Anthony Braxton Music

I hate being the first one to comment on stuff like this.If I had stayed in school,I would have like to learned how to be able to put all kinds of highbrow words together and publish stuff,especially on jazzological matters.Can you dig what I'm hip to?I know that you can.Ey IMO_ just get ant of the earlier Anthony jams,develop your own brand of taste and progress along just like w/ anything else,is about all I can type.
Maybe some advice? When reading these reviews ,look for the one's by jazz DJ's.Most of those guys are still on the air.Knowledge and insight abound round theyah!
Without Music,the world would be a mistake

It's simply unbelevible, Max Roach and Anthony Braxton did a wonderful job.They're doing free improvisation, and the breath and heartbeats of the two masters are just as one. You got to hear to believe, it's the greatest experience I ever heard for a Reed-Drum Duet!

The first point that must be made is that there is something wrong w/ this listing. Performance (Quartet) 1979 is a Hat Hut CD from 1990 of an Anthony Braxton Quartet concert that took place at the Jazz Festival Willisau on September 1, 1979. So this listing either has the wrong personnel or the wrong title. I suspect the wrong personnel. I recommend highly that you communicate with the seller prior to purchase.
The good news is that Hat Hut has rereleased this CD recently as part of an ongoing rerelease of their Braxton titles that they seem to be doing. My advice is to snap it up. Hat Hat releases number usually a few thousand and the population of Braxtonia is large and maniacal. I should know.
The quartet on this release lasted only a short time. Besides AB on all things reed (he plays no flute on this one), the is a young Ray Anderson on the trombone, John Lindberg on bass and Thurman Barker on the drums.
During this period, AB was moving toward his collage musics (I am not sure that is the correct term but the basic idea was that any member(s) of the quartet could reference any Braxton composition within the body of any other piece). The most amazing facet of AB's work as a leader is how often he was able to put together and lead for a time fellow musicians who could actually pull this off. Who could know not only several hundred compositions but their components and know them well enough to understand how they related to each other. Not only that but musicians who, in the course of a performance, could creatively juxtapose one component of one composition against another composition or component. And who could do all of this within interchangeable understandings of quartet interactions ranging from Dixieland (simultaneous improvs) to bebop (soloist,rythym section) to modern classical (long written passages for the group or subgroupings). It is a remarkably high ideal for group/individual interaction and it is amazing how often AB was able to put together such groups.
It helped, of course, that he is such a mighty composer. I have said before that one of the great strengths of composers like AB and Henry Threadgill is that they love all musics. And they want to write within many of those traditions. AB composes marches, dirges, bebop melodies, modern classical compositions and trance music. Perhaps the most amazing thing about him is that he is both profuse and profound. Can you tell I am a fan?
And, for the record, the compositions include four from the 69 series (C,E,F, G), two from the 40 series (F and I) and 23G.
This is great music coming from a rich period of AB's career where he was about to achieve on some of his most remarkable accomplishments within the context of his 'classic' quartet w/ Hemingway, Dresser and Crispell. This grouping is not of that quality but they are close. It is worth the price of admission to hear what Ray Anderson does with some of these compositions. Any fan of AB should pick up this recording while it is still available.

This is a surprisingly good live recording that was made by WDR Cologne during a Braxton quartet concert at Dortmund on October 31, 1976. AB became aware of the taping years later (1991) and this hatOLOGY release is the result.
I recently finished a Listmania on Braxton and noticed that this CD has no reviews posted. Since this is one of AB's greatest groupings, I thought I should rectify that situation.
The foundation is his great 70s rhythm section of Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on drums. The fourth member of the quartet was George Lewis on trombone. It is too bad that this grouping lasted only six months or so. The combination of AB and Lewis has always been explosive and Holland-Altschul were musical conceptualists to match the principals.
AB's compositions on this CD are a delight. The first piece is 40F combined with 23J (please don't ask me to pretend to know what AB's nomenclature means- I just roll with it). 40F is a delightful sequence of half-tone steps that are reconfigured in four sections before opening out into an improvisational space for the group. This is a great example(to my ears) of Braxton's wit- an underappreciated facet of his musical persona. He is as funny in his own way as Mingus was or as Zappa was. The soli on the 23J by AB, Lewis and Altschul are astonishing. Braxton is playing fairly straight largely eschewing extended techniques until the very end of his solo where the multiphonics get a little work out. But I challenge you to listen to the body of his solo and not admit that the man is a master of the hard-bop alto (admittedly adapted to Braxton's melodic sense). AB has always been able to flat out play.
I also wanted to mention Composition 6C. This is one of Braxton's march
compositions. He and Lewis have great fun with this one throwing off march phrases and then deconstructing the material like crazy. AB's appreciation of the tradition goes back to its historical roots. As proof of this I suggest a listen to his mid-90s duet CD with Stewart Gilmore.
And for all you more straight ahead jazz types, I recommend a listen to Composition 40B. This is like some alternate universe Blue Note tune.
All in all a great CD and an essential AB document. We can only hope that hatOLOGY does one of its occassional reissues. Keep an eye on the hathut site just in case. This is one you don't want to miss.