For Alto

Anthony Braxton | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 25, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Delmark
• ASIN: B00004U04J
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,789 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #20 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Avant-Garde

Track Listings

1. Dedicated To Multi-Instrumentalist Jack Gell

2. To Composer John Cage

3. To Artist Murray De Pillars

4. To Pianist Cecil Taylor

5. Dedicated To Ann And Peter Allen

6. Dedicated To Susan Axelrod

7. To My Friend Kenny McKenny

8. Dedicated To Multi-Instrumentalist Leroy Jenkins

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 25-JUL-2000

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historic Braxton solo flight, August 2, 2000

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Alto (Audio CD)

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 1990s 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 record.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little history for ya., March 15, 2009

By 

greg taylor (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: For Alto (Audio CD)

I thought I would provide a little history on this CD and its reception before I offer some mildly phrased opinions.
I had thought the story behind For Alto was fairly well known but maybe not. I believe I read about this in Forces in Motion by Graham Locke. If you are interested in anything AB, that is a good place to start. I am going off memory since I cannot find my copy so if I misrepresent what happened, please correct me in the comments.
Anyway, sometime back around 1967, AB was giving a solo sax concert in Chicago and found himself nonplussed. He had thought it would be easy to improvise soli for an hour or so but found himself very quickly repeating himself.
The result was a period of practise wherein he developed his saxophone languages concept. If I remember correctly, AB came up with the idea of using certain qualities of saxophone sound as the basis for improvisation. "Buzzing" was one of them, I think "trills" was another.
These pieces are the result.
This CD fell on the jazz public, media and fellow musicians like a bomb. I bought a copy of the double CD back in early 1969 and I had the usual reaction to it. Some of it I didn't understand at all and some of it I loved. But I kept listening to it (along with a ton of other stuff that annoyed my parents no end).
The controversy over AB's music can be gauged by following his rep in Downbeat from that period. They ignored him until he started appearing in their Talent Polls. This CD was not reviewed until 4 or 5 years after it appeared! The writers and many of AB's fellow musicians complained about his tone or his fingering or ego or his sanity.
Here is the deal. This is not music that is meant to entertain. It is meant to challenge, to educate, to explore, to suggest and to foster change. Not least, to foster change in the way we hear the possibilities of what are musical materials. Not least, to change how we hear the possibility of melody and what is harmonious. The pieces that the other reviewers complain about, the ones dedicated to Cage and Jenkins are not what I listen to everyday but when I do I still love them. They still sound radical and fresh. The Cage piece in particular still sounds incredibly skillful, oddly melodious and fascinating.
If you are new to AB or to solo sax, I recommend the later CDs of his devoted to his solo work. Something like Wesleyan (12 Alto Solos)1992 or Solo Willisau. They are more accessible. But if you have the courage to musically explore then, for the love of doG, get thee a copy of this bad boy and listen to it. Then wait a month or two and listen to it again. And then wait another month or two and do it again. You may never learn to really tap your feet to it but it will change the way you hear the possible in music.
Mingus did one of Downbeat's Blindfold tests in 1960 during which he insisted on commenting on Ornette Coleman. He concluded by saying, "I'm not saying everybody's going to have to play like Coleman but they're going to have to stop copying Bird." (Quoted from George Lewis's A Power Stronger Than Itself, p.46). Well, I'm not saying you have to like AB or enjoy what he does, but I am saying that AB and his AACM associates changed the music. This CD is a masterpiece. Whether you like it or not.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No-holds-barred honkin'and squealin', May 24, 2007

By 

Honkinsax (Palmerston North, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: For Alto (Audio CD)

Intense, uncompromising solo saxophone. This is not the kind of music to provide background for a dinner party, as Mr. Braxton demands your full attention.