[.ca] For Alto

From Amazon.com:
Originally released as a two-LP set in 1969, For Alto is 73 minutes of unaccompanied saxophone solos by a young musician issuing just his second recording under his own name. Solo saxophone was then a rarefied tradition in jazz. Coleman Hawkins had done it once in the 1940s and Sonny Rollins in the '50s. More to the point, Eric Dolphy and Jimmy Giuffre had done it a few times in the early 1960s. Braxton was being more than brash, however, and doing something very different. He was applying fresh structural concepts to sustain extended improvisations, and he was exploring John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as the jazz tradition, to mark a new direction in the avant-garde. Forgoing the "energy music" school, Braxton was exploring silence, noise, and forms of serialism with an analytical, almost sculptural, approach to sound. Each piece here explores a different approach or set of materials. There's buzz-saw saxophone on "To Composer John Cage," while "To pianist Cecil Taylor" is heartfelt blues that delves back before bebop for its sources. Tracks 5 and 6 are breathy, extended improvisations, the former exploring pianissimo understatement, and the latter developing elliptical complexity, with both drawing on and redirecting the jazz-ballad tradition. The concluding piece, nearly 20 minutes long, builds dialogue from contrasts between brittle, abrasive overblowing and the merest suggestions of notes. For Alto is one of those rare works that point to new possibilities, and it's been one of the most influential recordings of the past 30 years. It remains brilliant, challenging--perhaps even daunting--music. --Stuart Broomer

Chronique amazon.fr:
Ce disque, originellement sorti sous forme de double LP en 1968, fut le premier entièrement consacré à la pratique du saxophone en solo, sans re-recording. On connaissait bien alors quelques échappées solitaires signées par Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Eric Dolphy, voire Coleman Hawkins, mais celles-ci n'excédaient pas quelques minutes alors qu'ici l'heure est largement dépassée. À projet unique et ambitieux, motivations singulières (l'anecdote a été à maintes reprises rapportée). Braxton raconte : « Il était minuit et j'étais complètement déprimé. J'ai pris mon magnétophone. Je pensais à me tuer. Je me suis dit : non, je ne vais pas me tuer, je vais faire un peu de musique ». Ses pièces sont dédiées, entre autres, au compositeur contemporain John Cage et à quelques musiciens de free, dont le pianiste Cecil Taylor et le violoniste Leroy Jenkins, comme Braxton, membre de l'AACM. D'un morceau à l'autre, les ambiances varient considérablement : free et débridées, plus classiquement "parkeriennes" ou contemplatives et propices à la méditation (comme sur l'envoûtant et minimal "Dedicated To Ann And Peter Allen"). Braxton travaille le son, sollicitant toutes les possibilités que lui offre le saxophone, du bruit des clés au sifflement des anches. Indispensable, cet enregistrement a influencé tous les souffleurs, de Julius Hemphill à Louis Sclavis, qui se sont après lui livrés à cet exercice. --Philippe Robert

maddeningly beautiful:
anthony braxton is held to be a genius by the jazz literati, but, for me, he is the poster child for the problems of free jazz. free jazz, as exemplified in the 60s by giants john coltrane (post "Love Supreme") and ornette coleman plus a host of others (archie shepp, albert ayler, roswell rudd, et al), is challenging music that explodes all the conventions of rhythm, melody, and structure. to many, it is just noise. to others it is an exciting new form of musical art. the issue becomes perspective-- can music be made that follows no pattern or convention? for some the answer is "yes" and the efforts to do so are lauded as brilliant. but for others, including miles davis, it is noise. music has form. music has conventions, deal with it and swing! in this album, we hear the problem. tracks 2, 7, and 8 are simply noise, i don't care what any critic says. i can go out and stomp on a bike horn and get the same rhythm and tone mr. braxton achieves on alto sax. music is not supposed to hurt! however, tracks 3-6 are some of the most beautiful sax solos ever recorded, with no.5 being absolutely breath-taking as mr. braxton barely breathes through the horn creating a work of such simple beauty and grace that you know you really are in the presence of genius. and there you have it. do i listen to the noise and "oooh" and "aaahhh" like the folks watching the emperor parade around in his undershorts? or do i call it for what it is, vow never to listen to the racket and program the CD player only for the middle of the set? i chose the latter. the middle is worth the purchase, but please somebody explain to me the fascination with noise as music.

historic Braxton solo flight:
This album was one of the first solo records in jazz. That, and the fact that it was an early product of the Chicago scene, which most famously included the Art Ensemble, make it a historic recording. This is not music for just anyone, but if you are into the avant-garde, it has a forbidding beauty that is only enhanced by knowing it was conceived and executed in 1969! Braxton opens with a 9-minute tour de force dedicated to John Cage which sounds somewhat like a cross between Coltrane's 1961 "Chasin' the Trane" and a 90s Evan Parker solo. Close listening is required for "Dedicated to Ann and Peter Allen," which is played at a barely audible level. This exemplifies one of Braxton's core concerns -- experimentation with pure sound as well as form. Unfortunately, there is one such experiment that I judge a failure, and that is the original Side 4, "Dedicated to Leroy Jenkins." Braxton, in this 20-minute piece, repeatedly, deliberately, honks, Ayler-style, interrupted by brief forays into higher registers. I'm sure that in his mind this represented some sort of formal exploration of the context of the "honk," a noble sax tradition going back to the earliest days of jazz. However, not all such formal experimentation is worthy, in the end, of presenting to the public. My recommendation is this -- listen to "For Alto" side by side. Rather than trying to digest it whole, listen to each of the original LP sides separately, which physiologically more closely corresponds to the the human attention span than a 70-minute CD. If you are open-minded, I think you will hear the beauty in this great late-60s record.

5 stars (theoretically):
I used to play the LP on my jazz show simultaneously with other so-called avant garde tunes, most frequently Sonic Youth's Silver Session for Jason Knuth (thank god for whrb!) -- quite an analogous recording i'd say... Other times it was played with taped movie dialogue, some cuts from Neu!, and yes even Kenny G (just imagine braxton from the 60's barging on stage of a Kenny G concert in the 80's with one of his excruciating solos! ha! the audience would just blow up in their pastel suits) etc. etc. Well, you get the idea. The "fascination," the proverbial point is that this albums is about you the listener and your environ at the times of listening, anthony braxton the musician at the time of recording, and the attempted elimination of spatial and temporal boundaries therewithin. It's an attempt to create infinite permutations of an episode for every future listening of this recording. It dehumanizes the music. Well, and so on goes the theory... Yes, this album is definitely prettier in theory. If you like other things "avant garde," you will see how this fits into that worldview. If you don't, you will probably hate it. (Thank you delmark for finally re-releasing it on CD.)

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