Anthony Braxton Interview

From Wondering Sound:

When multi-reedist and composer Anthony Braxton got the phone call last year telling him he’d been named an NEA Jazz Master, he thought there’d been some mistake. Over 20 years ago, jazz conservatives made him the poster boy for everything they hated. His arcane structures and gasping wide-leaping solos made it plain that swinging was not his top priority. His many albums of standards just angered them more. He was declared not a jazz musician — this guy who admitted the influence of modern classical musicians like Karlheinz Stockhausen.