You get the strong impression that were a recording to exist of Braxton falling down an exceptionally lengthy set of stairs, his multitude of reeds crashing into banisters and walls, Leo would release it. The range in quality of the items issued in recent years by this label is pretty amazing, from the stellar heights of works, like Composition 247 to some duo projects that never should have seen the light of day and are better left unmentioned. This disc, a solo performance from 1979, probably occupies the median between those poles but still causes one to wonder about the necessity of putting it out other than over-thorough documentation. The recording quality is quite muffled, almost as though it was taped from an adjacent room. The material (all alto saxophone) is culled from the Composition 8 series (which appeared originally on the great “For Alto”) through the 119’s, which showed up as late as the Wesleyan disc on Hat with stops at 77, 99 and 106. More to the point, Braxton’s own performance, while by no means awful, isn’t particularly inspired. Though none of the pieces are repeated, it falls very much along the lines of the near contemporaneous “Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979” issued as a double LP on Arista, generally considered an average recording. Granted, that and the rest of the often beautiful Arista catalogue have never reappeared on disc (and, unless that long-rumored Mosaic box ever manifests, who knows how long it’ll be?), but anyone who owns that set will find nothing of any essentiality specific to this one. The two de rigeur traditional inclusions, “I Remember Clifford” and “Out of Nowhere” suffer by comparison to his lovely version of “Along Came Betty” on the Arista album. There’s certainly some enjoyable listening along the way; Braxton’s sheer abundance of ideas guarantees that there will always be moments of interest and his passion, though not full blown here, is still sometimes apparent. Still, it’s just an average night by his standards. Of the later Braxton solo projects, the listener would be better advised to search out the brilliant Impetus album, Solo (London) 1988 or the aforementioned Wesleyan (12 Alto Solos) 1992 and leave this one be.
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