tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24757134159916776532024-03-19T00:04:31.638-07:00If You Know What I'm Sayingmapping the previously-held-unmappable since 2007Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger350125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-60169586425921903222024-03-15T16:42:00.000-07:002024-03-18T14:16:57.092-07:00- commercial break - <div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">While I'm in the process of preparing another proper post, there have just been a couple of things brought to my attention:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. The 4-cd box set <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/27855357-Anthony-Braxton-Roland-Dahinden-Hildegard-Kleeb-Four-Compositions-Wesleyan-2013">Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013</a></i>, credited jointly to <b>Anthony Braxton</b> / <b>Roland Dahinden</b> / <b>Hildegard Kleeb</b> and released on Prague Music Platform last year - maybe? supposedly - has never yet shown up in any of the usual online retailers outside of eastern Europe (or even in any <i>un</i>usual ones, as far as I can tell, although sundry Czech websites have continued to list it as if it were readily available). I have been keeping an eye out for its wider distribution <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/what-pmp2301-might-tell-us.html">ever since last October</a>, if not somewhat before; but it's beginning to look as if it may have a different release date in this part of the world: several sites now list it as available for pre-order, coming out on 5th April. (For example, <a href="https://www.juno.co.uk/products/anthony-braxton-ronald-dahinden-four-compositions-wesleyan-2013-cd/1007163-01/">there is this one</a>; I can't vouch for the seller, and indeed their quoted price seems ruinously expensive, especially for something which (ostensibly) has already been on sale for around half that price, or less, allowing for the currency conversion.) I will believe it when I see it, at this point; but I'm very likely to buy it if it does eventually show up at a reasonable price. PMP, meanwhile, have more pressing concerns, pun not intended: as <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/preview-of-happened-attractions.html">previously reported</a>, they have been trying to raise money for a <a href="https://www.znesnaze21.cz/en/campaign/be-part-of-a-groundbreaking-cultural-project-trillium-x-is-being-released#o-sbirce">more ambitious box set</a> (although the campaign is now said to have ended almost a month ago, and they only achieved 20% of their target; how much money did they think they would raise in a fairly short time?). Nothing else to report on any of this, just yet...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">2. McC tells me that two more dates with <b>Wolf Eyes</b> have been arranged - one of which has been rescheduled from January - so I suppose it's official, and this is a long-lasting partnership... it struck me as rather overdoing it to say (as the <a href="https://www.arsnovaworkshop.org/programs/wolf-eyes-anthony-braxton/">Ars Nova Workshop page</a> does) that "the collaboration ... has lasted now for nearly two decades", since the association has been far more <i>off</i> than <i>on</i>, but still: allowing for the fact that I have probably missed some repeat encounters along the way, this is indeed the twentieth year since that famous <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/975012-Wolf-Eyes-Anthony-Braxton-Black-Vomit">first (onstage) meeting</a>. Evidently, all concerned find something of value in these groupings, which is very encouraging to know; even better, we can infer from these announcements that there have been no long-lasting concerns over the maestro's <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/01/reunion-with-wolf-eyes.html">health and fitness</a>. The <a href="https://lpr.com/lpr_events/wolfeyes24/">first of these shows</a> is due to take place in Greenwich Village, NYC on April 18th, and <a href="https://www.arsnovaworkshop.org/programs/wolf-eyes-anthony-braxton/">the following night</a> they will play in Philadelphia. Indeed that second show is already sold out, despite tickets being rather pricey ($40 for a standing show?!) - that in itself is heartening to know. The Ars Nova page doesn't exaggerate at all in describing B. as "one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years" and notes in conclusion that he "has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity". Damn straight! </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">STOP PRESS... "this just in", and neither significant enough to put it elsewhere, nor so utterly trivial that I didn't want to mention it at all: Discogs <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/15827956-Charlie-Mariano-Meets-Anthony-Braxton-Elegy-For-A-Goose">is still listing</a> the spurious <i>Elegy For a Goose</i> <strike>album</strike>, credited supposedly to "Charlie Mariano Meets Anthony Braxton". I discussed this <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/recently-acquired-most-wanted.html">in some detail last year</a>, so I'm not going into all that again now, but suffice it to say: at time of writing, its collector stats read <i>Have = 0, Want = 53, Ratings = 0, Never sold</i>. No, of course it's never been sold, because it doesn't exist, any more than the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/label/2911685-Mariano-Studios-2?page=1">Mariano Studios record label</a> exists. The 53 very optimistic would-be buyers out there are probably the kind of people who used to send on those emails back in the day that read "If you forward this to everyone in your address book, Microsoft will pay you for testing their software" (... designed to overload corporate email servers). As for Discogs, they presumably can't take the listing down until they get some sort of concrete proof that it's not real, although how one goes about <i>proving</i> that something is completely fictitious... anyway. "It's cool to be fooled"... what I (still) don't get is why someone bothered doing this in the first place, unless maybe it was for a bet..?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-35339711445713101472024-03-10T16:52:00.000-07:002024-03-17T14:50:36.464-07:00Stairway to ... ?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJJpTUtEQML5GsJ2VD-Xo4le_SwwSEjdgQid_Yoa75FNem5SBVq-vNmrdZ62ctl2HTBk6xrbdAE5dMaCxRCUXLMc3CiUyvPXTDPcveg8ojBLnrTbuJC5h5xiNhdBP7rROV1BZnP7mdBDYgphUBLhYkOC-PnwYccySfd3axQ5jzLFine6O5A3VfgCDpS9Au/s2048/IMG_3753.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJJpTUtEQML5GsJ2VD-Xo4le_SwwSEjdgQid_Yoa75FNem5SBVq-vNmrdZ62ctl2HTBk6xrbdAE5dMaCxRCUXLMc3CiUyvPXTDPcveg8ojBLnrTbuJC5h5xiNhdBP7rROV1BZnP7mdBDYgphUBLhYkOC-PnwYccySfd3axQ5jzLFine6O5A3VfgCDpS9Au/s320/IMG_3753.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Eight Compositions (Quintet) 2001</i> (CIMP)</div> <p></p><div>This was an entry I had often wondered about, coming across it <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#CIMP243">in the discography</a>: unlike its <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#CIMP225">similarly-named predecessor</a> from the previous year, it is not a collection of modern standards, but rather a set of original pieces - featuring opus numbers one is unlikely to encounter elsewhere... and there is that highly unusual line-up: two reeds, three African(-style) percussionists. Not exactly what one would think of when hearing the term "quintet", however technically accurate that might be...</div><div><br /></div><div>Copies of the CD are not especially commonplace, and it was never - as far as I know - something readily available in the blogosphere. I had it on one of my vague "one day" lists for years, but it was <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/recently-acquired-most-wanted.html">only last year</a> that I really made any serious attempt to do something about that; as it happened, it was then one of the very first items to get crossed off the same list, when one of the blog's longtime readers and friends hit me up with a rip. Only the audio files were included, so I had no access to the liner notes and had to draw my own conclusions about the music.</div><div><br /></div><div>At first I was preoccupied by trying to work out <i>what</i> I was hearing. Some of the pieces were clearly identifiable as (some form of) <b>GTM</b>, but others were less definite - and even the ones which I was sure about did not sound like <b><span style="color: #ffa400;">GTM, third species</span></b> as such. We know - I knew already, from years back - that <b>Comp. 292</b> was very much <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/tentet-paris-2001">in that category</a>; and the numbering on the CIMP album picks up immediately after that, containing <b>Comps. 293-300</b> inclusive, though not in that order, and with two different takes of the last piece. Yet we also know that opus numbers in the low <b>3xx</b> range were <i>not</i> necessarily allocated to continuations of the GTM project: it is not difficult <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Innova576">to locate</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Intakt088">several</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Intakt089">examples</a> which <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Leo468-471">demonstrate that</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the event, those next few months saw me acquire so many new recordings that I had no real opportunity to listen over and over again to any one of them in particular, and after a couple of intrigued plays of the CIMP album, I pushed it to the back of my mind somewhere and moved on. So it wasn't until the end of January, when I was surprised to see a <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3220415-Anthony-Braxton-Quintet-Eight-Compositions-Quintet-2001">physical copy</a> listed for sale here in the UK, that I came back to it. Once I had the actual album in my hands, with its detailed liners, I had an answer to my question: it was not what I expected, at all. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Artist's Notes - as distinct from the Producer's and Recording Engineer's Notes - begin by stating that the "compositions which comprise this CD demonstrate the first of the <b>fourth species prototype Ghost Trance Musics</b>", an intriguing assertion, since in hindsight we know that there <i>is</i> no <span style="color: #ffa400;"><b>GTM, <strike>fourth species</strike></b></span>. I had never come across any reference to this prototype anywhere else, in all the time I have been exploring B's music; we know now that the third species generated its own offshoot, the <b><span style="color: #ffa400;">accelerator class</span></b>, and that the final parts of this massive system - <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/gtm-iridium-2007">culminating in</a> <b>Comp. 362</b> - were of that precise subset. But nowhere else will one find reference to a "fourth species" GTM: apparently this prototype led no further, was discontinued. In the huge fantasy theme park which is <i style="font-weight: bold;">Braxtonland</i>, there is a pathway seldom taken, tucked away behind all the main attractions, and it leads to an ornate (but dusty) gate, behind which is a spiral staircase leading... to nowhere at all, as it turns out. Here, in other words, is a rare example of an idea not followed through, a false start, a leftover from a time when the pioneer headed off in a new direction, only to have second thoughts and turn back. That alone makes this release a fascinating anomaly, unique in the recorded canon.