Anthony Braxton Music

This is a Braxton dream quartet-Anthony Davis on piano,Mark Helias on bass,and the incredible Ed Blackwell on drums.A great introduction to Braxton's music,the compositions between five and nine minutes long.Recorded not long before he formed his long-standing quartet with Crispell,Hemingway,Dresser,this is an essential recording from Braxton's classic period,although with the new live recording coming in April,he seems to have found his muse again.

"Composition No. 40B" is a great piece with a furious alto sax solo - it wouldn't sound out of place on Dave Holland's "Conference of the Birds". "Composition 40A" is a little more abstract and sounds nothing like "40B"; I wish I understood Braxton's numbering system so I could understand the relations of one work to the next. The rest of the recording finds Braxton working his way through an arsenal of woodwinds accompanied by Anthony Davis on piano, Mark Helias on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums. The songs (composed between 1974 and 1976) are quirky and abstract - but not too much so; this recording is a good introduction to Braxton's music.

I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that the previous review seems to be referring to the other 'six compositions' collection and that this CD appears to be the one that features Marilyn Crispell on piano, John Lindberg on bass and
Gerry Hemingway on drums.

This is one of the most approachable of Anthony Braxton's discs. It's a fine band he's assembled, with Mal Waldron on piano, Buell Neidlinger on bass & Bill Osborne on drums. The choice of material is refreshingly unobvious: "Brilliant Corners", "Ask Me Now", "Played Twice", "Four in One", "Reflections" & "Skippy". (It's curious, by the way, to note that the album shares two musicians--Waldron & Neidlinger--and most of the Monk compositions with Steve Lacy's classic 1960s Prestige date _Reflections_.) Braxton's in peppy form here, & Waldron an utterly authentic Monkian. I do have some reservations: Braxton's playing, here as more damagingly so on other post-1970s recordings, is prolix & entirely athematic: it has little cumulative structure. The solo on "Skippy" for instance goes on and on.... Waldron certainly could have used more much generously apportioned solo-space. Yet it's hard to cavil too much: this is a fun album, one of the best Monk tributes I've heard.

I have about 20 Braxton albums from diferent periods of his career and this is my favorite mainly because of the band that supports him (Dave Holland among them) and because of the great sound this cd has. Also the compositions are daring and fresh even today. Check it out!

...let me just add that the sound is awsome too. Great listening experience on top of some of the best music ever.
Its a shame this and other cds by braxton are so hard too find...

With so many hat Art CDs becoming increasingly hard to find, it is great to see that Anthony Braxton's classic "Town Hall (Trio & Quintet) 1972" is still available. This live recording features four performances from May 22nd at the famous New York venue. The first two are trio recordings -- the medley of "Composition 6 N" and "Composition 6 (O)," and Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are" -- featuring Dave Holland on bass and Philip Wilson on drums. The final two tracks, "Composition 6 P I" and "Composition 6 P II," feature the quintet of Dave Holland, John Stubblefield on tenor sax and flute, Barry Altschul on drums and Jeanne Lee on vocals. Anyone who appreciates early Braxton recordings, Chick Corea's "Early Circle" or Dave Holland's "Conference of the Birds," will thoroughly enjoy "Town Hall."