ANTHONY BRAXTON — Creative Orchestra Music 1976 (review)

ANTHONY BRAXTON — Creative Orchestra Music 1976 album cover

Album · 1976 · Avant-Garde Jazz

4.5/5 · 2012-10-24
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Anthony Braxton is probably one of the most creative and prolific jazz composer/performers since Charles Mingus, but unfortunately, like many artists who are ahead of their time, he probably will not get the recognition he deserves until long after he has passed away. “Creative Orchestra Music 1976” is a great example of Braxton’s musical vision and also shows how varied his musical palate is. Early in his career, Braxton’s output was often criticized for being too much like European concert hall music, and there is certainly some of that dry ascetic music on here, but there is also lots of crazy swinging jazz and outright slap stick goofy cartoonish humor too. Braxton, with his ornate pipe and preppy scarves may have had the appearance of an upper crust New England professor (his style also alienated many in the jazz world), but much of his music has the soul and guts of classic rowdy barroom jazz, and when Braxton picks up the sax, he tears it up like few others since the passing of Eric Dolphy.

This album was recorded during a time when Braxton was using diagrams as song titles (yet one more thing that upset folks), so its easiest to refer to the songs on this album as track one, or track two, etc. Track one is the high energy opener and sounds like early 40s big band swing on bad psychedelics. Phrases come and go at a furious rate and tumble on top of each other in a chaotic and humorous fashion. Braxton and others all supply great solos on this one. Track two involves structured improvisation that utilizes lots of quiet space around small pointed events. It’s a very effective piece and has a dry avant-garde concert hall sensibility that may remind some of Pierre Boulez’s quieter works. A little bit of tastefully restrained synthesizer from Richard Teitelbaum adds some nice colors to this one. Track three is probably the star of the show and is the main track that got everyone’s attention when this album first came out. This one opens with a Sousa type march and everything is all stars and glory and then all of a sudden the band gets stuck on a clumsy repeating rhythm and then here comes Leo Smith with a high squeaky trumpet solo, words don’t do all this justice, but its funny as hell.

Track four returns to the concert hall vibe, but its hard to be too serious towards the end of this one when Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell’s growling bass saxophones sound like grouchy bears rummaging for food. Track five treats the music of Ellington to severe abstraction and sounds like Ellington and his crew are having a particularly difficult and angry evening. Lots of good solos on this one, particularly pianist Frederick Rzewski. Track six closes out the album with probably the most outside cut of all as the orchestra plays odd figures and Braxton squawks like an injured duck. This is the sort of avant-garde jazz that makes a lot of folks run for cover.

This is one of the more creative orchestral jazz albums out there and will obviously appeal to fans of the avant-garde, but also people who appreciate the creative ensemble work of artists like Mingus or Henry Threadgill may find this one interesting too.