</div><div><br /></div><div>The album is obscure enough that most people won't have access to it, and until such time as I am in a position to share the files, there is little to no point in writing in any detail about the actual <i>music</i>; nevertheless, this seems a good time to make some observations about B's (fairly brief) involvement with CIMP, and some more generic observations about that (somewhat controversial) label. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><u>What happens in The Spirit Room...</u></div><div><br /></div><div>This was B's third session for CIMP, and for whatever reason(s), it would prove to be his last - a bit of a shame then that he was just starting to know the way there (according to the Producer's Notes), only overshooting the driveway "by about 100 feet" on this occasion. Previous sessions had yielded nineteen modern standards, mainly by Andrew Hill (released <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#CIMP225">across two</a> different <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#CIMP236">albums</a>) - and a bizarre <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#CIMP235">set of duets</a> with vocalist Alex Horwitz... but we don't really talk <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-request.html">about that one</a>. Still, those four duet compositions were all in the <b>28x </b>range, and they were not GTM<span style="color: red;">*</span> - so we do know that not all high opus numbers were allocated to this continuing project (as it was then). This third and final session was the only one in Rossie, NY, which really produced cutting-edge original pieces, and it seems to have come about through an association between <b>Sipho Robert Bellinger</b> (one of the three African-style percussionists on this disc) and <b>Richard McGhee III</b>, the second reedman, who had worked with the maestro <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#BH9">at least once before</a>, a couple of years earlier. Bob Rusch may not have been quite correct in saying that B. "had never recorded in this type of instrumental setting before"<span style="color: red;">**</span>, but he also was not entirely wrong, given that the precise instrumentation used here is quite possibly unique, and must at the very least be extremely unusual.</div><div><br /></div><div>B's own Artist's Notes include potted musical biographies of his collaborators - a habit he picked up somewhere along the line, and frequently indulged - but they focus chiefly on the music itself, making it clear once and for all that this was not just a practice-run for what later became the <b>accelerator class</b>, but something else, brought about by the one-off combination of musicians available for the date - and limited to that date. The composer explains that by the term fourth species GTM he is "referring to a set of structural prototypes that contain (1) re-centred pulse construction strategies and (2) the additional use of rhythmic compound cell modules". Crucial to this prototype is the idea of "combination rhythm sets", and more specifically of "four different compound rhythms", both of which relate quite definitely to the particular circumstances of this recording, rather than to anything else which was going on at the time. B. did not usually get to play with three different percussionists at once, never mind with those of an African-diaspora focus or lineage, and the possibilities inherent in this grouping are what led him to compose this set of eight pieces.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, as to whether this environment was the optimal place to try all this out... well, one problem we <i>don't</i> have to worry about here is the role of the bass, since there isn't one. CIMP is notorious for its own militantly-obstinate approach to recording aesthetics, insisting that their way of doing things - recording live to 2-track with all the musicians present in the same space, and resisting any temptation to mess around sonically with the results - is the only way to hear <i>what was actually played</i>; various loyal musicians have been quoted over the years as saying that Rusch <i>père et fils</i> are the only producer and engineer who have ever given them back exactly what they put out, free of artifice or ornamentation. <i>Nevertheless</i>, their recordings do have a tendency to sound... oddly lifeless (which itself is pretty ironic, given that the label's Statement of Purpose - present on the back cover of every CD, which itself can be a problem (as we will see in due course) - refers to the way that "compression of the dynamic range is what limits the 'air' and life of many recordings" - said compression being a complete no-no for the Rusch family, of course); and most infamously, the contrabass - when present - can end up being more or less inaudible. Yet anyone who has listened even slightly carefully to creative music for more than a very short time would surely agree that that instrument has a very powerful and versatile voice, in the hands of a good player. Somehow, in their quest to create recordings with no trickery or over-engineering or post-production, etc etc, these guys manage to produce albums which sound singularly sterile. Or at least that is how they very often sound to me; perhaps my noise floor is not low enough for their standards. Certainly, my equipment is not up to what they would doubtless regard as an adequate standard; but here's the paradox: I nonetheless manage to hear most other recordings in great detail...</div><div><br /></div><div>... and here's the real clincher: on this recording, I struggle much of the time to recognise B's voice, <i>even on alto</i>, which is (frankly) almost incredible. Leave aside any doubts as to whether my ears are really as good as I might like to think they are - just the thousands of hours I have spent listening to that voice are sufficient for me to be able to pick it out of a crowded soundscape, within the first few seconds, even when <i>everyone</i> is <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sax-quintet-middletown-1998">playing</a> a <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sax-quintet-new-york-1998">saxophone</a><span style="color: red;">***</span>. Yet when I listen to this album - it became especially noticeable when I actually got hold of it on CD - I find many places where I can't identify that voice in the same way, and this just feels <i>really weird</i> to me at this point. Of course, I can identify him easily enough anyway, by virtue of <u>what</u> he plays; I had no problem pinpointing him and McGhee in the stereo image. But it's still a most disconcerting experience to realise that I am listening to the most familiar instrumental voice in the world, to my ears, and that if I didn't already know in advance who it was, I might not be able to recognise it. Yes, yes: this is of course because <i>only the Rusch family</i> understand how to render that voice with true fidelity: if I don't hear what I'm expecting to hear, it's only because I have never before heard the true, unadulterated voice. But would they really have me believe that <u style="font-style: italic;">every other recording</u> of this musician is false in precisely the same way? I would never accept that, so let's hope nobody tries to persuade me of it... No: the purity of the label's vision seemed to me so strong that for years I wouldn't allow myself to be overly influenced by the negative opinions of numerous other listeners, but I finally have to admit to myself that I don't really like the way their recordings sound. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are other issues, mainly concerning the packaging: I have no problem with the cover, or even with the fact that <i>all </i>the covers are painted by (daughter) Kara D. Rusch<span style="color: red;">#</span>; that's part of their house style and it gives the label a part of its identity. But their insistence on emblazoning the Statement of <strike>Pomposity</strike> Purpose on the back cover, regardless of whatever else might need to be displayed there, causes a major problem in this instance, at least: the graphic titles for the pieces are <i>supposed</i> to be in colour, at this point; and they are supposed to be reproduced large enough that the viewer can actually make them out. Instead, in this case, they are all black and white, and all so tiny that there is really no point in having them on there at all. That, at any rate, was not properly thought through; and while I'm at it, is it <i>really</i> necessary to credit Susan Rusch with hospitality, again right there on the back cover? In all seriousness, this risks giving the impression that the Rusch family ethic somehow outranks every other consideration here, <i>including the music</i>, and that really does feel like the crowning irony.</div><div><br /></div><div>Was this, then, a case of "what happens in The Spirit Room, stays in The Spirit Room"..? Did B. decide after the fact that he wasn't bound by his declaration of intent with regard to "fourth species GTM", because it was only revealed on a CIMP album and many people would never find out about it? That seems an uncharitable conclusion, and is probably assuming rather too much. What does remain true, either way, is that he never recorded there again... make of that what you will.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is still a very interesting recording, not least because it represents a time when B. started off in one direction then changed his mind - but not just because of that, either: it is worth the time to track it down, for anyone with a serious interest in the maestro's music. At some point, I will try and make the files available - and when I do, I will have something to say about the actual music itself. In the meantime, apparently there was quite enough to get out of the way beforehand...</div><div><br /></div><div>(...</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>... and yes, I am well aware that my accusing anyone else of pomposity is a flagrant example of the pot calling the kettle black. What ya gonna do?)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> Or were they?! Besides the tiny sample-files which <b>McClintic Sphere</b> passed to me last year after I made that request, I have still heard almost none of this album... its reputation, as it transpires, rather precedes it... and yet, and yet, there was that recent concert <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-revival-of-unexpected-material.html">revisiting the very same material</a>: <i>some</i>one likes it, anyway. Presumably they could also confirm whether or not it has any connection to <b>GTM</b>, but I can't, at least for the time being...