Welcome Anthony Braxton

[Lois Gilbert]

It is indeed the brilliant innovator Anthony Braxton. I emailed him and asked if we could start an Ask The Musicians area for him

Yay.

[Cem]

Hey Lois, stop the teasing... I'd love to hear Mr Braxton & Mr Crouch shoot the breeze.

[crawjo]

Wow...that's amazing.

Mr. Braxton, if you read this, I just want to say that I have just recently become exposed to your music, and I really dig it. Everything from For Alto all the way up to the Standards box that came out this year. Your music is playing constantly in my car and on my stereo at home, and my 1-year-old daughter especially likes to hear you play. Really! (Although, she may like Wadada Leo Smith even more, just because I can get her to say "Wadada.")

Okay, I'll shut up now.

[frankiepop]

Okay, I'll shut up now.

for even a minute? fat chance.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

YES -- another Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers fan!! That in itself will elevate the musical tastes of the place!

Welcome aboard! I think my favorites of your works are the duo and trio albums with Evan Parker from London 1993 (a distinctly minority opinion around here), although I liked that recent one with the bagpipes a lot, too.

[sonic1]

Anthony Braxton was my introduction to jazz and to "serious music". I discovered his music as a teenager. Someone from the Vassar College student station was playing his music and I tuned in from my little radio at home. It was some improvised piece from his mid 70's period (off one of the "In The Tradition" albums ironicly, and I said to myself, "Music can be like this???" I have been hooked ever since, now having spanned the whole of jazz and pre-jazz musics, as well as other related musics.

I have more albums from Braxton in my collection than from any other artist, which is saying a lot because I have a lot of music.

If Braxton shows up here, he has my mighty warm welcome. I owe him a lot for introducing my ears and neurons to improvised music.

Jared

[Lois Gilbert]

Originally Posted by Cem

Hey Lois, stop the teasing... I'd love to hear Mr Braxton & Mr Crouch shoot the breeze.

I swear I'm not teasing.... I emailed Stanley the link in news and Anthony, I had nothing to do with. In fact, I thought someone was just using his name and then I checked the email address. I do have a little connection to Anthony that I shared in my email to him tonight.

When Michael Cuscuna and I were getting ready to get married, we planned on doing it in Anthony's house in Woodstock. It was a blizzard in New York that weekend in February in 1970, so we couldn't get to Woodstock.

We postponed the wedding by a week, and put it together at the Vanguard with Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw and then Anthony joining in the frontline with a rhythm section of George Cables, Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis. As I, (and I'm sure Michael) say, it was a much better wedding than a marriage!

Now this time around Duke and I had a great wedding, and I hope many years of a great marriage.

Welcome Anthony.

[AntManBee]

Welcome indeed, Anthony Braxton!

[Uli]

Welcome, Mr. Braxton!

[Gary Sisco]

Hell, yeah. Welcome, Mr Braxton. I hope you have time to comment here now and then.

[Root Doctor]

Welcome, Mr. Braxton!

[JazzJunkie]

Originally Posted by Lois Gilbert

I swear I'm not teasing.... I emailed Stanley the link in news...

Oh sure, blame it on me Lo...



...Jazzy Mary and I will forgive you if you cough up some salacious stories...
in another thread, of course.

Welcome to Anthony and Stanley -- an honor!

[Pete C]

Lois, I don't think I ever knew you were married to Michael.

Many years ago I sat next to Anthony's in-laws at one of those Newport or Kool NY Jazz Festival jam sessions, where Anthony shared the stage with players from different generations and played standards. I think it may have been Carnegie Hall, and they were really beaming to see him up there.

I'd probably like to ask Anthony some questions about his titles, but I'm not sure my keyboard could handle it.

[Brian Olewnick]

Wow. Welcome, Mr. Braxton! Another long-time fan here, first encountering you, I think, on either the Circle Paris-Concert or Holland's 'Conference...' and first catching you live at the Woodstock concert with Teitelbaum in '76.

Looking forward to your contributions here.

[walto]

I like the idea of Braxton's JC membership, but I have to admit that I've never understood a single word he's written or or is reported to have spoken. Great great musician, of course.

[Pete C]

Walto, I'm sure you've understood single words. The sentences are another matter.

[Boris Badenov]

I guess I'd better comb my hair...

[Pete C]

I think the first time I saw Braxton was either 1974 or '75, at Studio Rivbea, with Holland & Altschul; I think it was a trio, as I don't remember Wheeler being there.

[Dan G]

Another welcome from a long-time fan. When I first started listening to jazz in the early/mid 80s, I bought a couple of your albums. Didn't understand or enjoy them at the time, but knew there was something there that intrigued me, so I kept working at it. It didn't take long to find one or two that blew me away (the quartet w/ Wheeler, Holland and Altschul for instance). Now, here I am two decades later with well over 100 of your albums and while I can't say I have it all figured out, I rank you as one of the most important composers/musicians in history. Welcome aboard, and I hope you do contribute here.

[stonemonkts]

I also heartily welcome Mr. Braxton to this forum.

Hearing a live cut on the radio back in my early days as a jazz fan opened my ears to the avant garde. I've been a big fan of your music ever since.

As far as not understanding a word, the interview with Locke on the London(?) recording is as clear as an azure lake on a summer day. Quite humorous too, when Locke asked about those strange track titles.

[sonic1]

They hardly ever play Braxton's music on the radio, but I believe new fans are converted every time someone does! I want to hear more about some of the classes that he teaches at Wesleyan; particularly the Sun Ra/Stockhausen course.

