October 13, 2004
ONE IN TWO - TWO IN ONE
I swear i'll hold back on the free jazz for a while...
So I have whittled down my out-of-print holy grail album list once again last week. (this list once included: Dead C's Harsh 70s Reality; Disco Inferno's D.I. Go Pop [recently reissued -- go buy it immediately]; Bark Psychosis' Hex; the Basic Channel 12"s; and still includes Terry Riley's You're No Good; This Heat's Deceit; Slowdive's Pygmalion; ect.) I received my copy of Max Roach/Anthony Braxton's: One in Two - Two in One which was recently reissued on Hathut Records with a pressing of only 3000 --so kindly do yourself a favor and order it immediately if you dig any of this kind of stuff. By that I mean Free Jazz. I am still looking for an original LP or CD though. I have filthy, filthy habits. This is a relatively unknown --yet monumental jazz release and I want to tell you a little about it.
To me, One in Two - Two in One in one of the great moments of the free improvisation, avant-guard movement. (free jazz is you will) This legendary set was recorded from the famous Willisau Concerts of 1979. (I am still looking for the 4cd Anthony Braxton Willisau Set) The Anthony Braxton Quartet and Max Roach and Archie Shepp had played sets the night before this session. Having worked before in the genre announcing Conference of Birds and as a duo in sax/drummer format defining Birth and Rebirth, Max and Anthony played a 70 minute set that is still the unsurpassed touchstone of this type of music. This set defines free improvisation --the spirit, the ideas, the techniques, and the sounds. Still to this day, every idea in today's modern avant guard/free improvisation can be heard on this album. As much as I love and respect what is going on today, (I am currently working on a piece on the Boston/Providence avant guard scene so take my upcoming remarks lightly) it has all been done before -- by Max and Anthony. Everything from the intensity driven chaos of groups like Lightning Bolt to the stoner waddling of the free folk scene (No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand of the Man, ect.) and finally to the instrumental alchemy found in bands/musicians such as such as AMM & Fennesz. Max can do more with his left foot than Brian Chippendale will ever dream of doing. I grimace every time I listen to Birth and Rebirth. It is extraordinary how good Max is. His foot pedaling is unnatural. There is no bravado necessary like in today's testosterone driven freak outs. Grace can kick your ass when you realize that it has had you in its grip the whole time.
Max Roach is arguably the greatest drummer that has ever lived and inarguably the most versatile and most accomplished drummer that has ever lived. As much as he came to define the free improvisation drummer with the works mentioned, it was only an experimental period in his long career. He was just as much of a figurehead of Bebop a decade earlier in his career with his work with Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker as he was during his progression which lead him through harder formats and had him work with practically every important name in modern jazz: Davis; Mingus; Evans; Gillespy; Powell; Dolphy; ECT... Even later he was with radical progressive drumming groups such as M'Boom. I can only name few drummers I adore that are in his league as the greats --Tony Allen and Ginger Baker quickly come to mind but then they were completely different types --they were polyrythmic drummers. I am well aware of Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, et al. but you really have to still be able to relate in todays modern world. Then of course you are talking to a Miles Davis kid, (even 1970-early 1980s despite the JAZZHAMMER. logo) not a Brubeck kid. I can only think of Hamid Drake and Han Bennick as the true keepers of the torch nowadays. Their work with Peter Brotzmann is, once again, reminiscent of Roach and Braxton. They are of course, the European counterparts of this very American scene. And if you dig the spirit please check out Boston area locals Paul Flaherty and the young Chris Corsano. Contextually, It'll bring a tear to yer eye.
Anthony Braxton is also another one of those "arguable" jazz mastheads. He defined the modern state of avant guard jazz. He took the work of John Coltrane and was able to push it forward instead of reveling in it. Coltrane's work in Interstellar Space and Ascension, are wonderful examples of the avant guard he pioneered. But there is a lot of organization in this music. The improvisation is cued and the structure has been set up since the beginning. Don't get me wrong, these albums are utterly fantastic and of essential listening to anyone really interested in music but what folks like Anthony Braxton did was takes the tightest and loosest aspects of jazz and created a beast that encompasses all musicality. A benefit of this is that this man is a master of his instrument so he creates an orchestrated cacophony. No matter how much they let go, they are using well rooted impulses to improvise. It comes out as emotion because it is emotion. It has soul. To me, it is bliss. This is why later on with the works of AACM and worldly inspired improvisors, there will be a spiritual motif infused in the music. Though Braxton will not participate in this, (actually quite the opposite since there will be several albums of "standards" that will be released) he has given free jazz its roots and ideas. Again, this phase is one of the many things Mr. Braxton would do in his career. He is just as much of an important improviser as he is a composer. Though the latter hasn't been recognized just yet. Its quite complicated business.
This album is the two masters captured live at their peak. The set up is raw. Drummer and Saxophonist. Let me remind once again that this is a pivotal set that defines free improvisation for me. You have everything here: experiments with technique and experiments with texture. But the glue to all of this is the emotion that encapsulates the sum and the parts. Thats the mark of real free improvisation. There is a segment in the first half that has Anthony scraping his saxophone coming up with atonal expressions that sound like chirpings. Then out of nowhere comes Max with tuned chimes. Its beautiful how well they sound together. The rules have changed. They are no longer are playing traditional jazz improvisation. They are one. There is no fixed content in their scheme. They both use a variety of instruments to create not just texture, but moments in time. Its also compelling that one is using his instrument in a completely non traditional way while the other is using his instrument in a very specific way --Max's chimes are tuned to work exactly as they do. There are so many things that can be drawn out from this set but I will leave it up to your ears. In the end, no other musicians have been able to push the boundaries of jazz since Anthony and Max. They are the boundary. Respect is due.
Posted by Fran at October 13, 2004 11:49 PM