Whenever the controversy about what or who is or isn’t jazz is breached there’s likely no more polarizing figure than Anthony Braxton. Braxton has been so prolific in his writing and playing however that ample arguments can be mustered for both points of view. These recent CDs should add more verbiage to the discussion. Although both are well executed and absorbing, Braxton’s protean skills are such that a case can be made either way. […]

Echo Echo Mirror House on the other hand, recorded live in 2011 at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, is played by a septet of Braxton associates, with the composer participating. Perhaps because the hour-plus Composition No 347 allows the players to add snatches of other Braxton pieces plus incorporate still other sounds sourced from iPods, the result is as convincingly jazzy as any advanced improvised music. […]

Encompassing vivid stylists like Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson and Braxton himself, solo interjections are audible during Composition No 347, animating the already powerfully staccato creation. Upping the ante with found sounds emanating from the musicians’ iPods — include piano chamber music and near-operatic vocals — the effect is of several compositions being played simultaneously. So-called classical voicing and orchestration are prominently featured, but so are chugging band pulsations which reflect Basie a lot more than Beethoven. Plus, when it comes to the cornetist’s muted flutter tonguing, the guitarist’s tempo-transcending flanges and crunches and the saxophonist’s stuttering intensity, reference points are without doubt improvisations that derive from jazz — if they’re not jazz itself. Without question, the visceral excitement missing from the more formal Ensemble Montaigne CD is present here. Extravagantly and rousingly performed, by the penultimate sequence, the composition threatens to explode from unrelentless pressure following some frenzied contrabass clarinet lines from Carl Testa and Aaron Siegel’s glockenspiel hammering. Propitiously Braxton, Bynum and Halvorson combine with connective harmonies in the final minutes, effectively ending the piece.

With Echo Echo Mirror House vibrating with express-train-like tremolo power and Ensemble Montaigne making its points through precise tonal juxtaposition, Braxton’s musical powers are doubly confirmed. As to how you define these pieces that may be something best left to musicologists.