Results for "anthony braxton"

Anthony Braxton

To his list of achievements and awards, Anthony Braxton may now add the 1994 MacArthur Fellowship: the so-called "genius" grant of (in his case) $300,000, awarded to individuals nominated for outstanding and original contributions to their field. The timing of this crowning achievement couldn't be better for Braxton's most recent professional goals: he is the founding Artistic Director of the newly incorporated Tri-Centric Foundation, Inc., a New York-based not-for-profit corporation including an ensemble of some 38 musicians, four to eight vocalists, and computer-graphic video artists assembled to perform his compositions. The ensemble's debut at New York's The Kitchen sold out the last and most of the first two of three nights, through the press excitement it generated; the reviews—in Down Beat and the Chicago Tribune (John Corbett), the Village Voice (Kevin Whitehead), and the New York Times (Jon Pareles)—ranged from positive to ecstatic. Most importantly, the musical success of the event inspired Braxton to pursue the "three-day and -night" program concept for this ensemble, including lectures/informances, and splinter chamber performances, around the world. The second New York event, indeed, expanded on the concept: The Knitting Factory presented six nights of Anthony Braxton and his music, in all the variety of its vision

A Shelly Manne Centennial and More June Birthdays

By MARC COHN

June birthdays on Gifts and Messages. The 'big' ones: singer Dakota Staton @ 90 and drummer Shelly Manne @ 100. It's also Anthony Braxton's 75th birthday with tunes from his Charlie Parker Project. On our broadcast day in Baton Rouge, Eric Dolphy's 92nd. More of course, mostly pianists: Chick Corea, Kenny Barron, Geri Allen, Misha Mengelberg ...

Moers Festival 2020

By MARTIN LONGLEY

Moers Festival Eventhalle Moers Germany May 29-June 1, 2020 Under the lockdown, this year's Moers Festival wasn't able to welcome its accustomed audience in the flesh, but artistic director Tim Isfort refused to cancel or postpone, instead opting to livestream the entire four-day proceedings, with artists ...

Bob Gluck: Early Morning Star

By KARL ACKERMANN

Composer/pianist/electronic artist Bob Gluck's musical repertoire is particularly diverse. Among his many electro-acoustic projects are the borderless duo album Textures and Pulsations (Ictus Records, 2012) with Aruán Ortiz, Tropelets (Ictus Records, 2014) featuring improvisations based on Jewish biblical chants, and Infinite Spirit (FMR Records, 2016) where he pays tribute to Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi Band. In the ...

Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp. William Parker, Gerald Cleaver: Welcome Adventure Vol. 1

By MIKE JURKOVIC

It takes all of fifty-seven seconds for Welcome Adventure Vol. 1 to move from what starts as of one of those gnarled but exquisite, corpse-like Matthew Shipp solo mind-opuses into exactly that but with some friends. Friends who want want to swing but in a just-out, avant way. It's where their heads are at the moment ...

Cory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice

By KARL ACKERMANN

Pianist/electronics artist/composer Cory Smythe's Pyroclastic Records debut Circulate Susanna (2018) was a tongue-in-cheek attribution to the inspiration of a fictional event. He returns to the Kris Davis run label with the intriguing, socially-conscious and genre-less Accelerate Every Voice. Inspired by an assortment of sources: Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice (Blue Note, 1970), the work of Harlem ...

Matthew Shipp: Poetic Connection

By SETON HAWKINS

It is difficult to describe the impact of pianist and composer Matthew Shipp without descending into hyperbole. A core figure in the now-legendary David S. Ware Quartet, a bandleader with a staggering recording output, a groundbreaking curator for the influential Blues Series of Thirsty Ear Records, Matthew Shipp has also more recently broken new ...

AACM: Together We Are Stronger

By CHRIS MAY

With the passing in 2017 of the pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and trumpeter Phil Cohran, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, formed in Chicago in 1965, lost the last two of the four musicians who organised its inaugural meeting. But with two succeeding generations of standard bearers stepping up to the plate, the AACM ...

Tomeka Reid Quartet: Old New

By IAN PATTERSON

Tomeka Reid cut her teeth in Chicago, recording with Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell and Nicole Mitchell, but the cellist's 2016 move to New York seems to have fired her creative juices even more. The prolific Reid has appeared on nearly twenty recordings in that time, notably including the Art Ensemble of Chicago's We Are On The ...