Throughout my life I have dipped my toes, occasionally, into the Anthony Braxton waters, only to pull back quickly: There was always something about that water that scared me. Maybe it was the vast horizon so far away. Maybe it was all the odd creatures I knew were swirling around under the water, just offshore. But now that I’m older and wiser, and now that Braxton is giving away a lot of music for FREE, I figure it’s about time to dive in.
Braxton’s one of those hardcore avant-garde cats like Albert Ayler or Pharoah Sanders, but even more far out. He doesn’t classify himself as either a Jazz or classical musician, but both & neither. In 1994, Braxton was granted a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” He’s a heavy dude!
Although Anthony Braxton has done tons of improvised stuff, there’s a large batch of his material that’s through-composed, or at least as composed as his musical diagrams (which also function as the names of many of his compositions) indicate. For example, here’s the title of one of his pieces:
Braxton’s diagrams alone are wonderful and hilarious, and sometimes very complicated. (He’s even written some pieces that are to be played between galaxies. The corresponding name-diagrams are, as might be expected, very complicated.)
Since I’m just starting to explore the vast oeuvre of Anthony Braxton’s work myself, perhaps some of you uber-hepcats who are Braxton fans can leave us neophytes some breadcrumbs in the comments. What are the best pieces for Braxton beginners? I was thinking about checking out the 4 CD Opera, Trillium. A good portal to the man’s work?
And do check out his Tricentric Foundation site. Anthony Braxton is still very much going strong, and there are all sorts of performances going on with him or of his work, on a regular basis.
