Kaoru Abe Alto 2

A live, solo performance from early 1972, this disc captures all the passion and frenzy of this major, tragic figure of the Japanese jazz avantgarde. The sparse handclaps from the audience give some indication of how little appreciated he was during his brief life (he died of an overdose in 1978), but the music created stands up quite well against contemporaneous experimentation among the American and European vanguard. Although often compared to Albert Ayler and Anthony Braxton, he lacks the former s supersaturated blues sense and the latter s hyperintellectual investigative desire. Instead, he combines some of the same bitterness, ferocity, and even lyricism of players like Peter Brötzmann. Each improvisation is like a headlong leap into the flames, all caution cast aside, all considerations channeled into the expression of the moment. Almost necessarily, this creates music of varying quality, cohering in thrilling fashion at some points, unraveling into a chaotic blur at others, but th