the good news, bad news show

argh... just seems to be one damn thing after another at the moment... as will be explained below. first, the good news, which came to me a few weeks ago now, via a mailshot from leo records: this tantalising new release, just in time for the festive season (i think i may be about to treat myself). as far as i know, these two master musicians have not been captured in duet before; indeed, off the top of my head i don't know of any braxton recordings featuring leandre other than the victoriaville 1988 septet performance. good news for sure!

the bad news... well... my computer has been struggling gamely along for a few months now despite obvious virus damage - until recently, when it pretty much packed up on me. that left us with nothing apart from my wife's shagged-out old laptop, which itself is more or less on its last legs and will only support a web browser so primitive that it won't let me use blogger at all. so, if you've been wondering why i went all silent again... that's why. hopefully the desktop will soon be fixed and i can get typing again. the desire is there. meanwhile, here i am in a public library just for a few mins, no time even to pass on my latest musings on the lewis book... not yet. (i can still check email, so feel free to leave comments!)

critical massage 4

anyone who has checked in here recently will probably know that i was hoping to get writing again... and you can see how well that worked out... generally i have little or no free time during the days, and by the evenings i am often unable to summon up the desire to write (or do anything much requiring brainpower). not quite sure when that problem might resolve itself... but one thing i have been doing - and not before time - is reading george lewis' excellent book on the aacm, a power stronger than itself. not surprisingly, any number of fascinating points are raised in this book (i'm about halfway through it at the moment). there's a couple of things i want to single out here.

the first one concerns the whole question of negative attitudes towards free (-spirited) music displayed by the critical fraternity over the years, and specifically in the late '50s and early-mid '60s (by the end of that decade, things apparently had evened out somewhat - though this was something of a false dawn, in that the '70s saw creative musicians pushed ever further into the margins, and to the verge of penury). of course, i knew about leonard feather's blindfold tests - though lewis' book makes it abundantly clear to what extent feather used these to push his own personal prejudices regarding "legitimate" musical approaches - and i knew about john tynan's notorious "anti-jazz" attack on coltrane and dolphy in 1961; but chapter 2 of a power... really goes into all this in disgraceful detail: that is, the (uniformly white, middle-class) critics under scrutiny here emerge in disgrace. their sheer arrogance is breathtaking. clearly, they felt that they understood "jazz" better than the musicians who played it, who created it; more than that, even, they seem to have felt that by setting themselves up as arbiters elegantiae for the music, they owned it in some way, and were therefore entitled to express outrage whenever they felt that some newcomer had "broken the rules". it makes grim reading, particularly so as it's hard to doubt that there was an undeclared racial prejudice at work: lewis tells us (ch. 4, p. 87) that as late as 1966, down beat was giving far more attention to the (white) joe daley trio than to any local black musicians, even going so far as to label them "the city's foremost 'new thing' group" (the new thing itself having been, of course, widely lambasted by these same critics when it was originally introduced... by black musicians). the fact that such blatant cultural favouritism was being indulged (at a time when the south side of chicago was seething with activity) is made still worse by the fact that down beat was itself based in chicago - !

[at least i am far from being the first to comment on this stuff - lewis wasn't either: he points out (ch. 2 again) that ekkehard jost has been scathing of (what we might politely call) the highly conservative views of many american critics during this period; and in fact down beat's own wilful ignorance of what was happening in its own backyard in 1966 had not gone unnoticed even then - the canadian magazine coda had commented on precisely that.]

the actual extent of any racially-motivated elitism in all this is impossible to gauge, as the issue is of course highly complicated. as lewis makes clear, the whole point about the blindfold tests around this time was that feather was able to use them to voice his own reactionary views, without sticking his own head above the parapet: indeed, in getting black musicians to say what he thought, he also pre-empted any possible accusations of racism. and there were black musicians who disapproved of many of the new approaches, as we know, and perhaps the most strident of them - miles davis - was (therefore) called upon more often than most to put the new thing in its place. never afraid to speak his mind (especially if it might offend someone), miles was also known to detest most critics, and to be (shall we say) rather ambivalent towards whites at the best of times; from feather's point of view, who better to have on your side in this sort of argument? almost certainly, lester bowie had davis in mind when he wrote that, from the perspective of the power-brokers, "musicians... must be made to discourage rather than encourage their fellow musicians' needs, desires and right to play. this is accomplished by several means; by far, the most effective means is to take the few (very few) negative cats and make them big STARS." *1 - it would be interesting to know who else besides davis was being alluded to here; lewis himself discreetly avoids speculating on this, but in referring to bowie's screed as "uncommonly prescient", he cleverly points us towards another notorious motormouth, wynton marsalis, who has (as we all know) done more than anyone to attempt to erase the free players from musical history. *2

* * *

just briefly, then, the second point i wanted to mention concerns the rivalry which is supposed to have existed between anthony braxton and roscoe mitchell. in chapter seven - which i am still reading - this is addressed when it comes to examining the events which took chicago's avant-garde to paris. leroy jenkins (who cannot now be asked about it) had it that "the art ensemble was very competitive, always have been" and that b. "was very competitive too, especially with roscoe". on the other hand, lewis tells us in a footnote that b. has it differently: "the so-called rivalry between me and roscoe mitchell is non-existent". this chapter makes very interesting reading, but i'm not going into any of this now... the issue of rivalry, or the lack of it, between the two saxophone masters is one which i will look at when i eventually get to mitchell's duets with anthony braxton in the braxtothon... don't hold your breath, bearing in mind i still haven't actually wrapped up phase four yet, but this landmark recording will kick off phase five.

