For Alto

For Alto is a jazz double-LP by composer/multi-reedist Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1969 and released on Delmark Records in 1971.[1][2] Braxton performs the pieces on this album entirely on alto saxophone, with no additional musicians, instrumentation or overdubbing.

For Alto
Studio album by
Anthony Braxton
Released1971
Recorded1969
GenreJazz
Length72:58
LabelDelmark Records
Anthony Braxton chronology
Three Compositions of New Jazz
(1968)		 For Alto
(1971)		 Silence
(1969)

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz(favorable)[1]
AllMusic[3]
DownBeat[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
MusicHound Jazz3.5/5[6]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[7]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[8]
Sputnikmusic[9]

Initial reaction to the album was mixed. In a June 1971 DownBeat review, Joe H. Klee called the album "revolutionary" and awarded it five stars.[4] Four months later, the magazine published a Blindfold Test test with saxophonist Phil Woods, in which Woods, after listening to the track "To Artist Murry DePillars," stated: "That was terrible, I can't imagine the ego of a person thinking they can sustain a whole performance by themselves... It's not jazzy, it's not classical... it's dull... this is such an ego trip..."[10]

Recent reactions have been positive, and the album is now recognized as one of the landmarks of free jazz and improvised music. The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek stated: "For Alto is one of the greatest solo saxophone records ever made, and maybe one of the greatest recordings ever issued, period".[3] The Penguin Guide to Jazz gives For Alto a four-star rating (of a possible four) along with its "crown" token of merit, and describes it as "one of the genuinely important American recordings. While some landmark performances retain only a mystical aura of their original significance, [For Alto] remains powerfully listenable and endlessly fascinating."[7]

On All About Jazz Derek Taylor observed "This is a recording and artistic statement that completely changed the rules. Braxton's gall seemed audacious to some, but revolutionary to far more and the hindsight of history has proven this latter camp correct. His opened the gates for solo improvisatory expression for all players up to the challenge to pass through and in the intervening years many of the giants of improvised music have followed suit".[1]

Author Tom Moon included the album in his book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, writing: "For Alto is dizzying and maddening, dense and challenging, inventive and offputting. It's also among a handful of great solo saxophone recordings in jazz, alongside the unaccompanied tunes on Eric Dolphy's Far Cry. The sheer amount of music here is overwhelming... For Alto is a riveting blast of fresh air, radically adventurous early gems from one of the most important thinkers in jazz."[11]

Nate Wooley, writing for Sound American, identified For Alto as an early example of Braxton's Language Music, which consists of "types" or "descriptions of broad musical parameters which the performer uses [as] starting points or springboards to musical activity." Regarding the album, Wooley wrote: "a series of solo compositions are presented based roughly on the different language types, and it is a fascinating document of the concept, while also being an enjoyably rigorous example of his mastery of the alto saxophone... In each piece, Braxton very clearly, almost obsessively, works with one language type, exhausting its permutations finally before moving to the next."[12]

Track listing
  1. "Dedicated to Multi-Instrumentalist Jack Gell"  – 0:42
  2. "To Composer John Cage"  – 9:30
  3. "To Artist Murry DePillars"  – 4:17
  4. "To Pianist Cecil Taylor"  – 5:18
  5. "Dedicated to Ann and Peter Allen"  – 12:54
  6. "Dedicated to Susan Axelrod"  – 10:24
  7. "To My Friend Kenny McKenny"  – 10:06
  8. "Dedicated to Multi-Instrumentalist Leroy Jenkins"  – 19:47

Personnel

Anthony Braxton - alto saxophone

References
  1. Taylor, Derek (September 1, 2000). "Anthony Braxton: For Alto". All About Jazz. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  2. Shatz, Adam (29 October 2000). "70's Redux: Notes From the Jazz Underground". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  3. Jurek, Thom. For Alto – Review at AllMusic. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  4. Klee, Joe H. (June 24, 1971). "Record Review: Anthony Braxton, For Alto". DownBeat. p. 18.
  5. Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 1 (4th ed.). MUZE. p. 815. ISBN 0195313739.
  6. "For Alto". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  7. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) [1992]. "Anthony Braxton". The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 150. ISBN 0-14-102327-9.
  8. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 29. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  9. robertsona. Review: For Alto . Sputnikmusic. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  10. Feather, Leonard (October 14, 1971). "Blindfold Test". DownBeat. p. 33.
  11. Moon, Tom (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing. pp. 114–115.
  12. Wooley, Nate. "Anthony Braxton's Language Music". Sound American. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
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