</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> I wrote <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/doctores-subtiles.html">not long ago</a> about B's concert with master percussionist Abraham K. Adzenyah, which comfortably predates the CIMP recording; of course, that was a duo performance only, and featured a continuous set of entirely improvised music, but it's still an encounter with a percussionist in the African tradition, and one must presume that Rusch Sr. was unaware of it.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> I would have to hold my hand up and say that <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/the-aggregate">on another occasion</a> when everyone was playing a saxophone, I also struggled to locate B's voice, and even expressed my consternation to McC about precisely that; but it was only on the first track, and only because B. plays bass sax on that piece - not the voice I was listening out for..! (The same is not true of the rest of that album, even when Andrew Voigt is also playing alto.)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> Even the fact that Robert (producer/father), Marc (engineer/son) and Kara (visual artist/daughter) all share the middle initial D. feels, frankly, a little creepy - and seems to be information ever so slightly overshared. (Does it stand for the same thing in each case? Is it one of those peculiar things that only Americans do, giving each other middle initials which don't stand for anything at all - on the pretext that this somehow lends the name extra gravitas..? I'm possibly better off not knowing.)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-43220471161807004702024-03-03T11:50:00.000-08:002024-03-03T11:50:04.760-08:00Two masterclasses<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRElTIA0sze2L4yENxLP537UpN_nRSAhkj3KSge66TzyZbooW0m07rXYdDxEUwAZzGoCARbXZjEQEOTccDfo1XSgNlbq4BYULnK79-5LF-3IHI70p_c5HPTda4oHXV7PVUNH9-MgU_-Y4pA4AqO491pLmGu381GwiOCMzCo6GMdHkMfVBn3BaZqgpydW0i/s2048/IMG_2380.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRElTIA0sze2L4yENxLP537UpN_nRSAhkj3KSge66TzyZbooW0m07rXYdDxEUwAZzGoCARbXZjEQEOTccDfo1XSgNlbq4BYULnK79-5LF-3IHI70p_c5HPTda4oHXV7PVUNH9-MgU_-Y4pA4AqO491pLmGu381GwiOCMzCo6GMdHkMfVBn3BaZqgpydW0i/s320/IMG_2380.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Two more videos coming up, one of which was already plugged in these pages, albeit <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-videos-some-furious.html">somewhat in passing</a>... these feature the two current "travelling experts" on B's music, so to speak - the two figures who seem to have been busiest lately in terms of teaching the maestro's music to eager musicians. One is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz8U7da_cJA">short documentary</a>, the other a (longer) piece of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX6DbXnuLpo">concert footage</a>, and both of them offer windows into the warped and wonderful world that is <i style="font-weight: bold;">Braxtonland</i><span style="color: red;">*</span>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In truth, neither video needs very much commentary. The first, put together by or on behalf of <b>Kobe Van Cauwenberghe</b>, is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz8U7da_cJA">bite-sized and very digestible documentary</a> showing the guitarist preparing his <b>Ghost Trance Septet </b> for their performance at Philharmonie Luxembourg, as part of the Rainy Days Festival in November 2021; it is handily indexed into parts, five of which centre on specific compositions used as tertiary materials (<b>6f</b>, <b>40f</b>, <b>40b</b>, <b>58</b> & <b>34</b><span style="color: red;">**</span>) - other sections focus on the treatment of language music types or secondary materials, etc. It is both charmingly relaxed and indicative of how <i>into</i> the music all of the individual musicians are: all six of the band members (besides the leader, of course) are interviewed, albeit briefly, and their fascination with B's music - and its unique challenges and freedoms - is readily apparent. I wondered at first whether Van Cauwenberghe's addressing his group in English was purely something done for the camera's benefit (although Belgium is a polyglot country, and this is not always a trouble-free issue<span style="color: red;">***</span>), but when we hear violinist Winnie Huang speak (around 7.15), she does so in more or less unaccented English - and possibly, therefore, does not speak either French or Flemish very fluently. (Coincidentally, she is also the one player who is no longer in the band: she was replaced by Anna Jalving for the group's <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/11/repertoire.html">superb double-CD</a>.) The video explains very clearly what tertiary materials are, as well as secondary materials - although this is slightly more confusing, largely thanks to a misleading title for the segment beginning around 6.30<span style="color: red;">#</span> - and the impression given is that the leader's relaxed and confident approach facilitates the understanding for the players, as well as for any potential viewers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Van Cauwenberghe, besides leading this highly-rated<span style="color: red;">##</span> group, is currently focusing on B's music in his PhD at the Antwerp Conservatory (according to his <a href="https://www.kobevancauwenberghe.com/bio">official bio</a>), which helps to explain why his expertise has been <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/slowly-going-viral.html">so sought after</a> in recent times. Our next masterclass is given by one of B's heirs apparent, whose credentials have <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/07/curious-roland.html">already been established</a> in these pages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here, <b>Roland Dahinden</b> conducts (what appears to be) a thirty-one-piece orchestra <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=JX6DbXnuLpo">through a thirty-two-minute performance</a> entitled simply "Language types", at the Archa Theatre, Prague, in October 2021. This time, such commentary as might be needed - in terms of filling gaps in understanding which might easily arise from a close watch of the video - is unfortunately beyond me to supply. When the cameras pick up visible sheet music, it does indeed appear to contain nothing more than a list of the primary <i style="font-weight: bold;">language types</i> - long sounds, staccato attacks, trills, multiphonics and so on - together with the symbols used to denote these within B's scores; but the music we hear is not simply a series of exercises, rather it has its own continuity and internal structure, and although the conductor is showing the performers <i>how </i>and <i>when</i> to play, that does not explain how they know <i>what</i> to play. There is nothing random-sounding about this, suggesting that a schema must have been worked out in advance and then carefully rehearsed prior to the performance. This becomes most evident at times (for example from around the 17-minute mark) when different sections of the orchestra are producing different types of attack, but really it is apparent throughout, to a viewer who is paying attention. If all that had been decided beforehand was that the orchestra would be taken through a sequence of language music types, with no other limitations specified, the results would doubtless be very different from what we actually see and hear. Still, the closeness with which all eyes watch RD, and the rapidity with which the orchestra responds to him, leave us in no doubt that the assembled players have complete trust in the conductor to guide them through this piece. As someone with a background in martial arts and <i>qigong</i>, I was very impressed by Dahinden's excellent posture and whole-body movement, in which his limbs are perfectly aligned to a straight spine, resulting in clear and commanding gestures at all times. If I can't claim to make total sense of what happens in this video, I can at least say that it provides clear insight into Dahinden's skill and aplomb as a conductor - and it ought to prove helpful, when I finally get to the point of attempting a breakdown of <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/4898527-Anthony-Braxton-Ensemble-Montaigne-Bau-4-2013">Ensemble Montaigne (Bau 4) 2013</a></i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the meantime, the obvious place to seek direct comparisons is the opening track of <i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#hat6171">Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978</a></i>... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The maestro was present for both of these events, by the way: in Luxembourg, the septet's set was one half of a double bill with a performance by B. himself<span style="color: red;">###</span>, and the previous month's Prague concert had him there in some capacity too. In both cases he looks delighted by the interpretations of his work (in Prague he appears to have been almost overwhelmed). Like I say: two masterclasses...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> This reference will make sense to anyone who watches the first video - though you do have to keep watching till the very end!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> <b>34</b> is listed in the video as <b>34a</b>, a persistent anomaly - the origins of which predate the guitarist's birth: listed on the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/423768-Anthony-Braxton-Six-Compositions-Quartet">1981 Antilles album</a> as <b>Comp. 34</b>, this has very often been cited as <b>34a</b> - including the only other time it was officially recorded, as part of (the live portion of) <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/1742900-Anthony-Braxton-Willisau-Quartet-1991">Willisau (Quartet) 1991</a></i> (the half of that '92 box which has yet to be reissued in remastered form). Yet there has never been any mention of a "Comp. 34b" or the like... the roots of the confusion go back to the <i>Composition Notes</i>, where Book C in fact begins with the notes for <b>34a</b>, described <i>passim</i> with that precise title, but with no real explanation given. The catalogue of works, on the other hand, lists <b>34</b> - as the first of "Three Compositions (1974)"... despite the fact that, according to the actual notes, <b>34(a)</b> was composed in Canada in 1975. Small wonder, then, that nobody has ever been quite sure how to refer to this marvellous piece. (Given the number of times it is named as <b>34a</b> in the notes, I am inclined to go with that - even if it doesn't really make sense..!