RICHARD TEITELBAUM — Time Zones (with Anthony Braxton) (review)

RICHARD TEITELBAUM — Time Zones (with Anthony Braxton) album cover

Live album · 1977 · Avant-Garde Jazz

3.5/5 · 2013-11-29
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Few musical instruments have gone through the entire transformation that the synthesizer has. These days, digital sample based synthesizers are used to accurately reproduce anything from symphonic orchestras to percussion ensembles from every corner of the globe. Such was not the case in the 60s and 70s when the synthesizer was a barely controllable bundle of wires and circuits incapable of sounding like anything but its own primitive self. Much like the hollow reeds and log drums of the ancient world, the early electronic synthesizer in its most naïve state offered new musical possibilities to creative minds. One such creative mind was Richard Teitelbaum, who made brave attempts to make the difficult studio-bound synthesizer an expressive live instrument to be used in free improvisational settings. Teitelbaum is one of the very few to attempt this sort of improv in a jazz setting and the LP “Time Zones” is an excellent recorded document of a couple such ‘jam sessions’ with leading avant-garde woodwind master, Anthony Braxton.

Braxton is an excellent choice to help try and pull off this difficult feat of a live improvisational mix of an acoustic instrument and analog electronics. Braxton’s ability to draw electronic type sounds out of his various woodwinds goes a long ways towards making the two performers blend. Basically this album is made up of two performances; “Crossing” (side 1) is played in front of an audience in a reverb heavy church with Braxton playing high pitched alto and sopranino sax, while “Behemoth Dreams” (side 2) is performed in a studio with Braxton on the massive contrabass clarinet.

The success of this record is dependent on how well the performers pull off the difficult task of giving their two seemingly oblique instruments some way to blend, and how well they maintain musical interest while improvising. I think many would not have been able to pull this off, but Anthony and Richard do a remarkable job, particularly on side one, of making this succeed due to their thoughtful and careful interactions. Despite being a 70s avant-garde jazz record, much of this album is rather quiet, but don’t doubt for a second, when Anthony Braxton decides to bring the noise, he make a woodwind instrument sound like a herd of screaming monkeys.

This album is very much a product of its time, both in its odd instrumentation and in its bold and naïve approach to improvisation. If you like 60s/70s avant garde music, as well as the almost kitsch like sound of early electronics, this album holds up well against others such as Mario Davidovsky’s composed duos for synthezizer and acoustic instruments. Although this improv is a success given the daunting task at hand, still, it does require a relaxed state of mind to enjoy this sort of lengthy improvisation between two instruments, no matter how creative the performers, its hard to avoid some moments of stagnation