Alto saxophonist Alan Braufman and pianist Cooper-Moore’s first documented musical collaboration was in 1972, when they recorded a live session at Columbia University’s WKCR radio station. Two years later, backed by a full band that included bassist Cecil McBee, the duo recorded Braufman’s debut album Valley of Search in the duo’s loft at 501 Canal St. Released by India Navigation in 1975, the album was reissued in 2018 to great acclaim (the New York Times, Downbeat, Jazz Times), followed by a sold-out performance at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust.
In 2020, Alan Braufman released the album The Fire Still Burns – again collaborating with Cooper-Moore, and the New York musicians James Brandon Lewis (tenor sax), Andrew Drury (drums), and Ken Filiano (bass). In 2021, the Chicago composer and clarinetist Angel Bat Dawid remixed the song “Sunrise,” and in 2022, the archival recording Live in New York City February 8, 1975 – which features William Parker on bass – was released as a deluxe triple-vinyl LP set.
