Anthony Braxton: Search and Destroy

This is a book by a very enthusiastic convert who was on the spot (played on Eugene). Heffley chases up many references from the notes, brings in the other two books and plenty of other sources. The various mythological clues are treated consistently. Most usefully perhaps for you Sundar, he provides plain-speak/ parallel universe walkthroughs for many of Braxton's different instrumental configurations or categories.

Given the volume of Braxton compositions out there it's a drop in the ocean, but the various categorical and individual composition assessments are pretty well organised, brief yet fair for a 400 page book.
Braxton always provides comparisons, opinions and parallels in the jazz tradition, so a fair amount of the book attempts to place him in the continuum, which may not be news.

However for a book that's both introduction and deep-end plunge it's undoubtedly sincere and a labour of love, possibly even a devotional work. Of course the enigmatic mystery mumbo-jumbo that is Braxton qua words still seems to escape, the answers typically raising more questions, but that's Braxton's edge intact i suppose.

I've heard from someone who attended a lecture of his that the graphics are symbols and there are in fact more thorough and comprehensible scores behind the pieces. Also, that it all starts to seem totally sensible once you give him time.

but i think his ideas about *music* i.e. those ideas that, in whatever idiosyncratic personal fashion, may feed into his music... and those ideas that are offered, didactically, as theories of musical history and development are two different things, or perhaps can be measured by different standards. just b/c his music often comes out as compelling doesn't mean his ideas about music history hold much water.

i guess part of this is just my extreme allergy to obscurantist writing and overtheorizing. and the familiar campus cult of personality that often develops around such figures.

Let me add some love for the Wadada Leo Smith/Anthony Braxton duo on Pi Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace. It is a conversation between two massive souls, rivals Ornette/Cherry for cosmic connection. Some really nice moments.

And since I posted my love for Quartet (London) 1985 above, I picked up (Coventry). The interviews are great and the playing is better than on the London disc, if that is possible. It all feels less confined. Anyway from what I've heard, these two are my favorite Braxton band.

A lot of those Leo's are really good. Some faves are the duo with Evan Parker, the duo with Abraham Adzinyah (sort of a Hamid Drake-like drummer, hadn't heard of him before), and Composition No. 94 For Three Instrumentalists (1980). It's easy to listen to this stuff for days since everything is long and packed with ideas. Sometimes it can be overwhelming but there's always something new around every corner. I do see the humor in some of this stuff, but I always get the sense that Braxton is concentrating very hard.

I have fond memories of Eugene but haven't heard it in years.

Wrong.

In the "just remotely" category, maybe some of the duet/trio pieces with synthesist Richard Teitelbaum, touched upon upthread?

there's no tyondai braxton thread (his son) so here:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27698

Lolz that's terrific.

The Arista records were given a re-issue on Mosaic. Got three on LP from the years of looking at 2nd hand shops: For Trio, Duets '76 and Alto '79. The former especially has become one of my very faves, of only a handful I have from his massive discog.

Not really going to get this boxset but I was wondering about For Four Orchestras. Like how does it compare to Gruppen, for example?

Read an article or two about his time there. Seems really amazing in retrospect how they issued the guy's work for five years, obv orchestral music still gets funding from a variety of resources/foundations that support classical music but how could someone from a jazz background even begin to think of getting a project that functions in that grey area between jazz and classical funded?

Bit late in answering that but what the heck. The thing is, at the time Braxton's signing to Arista made good commercial sense for Arista. Record sales were booming, even sales of jazz records were booming. He was a marketable commodity and Arista made great play out of him in their advertising campaigns. The first few records he did for them were profitable. When he finally got dropped it wasn't because he was failing them in particular. The bottom fell out of the jazz market in general.

What exactly is "forward space"? Is he talking about, say, a 'living' improvisational "canvas" that is always changing based on performers/context? Is it easier to define it in terms of what it is not?

context?

I've given up trying to parse Braxton's theories, I just listen to the music.

Just saw your ans to my little qn anagram. tx.

I've given up trying to parse Braxton's theories, I just listen to the music.

― goth colouring book (anagram), Friday, October 3, 2014 3:35 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think this is the best answer! i love so much of his music, but i'm still of the mind that a lot of his theorizing is just bull.

I saw him give a lecture/overview of his systems/work, and it suddenly dawned on me that many of his theories just obfuscated the obvious. "Pulse-track logics"? Metric time.

I mean, it works for him, and he seems to get as much (or more) enjoyment out of developing his systems/theories as he does attempting to realize them, so more power to him. I don't think it's bullshit -- he's sincere about it, and I don't think he's doing it as a put-on. But so much of it strikes me as the compositional equivalent of driving from Chicago to Milwaukee via Seattle and Phoenix: yeah, you eventually get where you're going, but you made the journey needlessly burdensome and complicated.

Its definitely not bullshit, but I also often think its simply the way he expresses himself, so what appears to be "needlessly burdensome and complicated" to some is actually a simple A --> B for him. If you don't care to do the work, or you don't have the time then its fine - but that doesn't mean you simply dismiss it as the charlatan side to him.

That's what I was saying; whatever works for him, cool. I wasn't dismissing his methods (though I have noticed a tendency among some critics to become dazzled by the complicated nature of his systems at the expense of any discussion -- or criticism -- of his actual music).

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61MNM09dmUL._SX355_.jpg

anthony braxton - robert schumann quartet

wonderful, thanks massaman gai for another invaluable tip

been spinning "echo echo mirror house" recently as well, which is a challenge cos one long track & people want to watch spiderman on a regular basis in this room. was initially put off by "playing along to ipod collage" aspect but dang if this aint musically cohesive dense & flipin brilliant.

will have to check that schumann quartet one out at some point, the last Braxton I listened to was a fab 70's live duo set with George Lewis which goes from the sublime to the quackers!

"The duo album with Max Roach which came out on Black Saint in '79 (sorry don't have it to hand right now so can't remember the title, but definitely out on CD) is also a good 'un."

replying to an ancient Marcello post - it's called Birth and Rebirth and it is indeed a good 'un!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/arts/anthony-braxton-composer.html

sometimes in composition no. 254 they sound like they're singing radio station IDs

Be advised that the Braxton Composer Portrait show at the Miller Center 9/25/19 with Either/Or and JACK Quartet is on surreptitious sharing services and it's a decent recording of a great show

I interviewed Marilyn Crispell for Down Beat and we talked about Braxton, obviously.

There's video of a Stockhausen-scale Braxtonathon in Berlin, looks like a great time was had by all

I'd never previously really connected with the man's music, but on a whim the other day I rescued Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005 from the dollar CD bin and I'm really enjoying it. It's a far cry from the brainy and occasionally bloodless music I (perhaps naively) dismissed many years ago. Turns out I may be a fan of Braxton's "ghost trance" era (despite having very little idea what that is in concept). Thinking I should hear more of his later material. Any suggestions?

A friend of mine walked out of his last gig in London! So he's still provocative at least.

Any suggestions?

I remember liking Four Compositions (GTM) 2000, which is on Delmark, quite a bit at the time and, like you, being surprised by how entertaining and fun it was.

Thanks! That's the next one I'll check out. I feel like I'm about to enter a Braxton phase.