And so begins Anthony Braxton's three year sojourn into Europe. Not finding a lot of respect in America, though "For Alto" did achieve a 5/5 from Downbeat, Braxton turned to the Europeans and his bands of ex-pats to keep going through 1971. For his graphically titled fourth album, and first of two for the infamously nonpaying BYG/Actuel, everything gets kicked up a notch. Without question, part of the reason for this is the presence of AACM drummer-percussionist extraordinaire Steve McCall. It also says something that the first piece, Leo Smith's "The Light on the Dalta", has the first real recognizable head of any song from the trio so far. More-so than before, the focus tilts somewhat away from the curious and instead on some real jazz playing, such as that first song. And don't misunderstand: this song still has the tiny instruments all around, still dashes about in suspended time, and still has instruments playing against each other as well as with, but something's definitely inspired here. Braxton certainly is, contributing a marvelous flute solo amongst others, and this time all the tension seems to be about something. That alone is two steps forward, and McCall's ability to either boost up the rhythm or dial it back to percussive knocks just makes the piece that much better.
On this one, there's one piece written by each of the three leads, and it supposedly around this time that their live shows began to be under the name Creative Construction Company, though the album remains under Braxton's name. Leroy Jenkins' piece is up second and it's even more of a surprise. Something like a Gypsy folk melody carries the tune, as does Jenkins' fantastic playing. Everyone moves the melody about, in fact, and it still drives the song, which begins to sound Asian due to McCall's percussion. Though still without any driving rhythm, the piece is a highlight for the band so far, though the appearance of the "tiny" instruments throughout definitely keeps this in the same AACM bag. Still, this one will haunt your dreams with its eerie melody, especially when Smith begins playing noir-ish trumpet over an organ.
After this, the sidelong "Composition 6G" (whose original title is the name of the album, sounds like a retreat. Arming the band with supposedly eighty balloons, Braxton separates played sections with endless blowing on these balloons: airing them a bit and letting it out, squeaking annoying sounds out of them while also kicking aimlessly about on the tiny instruments, this seems like an interesting novelty track that is instead stretched out for twenty. Thankfully, at the three minute mark, the trio kicks in with a catchy melody, but it's a just a brief diversion before the balloons come back and wipe out any trace of jazz for another round. When that comes, about nine minutes in, it's Jenkins and his amazing violin, suddenly breathing life into the song, which is followed by more melody, and lovely, breezy section that is suddenly taken over by random percussion and balloons. So yes, this song has some really solid moments, but it takes a lot of patience to get through it all, although the rewards really do outweigh the negatives, and anyway where else can one hear regal bells backed by shambling drums and a musician blowing up and releasing the air from a balloon?
When Anthony Braxton arrived in Paris, as he likes to tells the story, the first person he saw was fellow Chicagoan and drummer Steve McCall, one of the first AACMers to head abroad a couple years earlier. Soon after, Leo Smith and Leroy Jenkins arrived as well, and the group became a quartet with McCall's addition, sometimes billed as the Creative Construction Company, though their records still came out under Braxton's name.
For their BYG/Actuel debut, Braxton, Smith, and Jenkins each contributed a piece, as they continued to develop the playfully pointillist soundworlds they'd conjured on 3 Compositions of New Jazz. Smith leads off with "The Light On the Delta," which alternates more meandering, patiently paced sections with short bursts of rapid horn fanfare and melodic exchanges between Braxton and Smith. Despite McCall's presence, there's nothing like traditional jazz timekeeping in the drums, and the musicians all still switch to secondary instruments or add percussive accents. This is maybe not one of the group's best pieces, but as with much of their work, there's admirable push/pull tension in the way they careen from one idea to the next, briefly bursting into noisier sections with Braxton growling into his sax atop McCall's frantic rhythms, only to give way after a few seconds to an eerie stillness pierced by Jenkins' scraping violin textures.
Jenkins'"Simple Like" is driven by folksy melodicism, with an exotic melody passed gracefully from one instrument to the next, backed by sparse, jagged rhythms from McCall. Although much more direct than the material this group would usually play, it's quite lovely, with Jenkins' fragile, melancholy violin a highlight. There's also a rich, fantastic section where Braxton plays low, quiet contrabass clarinet rumbles, Jenkins switches to a wheezing organ, and Smith's clean trumpet phrasing cuts through that eerie backdrop.
The second side is taken up entirely by Braxton's "Composition No. 6G," the diagram title for which appears on the album's cover. This is a pretty unique piece, scored for "eighty balloons and four multi-instrumentalists," featuring a mix of notated parts and improvised sections, as well as instructions to make sounds with the balloons. Each member of the group got 20 balloons, to use at any point, with the balloons providing a whimsical counterpoint to the sounds of Braxton and Smith's horns in particular. There's a real playful back-and-forth here between brief sections of horn interplay followed by sections where miscellaneous percussive clatter is mingled with the sounds of hissing air and squeaky little squiggles escaping from balloons. The musicians deliberately attempt to blur the boundaries too, with Smith and Braxton playing their horns in unconventional ways that sometimes make it unclear if they're playing "music" or introducing the so-called "non-musical" sounds of the balloons. Their clicking, breathy, farty interjections are genuinely funny at times.
This disc isn't as coherent a statement as a whole as 3 Compositions, but there are still plenty of great moments, and the delightfully goofy epic "6G" is one of Braxton's strongest, most original early group works, pointing the way forward for further developments in his conception of small group playing. A good one for anyone enjoying the early AACMish Braxton and wanting more. - sevenarts
Tracks
1. The Light on the Dalta (Leo Smith)
2. Simple Like (Leroy Jenkins)
3. B-Xo/N-O-1-47a (Anthony Braxton)
LEROY JENKINS violin, viola, flute, mouth organ, organ, harmonica
LEO SMITH trumpet, flugelhorn, horns, log drum, siren
STEVE McCALL drums, darbouka, percussion
ANTHONY BRAXTON alto & soprano saxophones, clarinet, contrabass clarinet, flute, chimes
Recorded at Saravah Studios, Paris, France on September 10, 1969
BYG Records - 529.315
Fuel 2000 records 302 061 212 2 (France)