Here is his bio (from Wesleyan's site) for those that might be less familiar:


ANTHONY BRAXTON
To his list of achievements and awards, Anthony Braxton may now add the 1994 MacArthur Fellowship: the so-called "genius" grant of (in his case) $300,000, awarded to individuals nominated for outstanding and original contributions to their field.

The timing of this crowning achievement couldn't be better for Braxton's most recent professional goals: he is the founding Artistic Director of the newly incorporated Tri-Centric Foundation, Inc., a New York-based not-for-profit corporation including an ensemble of some 38 musicians, four to eight vocalists, and computer-graphic video artists assembled to perform his compositions.

The ensemble's debut at New York's The Kitchen sold out the last and most of the first two of three nights, through the press excitement it generated; the reviews--in Down Beat and the Chicago Tribune (John Corbett), the Village Voice (Kevin Whitehead), and the New York Times (Jon Pareles)--ranged from positive to ecstatic.

Most importantly, the musical success of the event inspired Braxton to pursue the "three-day and -night" program concept for this ensemble, including lectures/informances, and splinter chamber performances, around the world.

The second New York event, indeed, expanded on the concept: The Knitting Factory presented six nights of Anthony Braxton and his music, in all the variety of its vision. The first night showcased the composer's solo alto saxophone playing; the second his treatments of jazz-traditional material, both as reeds player and pianist; the third, his music for solo piano, and for synthesizer and acoustic sextet; the fourth showcased his new "Ghost Trance" music for small-to-medium groups; and the fifth and sixth his large-ensemble music, including Composition 102, with giant puppets. As with The Kitchen, all six nights included a full house and enthusiastic response.

This successful first season paid off: the second season has been virtually paid for by grants from the Mary Flagler Carey Charitable Trust and the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. It will feature the world premiere of the four-hour opera Trillium R at the John Jay Theater in New York, and the theatrical Composition 173 (for actors, improvisers, and ensemble) in collaboration with New York's Living Theater members, at The Kitchen.

Anthony Braxton is widely and critically acclaimed as a seminal figure in the music of the late 20th century. His work, both as a saxophonist and a composer, has broken new conceptual and technical ground in the trans-African and trans-European (a.k.a. "jazz" and "American Experimental") musical traditions in North America as defined by master improvisers such as Warne Marsh, John Coltrane, Paul Desmond, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and he and his own peers in the historic Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM, founded in Chicago in the late '60s); and by composers such as Charles Ives, Harry Partch, and John Cage.

He has further worked his own extensions of instrumental technique, timbre, meter and rhythm, voicing and ensemble make-up, harmony and melody, and improvisation and notation into a personal synthesis of those traditions with 20th-century European art music as defined by Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Varese and others.

Braxton's three decades worth of recorded output is kaleidescopic and prolific, and has won and continues to win prestigious awards and critical praise. Books, anthology chapters, scholarly studies, reviews and interviews and other media and academic attention to him and his work have also accumulated steadily and increasingly throughout those years, and continue to do so. His own self-published writings about the musical traditions from which he works and their historical and cultural contexts (Tri-Axium Writings 1-3) and his five-volume Composition Notes A-E are unparalleled by artists from the oral and unmatched by those in the literate tradition.

Braxton is also a tenured professor at Wesleyan University, one of the world's centers of world music. His teaching career, begun at Mills College in Oakland, California, has become as much a part of his creative life as his own work, and includes training and leading performance ensembles and private tutorials in his own music, computer and electronic music, and history courses in the music of his major musical influences, from the Western Medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen to contemporary masters with whom he himself has worked (e.g. Cage, Coleman).

Braxton's name continues to stand for the broadest integration of such oft-conflicting poles as "creative freedom" and "responsibility," discipline and energy, and vision of the future and respect for tradition in the current cultural debates about the nature and place of the Western and African-American musical traditions in America. His newly formed New York-based ensemble company is bringing to that debate a voice that is fresh and strong, still as new as ever even as it takes on the authority of a seasoned master.

[Rob C]

Welcome Mr. Braxton!

Please play in Chicago sometime!

[Cem]

Originally Posted by Lois Gilbert

I swear I'm not teasing.... I emailed Stanley the link in news and Anthony, I had nothing to do with. In fact, I thought someone was just using his name and then I checked the email address. I do have a little connection to Anthony that I shared in my email to him tonight.

Excellent! Welcome home, Mr. Braxton! I cannot tell a lie...I'll be on his case to come & play in Vancouver. How many years has it been? 15?

Originally Posted by Pete

Lois, I don't think I ever knew you were married to Michael.

You don't think you ever knew?

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by walto

I like the idea of Braxton's JC membership, but I have to admit that I've never understood a single word he's written or or is reported to have spoken. Great great musician, of course.

Some might say the same of you, Mr. Horn. Have you read Forces in Motion?

[claude]

Excellent news! Being a relative jazz newbie, at least compared to the cats around here, I'm still building the Braxton section of my collection. But his is music that I go back to often.

What are the chances of an "Ask Anthony Braxton" thread?

[walto]

Originally Posted by crawjo

Some might say the same of you, Mr. Horn. Have you read Forces in Motion?

I thought I was alway as clear as Waterford crystal!! No I haven't read that book.

[moneyp]

Far too cool. Hope both Mr. Crouch and Mr. Braxton find the time to participate on the board.

[Sergio Zamora]

Wow, this is awesome!

[Douglas]

Excellent to have you here, Mr. Braxton, and I hope you will be able to participate.