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> My information on this subject is admittedly a couple of decades out of date, but Mrs C. and I found Belgium a frustrating country to drive around, as different areas would display road signs in one language only - so that in some cases one could be heading for a town or city only to find that one has changed from a Walloon district to a Flemish one, or vice versa, and the name of one's destination is now completely unrecognisable. Historically, the different areas had a problematic relation to each other (and I have seen for myself how French-speakers in Flemish Belgium might be totally ignored by the locals, who would answer questions in English but would refuse to acknowledge French at all). However, I have also met several Belgians who were perfectly fluent in both - as well as In English - and in a situation where people come together to cooperate, I'm sure there wouldn't be any such problem...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> Actually, this segment is a little confusing all round. The title for it - both onscreen and in the indexation for the video - probably should be "<b>Composition 358</b> (secondary material)", where the wording "Tertiary material" is probably left in there by mistake, carried over from the previous segments. But although <b>Comp. 358</b> is another of the works which this group did play - on the album, for instance - the video as a whole is supposedly all about a rehearsal and performance of <b>Comp. 255</b> only. That in itself is probably a mistake on the part of whoever edited the video for release, since not all of the five tertiary materials relate to the group's arrangement of <b>255</b>; and besides, even to call <b>255</b> itself "second species GTM" is not strictly accurate as it is really a <i>Syntactical</i> GTM piece... of course, with no vocalists present, there would be little point in emphasising that. - As usual, I am compelled to point out all these little details, but the main thing is just to enjoy the video and not to worry too much about the particulars...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> The septet's CD - which I still haven't got round to writing about, yet! - has been <a href="https://www.kobevancauwenberghe.com/media">much lauded</a>: several reviewers considered it to be one of the best recordings of 2022. (Without giving much away here, I also consider it to be about as good as any reading of B's work would need to be, or as any listener might wish it to be.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> At least, there are references online to this having been the case, though I've not yet been able to verify it: the <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/events">TCF events page</a> actually has a conspicuous 2021-sized hole in it, so who knows what really happened in Luxembourg. We do know, of course, that B. was present, as we can see for ourselves that he took his applause at the end of the septet's set...</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-76968108907997551962024-02-25T10:13:00.000-08:002024-02-25T10:13:51.948-08:00Help!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ36RYIe5L-rGMmKjaCd5BG7G7QQ8s_qgwZNYRj0sWoBopW6rcszlM6L6u1DZzMMhf0EQ8Uh9zbRI7NGjeGij1PZ357FRbG5RzC_uC6vuMsPGnqJv1W4uZ5hm4K92hfUfin3FKT4T4rzol8z_HDRj1Z363vejzZ-6VsHpQkOQOK9fxAkMrsv87xfi-PrFA/s3264/IMG_9674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ36RYIe5L-rGMmKjaCd5BG7G7QQ8s_qgwZNYRj0sWoBopW6rcszlM6L6u1DZzMMhf0EQ8Uh9zbRI7NGjeGij1PZ357FRbG5RzC_uC6vuMsPGnqJv1W4uZ5hm4K92hfUfin3FKT4T4rzol8z_HDRj1Z363vejzZ-6VsHpQkOQOK9fxAkMrsv87xfi-PrFA/s320/IMG_9674.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm looking for something... but before I get to that, for those of you who might be looking for a quick and easy blast of Braxton on a Sunday in late February, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHn_UKTzXU">here's a video</a> of Bobby Spellman's Free Brass Trio playing <b>Comp. 23j</b> outside a record store in Newburyport, MA, in April 2016. Spellman himself does a sterling job on the written line, and although the support isn't quite in the same class, I'm completely with them in spirit. Just the thing to liven up a rainy and miserable Sunday! (Well - it is here. For those of you reading this in other parts of the world: hope your weekend weather is better than ours...)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, the request: I am trying to locate an online rip of B's quintet performance from the 1976 Newport Jazz Festival. I don't think I even knew about the existence of this event until last year, when I was listening to <i><a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/four-compositions-washington-d-c-1998">Four Compositions (Washington, D.C.) 1998</a></i> - a fabulous album, by the way - and reading Bill Shoemaker's notes, which explain that (the work now known as) <b>Comp. 70</b> was originally written for - well, funnily enough, for the 1976 Newport Jazz Festival. The working group was of course basically a quartet at that point - <b>Lewis Holland Altschul</b> - but this was augmented relatively frequently<span style="color: red;">* </span>by <b>Muhal Richard Abrams</b>, and in the case of the work in question, B. composed it with this specific quintet in mind. There was no official recording made of the performance, and so it wasn't until more than twenty years later that <b>Comp. 70</b> was properly documented... anyway, I read that much last year, but what I didn't realise at the time was that there was already an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180222170042/http://restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#Newport1976">entry in the discography</a> for the original recording, which was (apparently) offered for download in 2011. The link included in that archival entry no longer resolves to a valid page, indeed it doesn't even seem to <i>redirect</i> to a valid page; but once I could see where to look, it wasn't hard to <a href="https://www.wolfgangs.com/music/anthony-braxton-ensemble/audio/20020074-51332.html?tid=4845596">find the right page</a> within the "Wolfgang's" site.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Clips from the performance - with a pretty good sound - can be sampled right there. However, it doesn't look as if the full files are available for download as such, only for streaming; and that is limited to members. I have more than enough music to listen to without signing up for a service promising access to thousands of live shows; the "free trial" is one of those deals which is only available if you first hand over your credit card details, and I'm not about to do that, so this was a dead end. [Besides... I'm not convinced I like the look of the site. They also sell merch - in B's case, they have some of his CDs for sale, but at what look to me fairly outrageous prices.]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still, now that I knew about the existence of this 1976 Carnegie Hall concert... I figured it had to be around <i>some</i>where. The <a href="https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/6/resources/12164#">Yale Library collection</a> (as <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/09/detective-work.html">detailed in these pages</a> last year) contains more than 750 recordings, so <i>obviously</i> it'll be in there... right? No, apparently not. - And when I checked the list of <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2012/03/opinion-upgrade-from-uranus.html">my tape collection</a>, it's not there either. Now, what's going on here? There is a live recording of well-established provenance, with confirmed date, venue, occasion and personnel, which became available <i>in one place only</i> thirty-five years after it was recorded, and it's never been available anywhere else? That borders on the preposterous, yet that is seemingly what we're dealing with... anyway, regardless, if anybody <i>does</i> happen to have a copy of this recording, could they please let me know..? That would be awfully well appreciated :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Just briefly going back to that video clip linked up above: it is, unfortunately, one of several such to have attracted identical "trolling" comments from a Youtuber using the handle rinahall, who seems to have some sort of personal grudge against the maestro (people in such situations always claim to have arrived at their extreme positions after doing "some research" - as here - but invariably give themselves away, by going way too far with their supposed conclusions: "instrumental technique is close to zero"; is that right?! LMFAO). Bobby's answer is about the best I've seen; in other places, some people have attempted to argue, and I was tempted to do so myself when I first came across this nonsense last year, but what on earth is the point? The best course of action is surely to ignore it altogether... still, it did get me thinking: is this in any way, shape or form related to <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2021/07/what-was-that-about.html">whatever (ostensibly) caused</a> Jason G. to close Restructures when he did<span style="color: red;">**</span>? I never did really find out what B. was supposed to have said or done, but whatever it was, it has not led to a mass cancellation of him by the musical community... far from it, if the <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/preview-of-happened-attractions.html">events in Darmstadt last year</a> are anything to go by... nevertheless, it clearly pissed <i>some</i> people off at the time, and I did vaguely wonder whether "rinahall" might be one of them. Then again... who the hell cares?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> Muhal sat in with the group on multiple occasions around this time, both before and after <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2010/08/braxtothon-phase-4-quartet-autopsy.html">Holland and Altschul left</a>. One such occasion would appear to have been a <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/10/in-which-some-more-detail-is-furnished.html">short residency in Minneapolis</a>, a few months after the Carnegie Hall concert - although on the later occasion, no new material was presented. (I have long since "firmed up" my tentative conclusions about that bootleg recording.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> I have said before that JG must have had some other, more personal reason(s) for acting as he did, and just used the "storm in a teacup" as a pretext for it. I still think that's the most likely explanation, but (of course) only he knows for sure...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-90520774282041165772024-02-18T13:57:00.000-08:002024-02-21T03:25:31.709-08:00On the subject of wilful obscurity<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJskGNI9mgxBJLKcuCHDO1LKOWqOx699hOaD0aqJ_BxOuVJwubgkN5F9W-gL8kRfjBrqcCXg5fBpYTqUROrDpGNlTNTBfyqLuphuTzBwu0GH1mqWajqsLD318Hn144STImfFY-UaIb6lpL8Ukyt7PwgZjsoVWIs9qUnO6D9a3iQXZ_FzgVA7gCiDc9Tyk9/s3264/IMG_2534.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJskGNI9mgxBJLKcuCHDO1LKOWqOx699hOaD0aqJ_BxOuVJwubgkN5F9W-gL8kRfjBrqcCXg5fBpYTqUROrDpGNlTNTBfyqLuphuTzBwu0GH1mqWajqsLD318Hn144STImfFY-UaIb6lpL8Ukyt7PwgZjsoVWIs9qUnO6D9a3iQXZ_FzgVA7gCiDc9Tyk9/s320/IMG_2534.