Anthony Braxton

condition (records/cover): NM / EX-

Gatefold sleeve. Insert included. No obi.

The Everest of solo saxophone: Anthony Braxton, Chicago, 1969 - a double album of completely unaccompanied alto, the first of its kind and still the reference point for everything in the format. Dedications to Cecil Taylor, John Cage and others map the coordinates: this is where the AACM's compositional rigor, the free jazz fire and the experimental tradition formally shake hands, one horn carrying the whole negotiation. The range across four sides remains astonishing - ferocious multiphonic assaults, austere interval studies, passages of surprising tenderness - and the audacity has not dimmed one degree in fifty-plus years: two LPs, one saxophone, no net, total commitment, at a moment when nobody had ever attempted anything close.

Originally on Delmark, the Chicago label that documented the AACM's first wave, here in a Japanese Trio pressing of beautiful quality. A foundational document of creative music. Every saxophone player alive owes it a debt, knowingly or not - most know.