* see comments.

autumnal meanderings

well... that certainly was a much longer break than i intended to take. an internet problem during the last week of july made a liar of me (see last para of previous post); with that self-imposed "deadline" missed, the urgency to finish what i was working on at the time passed... and vanished. as the weeks went on and august drifted into september, it got harder and harder to bring my attention back here at all.

is anyone still out there? i know i've alienated a lot of people... part of that is doubtless just my manner, at times perhaps overly aggressive and bloody-minded; and then again, part of it is that what i have had to say is very unpopular in certain quarters. my insistence on telling (what i perceive to be) the truth will never be very welcome in a world where the majority of educated people would rather swap comfortable, shallow falsehoods just to make sure that everyone remains on friendly terms and no-one gets upset. (i've never been any good at this game... and in all honesty i wouldn't want to be.)

there's also the difficult dilemma of the braxtothon itself: it's very time-consuming and requires a degree of tunnel vision; that sort of time and attention is hard to come by these days, for me... and it seems hardly worth it, when most potential readers are not prepared to endure anything like that much detail. still... whatever reasons i had for starting that project, i found different ones for keeping it up: i do it for myself, for posterity, and for the composer... as well as for the benefit of the tiny minority of people who actually want to study b's music closely (rather than just name-dropping him for easy intellectual cred).

those reasons all still apply, and i shall try to get going again after that long hiatus. to get me warmed up, before i even attempt to tackle the outstanding braxtothon entries i will (as stated previously!) be posting some vignettes, thoughts on various random recordings in rather less detail than the core entries. WARNING: one of these articles will also deal with a particularly prickly subject, that of sound quality vs musical content; i am well aware that this is one of the issues which got me (somewhat) ostracised in the first place, and if certain people see the piece in question they will presumably infer a personal attack... for what it's worth, i will say in advance that this is not my reason for examining this vexed question once again. no, but it's important, or so i feel: just in case there are still minds out there which are not already made up, it seems worthwhile to reassure them that the way of the audiophile is not the only way, and certainly not the one true faith that its adherents would have you believe.

-- summer break --

ok, i will now admit - to myself, that is - that i currently just do not have the time or headspace for this stuff, especially not the braxtothon as such, deep and detailed as it invariably is these days...

... i recently posed the theoretical question as to how a diligent martial artist can also be such a terrible procrastinator, etc... well, that's easy enough to answer: for a long time i was not a martial artist any more, gave up training some years ago and only occasionally went back to it, never for very long. that all changed at the end of may this year, when i found myself picking up where i'd left off, and adding all that i've learned in oriental medicine/qigong over the last few years to what i already knew about taiji forms, etc... suffice it to say that i'm back into it again, which is a good thing, all for the better; the downside is that while i'm still trying to bring myself back up to standard, making up for lost time etc, i don't seem to have a lot of time left for much else, especially when you consider that i spend half my daytime hours being a parent anyway..!

hence i may as well just take the pressure off myself by officially calling this a break, and asking the reader to wait patiently for the hiatus to be over and for "normal" service to resume ;-)

[ - there are a few non-braxtothon posts i had lined up, which will appear sporadically, starting later this month... among these, something or other concerning the quartet john zorn put together for warsaw, earlier this same month... i believe i am right in saying that this is the first time zorn and b. had ever played together; it may well also be the first time b. has played with laswell..? anyway, i have enjoyed the music (which is the first '09 vintage recording to have found its way into my collection) and will try and say something about it, soonish..!]

braxtothon phase 4 - state of play

much movement behind the scenes lately, some of which was detailed (elliptically) in my previous post... but in any case, not a lot of time has been found for the appreciation of music, never mind writing about it! the listening sessions for braxtothon phase 4 were wrapped up some time since - it's now just a question of getting round to recording my thoughts on them... and i'm hoping to turn my attention to this pretty soon (some of you may think this all sounds very familiar... and you may be right...). when it arrives, here's a summary of what's left in this current phase of the continuing journey:

session 010 - details part two (dortmund)
session 011a - berlin (quartet)
session 011b - berlin (creative orch.)
thoughts and conclusions regarding the quartet at this point

- the momentum may seem to have been hopelessly lost, but this is for posterity as well, and however long it takes... that's not the important bit ;-)

more to come more to come more to come

midsummer ritual/open letter...

