Label: Delmark Records – DS-428
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1974
Style: Free Jazz, Avantgarde
Recorded At Delmark Records, December 29, 1971.
Design [Cover And Liner Design] – Turtel Onli
Producer – Robert G. Koester
Recording Supervisor [Supervision] – Anthony Braxton, Joseph Jarman
Note:
Track titles and placements differ on the labels from the sleeve as follows.
A1- Together Alone ............................................................................. 5:39
Composed By – Jos. Jarman
A2- Down Dance 1-Morning (Including Circles) ............................... 16:04
Composed By – Jos. Jarman
B1- CK-7-(GN) 436 ............................................................................. 6:10
Composed By – Anthony Braxton
B2- SBN-A12 66 K ............................................................................14:53
Composed By – Anthony Braxton
Joseph Jarman– soprano saxophone, synthesizer, flute, sopranino saxophone, alto
saxophone, bells, voice
Anthony Braxton– contrabass clarinet, alto saxophone, piano, flute, voice
Although the purer thrust of issues originally addressed by that AACM as a communal organization had changed through interaction with other musicians —Braxton, for example, was in the midst of working in the landmark group Circle with Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Barry Altschul— Together Alone, as author Ronald M. Radano suggests in his excellent book on Braxton New Musical Figurations (University of Chicago Press, 1993), "looked back on performance approaches first developed in the AACM. " Braxton and Joseph Jarman, both with the Art Ensemble and on recordings of others (BYG's catalog is rempant with semi-ad hoc configurations that both Braxton and Jarman had participated in), had laid to rest the conscious insularity that made the AACM's deliberate collectivism so effective at its peak, but this album proves they hadn't surrendered the spirit that guided them in Chicago.
The album opens with three Jarman compositions. The title track finds both Braxton and Jarman on alto saxophone spinning long, languid, serene, and melancholy unison lines; the path eventually forks and Braxton takes on a more rugged and jagged trail while Jarman's remains smooth and flowing. Despite the musical separation, the saxophones remain inextricably linked. One of the AACM approaches Radano surely refers to on this recording is the integration of silence and space. At times, the music goes against the grain of time, and other moments it rejects it altogether. Leaving the music strewn with gaps of silence rather than opting for a total sound density, the AACMers were among the first in jazz to exploit space as a compositional tool.
The opening track flows into "Dawn Dance." Braxton moving to piano and Jarman picking up his flute. Oblique, spacious keyboard punctuations-including some compelling inside-the-piano tinkling—provide a bed for Jarman's outpourings which range from gentle, highly lyrical dreamweaving to almost sharp, stuttered jags. The brief "Morning (Including Circles)" leaps from a soothing peal of hand bells into dense cacophony. Amid myriad layers of sound, the static bells become suddenly abrasive, Braxton and Jarman shouting out of sync, while their shrill horns seem to simulate electronic white noise. It's an exhilarating, early ascent into coarse textural exploration.
Braxton's "Composition 21" ("CK7 [GN]") elaborates the textural layering on a grander scale. Flutes, piano, contrabass clarinet, alto sax. whistles, and abstract, sometimes jarring sounds on electronic tape provide an extremely dense sonic collage, yet once one abides by the superficial level of chaos, it becomes obvious that Braxton's sound sculpture is most certainly ordered and well-conceived. Finally. Braxton's lengthy "Composition 20" ("SBN-A-1 66K") constructs a fine tension between lyrical horn lines (his contrabass clarinet and Jarman's soprano saxophone) and an almost static but changing ring of jingling bells. The bells develop in complexity throughout the composition, providing an increasing tension with the horns. Although the bells suggest no melody, their pattern becomes more and more dense harmonically, while the attack of the horns doesn't fluctuate.
Aside from being the only duet recording there is between these two masters. Together Alone is far more than just a curious meeting. Elaborating on AACM concepts with lessons learned in Paris, its exciting combination of one-on-one collaboration with through-composed material sounds more vibrant and vital than ever, over four decades since it was recorded.
_Review by Peter Margasek
If you find it, buy this album!