Jazz Articles about Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton at Yoshi's

by Robert Spencer
March 12, 2004

Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance Festival took Yoshi's the last week of August and introduced West Coast fans to what the master called “the next level of my work." As always, Mr. Braxton's pace and breadth of vision is breathtaking. In the Seventies and Eighties he moved beyond playing simple song forms, stringing composed sections together with improvisations in concerts that began on one planet and ended up forty-odd minutes later a few galaxies over. Then he began writing “pulse tracks" ...

Anthony Braxton & Wadada Leo Smith

by AAJ Staff
January 19, 2004

Submitted on behalf of Dave Wayne.

Solo (Milano) 1979, the second solo Anthony Braxton disc to be issued on Leo’s Golden Years series, consists of a single concert given on January 17th. A look through my entire Braxton collection (30- odd LPs and a dozen or so CDs – an admittedly paltry sampling when you consider that he has recorded more than John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, combined) failed to turn up any previous recordings of the compositions on this ...

Braxton in Italy, November 2003

by Francesco Martinelli
November 22, 2003

Are you still mad at yourself because you didn't pick up those Arista LPs in the cutout bins? Would you kick your own butt because you missed the concert when Anthony Braxton's quartet with Crispell, Dresser and Hemingway came in a venue near you? Don't despair, there is hope still. In the current time-cycle, rather 'complex' as Professor Braxton would say, he managed to establish an unit which is just as good as his legendary quartets, but it's happening here ...

Anthony Braxton: Four Compositions (GTM) 2000

by Jerry D'Souza
October 7, 2003

Anthony Braxton is an enigma. His music has always been challenging and he has never compromised. Consequently, some of his compositions have been too far serrated or too densely layered. Nevertheless, in the overall scheme of his musicianship he has elevated his concepts to a dazzling level. He nails the latter sensibility here, and it is all to the good that he has players who rise to the challenge brilliantly. What makes it all the more striking is that they ...

Anthony Braxton/ Taylor Ho Bynum: Duets (Wesleyan) 2002

by Jerry D'Souza
June 25, 2003

Anthony Braxton’s duo work has so far been a mixed success. Not all of these recordings have worked, given the attitude and disposition of the players. While improvisation has been the core of these meetings, the specific approach chosen has dictated the outcome. Taylor Ho Bynum is clearly a soul mate, and the one unwritten tune, “Improvisation,” proves this fact beyond the pale of a doubt. The empathy is immediate as the two players invest the sonic palette with manifold ...

Anthony Braxton: Trio and Duet

by Jerry D'Souza
February 3, 2003

From 1974-1980 a series of recordings were made for the Sackville label representing Toronto performances by artists who were key ingredients in the cauldron of avant-garde jazz. The music is now being issued on CD for the first time, in limited editions of 1000 copies.

Anthony Braxton was among those who came to town. And what a choice he turned out to be! Seen in two combinations, the first in a trio with Smith and Teitelbaum on an ...

Anthony Braxton/Taylor Ho Bynum: Duets (Wesleyan) 2002

by Mark Corroto
January 1, 2003

Extracting information (and sometimes pleasure) from an Anthony Braxton large ensemble recording is often an arduous task. The music's density and somewhat impermeable nature often exhausts a listener's patience. Somehow this has rarely been the case with his duo recordings. Duets with Max Roach, Georg Grawe, Gino Robair, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and now Taylor Ho Bynum lend insight into one of the true musical geniuses of our time.

Joining Braxton is cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, Braxton's masters ...