Kaoru Abe - the Last Recording 8.29.1978

the Last Recording 8.29.1978

I know that Abe's stuff can be very polarizing and with good reason. It comes off as noisy and fractured to bits and can be hard to listen to for a whole variety of reasons.

The thing about Abe is that no one on Earth could do what he did with Saxophone. The solo records tend to show this the best. Despite what it may sound like, he's not just skronky and blowing on a saxaphone just for the hell of it. Rather he's playing so many little melodies so fucking fast that it's fumbling all over itself trying to keep up.

The later recordings are less like that, with all the silence, but here's the kicker. the amount of information that Abe puts out with his horn on those records is equivalent to any other Free Improv recording.

Hope this made some sort of sense, if not feel free to tell me how wrong i am.

Abe is quite possibly my favorite player.