Welcome to AMN Celebrates Braxton 75, a multipart series focused on the work of American composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton. Braxton, who in 2020 will be celebrating his seventy-fifth birthday, is one of the most important and influential creative minds of the past fifty years. Each week this series will feature three to four links of live performances, interviews, and articles found on the web that should be of interest to both the curious and the longtime explorers of Braxton’s music
This is a short promotional video from 2006 of the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet for the release of a 9-CD + DVD box set. The video mixes a Braxton lecture on his Ghost Trance Music with live performances of the ensemble illustrating his words. The clip reveals how interactive the ensemble can be in the direction the piece takes and how much this ensemble really enjoys performing Braxton’s music.
“A Renewed Spotlight on Anthony Braxton” by Robert Ham is a recent interview from 2019 in which Braxton talks a little bit about his spiritual beliefs and his approach to composition.
Circle was Anthony Braxton – reeds, Chick Corea – piano, Dave Holland – Bass and Barry Altschul – drums. The group was active from 1970 -71. They released two studio albums and three live albums. This is a live recording (no video) of Circle from 1971. Despite the roughness of this recording, the music is quite powerful and well worth the listen.
Join us again next week for another post as AMN Celebrates Braxton 75
Chris De Chiara
Avant Music News 