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

John Sharpe's Best Releases of 2020

By JOHN SHARPE

With so few performance opportunities since March, and musicians in continuing limbo, the continued stream of new releases has been a surprise, but a welcome one. For me, and many others, music has been a source of solace in an otherwise dreadful year. That makes it all the more invidious to pick and choose between honest ...

Kobe Van Cauwenberghe: Anthony Braxton Ghost Trance Solos

By MARK CORROTO

Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance Music (GTM) has been explained as his interpretation of Native American ritualistic circle or ghost dances, the means by which a people connected to their ancestors. The music appears to be unbounded, and it exists before the musicians take the stage and continues long after the performance has concluded. If we carry ...

Russ Lossing: Traces: Two Song Cycles

By MARK CORROTO

There is an HBO television series, A World of Calm, which delivers thirty-minute vignettes on subjects from trees to snowfall to the vastness of the universe. The unhurried series is designed to elicit restfulness while at the same time provoking deep concentration. The same can be said of Traces, a quartet project by pianist Russ Lossing. ...

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

By JOHN SHARPE

Not content with having scaled the heights of the guitar pantheon, with the second release from Code Girl, Mary Halvorson also cements her place in a unique genre of her own design. As befits someone who has taken to heart Anthony Braxton's dictum to find her own musical voice, she presents something which is part art ...

Colin Hinton: Simulacra

By JOHN SHARPE

It would have been a shame if drummer and composer Colin Hinton's Simulacra, released in 2019, fell through the cracks. On this, his second leadership outing in the wake of Glassbath (Snake And Cornelia, 2018), he captains a crew of current and former Brooklyn-based talent in a mysterious but satisfying set. Hinton merges compositional elements with ...

Marco Rottoli: New Year's Eve

By MIKE JURKOVIC

Nothing earth shattering, surely, but a very fine listen nonetheless. New Year's Eve, young Italian bassist and composer Marco Rottoli's debut, serves two truly noteworthy goals: First, as a promising warmup to more adventurous things from the trio itself in the future and, secondly, as a good opening ensemble readying you for the evening's anticipated headliner. ...

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

By VIC ALBANI

Esistono due donne nel mondo del jazz moderno che hanno mostrato di conoscere e capire in toto il genio musicale di Robert Wyatt. La prima, molto tempo fa e quindi in tempi non sospetti, è stata Carla Bley e non c'è altro da aggiungere. La seconda, che è invece colei di cui vogliamo scrivere, è Mary ...

A dialogo con Emanuele Parrini

By NERI POLLASTRI

Emanuele Parrini è il più significativo interprete (non solo) nostrano del violino jazz. Membro storico del Dinamitri Jazz Folklore, già violinista dell'Italian Instabile Orchestra, collaboratore di molte formazioni (Nexus, l'orchestra di Dino Betti van der Noot, il quartetto di Cene Resnik), leader di un proprio quartetto con il quale ha realizzato nel 2016 l'eccellente The Blessed ...

Steph Richards: Supersense

By MIKE JURKOVIC

With all the threatening weirdness and desperate surrealism that has become life in the USA, it makes absolute sense that Supersense, daring trumpeter/composer Steph Richards' third full length album, starts out like an encroaching invasion of ants, or microbes, or a disruptive, divisive, myopic political movement. As with such forward seeking rebels as Henry ...