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/on-problems-of-identification.html">posted last year</a> about some potential difficulties inherent for the serious listener in B's approach to writing music; and I've pointed back to that in subsequent posts, and will continue to do so. This post right here is a sort of blood relative to that one (and will be linked back in the same way from now on, at least that's the idea).]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I came across something interesting in the course of researching for <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/random-rep-comp-92.html">the previous post</a>. The books of <i>Composition Notes</i> published by Frog Peak all include various unnumbered appendices; besides the Catalogue<span style="color: red;">*</span> of Works, the Glossary of Terms and so on, each volume contains interviews and related articles of interest to friendly experiencers. It's been a long time (far too long... not much I can do about that now) since I really delved into this stuff, and in truth it only happened this time by accident... I was flipping through the book trying to get back to the notes for <b>Comp. 92</b>, and something caught my eye: this turned out to be an undated interview with Cadence<span style="color: red;">**</span>, but it was a specific section from that. B. is asked about the books he is writing, and begins to answer that he has "three books which are totally finished", meaning the <i>Tri-Axium Writings</i>. The interviewer interrupts to ask whether he has had any success in trying to get them published. B. replies that he has had several offers, but that he wants to put them out himself. Initially he cites Harry Partch, W. C. Handy and Sun Ra as pioneers in musical self-publishing and says he wants to follow in their tradition, but when he is pressed: "So you'd have control over the way they're presented?", B. is immediately drawn into the heart of the matter. He is "very much aware of what the record companies are doing... on this record I did on Antilles [<i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/423768-Anthony-Braxton-Six-Compositions-Quartet">Six Compositions: Quartet</a></i>]... they even changed the order of the pieces on the record."<span style="color: red; font-size: small; text-align: center;">***</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now that he is getting into it, B. needs minimal prompting and the briefest of cues starts a protracted explanation:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">...I've found that they don't want you to have any idea about how your music should</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">be packaged. My liner notes... have become a source of irritation for many of the </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">journalists. They don't want that kind of input, they don't want a musician defining his </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">own </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">terms, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">especially if that musician is an African or African-American. Because somehow,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">for me as a Black creative person to define my own terms... <span style="color: red;">#</span> it's viewed as a violation</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">of what other African, Trans African pedagogies supposedly do. We are looked at as exotic</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">creatures with all this natural feeling... no intellectual process happening, we just have this </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">great feeling for being able to bugaloo (<i>sic</i>) and to be able to catch the football and to make </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">the hip dunk shot. And when we go to play, if a given focus or postulation is viewed as of </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span>genius </span><span>or 'genius' (so-called), it's also quickly covered with an "Oh yeah, well, it's natural."</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He illustrates this with reference to Charlie Parker - who may well have had a great deal of natural talent, but who also worked extraordinarily hard at improving that talent, and who was most definitely <i>not</i> "unstudied" as a player or composer - but then proceeds thus:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I have found... five million different levels of criticism of my liner notes :- "Did I have a</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">comma in the right place?" "What does he mean by this particular term?" Cries of pseudo-</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">intellectualism, etc. But in the fifteen, twenty years that I've been documenting my music, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I've never heard anyone challenge some of the liner notes which have been on my records or</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">on the records of musicians, so-called 'jazz' musicians for the last fifty years. You know,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">liner notes written in the most beautiful English, where the Queen herself would have</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">approved of the structure. But articles which didn't know what the fuck they were talking</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">about. And so there's very little tolerance for someone like myself defining my own terms.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But there's a lot of tolerance for a so-called 'jazz journalist' who might not know anything </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">about </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">what </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">they're talking about, but who can write very eloquently... it' s acceptable. In</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">fact, it's the standard of the day.<span style="color: red;">##</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- A further question and answer makes it clear that B. did not construe this as a <i>straightforwardly</i> racist problem: "If a White... musician tried to define his or her terms in the way that I've been trying to do, I think that they'd be put down too, because the White improviser is in what I call one of the 'sacrifice zones'... in the same position as the Black composer or the creative woman." <span style="color: red;">###</span> Of course, the entire interview - being conducted by way of intelligent questions from someone who is genuinely interested in the answers - bears close inspection, and raises far more points than I can tackle here. B. also uses the term "cancelled" in a way that is extremely common just lately; but I didn't know anyone was saying things like that in 1982... Anyway, what I want to zoom in on now is this point about wanting to self-publish, refusing to let others speak for him (though of course this did change a little as he got to know Lock, Lange et al - and realised that there were <i>some</i> writers out there who would take the time and trouble to find out what the music was really about).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">B. is of course the expert on his music, and his palpable disgust at having writers hired to make uninformed statements about it, based on guesswork or false assumption, is completely understandable and justified. While I was reading this material last weekend, I was reminded of something I learned as a philosophy undergraduate. I went up to university with (among other things) a cheap edition of Kant's <i>Critique of Pure Reason</i>, an outdated translation. I soon learned that students were encouraged to buy a more expensive edition, in the translation by Norman Kemp Smith; the problem, I was told, lay in Kant's highly idiosyncratic German, giving rise to numerous passages where the text was susceptible of multiple interpretations. Translators had been forced to make their best guess as to what the writer had intended, in such cases; but, being themselves not trained philosophers, their guesses were just that. Once Kemp Smith had delivered his English translation - the first to be produced by a philosopher who was also thoroughly familiar with German and well placed to make properly-informed decisions about what Kant had really intended, out of the various plausible options - it was found to be so illuminating that (so I gathered<span style="color: red;">^</span>), not only were English-speaking students encouraged to work from his text, German philosophy undergrads were themselves encouraged to read the book in Kemp Smith's translation, <u>not in their own native tongue</u>, as it was thought to have rendered the text much less ambiguous than it was considered previously.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The problem <i>here</i> is: in this analogy, B. himself is as much Immanuel Kant as he is Norman Kemp Smith. That he knows his music better than anyone else, understands it more clearly and fully, is beyond any possible doubt; but his manner of discourse - written and indeed spoken, to a fair extent - is fundamentally <i>esoteric</i>: accessible only by initiates. Hence, he has written at considerable length to explain not only the principles of his work, but also the stated intentions of a great many of his compositions; however, he has done this in language which not only eludes (and therefore alienates) the less patient reader, but tends to confound even the reasonably-patient and well-intentioned reader as well<span style="color: red;">^^</span>. I've said before - including <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/random-rep-comp-92.html">just recently</a> - that B. has no mandate to make his writings easy to understand, and <i>every right</i> to make the reader work very hard at them; don't forget, the maestro himself quickly jettisoned his plans to major in music upon discovering that the Roosevelt music faculty was still bitterly at war with itself over whether or not Schoenberg was "valid"; he then decided to major in philosophy instead, and presumably began germinating right then the ideas that would eventually coalesce into an integrated system. He has <i>every right</i> to create his own tailored vocabulary for that system, indeed; but with this inevitable consequence: most people will not be able to follow him there, and thus will very quickly abandon the attempt. Worse, because his music has always generally been perceived as impenetrable and incomprehensible, for a long time it seemed to be a "free hit" for people who wanted to grab a bit of unearned credit - by saying things that sounded like profound insights, but weren't anything of the sort - since nobody was likely to be able to call this behaviour out<span style="color: red;">^^^</span>. Nor was this latter frippery confined to music fans / listeners: jazz critics may not have been asked any more to write liner notes for this music (which they had no intention of trying to understand on its own terms), but they could take their revenge easily enough, by spouting all manner of platitudinous nonsense in reviews and in their own books<span style="color: red;">~</span>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We could argue, or at least speculate, about the extent to which B. has <i>deliberately</i> propagated his discourse in a manner which is abstruse and obscure. When we hear him speak, after all - on pretty much any subject, not just on music - he does so in a way which is closer to his writing style than to most people's spoken English. This must be a habit of long years, and is now just ingrained to the point where no effort has to be made to sustain it; indeed it must probably have reached that stage some decades ago. But it must have been obvious to him, in his younger years, that the people around him generally did not talk (or write) like that, and his continuing to do so represents on some level, at a certain point in B's life, a decision to set himself apart from them. It goes far beyond - but is undoubtedly linked to - affectations such as the <a href="https://josephcrusejohnson.blogspot.com/2017/10/anthony-braxton.html">smoking of a pipe</a> in public (<a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/369377-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-Dortmund-1976">as seen on</a> various <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/269596-Anthony-Braxton-New-York-Fall-1974">album covers</a> and in <a href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1049263170/photo/american-jazz-saxophonist-and-composer-anthony-braxton-at-vallekilde-summer-jazz-school.