Anthony Braxton

Listening to Anthony Braxton recordings is a little like watching Doctor Who.  The Tardis door opens on to anything from a Victorian parlor to a garden full of fauna from another galaxy.  It's fair to warn you that, with Braxton, you get more of the second than the first.  The vast majority of Braxton's recordings are very challenging jazz compositions with titles like 'Opus 23J' or 'Composition No.114 (+108a)'. 

I am confused by a lot of this work, but when I get Braxton I find his work very gratifying.  I am playing a couple of Braxton interpretations of other composers work.  'You Stepped Out of a Dream' is a duet with bass boss Dave Holland.  It is a fantastic display of Braxton's talent.  I have it from the box set The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton.  It is from Five Pieces (1975) which also features Barry Altschul on drums and Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn. 

I also added 'Miss Ann', an Eric Dolphy composition, originally from Duets 1976.  This pairs Braxton with Muhal Richard Abrams.  

If you only had two Braxton recordings, I would recommend first the two disc The Charlie Parker Project (1995).  Here's the lineup:

• Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone, Contrabass Clarinet – Anthony Braxton
• Double Bass – Joe Fonda
• Drums – Han Bennink (tracks: 1-1 to 1-5), Pheeroan AkLaff (tracks: 1-1 to 1-10)
• Piano – Misha Mengelberg
• Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Ari Brown
• Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Paul Smoker

I've had 'Dewey Square' playing but I just replaced it with 'Yardbird Suite'.  I don't know Misha Mengelberg, but her  his playing is magnificent.  Intrepid reader Jason corrects me below regarding Misha Mengelberg. 

The second album I would recommend is Six Monk Compositions (1987).  Here is the lineup:

• Bass – Buell Neidlinger
• Drums – Bill Osborne
• Piano – Mal Waldron
• Saxophone [Alto] – Anthony Braxton

This might be my single favorite cover of Monk compositions.  I have worshiped at the Church of Waldron for a long time now.  I have 'Four in One' playing. 

Avant Garde 101: Anthony Braxton Deconstructs Charlie Parker

I have heard there is a recipe for deconstructed Caesar salad: you assemble the ingredients and eat each one separately without combining them.  Avant Garde jazz is a lot like that Caesar salad.  I acquired Anthony Braxton's Charlie Parker Project largely because I am so in love with Braxton's Monk album.  I was hoping for more of the same, on the principle that avant garde do wonderful things when they sacrifice some of their cherished freedom and navigate the parameters of good hard bop composition.  I didn't get what I was hoping for.  

What I did get is very interesting.  You might get an idea if you imagine Charlie Parker's music interpreted by an visitor from the Crab Nebula.  Being open to all, including alien invaders, I am entertained.  Nonetheless, I am trying to keep the spider thingies away from my beagle.  

Here is a perfect chance to see what avant garde is.  Braxton's live recording is devoted to mysterious morphings of Parker compositions.  You really have to forget about the salad and be prepared to listen to discourses on the veins in the lettuce.  As an illustration, consider this Parker number from the Dial recordings.

Charlie Parker/Scrapple from the Apple/The Complete Dial Recordings

That's a nice bebop classic, with crackly sound.  Dexter Gordon does a great version of it.  The melody is clear all the way through.  Now listen to Braxton's version. 

Anthony Braxton/Scrapple from the Apple/Charlie Parker Project

That's Charlie Parker after he has been eaten by some H.P. Lovecraft worm.  You have to like the guttural slither of sound from the horns and Joe Fonda's bass if you are going to make it through.  If you do, you can hear the melody begin to emerge from the slither. 

Well, that is by God avant garde.  I have been enjoying it all evening.  Let me know what you think. 

Voodoo Drums & Ghostly Horns

Not exactly a Fourth of July theme, but then I am writing at 40 minutes into the new day.  After a wonderful day of cooking ribs and cleaning house, followed by eating ribs and drinking beer with friends, I am in the mood for something less wholesome and a lot less fattening.  

Here it surely is.  I've been listening to Birth and Rebirth, a duet album by drummer Max Roach and horn player and "philosopher" Anthony Braxton.  Wow, does Braxton have spooky eyes.  It is an odd meeting between the mainstream and the jet stream.  It is pretty dry, overall, but good in the way that a dry martini is good.  You can hear and appreciate everything these two jazz genies conjure up.  Here is a sample:

Max Roach and Anthony Braxton/Spirit Possession/Birth and Rebirth

If that is not enough to cut the fat in your bloodstream, try this one from one of my beloved Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy duets.  It's sad romance, but pairs the emotion down to something not much more complicated than a beating heart and a sigh.  

Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron/A Flower is a Lovesome Thing/Sempre Amore

Sempre Amore is one of those albums that nobody but me seems to listen to.  Well, suddenly I am in the mood for something a little richer, with the same mood.  So here is a cut from my latest Sonny Criss acquisition.  Would you ever have expected a brilliant jazz interpretation of this song?  Criss, whose flag I have long been flying, managed to wield all his hard bop magic without ever losing the original sad mood of the Beatles' hit.  God, but I love Sonny Criss. 

Sonny Criss/Eleanor Rigby/Rockin' in Rhythm

Well, that's all for tonight.  Pick up these recordings.  That's an order. 

The Big Question at the heart of this blog ...

is: have I gone nuts?  My masthead informs the reader that the blog is "largely devoted to hard bop."  But I keep posting on avant garde music.  I have always thought that the melody was the thing in music, but I keep listening to music that wants to transcend the melody.  What gives?

Intrepid reader Dan isn't too shy to say that the emperor has no clothes.  He didn't like Archie Shepp's interpretation, or maybe anti-interpretation, of 'The Girl from Ipanema'.  I did like it.  Maybe all this edgy jazz has damaged my brain.  

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a fellow grad student on the dark road back from a California desert, decades ago.  Wes said that jazz was destructive music, as it tried to undermine all coherent forms in music.  I argued to the contrary that jazz was of all musical genres most devoted to the forms of music precisely because it dug into, rearranged, and constantly explored all the myriad dimensions of melody.  

Of course all that experimentation is bound to produce a lot of false positives.  I am on recorded as having no time for Trane's Ascension.  But one thing I notice: when avant garde masters present more conventional, straight ahead jazz, they bring lots of new juice to the table.  

Case in point: Anthony Braxton's Six Monk's Compositions.  Braxton is one of the more extreme page five musicians.  His album Eugene is listed as one of the Penguin Guide's core collection.  I bought it on that recommendation years ago, and I still can't figure out what it is about.  But today I acquired the former recording, and it is marvelous.  Here is a sample:

Anthony Braxton/Brilliant Corners

Give this one a listen, Dan, and let me know what you think.