Two Nights in Zürich, Two Orchestras
Free improvisation and new composition meet on a Zürich stage, and the seam between them is audible.
When Zurich Concerts appeared in 1988 on Intakt Records, it did not arrive with fanfare. It was a vinyl document of two large-scale performances by the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, the kind of record that circulated among listeners who already followed European free improvisation closely. Its reputation grew slowly, through word of mouth and a few considered reviews rather than any sudden acclaim. By the time it was reissued on CD in 1995, it had settled into the status of a quiet, important cult record.
The critical response leaned positive. AllMusic reviewer Thom Jurek described the Zurich evenings as among the most intimate and prophetic expressions in the orchestra's history, and argued that they showed exactly where free improvisation and new composition meet. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings made a sharper point: this was one of the few times Anthony Braxton's contact with British and European improvisers produced music that really communicated, rather than simply sitting side by side with it.
The two pieces are built differently. Barry Guy works with existing subgroups of the orchestra, so the textures shift as smaller units take the lead and then fold back into the whole. Braxton stacks his compositions in dense layers, so the listener hears several musical ideas pressing against each other at once. If you want to hear the orchestra at its most adventurous and least polite, this is a strong place to start.