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=rwBxZkHmy6cRxdvO8TlZU8a3eG3SOg1ZU-07-5Io7KQ=">publicity shots</a>); it has to be seen as part of a calculated plan to reinforce the image of an intellectual (as if in anticipation of the same objections he raised later, with regard to the music business and its attitude towards black composers and improvising musicians). It's not lost on me how much this conclusion tends to imply that B's struggle to shake off the label of a "purely cerebral" musician is to a fair extent a problem of his own making<span style="color: red;">~~</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anthony Braxton's music is an extension of his thought, and is inseparable from it - at least for him. There is nothing wrong with his developing a specialist vocabulary for his system, as many others have done before him - especially where existing language did not seem to cover the exigencies of what was to be explicated. But we've already seen the effect that has had; ultimately, he could never be his own Norman Kemp Smith: he needs someone else to fill that role. <b>Graham Lock</b> filled it extremely well for a while; Lock himself was not a musician, but his close access to B. for a prolonged period allowed him to make up for that, to a very great extent. <b>Mike Heffley</b> probably had the best opportunity, being both a musician and a student of B's, but <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Music-of-Anthony-Braxton/Heffley/p/book/9780935016185">his book</a> was only in print very briefly, and I am no position to vouch for how successful he might have been in making the music more exoteric. In any case, that few people have ever seen the results of that experiment provides the question with its own answer... <b>Ronald Radano</b> <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo3644398.html">wrote in language</a> almost as dense as the maestro's, and thus was never really in a position to help spread the message more widely; since then, we have had other works by the likes of <b>Stuart Broomer</b> and <b>Timo Hoyer</b>, but I know that B. thought the former had raised interesting questions without really furnishing any answers<span style="color: red;">~~~</span>, and <a href="https://www.soundohm.com/product/anthony-braxton-creative">the latter's book</a> has yet to be translated from the German. Superior liner notes over the years from the likes of <b>Art Lange</b> and <b>Bill Shoemaker</b> have never (yet) been developed into anything more substantial.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As for myself: the number of comments I received in the blog's first few years suggests that I <i>did</i> in fact succeed in penetrating (some of) the music and unpacking it in such a way as to help (some) listeners get closer to it; but as we've all seen, I was unable to sustain this and have only recently been able to come back to the work. Much as I would like to think that I still have a role to play in this regard, it very much remains to be seen whether or not I can reach enough people to make a real and lasting difference. (It also remains to be seen how long I can keep it up, this time...)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There may yet be others, though... indeed, as I suggested <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/slowly-going-viral.html">just this month</a>, word seems to be ever so slowly getting around, and as more musicians get bitten by the bug, there is more of a chance that someone will yet be able to construct the definitive bridge between the maestro and the music-loving public. In the meantime, the best way to make meaningful contact with B's world is simply to <i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #ffa400;">listen and listen</span></i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> Unlike <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/random-rep-comp-92.html">last time out</a>, I'm spelling this word the way *I* would write it. Yes, B. writes it <i>Catalog</i> - because he is American. It is not necessary for me to render it the exact same way he did in order to be "authentic" or whatever - it's not a matter of citing the title of an artistic work, rather the name is purely descriptive and functional. Of course I will continue to quote from his <i>writings</i> exactly as he wrote them. But in this case, I am using the same word, we just happen to spell it differently. Hope that makes sense, but if it doesn't... tough ;-)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> Several points about this. One, the interviewer is listed solely as "Cadence" (thereafter CAD). It's been a long time since I saw any of those Cadence interviews in the original format etc, and I can't remember if they are always presented that way, but in any case I think I'm right in saying that Bob Rusch conducted them himself. [More about him coming soon, funnily enough...] Two, I thought that these articles were usually (notoriously) long, whereas this one is - well, maybe it's fairly long: I suppose by music mag standards it is pretty long, at that. I just would have expected it to be longer... Three, there is no date given. However it is clear from context that it must have been some time in 1982: B. refers to a performance "in April" - meaning April of the same year the conversation was taking place - and [1982] is slotted in afterwards. Also he talks about working on (what eventually became) <b>Comp. 103</b> (for seven trumpets) - and the publication date for that is given elsewhere as 1983. His referencing the Antilles album - recorded in October 1981, released 1982 - further helps to narrow this down.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> The archival <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#Antilles">entry for this album</a> on Restructures notes that "the graphic titles for 34 and 40 A are transposed in the sleevenotes", and cites Lock for this. This could itself be indicative of what B. is saying in the interview: he presented the pieces in a certain order, but the label changed that because they thought they knew better how to sell it to their putative demographic; maybe they just didn't bother to switch the titles as well, since - I mean, who the hell was going to notice, right? This does feel like the kind of decision a record label would (still) take without missing a beat.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> Aposiopesis is present in the actual text here - I didn't put this one in. (Yep - contrary to what most people think, it's only an "ellipsis" if something is <i>missed out</i>; if the same "..." indicates a lengthy pause or a tailing-off, that is different, and thus has a different name. Not a lot of people know that, these days...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> Quoted material in this post is taken from Anthony Braxton, <i>Composition Notes Book D</i> (Synthesis Music/ Frog Peak, 1988) pp. 495-</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> - Not <i>straightforwardly</i> (or exclusively) racist, no. This is absolutely <u>not</u> to suggest that B. didn't think there was a very strong current of racism running through the whole situation - he goes on to make it perfectly clear that he did. I am also certain that he was completely right about that. It's too big a subject for me to get to grips with it here. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> Several points to make about this: 1. Not wishing to bang on about something I have mentioned many times before, I was an undisciplined and easily-distracted student, and learned far less at university than I might have done... when it came to Kant, as it happens the only part which I found really interesting was the very first bit ("Transcendental Aesthetic"), and I never found it necessary to buy the recommended edition; everyone I knew who really got their teeth into Kant swore by the Norman Kemp Smith translation, and this was the story everyone told about it. Was it true? I don't know. It doesn't actually matter whether it was true or not, for the purposes of this post; 2. It goes without saying that anyone studying Kant at a higher and/or deeper level would eventually need to deal with the original text, rather than any translation (however excellent). Nobody ever meant to imply that the improved translation rendered the original redundant; it was just thought to be sufficient for a undergraduate course, where Kant is only one element of the syllabus. 3. I did also think of another example at the same time - that of a martial-arts master of my former acquaintance, the first proven fighter to translate some core classics on <i>taijiquan</i> (tai chi chuan) from Chinese into English; in this instance, previous translators had no experience of using tai chi for combat and were therefore not qualified to... etc. This felt like one example too many, hence its being tucked away down here (and not fully explained)...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^</span> I did try, a number of years ago, to read the <i>Tri-Axium Writings</i>. I didn't manage to get very far, although I took this more as a reflection on my shortcomings as a serious scholar than as a judgement on the original material; I may try and make a second concerted attempt this year. But I don't know how many people have really read this stuff, never mind understood it. I've mentioned before (musician and Youtuber) Brian Krock's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsyfqkOqBsM&t=105s&pp=ygUUYnJpYW4ga3JvY2sgZGVjb2Rpbmc%3D">video on the maestro</a>, for which he claimed to have taken a deep dive into the written material; the conclusions he reached, as far as I recall, were not really of a sort that he could not have gleaned pretty easily from other sources. This is not said with a view to undermining Brian - rather it highlights how difficult the writing is, if even trained composers can struggle to get to grips with it. (One would also suspect that only so much reading and research was ever going to be done for a thirty-odd-minute video presentation.