NPR on Anthony Braxton's 65th-Birthday Concert

From NPR:

Flanked by members of his 12+2tet on the stage of Le Poisson Rouge June 18, ready to launch into one of his rollicking compositions, multi-reedist and composer Anthony Braxton couldn’t have looked happier. After thanking all the musicians who came to pay tribute in honor of his birthday, he added with a grin, “If you have to be 65, this is the best way to do it.”

The concert, titled “Tri-Centric Modeling: Past, Present and Future, I” — the first of a two-part celebration and fundraiser co-produced by Braxton’s Tricentric Foundation and the Darmstadt Institute — opened with an incantation on bagpipes by Matthew Welch. Saxophonist Steve Coleman and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson offered duos woven from their own fluid counterpoint, flutist Nicole Mitchell and Black Earth Strings lithely swung spun-out melodies, and the John Zorn-Dave Douglas-Brad Jones-Gerry Hemingway quartet discoursed in the wild, driven language of the downtown scene.

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