Anthony Braxton Music

This album, recorded on Halloween 1976 and released through the Switzerland Hat Hut label (Re-released in 2001 as an edition of 3000 CDs on the Hatology series), is a stellar example of Braxton at his finest.
And what an example!
This is creative music in general at its finest. The compositions here are absolutely invigorating, used as springboards for some of the most incredible and telepathic improvising this listener has ever encountered on disk.

"Composition 40 F", Braxton's "half-step" piece, begins as such, climbing harmonically up and down in chromatics with the two horns locking into various intervals between. That being stated, the group proceeds almost naturally into improvisation. In free-form dialog, Braxton on clarinet, the group feeds off and apart from the ideas proposed in the arrangement. Following a brief trombone rumination, Braxton returns on the frightening contrabass clarinet, bellowing distorted purrs and timbre shifts (think Stockhausen). A bass solo serves as a transition into "Composition 23 J", where the sparks really begin to fly. The arrangement here is sickening rapid and the improvisations that follow continue in that vain. Braxton's technique is complete, and then some. His staccato lines are punctuated by breathtaking lyricism, eventually losing control to unfettered shrieks and blasts. Lewis certainly holds his own during his spotlight while Holland and Altschul drive the two through several stages of intensity.
Incredible.

"Composition 40 (O)" is a practice in "progressive" music, exemplified by Braxton first on sopranino, then on contrabass saxophone. Lewis sees him through, finding common ground by growling the trombone's lower register.
"Composition 6 C" is sheer joy. Demonstrating Braxton's love for circus music, the piece is constructed over a repeating bass line. Once again, Braxton and Lewis shine here, trading off marching-band clichés, sirens, and tonal/atonal gas with an unbridled enthusiasm rarely found within most avant-garde camps.
"Composition 40 B" closes the set with a hard-swinging tribute to Lou Donaldson.

This is required listening for both skeptics of the genius Anthony Braxton and those elusive to the pure magic which is jazz.

You won't be reading this unless you are already familiar with Anthony Braxton. While it isn't essential, it still is way above the average Braxton. The use of mallets is a refreshing setting for Braxton, they really get something going. Listen to the soundfiles here, and you will know for yourself.

You won't be reading this unless you are already familiar with Anthony Braxton. While it isn't essential, it still is way above the average Braxton. The use of mallets is a refreshing setting for Braxton, they really get something going. Listen to the soundfiles here, and you will know for yourself.

why, I would have never expected these two to be involved in something so _nice_ sounding. Braxton and Parker still employ all the esoteric techniques in their repertoire, yet the music is very melodic and catching. The interplay is magical -- what is captured on disc here is a conversation, a cooperation of minds whose transcendental end is understanding, beauty, and truth.

This disc documents a live concert encounter between Evan Parker & Anthony Braxton at the 1993 London Jazz Festival. It's not really typical of either musician's work--unlike most of Braxton's work, it's entirely improvised, without any reliance on the numbered series of compositions that he usually draws on for performances; & unlike most of Parker's work, it's decidedly in a _jazz_ bag. This is an unexpectedly emotional encounter, & mostly quiet, melodically oriented. These two musicians are the creators of the most formidable solo saxophone musics of recent decades (taking up the challenge of recordings like Hawkins' "Picasso" & Dolphy's "Tenderly"); but this encounter is actually more reminiscent of the Warne Marsh/Lee Konitz duets of the 1950s and 1970s.

There are few other discs which so palpably demonstrate how music can be created out of thin air by players with well-honed senses of structure, sharp ears & quick wits. There is not a wasted note on this disc: whereas much free jazz & free improv works via the establishment of separate, bustling areas of activity which serve as almost a white-noise canvas against which new patterns & changes of direction emerge, these duets are performed in close proximity, unspooling like a single gesture. Though both players are masters of circular breathing, & several key points here involve polyphonic streams of unbroken variations, the real drama here comes in the in & out of breathing, as lines emerge from silence & drop back.

This is one of the best discs of the 1990s: perhaps a disc that might appeal to those who find the fiercer or more abstract recordings by Parker & Braxton hard to approach. It should be considered an extension of the "cool" saxophone playing of Desmond, Marsh, Konitz & Giuffre: those who respond to that strain of saxophone playing will find much to enjoy & ponder here.