did i say january? it just didn't happen for some reason - well, probably because i still wasn't ready to wean myself off comics just yet, but in any case, with the exception of a couple of days, the planned january braxblitz failed to materialise. but that's ok 'cos the time was (basically) well spent and besides, as it turns out, march 2011 is braxton month, how could it be otherwise when the first of the month brought news of the tricentric foundation's "official relaunch" via the public unveiling of the new website..? - i spent the rest of the evening listening to music, starting with the free download (which is fucking great btw, grab it if you haven't yet done so... never fall into the trap of thinking that you have "enough/too much gtm already": each reading is just one among many such possible, literally anything could turn up, just show up out of the blue like that... old faces, old tunes, old old old atavistic dances round long-dead fires... and also new new new since, let's not forget, most other musics are still lagging way behind this sort of stuff. in terms of sheer ideas per minute gtm is way up the top of a pretty rarefied list as i understand it *) and going from there, mailing a few people i know partly or mainly through a shared interest in b's music; - and remembering yet again something which i seem to have somehow forgotten over the last few months, which is how to use this music purely to give myself a lift, to fill my head and heart with joy... and it's always just there waiting for me, but at some point along the line it came to be that i could no longer approach a braxton recording purely with feelings of pleasurable anticipation since there was always a feeling at the back of my mind that it could very possibly lead to more work. having been an unhappy teenager i have a very troubled relationship with this concept, one to which many more solidly-based adults reconcile themselves early on (and thus come to welcome it... up to a point); well, anyway, i'm trying, i'm constantly trying and it's beginning to look as if i might be getting somewhere...
... and this comes at the same time as all this other new growth - i am very happy to celebrate the new venture and will look forward to helping out if i can... i have corresponded briefly with thb during the last week and the blog will eventually be linked directly from the site - and there may turn out to be other ways of getting more involved, ways which don't entail immediate relocation to the states..! (although...) anyway, for the time being, it's enough to join in the general rejoicing and good-luck wishes, may the foundation flourish and reach many lives! {{{{@@@@@}}}}
- and enough to get back on that good-time vibe, because i wasn't just exaggerating or bullshitting that time before (nor was it the first such time... as i implied), this man's music is not entertainment for me, nor is it even mere brain-fodder, it is actually food, energetic and spiritual nourishment which on some occasions i swear i can actually feel seeping into all my pores and cleansing everything... that's just how it is with this guy... what can i say. i can't promise to fix my work hangup just like that, but i have continued listening to b's music all through the week (working my way through the tcf's as-yet-small collection of boots, for a start!) and there's been no sense of a chore about any of it. long may it continue... and bring on the spring :))
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STOP PRESS- STOP PRESS - jason guthartz has recently had to divide the discography over two pages. (it was taking time to load.) that means that until such time as i get the chance to fix the links, all links to the discog in my posts are invalid. i will correct at least the main links appearing in braxtothon entries starting with the earliest, starting today, and those of you who know my rate of progress by now will know better than to wait around for it... but i am on it. thanks for listening :)
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bluebells? ok, i cheated a bit, that photo wasn't taken in march... more of a late-spring-thinking-about-summer setting to that one, but still, signs of growth abound... here this week, we have had clear blue skies and just the first, most adventurous baby buds on the twig-tips of the trees... still chilly..!
* as regards gtm - while writing this article i was listening to comp 214, from the double cd (yoshi's vol. 4) which will be subject of the very next post - another braxbite, but a little longer, swelling with spring energies, you see :) - anyway, that earlier excursion (the ninetet) is already more than a decade out of date in terms of b's actual cutting edge - and as far as i can tell the creative music scene, or at least certainly the free jazz scene, has not even caught up with that stuff yet. nowhere near in fact... ideas per minute, i'm telling you... (stuart broomer talks about this stuff... he has a book just out about braxton actually, which is bound to be worth reading and which i shall certainly buy, though i'm in no hurry as i never did really read radano yet..!)
ok, so in terms of correcting links i am up to the second week of feb, 2008... the posting slows down steadily after '08 so i've done more than probably makes it sound! it includes the first playlist - 27/1/08 - which has been properly hyperlinked for the first time ever, all those dumbass tinyurls removed at last... the second and third will follow, as will all other links to restructures throughout IYKWIS...
LOTS of nice music today, most of it braxton, 'cept just one thing i dug out and couldn't resist hearing, "an old woman is shelling beans..." i.e. the 14-minute opening track from ICP004 by bailey and bennink... still surely one of the great free improv meetings... irresistible and terrific introduction to the music for newcomers (an edit might be required for total greenhorns!)
but yes... eugene 89... chateauvallon 73 (will write about this rediscovery)... some solo recital research i briefly undertook, detailed in two more comments added to the 22/10/07 post..! all this after some badass electric miles to kick off the morning (my monday mornings - as i sadi elsewhere last week, the only good thing about my current employment is the fact i "start" the week with monday off (and the house to myself) (but then the week actually begins sunday for me, when i *do* work)
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