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^^</span> That did change a bit, in some circles at least, when I started my work here; some people who had been exploiting B's forbidding reputation to make themselves look cleverer than they were had to cut that out once they realised there someone around who wouldn't stand for it, or let it go unchallenged. I am also sure that one of the things B. liked about what I was doing was the fact that I <u>did</u> voice (considerable... ahem) dissatisfaction with certain critics, and their facile glosses on music which they were not really engaging with before passing judgement on it. Whether those same critics ever knew about that is another matter...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~</span> I eventually got rid of my fifth-edition paperback copy of <i>The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD</i> - not just because of what those guys were saying about B's music; but my understanding how far they fell short of properly understanding his music was what allowed me to see their more general shortcomings. It must be said, I received a fair amount of resistance from the online community at the time for some of the things I said about those critics, who were still quite revered by most people (apparently). There's no doubt they know <i>jazz</i>; possibly they were unwilling to recognise their own limitations (or more likely still, figured they could get away with a lot when discussing music of strictly minority appeal).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~~</span> This does <u>not</u> excuse the people who have reached for that lazy assumption, repeatedly, over the years. Assuming that an intellectual must always make cerebral, unemotional music is more or less the same as the very prevalent tendency among the music-buying public to allow their impressions of music to be prejudiced by the appearance of the packaging: if an artist's last album had a dark and sombre cover, and their latest is presented in bright colours, amateur reviewers will immediately and inevitably say that the "new album is much more positive and upbeat" than the last one. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~~~</span> I know this because that's what B. told me, shortly after the book's publication, the last time I spoke to him on the phone. It is also the case that Broomer was not exactly trying to unpack or explain B's music anyway; rather <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Time_and_Anthony_Braxton.html?id=XYOBPgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">he set himself</a> a very specific remit - and one which probably very few people were qualified to judge as regards the results. (Nevertheless, a number of online reviews suggest that not a few readers were largely unimpressed.)</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-13565769901320497192024-02-11T14:42:00.000-08:002024-02-27T23:51:48.826-08:00Random rep (Comp. 92)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTMeCfd9yqmgDVg5uTgNOJMEsHbBvJ35_GQBMgQvl6vfjj-YpHsyLNF4Iycol-a5SOQ6_OZJQoq12pLAg6V60qI6M0WtNAwFT0cGVV-CiXAKiEtbf8S8MhnIe5Ls7Bq-E8yw_wE4xzn1KRE3qEhV04rU-yOyQHwMySvb2AAIVdeGMNs4EuyE9ykTLY3by/s2048/IMG_3885.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTMeCfd9yqmgDVg5uTgNOJMEsHbBvJ35_GQBMgQvl6vfjj-YpHsyLNF4Iycol-a5SOQ6_OZJQoq12pLAg6V60qI6M0WtNAwFT0cGVV-CiXAKiEtbf8S8MhnIe5Ls7Bq-E8yw_wE4xzn1KRE3qEhV04rU-yOyQHwMySvb2AAIVdeGMNs4EuyE9ykTLY3by/s320/IMG_3885.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[Another one in an <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/rapid-rep.html">occasional series</a> - except that this time things are rather different: instead of looking at a "cover" of a piece B. already performed, here we have one which had <i>never</i> been recorded prior to the version under consideration...]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The New York Composers Orchestra</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>First Program in Standard Time</i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(New World/Countercurrents 1992)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">[see 4 below for link]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">1. Background/context</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">2. Taxonomical nerdery</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">3. Theory</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">4. Practice</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. I had skated past this entry in <a href="http://fasica.altervista.org/akamu/braxton/discography.htm">the discography</a> who knows how many times, without ever really registering it properly, before a coincidental listing on Discogs last year (from a seller whose items for sale I was looking at for entirely different reasons) saw me snagging a copy of the CD. It was only at that point that I really took note of why this represents quite a significant (if minor) entry on said discography... but that will be covered under point 2 below.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">NYCO was formed in 1986 by the husband-and-wife team of <b>Wayne Horvitz</b> (keyboards) and <b>Robin Holcomb</b> (piano), "as an antidote to the other things (Horvitz) was doing" - the "other things" being his activity on the NYC Downtown scene: "I wanted to see what I could do with something more conservative."<span style="color: red;">*</span> There was an album before this one, <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/1185071-The-New-York-Composers-Orchestra-The-New-York-Composers-Orchestra">in 1990</a>, featuring originals by Holcomb, Horvitz, <b>Marty Ehrlich</b> and (reedman) Doug Wieselman arranged for a big band; we may presume that when Horvitz says "conservative" he means something more obviously <i>in the jazz tradition</i> compared with what he was doing with Zorn et al: no crazy electric guitars, no turntables, no samples, no punk or metal or no wave. Almost inevitably, some fellow-travellers from Horvitz' day job - so to speak - got roped in, so we find Bobby Previte and Steve Bernstein involved from the start, as well as outward-facing players such as Ehrlich and Ray Anderson, but the ensemble as a whole was not just cobbled together from a week's work at the Knitting Factory. Players had to be skilled readers, who were also adept in section playing as well as improvising.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3226438-The-New-York-Composers-Orchestra-First-Program-In-Standard-Time">second (but final) album</a>, then, branches out somewhat in that it already includes pieces by composers from outside the NYCO, played by a fifteen-piece big band<span style="color: red;">**</span>: besides three numbers by Horvitz, one by Holcomb and one by Previte, there is one by Lenny Pickett, one by Elliott Sharp<span style="color: red;">***</span>... and kicking things off, this catchy little number we're examining here.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. The <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#NYCompOrch">archival entry</a> for this on Restructures gave the piece the following title: "For Creative Orchestra {Comp. 92 (+ 30 + 32 + 139) + (108 C + 108 D)}", but that's not what it's actually called on the CD. The designation "For Creative Orchestra" is drawn from the composition notes, and is presented as a <i>sub</i>title. The <i>title</i> of the piece is, correctly, given as the diagram for <b>Comp. 92</b>, followed by NYCO's best attempt to render the materials in a format of which B. would approve: <b>92 + (30, 32, 139) + (108c, 108d)</b>. - a pretty subtle distinction, yes, but if we can't make those here, of all places... anyway. Unlike <a href="https://www.ictus.be/forces">Ictus and friends</a>, and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG-M_EqoVpM">Plus-Minus Ensemble</a> (as detailed in the <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/preview-of-happened-attractions.html">previous</a> two <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/slowly-going-viral.html">posts</a>), NYCO did <u>not</u> simply call their confection by a generic name.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Leaving aside the ultra-finicky question of whether the titular punctuation could have been improved upon, for once we can see at a glance that we shan't need to worry about where the collaging is worked out, or where one piece ends and another begins, any of that sort of thing. <b>Comps. 30</b>, <b>32</b> and <b>139</b> are all solo piano pieces - each of which has been used extensively in collaging, as well as being interpreted <i>in toto</i> by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200217001359/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#hat6019-2">several</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200217001359/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#hat6194">different</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200217001359/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Leo901">pianists</a> - whilst the <b>108 series</b> comprises the first four <b><i>pulse tracks</i></b>. We can very safely assume that the contents of the first set of brackets relate to materials played by the two founder-directors, at different times<span style="color: red;">#</span>, and that the second brackets contain materials incorporated by the bass and drums. (Those, at least, we can try to listen out for.) But the main thing is: this is not a <i>medley</i> as such. The whole duration of the recorded piece comprises the premiere reading of <b>Comp. 92</b>, with (what we would now think of as) <b><i>tertiary materials</i></b> interpolated by specific players along the way. Of course, quite how much material from (a total of) more than two hundred pages of solo piano music can be shoehorned into these eleven minutes... well, that's something which remains to be seen.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As stated, this was the first time <b>92</b> had been recorded by anybody - which is what necessitates the closer look at the theory in point 3 below. (Much later, another <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180709005318/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#RTPJ0013">star-filled big band</a> would have a crack at it, this time with the maestro himself involved.) That alone makes this quite a significant undertaking, albeit one which is (as I myself have already demonstrated) embarrassingly easy to overlook.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. As suggested above, the "virgin status" of this piece necessitates reference to the notes - specifically, in this case, to <i>Composition Notes Book D</i>. But first, it's worth just having a quick look at the album's own liners again to see if anything of lasting value was said there...