Search - Borah Bergman, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann :: Eight By Three

A Decent CD

x | USA | 11/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It is well known among jazz fans that Anthony Braxton and Peter Brotzmann are legends of creative music. A couple things about this recording really inspired my curiosity: 1. It was the first time in a couple decades that Braxton and Brotzmann had recorded together. (I think the other meetings, if I'm not mistaken, were during Company sessions and with Globe Unity.) 2. It was the first time that Braxton had recorded with Bergman, who is a wonderful pianist. With Brotzmann's reputation for intense improvisations and Braxton's reputation for using complex compositional structures, it would seem like this session would be a "can't miss," right? Well, even after listening to this CD repeatedly, I can't help but think that this session left something to be desired. The liner notes state that "No rehearsal and no discussion preceded the making of the album." Everything appears to be improvised, which is fine; the only problem is that most of the pieces share remarkably similar textures and creative interplay. It would have been nice if Braxton and Brotzmann would have steered away from a wholly improvised recording and composed something together. But I guess if they wanted to do that, they would have done it. I still recommend the album for any serious fan of Braxton, Brotzmann, or Bergman. But for people who are fairly new to the music of these artists, I would suggest looking towards some of their other recordings. These musicians are truly magnificent; it is just that this is not one of their more cohesive and profound efforts. By the way, the liner notes are pretty bizarre. Bill Shoemaker, instead of providing useful information about the artists and the recording, gets up on his soapbox and gives his take on the "what is jazz/role of jazz" issue. His comments, while they would have been interesting in another context (such as in a jazz periodical), are really misplaced as liner notes to this recording. Save it for another day, Bill."