― o. nate (onate), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Salvador Saca (Mr. Xolotl), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Monday, 21 March 2005 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 21 March 2005 20:18 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 03:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 07:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― rizzx (Rizz), Friday, 4 August 2006 21:34 (seventeen years ago) link
I have fond memories of Eugene but haven't heard it in years.
― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Friday, 4 August 2006 23:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― rizzx (Rizz), Saturday, 5 August 2006 09:48 (seventeen years ago) link
Wrong.
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 5 August 2006 11:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― rizzx (Rizz), Saturday, 5 August 2006 12:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Whitman Mayonnaise (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 5 August 2006 12:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― rizzx (Rizz), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:09 (seventeen years ago) link
In the "just remotely" category, maybe some of the duet/trio pieces with synthesist Richard Teitelbaum, touched upon upthread?
― mark 0 (mark 0), Saturday, 5 August 2006 14:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― rizzx (Rizz), Saturday, 5 August 2006 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link
there's no tyondai braxton thread (his son) so here: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27698
― sanskrit, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 16:06 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 19:50 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― anagram, Sunday, 10 January 2010 09:59 (fourteen years ago) link
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?
― brimstead, Tuesday, 1 July 2014 22:27 (nine years ago) link
context?
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 3 October 2014 07:23 (nine years ago) link
I've given up trying to parse Braxton's theories, I just listen to the music.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Friday, 3 October 2014 08:35 (nine years ago) link
Just saw your ans to my little qn anagram. tx.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 October 2014 08:44 (nine years ago) link
― 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 dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 6 October 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 6 October 2014 20:40 (nine years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 7 October 2014 10:40 (nine years ago) link
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).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 7 October 2014 13:28 (nine years ago) link
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
― j., Friday, 5 October 2018 01:29 (five years ago) link
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.
― massaman gai, Friday, 5 October 2018 12:01 (five years ago) link
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!
― calzino, Friday, 5 October 2018 12:25 (five years ago) link
"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!
― calzino, Saturday, 6 October 2018 12:33 (five years ago) link
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
― j., Sunday, 13 January 2019 05:00 (five years ago) link
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
― Brakhage, Saturday, 19 October 2019 18:36 (four years ago) link
I interviewed Marilyn Crispell for Down Beat and we talked about Braxton, obviously.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 21 October 2019 16:53 (four years ago) link
There's video of a Stockhausen-scale Braxtonathon in Berlin, looks like a great time was had by all
― Brakhage, Sunday, 3 November 2019 17:46 (four years ago) link
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?
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 15 February 2020 14:17 (four years ago) link
A friend of mine walked out of his last gig in London! So he's still provocative at least.
― Load up your rubber wallets (Tom D.), Saturday, 15 February 2020 14:23 (four years ago) link
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.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 15 February 2020 14:33 (four years ago) link
Thanks! That's the next one I'll check out. I feel like I'm about to enter a Braxton phase.
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 15 February 2020 14:42 (four years ago) link
Quartet (GTM) 2006 on Important is also a good one from that era.
Also, not Ghost Trance era but if you're unfamiliar with Braxton's 1980s quartet with Marilyn Crispell, Gerry Hemingway and Mark Dresser, check out the Leo Records releases from London and Coventry.
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Saturday, 15 February 2020 15:07 (four years ago) link
i don't know if it's easy find these days, but graham lock's book forces in motion is a very readable account of that quartet's UK tour in 1985 (lock travelled with them) and also an introduction to braxton's work as a whole, which i think generally squishes the "brainy yet bloodless" perception -- a lot of it is pretty funny as i recall (often at lock's expense).
― mark s, Saturday, 15 February 2020 15:21 (four years ago) link
https://store.doverpublications.com/0486824098.html
^^^apparently an updated edition from a couple of years back
― mark s, Saturday, 15 February 2020 15:22 (four years ago) link
Just found the Lock book for $9 with free shipping, so that's on its way here now.
That Important set looks great, but I may wait a bit before pulling the trigger on a box set.
I see that the Coventry disc (whose reputation precedes it, iirc) was released in full and also in a single-disc version (which of course is less expensive). I may grab the abridged version for now.
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 15 February 2020 15:27 (four years ago) link
The Lock book is fucking fantastic (reissued last year). It absolutely cracked Braxton's music open for me, just because learning about him as a human being - his weird sense of humor and personality quirks - allowed me to think about what I was hearing in a completely different way.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 15 February 2020 15:49 (four years ago) link
Braxton's 1980s quartet with Marilyn Crispell, Gerry Hemingway and Mark Dresser
^^^I love this group so much but have had mixed feeling any time I've tried to venture further into Braxton's catalog. Willisau (Quartet) 1991 is probably my favorite but generally just really enjoy everything they did.
― cwkiii, Sunday, 16 February 2020 03:18 (four years ago) link
^^^ thread revive prompted me to put Willisau on tonight
― Miami weisse (WmC), Sunday, 16 February 2020 04:02 (four years ago) link
always preferred the small group stuff before but duos are really working for me atm - recently released one with harpist jacqueline kerrod is great, as are the ones with miya masaoka, fred frith, derek bailey (who I don’t always love), max roach, richard teitelbaum, doubtless plenty more I haven’t heard yet
I feel like his larger scale long form compositions deserve more attention than they get, but they can be intimidating. what I’ve heard from the iridium set is great
it’s pretty shitty the treatment (or lack thereof) he’s received from classical gatekeepers- ditto for bill dixon, cecil taylor, ornette & others - for which i can think of reasons. some of the orchestral stuff I’ve heard could have been better performed/conducted/recorded. he has a right to be bitter about boulez and fucking zappa
the standards are enjoyable enough but don’t blow my mind like some of his other stuff does. maybe they’re not supposed to. idc about “not swinging” or “getting the changes wrong” as some jazz nerds complain but his playing is much more exciting elsewhere imo
― If you choose too long a name, your new display name will be truncated in (Left), Friday, 10 July 2020 13:28 (three years ago) link
Listening to the new Thumbscrew record and got the idea of cross-referencing his discography for multiple interpretations of the same composition...I'm guessing the below is the best resource for that? sadly outdated...
https://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/BraxDisco.htm
― cwkiii, Friday, 31 July 2020 13:30 (three years ago) link
ah.. thanks for the new Thumbscrew album alert, this sounds ace.
― calzino, Friday, 31 July 2020 14:10 (three years ago) link
Listening to the two duo albums Braxton recorded with Wadada Leo Smith live at Tonic in 2002/2003, Organic Resonance and Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 31 July 2020 14:30 (three years ago) link