... to my readership as of this time, and going forwards:

summer solstice 2009 *

my name is haldane (hal) charles. i am a qigong adept and holistic physician. i also think of myself as a philosopher and teacher. in addition to qigong, i practise taijiquan *1.

i have strong and well-founded opinions on the subjects of pure (non-academic) (metaphysical) philosophy, linguistics, martial arts, (global) politics, science, and the theory and practice of medicine, whether holistic or otherwise... oh, and parenthood ;-)

among the other subjects which greatly interest me, in (nearly) random order: music (esp. extreme metal/hardcore punk and free jazz/creative music); (french- and english-language) comics *2; literature (esp. ghost and horror stories); cinema (esp. gore/horror flix and cult film generally); the tarot (and white magic(k) in general); erotica *3; photography (and visual arts generally)... etc etc *4

i intend to publish on most if not all of these subjects during the coming years (esp. on my various "special interest" dense information sources) - in some cases i may even use the pen-name centrifuge for such writing - but after today, generally these subjects will not be discussed here... music (of course!) being the exception to this.

(my involvement with) this project remains, and will remain, dedicated to the serious study of creative music generally, and specifically to the music of anthony braxton. this latter body of work continues to fulfil my artistic and spiritual needs to a very great extent - ticking boxes i had not previously even known were there to be ticked, time and time again. in the spirit (i hope) of mr braxton, my work here will continue to be essentially unfinished, seldom quite up-to-date even, but occasionally bang on time :) - it will always be honest and heartfelt, and i will strive to do the best i can.

thank you for reading... and on we will go...

xxx

c.



* see first comment

* see second comment

braxton at 60 (1)

so, when i went off to listen to some of the music referred to in my previous post, i had to smile: there was i saying that "the first thirty seconds" of a lo-fi recording would suffice for the listening ear to attune, and i found myself at once presented with a piece which begins in such poor sound that it challenged even me (and would surely have many fussier than me giving up on the spot)! this is the piece for seven trumpets: whoever provided the files lists this as comp. 107, but it's actually comp. 103, composed in 1983, though it's unclear whether the composer actually succeeded in premiering it before the wesleyan concerts of september 2005... it's an ambitious piece with specific requirements, as we will see.

for the benefit of those who can't put their hand on a copy of composition notes book E, i'll fill in a few details here. firstly, the piece opens with a (fragmentary) recording of a bullfight, and the (decidedly non-braxtonesque) brass music which is heard during these moments is not being played live in the concert. this, of course, explains the very dodgy sound quality at the beginning..! although the loud and excitable crowd noise also hints that this is not a creative music concert which we are hearing ;-) ... in fact, visual spectacle is an important part of this complex piece - and a part which is entirely missing from the audio recording, naturally. (don't let that put you off, necessarily - many other braxton pieces have significant visual aspects to their performance, which does not stop them from being recorded in audio-only format, nor from being enjoyed by the attentive listener.) but it's worth clarifying up front that we are "in" a bullring to begin with, and only gradually drawn out of it: early in the second minute, a live muted trumpet is heard over the recording, and for a while the two co-exist in our soundspace, until 3.00 is reached, by which time the crowd noise is fading out and only our solo trumpeter remains. [this, i presume, is none other than taylor ho bynum - it sounds like him, and certainly he will have been involved with this concert.]

again, from the composer's notes: the piece is dedicated to rafael méndez and was "composed... with the tendencies of spanish architecture and decorative visual imagery in mind - as a tribute to the wonder of south american bravura trumpet playing." it is an all-notated piece (though undoubtedly there must be breathing space in there for the interpreters) and requires very specific stage design, lighting and costume for its performance: most crucially, the seven players are positioned on risers or steps so that each is higher than the player in front. the first live trumpet we hear is in fact number seven; s/he is the only player onstage at this point, and plays "with movements... calibrated from the virtuoso trumpeter lester bowie"; during the opening, the other six players will take up their positions on the columns. "the music then takes place in the backdrop of an old stadium that happened long ago - or in the future. comp. 103 is a ritual context that attempts to show respect for the route of information and information dynamics that has come through south america and the caribbean. the whole of humanity has benefited from these offerings." *

the piece itself, then, is complex - as one would expect - and so for that matter are the notes; i don't have time at present to attempt any sort of detailed analysis, so i shan't! suffice it to say that anyone who dipped a toe in and found the waters inhospitable may have been too hasty: once the taped section is out of the way, i did indeed find that the listening ear was easily able to compensate for the deficiencies of the recording, such as it is. the music makes much of timbral differences between simultaneous players, and these distinctions are clearly audible throughout, as are the relative positions of the performers: many separable tonal and timbral effects are used in addition to the "pure" or clean tone (which itself is adopted at various times) and these, i repeat, come across just fine despite the audience recording, despite the low bitrate... (some of) you might be amazed at how subtle the human ear is in terms of the detail it can detect, if it only has an attentive mind attached to it... this is a powerful piece, and a significant one for the composer, and (unless someone can correct me here) may not have been performed before or since; why not check it out?

* * *

the diamond curtain wall piece is, as i said last time out, (sadly) only a fragment. eleven minutes and twelve seconds is all we get - shame, since this sounds very much like the "core trio" of b, thb and mary halvorson who have made so much beautfiul music together in recent years. what we have is less intense than some dcw i've heard: there is plenty of space for contemplation. but, tantalisingly, right before the abrupt cut the supercollider software kicks in with a ringing, enthralling texture which promises much for the players. if anyone has a complete recording of this one, do please let us know.

* see comments