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TANGENT KNOBS Keeping YOU CAN GET OUR TANGENT KNOBS keeping "the Shout" WET... Is What Its all aBout by Nat Hentoff ANTHONY BRAXTON: Missing that visceral force Anyone curious about -or already im- out, he could be the colossus of the mersed in- post -Coltrane jazz should 1980's. In any case, the album is fascin- have Anthony Braxton: The Montreaux ating in its continual tension between the /Berlin Concerts. Recorded in 1975 -76, leader's penetrating intellectand the more the compositions, all by Braxton, rein- earthily imaginative souls around him. force his position as perhaps the most The recording quality throughout is provocative intellectual force in the new superb -exceptional presence, individu- music of this decade. Braxton's precise, ally and collectively. In fact, a model demanding criteria of extraordinarily of crystalline balance for all sessions of sensitive collective dynamics and his ab- post- Coltrane jazz. sorbing command of -textural nuances As a further measure of the key ele- make him the commanding presence in ment Braxton is thus far lacking, there all these performances. Furthermore, as is an utterly delightful reissue set, Sarah a soloist, he handles the alto, clarinet, Vaughan, Recorded Live in sessions in sopranino sax, and contrabass clarinet Chicago and Copenhagen from 1957 to with such total mastery that no anti - 1963. Here is a musician -singer, with avant -grade jazz traditionalist can accuse more prodigious technical resources Braxton of jiving on his instruments. He than any of her contemporaries. And knows exactly what he wants and how while it is true that occasionally, she to achieve it. delights in just stretching those skills- Yet I have a reservation. The Chicago - "showboating" it used to be called - AND THEY'LL STILL born Association for the Advancement there is in everything Sarah does a high - of Creative Music, from which Braxton energy, deeply swinging, soaring, exulta- WORK! evolved, has a motto, "Keeping `the tion of the life- force. She has that inner The next time some klutz drops his drink shout' in the music is what's all about." "shout," even when caressing a ballad; on your mixer w th slide pots, remember The shout is the life- force, "the goat - and so, listening to her through all four our knobs!! We chose to go all -rotary on cry" (as novelist Thomas Wolfe used to sides has a marvelously re- energizing our PA mixing consoles because of the better reliability and durability. put it). Some call it "soul;" older play- effect. And that too is what jazz is The whole idea is to make sure nothing ers would talk of telling a story-with all about. gets in the way of the ultra -clean sound of human horns. Braxton has everything Both the original recording and the our Super -Fi circuitry Write or call us today for a better look but that shout, that visceral force. His tape re- mastering keep the "live" excite- at our knobs. stories are impeccably crafted but they ment while focusing on an optimum are not likely to change lives -as the recorded rather than concert experience. tales of Bird and Pres and Trane did. "The shout," however, is in this four - ANTHONY BRAXTON: The Montreaux sided album -from the astonishing /Ber /in Concerts. [Michael Cuscuna, pro- young trombonist, George Lewis, whose ducer; John Temperley, Carlos Albrecht, emotions as well as ideas are larger than engineers.] Arista AL 5002. life -size. And the life force is in drum- t mer Barry Altschul and bassist Dave SARAH VAUGHAN: Recorded Live. Holland, among others. My sense is that [Robin McBride, reissue producer; no tangentmusical engineering the shout is also deep inside Anthony engineering credits.] Mercury /EmArcy 2610 south 24th street Braxton, and if he's ever able to let it Jazz Series EMS -2 -412. phoenix, srizons 66034 602-267-0653 CIRCLE 84 CN READER SERVICE CARD 74 MODERN RECORDING .
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