review ARTICULATIONS
Modern Sounds
Downtown Music Gallery
by Bruce Gallanter
Featuring Anthony Braxton on alto & sopranino saxes, flute, clarinet, contrabass clarinet & compositions and James Emery on guitar, guitar synth & compositions.
Recorded in Florence, Italy in June of 1992. This is a previously unreleased duo recording made two guiding lights of the experimental/avant/jazz/modern classical worlds. Master guitarist James Emery worked with visionary composer & multi-instrumentalist in Anthony Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra as well as a trio with Ray Anderson. Mr. Emery wrote all but one of the six songs here with one long piece by Mr. Braxton. Beginning with "Maguire", Mr. Emery creates a theme which sounds jazz-like for Mr. Braxton's alto while Mr. Emery plays acoustic guitar, bending and muting certain strings while playing tightly with Braxton's swirling cascade on sopranino sax. Braxton's tone is warmer than usual yet is well matched by Emery's non-stop series of looping lines. "Falling River Time" keeps both Braxton's sax and Emery's guitar moving quickly together tightly, working their way through a series of challenging changes. The last time I caught Mr. Braxton play live was doing a solo alto concert at the Victo Fest. It was a lovely, heartfelt set and his tone had mellowed a bit yet his lines were as quirky and ever-shifting as ever. His tone here, although it is more than 40 years ago and it is equally warm while still coming up with surprising twists in direction. "Duo 2.01" is a bit more abstract and sounds like modern chamber music with haunting harmonies for both musicians. Aside from some consistently challenging composing, Mr. Emery is in strong form here, his playing is a continuous flurry of notes, reminding me of Ralph Towner sped up. The one Braxton piece here is "Composition No. 167" and it is the longest one here (28 minutes). Mr. Braxton starts out on flute, his tone and playing first extraordinary. He soon switches to the low-end grumbling of his contrabass clarinet. The interplay here is astonishing as both players explore a wide range of tones, Although I am often disappointed by the use of guitar synth, Mr. Emery sounds great playing those eerie electronics sounds which work well with Braxton's sly sopranino sax. This piece is episodic like a series of ongoing scenes, speeding up, slowly down as Braxton switches from one reed to another. This piece has more of that Braxtonian sound and keeps shifting as Braxton solos while Emery keeps intersecting with his own flow of ideas/lines. This piece is a tour-de-force and it sounds like a lost piece of historic and demanding music from many years back which still sounds modern and challenging today. Special thanks to James Emery and Anthony Braxton for rescuing an important part of our collective past.