20 New Leo Records Titles

Anthony Braxton, Mat Maneri, Joe Morris and Evan Parker

This week is not a “Bandcamp Friday,” the day on which that site forgoes its usual cut of sales and passes all revenue directly to artists and labels. But we’ve been putting up 20 titles from the vast Leo Records catalog on the first Friday of every month, and this month is no exception. What follows is a rundown of everything we’ve just released. I’m sure you’ll find something you want to hear.

First of all, we’ve put up ten more albums by Anthony Braxton. In chronological order of recording, they are:

Solo (Koln) 1978: A 78-minute alto saxophone recital that includes performances of nine of his own pieces, the standard “You Go to My Head”, and John Coltrane’s “Impressions”.

Composition No. 94 For Three Instrumentalists (1980): A live recording in which the title piece is played forwards, then backwards, by Braxton, trombonist Ray Anderson, and guitarist James Emery.

Solo (Pisa) 1982: Another solo concert, this one featuring seven Braxton originals, plus “You Go to My Head”, Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, and Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight”.

2 Compositions (Järvenpää) 1988: Ensemble Braxtonia was a one-off group of Finnish musicians assembled for a tour of that country; on this disc, they play two of his pieces together, for 70 minutes total.

11 Compositions (Duo) 1995: This disc, recorded at Wesleyan University, features Braxton on various woodwinds and Brett Larner on koto, so it really sounds like nothing else here.

14 Compositions (Traditional) 1996: Another duo disc, this one featuring Stewart Gillmor on piano; the repertoire includes “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?” and “In a Sentimental Mood” and tunes of a similar vintage.

Two Compositions (Trio) 1998: This Wesleyan University performance, originally a two-CD set, features a reed quintet; the first piece is mostly saxophone-focused, while on the second, several players switch to clarinets.

Composition No. 169 + (186 + 206 + 214): This double disc (90 minutes of music) was recorded live at the Ljubljana Music Festival in Slovenia in 2000, with four saxophonists and a symphony orchestra. It’s quite lush and beautiful.

GTM (Outpost) 2003: This live double disc was recorded at the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, New Mexico; the first piece is a saxophone duo with Chris Jonas, and on the second, they’re joined by vocalist Molly Sturges.

Trio (Glasgow) 2005: Another two-CD set, this one features Tom Crean on guitar, Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet, flugelhorn, and “trumpbone”, and Braxton on both saxophone and electronics.

We’ve also got three releases by master string player Mat Maneri, featuring his trio with bassist Ed Schuller and drummer Randy Peterson:

Fever Bed: On the trio’s first album, Maneri plays violin on a program of seven originals (“Blue Seven” is not the piece from Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus) and a version of Wayne Shorter’s “Iris”.

Fifty-One Sorrows: On the trio’s second album, Maneri shifts to baritone violin, and the disc includes, again, seven of his own compositions, plus two versions of Ornette Coleman’s “Tone Dialing”.

For Consequence: On the trio’s third and final disc, Maneri plays viola, and the album includes four original compositions and a version of David Raskin’s “Laura”.

We’ve put up two albums by brilliant guitarist Joe Morris:

No Vertigo: This 1996 solo release documents Morris working on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, and banjouke (a ukelele-sized banjo, perhaps?).

Illuminate: This album is a somewhat skronky post-Ornette session recorded in 1993, with alto saxophonist Rob Brown, (it’s actually credited to the Joe Morris/Rob Brown Quartet), bassist William Parker, and drummer Jackson Krall.

And finally, we’ve got five records by saxophone explorer Evan Parker:

Synergetics — Phonomanie III: This double disc presents live electroacoustic improvisation/composition featuring Parker and a slew of collaborators, including George Lewis, Sainkho Namchylak, Motoharu Yoshizawa and two Italian electronic musicians, Walter Prati and Marco “Bill” Vecchi.

Rangirua: This duo disc, recorded in New Zealand in 1999, features Parker on tenor and soprano saxophones and Richard Nunns playing traditional Maori musical instruments.

The Needles: Another double disc, this one features Parker alongside violinist Phil Wachsmann and bassist Teppo Hauta-aho; the first disc (tracks 1-3) were recorded live in Finland, while the rest (tracks 4-8) are a studio session from London.

Alder Brook: This is the first of two discs teaming Parker up with the European wind and brass ensemble September Winds (Peter A. Schmid, Hans Anliker, Jürg Solothurnmann, Reto Senn); it was recorded live in Switzerland in 2002.

Short Stories: The second collaboration between Parker and September Winds is a studio session, recorded in Switzerland in 2004.

Head over to the Leo Records Bandcamp page to listen to anything and everything we’ve released (56 titles so far, with more coming every month) and buy whatever interests you. As always, albums that were originally a single CD are $10, albums that were originally a 2CD set are $15, and prices go up from there for larger sets. Thanks as always for your support, and we’ll see you next week!