{"id":5678,"date":"2016-03-16T15:54:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T15:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=5678"},"modified":"2016-03-16T15:54:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T15:54:24","slug":"can-we-keep-up-with-anthony-braxton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/16\/can-we-keep-up-with-anthony-braxton\/","title":{"rendered":"Can We Keep Up With Anthony Braxton?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo<\/a>
photo by Carolyn Wachnicki<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nTwo years ago, when Anthony Braxton<\/strong> was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, he was\u00a0was showcased in the awards concert as a composer. He didn’t pick up any of the reed instruments he plays with mastery, or sit down at the piano.
\nThe short scene presented from his opera, \u201cTrillium J,\u201d was atonal, emblematic of his distinctive voice and, in spots, deeply funny. Braxton talked for more than 30 minutes, reflecting on both well-known sources of inspiration, such as Chicago\u2019s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), with which he had early and formative connection, and less obvious ones, like the University of Michigan marching band. He seemed to relish being called a \u201cmaster,\u201d but not the word \u201cjazz.\u201d
\n\u201cMy interests were never idiomatic,\u201d he said. \u201cMy interests were trans-idiomatic.\u201d
\nIt’s been fasinating to watch lately as the profound influence of the unclassifiable masters connected with the AACM continues to deepen and widen, even as these elder musicians produce original work at an impressive clip. (Witness, for instance, Henry Threadill’s recent work, or Wadada Leo Smith’s.) At 70, Braxton’s\u00a0projects continue to spill forth, to grow and morph, in ways that trace his inspirations and ideas backward and forward, always expanding the grand and grandly organic systems within which his work\u00a0exists. Those who have been influenced by these musicians\u2014an expanding sphere with expansive reach, I’d argue\u2014live in trans-idiomatic world that minds like Braxton’s continue to sketch.
\nIn Braxton’s case, it’s not just the sheer volume of work (how can one find time to digest it all?) or the quality (just listen); it’s also the scope and innovation of what Braxton is\u00a0doing: Are we ready for this yet? Can we handle it?<\/p>\n
I’ve just received word that Braxton\u00a0<\/b>is set for the release of three major boxed sets of his works on\u00a0April 1\u00a0<\/b>via\u00a0the Tri-Centric Foundation\u00a0<\/a><\/b>and\u00a0Firehouse 12 Records<\/b>. It\u00a0includes the best representation yet of Braxton’s four-part opera, “Trillium J”; a quintet tribute to the legacy of Lennie Tristano, with Braxton at the piano; and\u00a0Braxton\u2019s “Echo Echo Mirror House Music”\u2014the press release describes the latter as “the latest conceptual innovation in Braxton\u2019s five-decade career\u2026.\u00a0In this ensemble of longtime collaborators, all the musicians wield iPods in addition to their instruments, while navigating scores that combine cartography and evocative graphic notation, creating a musical tapestry combining live performance and sampled sound from Braxton\u2019s extensive recorded discography.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Braxton will celebrate the three releases with rare U.S. concert appearances at the\u00a0Big Ears Festival<\/b>\u00a0in Knoxville, TN on\u00a0April 1 & 2<\/b>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I can’t make that scene, but I hope to find time and headspace to dig into these three sets. In that interest, more to come. For now:<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Some further details from the press release:<\/div>\n
\n
“Ranging from a wild reinvention of post-Wagnerian opera\u2014Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables)<\/a><\/i><\/b>\u2014to a heartfelt tribute to an improvisatory hero\u2014Quintet (Tristano) 2014<\/a><\/i><\/b>\u2014to a multi-dimensional, fully immersive electro-acoustic sound environment\u20143 Compositions (EEMHM) 2011<\/a><\/i><\/b>\u2014each of the three projects offers a different component of Braxton\u2019s constantly evolving vision, and each challenges the listener (or \u201cfriendly experiencer,\u201d in Braxton terminology) to experience music as an active participant rather than a passive spectator.”<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables)<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>captures the premiere of Braxton\u2019s latest four-act opera in a high-definition video documenting the multimedia performance at Roulette in Brooklyn on April 19, 2014 and a four-CD studio recording made the following week. Featuring an all-star cast of twelve vocalists, twelve improvising instrumental soloists and a thirty-seven piece orchestra, along with dancers, interactive video design, full costume and lighting, and moments ranging from a hoe-down square dance to a double-dutch jump-roping crew,\u00a0Trillium J<\/i>\u00a0represents the most complete documentation yet of one of Braxton\u2019s major operatic works. It is also the latest installment in Braxton\u2019s ongoing Trillium Opera Complex System, an ambitious creative endeavor of 36 interlinked acts, comparable in scope to Wagner\u2019s\u00a0Ring Cycle<\/i>\u00a0or Stockhausen\u2019s\u00a0Licht<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
On\u00a0Quintet (Tristano) 2014<\/i><\/a>, Braxton pays tribute to the music and creative community of one of his heroes: the pianist, composer and educator Lennie Tristano (1919\u20131978). Putting aside his usual saxophones, Braxton takes to the piano, joined by saxophonists\u00a0Jackson Moore<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Andre Vida<\/b>, bassist\u00a0Eivind Opsvik<\/b>\u00a0and drummer\u00a0Mike Szekely<\/b>. In an exhaustively comprehensive overview that covers not just Tristano\u2019s music but the compositions of his colleagues and students like Warne Marsh, Lee Konitz, Sal Mosca and Connie Crothers, the quintet radically re-imagines Tristano\u2019s melodies and structures, the same way Tristano and his peers radically re-imagined the melodies and harmonies of the American songbook tradition. As\u00a0Kevin Whitehead<\/b>\u00a0writes in his liner notes, \u201cNone of Anthony\u2019s tributes to jazz heroes have been as extensive as this delve into the works of Tristano and his circle\u2026Time and again these recordings have an uncanny way of evoking the Tristano esthetic, then letting it dissolve into free space, sometimes to be reconstituted, sometimes not.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
3 Compositions (EEMHM) 2011<\/a><\/i>\u00a0features the first studio recordings of Braxton\u2019s Echo Echo Mirror House Music\u2014the latest conceptual innovation in Braxton\u2019s five-decade career. With his Ghost Trance Music, Braxton created a framework for his musicians to freely explore his entire compositional output in each concert; with his Diamond Curtain Wall music, he brought his own interactive electronics into his improvisational palette. Now with Echo Echo Mirror House Music, Anthony Braxton brings these ideas to the next level. In this ensemble of longtime collaborators, all the musicians wield iPods in addition to their instruments, while navigating scores that combine cartography and evocative graphic notation, creating a musical tapestry combining live performance and sampled sound from Braxton\u2019s extensive recorded discography. Impeccably recorded at Firehouse 12\u2019s state-of-the-art studio, the music is available in two formats: a traditional three-CD box set and a 5.1 Surround Sound audiophile Blu-ray disc.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, when Anthony Braxton was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, he was\u00a0was showcased in the awards concert as a composer. He didn’t pick up any of the reed instruments he plays with mastery, or sit down at the piano. The short scene presented from his opera, \u201cTrillium J,\u201d was … <\/p>\n

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