Rabble Without A Cause, July 24: Anthony Braxton’s Lorraine Trio and Ensemble
A taste of the new 10-CD release from Anthony Braxton, 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022
"My music occupies a space in between defined idioms."
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton has been active musically since the 1960s and shows no signs of slowing down. On the show we will listen to a small portion of his new 10-CD release, 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022. The recording documents six live performances with Anthony Braxton's Lorraine Trio featuring trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, accordionist/vocalist Adam Matlock, and Anthony Braxton and four studio recordings featuring Braxton, saxophonist James Fei, and bassists Zach Rowden and Carl Testa.
Don Phipps has said this about the music on this release:
There is nothing about Compositions 426, 427 and 428 that speak the language of jazz. As Anthony Braxton argues, his music is not jazz. He strives to go beyond idioms. This is not modern classical either. Why? There is too much free playing and improvisation, that while structured, is not so structured as to create dogmatic expression. Braxton’s compositions instead fuse these two pillars (modern jazz and classical) into something new – a language that can best be described as Braxtonian. In these unique and wildly different compositions, the key driving force is not the musicians themselves, as amazingly precise and technical as they are. Instead, it’s the electronics, which filters through in every measure (phase, period – call it what you will). Like light in a dark theater, to which one’s eye is immediately drawn, electronics consistently provoke and stimulate.
Anthony Braxton grew up in Chicago and was a student at the Chicago School of Music from 1959-1963, and later studied philosophy and composition at Roosevelt University. He joined the U.S. Army in 1963 and played saxophone in an Army band. When he left the Army in 1966, he returned to Chicago where he joined the newly formed Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
In 1968, he recorded For Alto, a double-album of unaccompanied saxophone, which is considered a landmark jazz solo instrumental recording.
In 1970, after a short-lived time with Barry Altschul, Chick Corea, and Dave Holland in Circle, he began leading his own bands in New York City, recording in a variety of settings, from duos of saxophone and Moog synthesizer to full orchestras. His music started to move away the avant-garde to its own idiosyncratic voice.
Braxton was named a jazz master by the National Endowment of the Arts in 2014. In the short interview here, he talks about his career.
We will listen to Composition No. 424 and a portion of Composition No. 433 on the show. The rest of the compositions are well worth checking out.
You can listen to the show live on CKCU FM, 93.1 on the FM band, or online at CKCUFM.com. The show will also be available for on demand streaming.