Kaoru Abe

[ep1str0phy]

The "self-taught" saxophonist thread (to which I have no new information to contribute) got me thinking about Abe, mentioned as he was. Letting his music sink in for a bit, I don't think he's as entirely inaccessible as his reputation makes out. His solo recordings, even in their more heated moments, are pretty transparent when set alongside Braxton (especially on For Alto). I also managed to (finally) find a CD copy of Milford Grave's Meditation Among Us, and I was completely unshocked by Abe's playing in this more idiomatic free context--nothing more ear destroying than, for example, Marion Brown on Porto Novo (citing a similarly acerbic alto), Zorn, or Charles Tyler with Ayler (and not as scary as Ayler, for that matter).

Now the stuff with Takayanagi is an entirely different matter. That mass direction duo stuff on DIW can be hard to take by any measure. Even in his more explosive contexts, though, I find that Abe expresses his ideas with a profound, if extremely pained, lyricism, eminently approachable in a cousin way to Ornette's blues-stained abstractions. Also, unlike, say Arthur Doyle, who is very technically nebulous, Abe is always extremely articulate in his idiom, forceful and direct.