my Clay started to Slide (15:46)
05. Angel Sun (8:28)

HENRY THREADGILL – alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, flute
FRED HOPKINS – bass
STEVE McCALL – drums


The sound is great, enjoy!



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HENRY THREADGILL TRIO – New AIR In Rankweil, Austria (Live-1986)

Label: Private recording / DP-0775 [bootleg]

Format: CD, Album - Released: 1986 

Style: Free Improvisation

Recording live at Rankweil, March 19, 1986, Austria

Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO

Henry Threadgill presents his fellow group members after 3 and 5

 

1. Unidentified title [15:20] 

2. Unidentified rag [11:08] 

3. G.v.E. (Hopkins) [17:22] 

4. Unidentified title [10:58] 

5. Through a Keyhole Darkly (Threadgill) [15:28] 

6. The Traveller (Threadgill) [11:02] 

7. Sir Simpleton (Threadgill) [9:08]

Henry Threadgill - alto sax; flute (1)

Fred Hopkins - bass

Andrew Cyrille - drums

New drummer Andrew Cyrille brought a fresh approach and crackling edge to the trio Air on this 1986 live date, recorded at the Rankweil, Austria. 

From Air via New Air to Flute Force Four, Threadgill growing in confidence as a composer. By the time of the later disc by Threadgill’s Very Very Circus ensemble his capability as an organiser of human resources in the pursuit of a steely personal vision is fully formed. Everything that has come since is a refinement of that very personal means of expression. Where Air is an extension of Threadgill’s involvement with AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). 

„NEW AIR in Rankweil “ represent the complete recorded legacy of New Air, a trio in which Andrew Cyrille took over from Pheeroan akLaff on the Air drum stool. It’s interesting how much more direct the music becomes, and it’s not clear whether that’s down to Cyrille, or Threadgill assuming for the first time the role of band leader and sole composer. 

This is certainly one of the more interesting Threadgill performances in Europe with the new setting Air. 

Enjoy.

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