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Penned by (it says here) Bay Area freelancer Derk Richardson<span style="color: red;">##</span>, these particular notes do manage to say something pungent, by no means a given for this sort of exercise<span style="color: red;">###</span>. "Like Cecil Taylor, Braxton is one of the most restless and probing architects of modern music, absorbed with the possibilities of sound and its implications for culture and consciousness". The phrasing here is so typically don't-examine-this-too-closely journalistic that it would be easy to glide on past the statement without realising how astute an observation is actually being made. Many music writers didn't even notice this about B. and his music, never mind take the trouble to point it out. It is, however, bang on the money - not that it should come as a surprise to anyone reading <i>this, </i>but it is surprising enough to encounter it in a commissioned liner essay that it seems only fair to single it out... as regards the actual <i>piece</i>, mind you, all Richardson manages to say is that "for all its complexity... (it) also swings like mad". This, too, is something that not everyone realised about B's music - so we'd better give that due credit as well. Still, this is not an album of <i><b>Braxwerks</b></i>, so it's quickly on to the next number from there.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">B's own notes, naturally, are both hyper-detailed and densely abstruse. They are also, in this instance, bestrewn with errata and gaps; for example, "<b>Comp. No. 92</b> is dedicated to " (- and this is literally followed by several lines of blank space before the next paragraph). Still, they clear up right away the question of what was meant by "for creative orchestra (1979)" - this subtitle appears right next to the graphic title, at the top of p.429. [This is p1 of the notes for this piece, and from now on I will give only the page numbers for this set of notes, not the volume.] NYCO did nothing wrong by including this wording, nor did they try to turn it into the title of their composite reading. <span style="color: red;">^ </span>The piece is actually part of a set: <b>Comps. 89-93</b> inclusive all bear the same subtitle, and were all composed "for Swedish radio". (Exactly what is meant by that is not explained; presumably some sort of commission was involved, although if the works themselves were unrecorded - which all five of them were, prior to 1989<span style="color: red;">^^</span> - what did "Swedish radio" actually get..?) As regards the notes specific to this single piece, as opposed to all five: these run to nine full pages of text as well as diagrams and extracts from the score. Even were I qualified to analyse all this material in depth - which I'm not - it would not feel appropriate to do that here, in order to assess one individual reading of the piece by an external set of musicians. I'm just going to try and sift through it all, to see what emerges at "top level"...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... and what does can, I reckon, basically be reduced to three categories:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3a. <u>Influences/reference points</u>. In the first section of the notes, <b>92</b> is described as "an extended be-bop-like structure"; almost immediately afterwards we are told that the piece is "a music state that seeks to forward the affinity nature of the big band context - so that we can recall the wonder of that music." So, those are our first two references right there; a couple of pages later we hear about "a dynamic strong sound universe that is steeped in the tradition of big band interpretation dynamics". Besides a passing reference to "the music of (Charles Mingus and) Woody Herman", that's about it for big bands as such; on the other hand, the spirit of be-bop is invoked continually, although B. seems at pains to clarify that any formal similarities to bop are not to be taken as emblematic of the essence of the piece (more on this in 3c below): "the nature of (<b>92</b>) only proceeds from a be-bop 'surface housing' (that places the context of the music in what is perceived as a 'known state') as a basis to form fresh moment solutions that emphasise 'known and unknown' variables." Again, further on, we hear of "a be-bop sensibility - but with different apparent tendencies." This is effectively summed up on p5 of the notes, thus: "In the beginning the music is perceived as normal within the tradition of what be-bop is 'supposed to be' - later as the music continues forward it becomes apparent that 'there are other factors happening within the work'."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Two other reference points emerge later on. On p9 we read about a "session 'sound universe' that mechanizes John Coltrane's composition 'Ascensions' (<i>sic</i>) to create a 'construction universe' sound context that breathes fresh light into the vibrancy of creative music" - this being typically obscurantist and, well, <i>deliberately difficult </i><span style="color: red;">^^^</span> - as well as introducing a concept that might feel strange to most readers ("breathing light") but is probably quite natural and intuitive for the synaesthetic maestro. On the following page: "I recall during the construction of this effort that I became very aware of Thelonious Monk's music (and harmonic nature) and some of that awareness was put into the lining of <b>Comp.</b> <b>92</b> (but none of this was approached as an empirical directive)." One <i>could</i> posit that <i>Ascension</i> bears a tangential relation to big bands, and Monk to bop, but in both cases this would really be stretching the functional definitions of those terms beyond the point of utility. So: four musical reference points to keep in mind.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3b. <u>Formal structure</u>. <b>92</b> "is a series of sequenced material and open parameters" which "unfolds as a nine-part component structure that alternates from written notated materials to extended improvisation." This is codified by B. as <i>A (S) C (S) E</i><i> (S) G</i><i> (S) I</i>, where S = solo (i.e. improvised section); these latter are subdivided into "two tempo soloist open parameters and two collective improvisation parameters". These four sections, not being notated by definition, may "position as many solos... as desired... depending on the needs of the moment or intention". The diagram which occupies p3 indicates that the first and third such sections are "tempo solos" and the second and fourth are "collective".</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3c. <u>The essential character of the piece</u>. I could go on at quite some length here, quoting the text in numerous places - but I already took rather longer than planned over 3a above, and I really did want to avoid getting bogged down in this. As I understand it, the <i>animus</i> (as it were) of the piece is encapsulated in the phrase which is found on p2: "a series of simultaneous events"<span style="color: red;">~</span>. There are (of course... why would there not be) at least two different aspects to this: at any given time during the notated parts, the different <i>sections</i> - in the traditional sense of reeds, brass, etc (in keeping with the spirit of the big band era, at least up to the time of Ellington<span style="color: red;">~~</span>) play long written lines which overlap, but which act independently of one another; and the rhythm section has its own duality going on, alternating between a "swinging role function (in the traditional sense" and acting as a "fourth line variable"<span style="color: red;">~~~</span>. In other words, the entire flavour of the piece is <i><b>contrapuntal</b></i>, in a rather radically extended sense of that term, and the rhythm section plays a very active part in this: alternately, the rhythmic contours may "appear 'off' of the principal pulse of the music" or may "emphasize (their) relationship to the principal pulse". This being the case, it makes perfect sense for NYCO to have collaged in the two pulse tracks; it even feels like an inspired decision. <span style="color: red;">@</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are a few other bits worth quoting from the notes, before we (finally) move on...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Comp. 92</b> "is a non-harmonic (not atonal) be-bop sound structure" ( - this distinction is not clarified at all, but it is obviously a significant one for the composer, and must therefore be borne in mind)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Nothing is emphasized and nothing is repeated"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"This is the blues, my friend" ( - it really isn't what most of us would think of as the blues, but it's very interesting to know that B. thinks of it in that way... he is discussing the principle of tension and release at this point in the notes)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"... a composite linear maze of linear constructions is placed into the space of the music in a manner that allows it to still meet the dictates of a 'swinging' music state" ( - unbeknownst to him, Richardson echoed this statement in his liner notes)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That concludes the theory bit. [I have endeavoured to reproduce the quoted text as accurately as possible, retaining all of B's punctuation, spelling and grammar]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">4. Maybe it felt as if we would never get there, but... now for the actual music. (I am not in a position to offer downloads at the moment, but the music - courtesy of the official NYCO Youtube channel - is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aWLJnBrxKo&list=OLAK5uy_lYtDRqa387kjvUYVUn0GzGRTjwQnAREiA&index=1">available here</a>.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ehrlich is credited as director for this number - which, as previously mentioned, opens the CD. Of the fifteen players, he was one of (I think) just two who had prior direct experience of B's music: the other was of course <b>Ray Anderson</b>, who spent several years as a member of the actual working band and was in principle far more qualified for the job; Ehrlich is quite strongly associated with B's standards groups, having got the call on more than one occasion, when the maestro fancied playing piano and needed a versatile and technically-robust reedman to step in; but <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#M&A849">those dates</a> were a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Leo222">couple of years</a> in the future at this point. The only time he had played with B. prior to this, that I can find, was in 1978 - and that was indeed a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#hat6171">creative orchestra</a> affair (Anderson also present, right in the middle of his tenure in the working group).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The word "arranged" does not appear anywhere in the liner notes, but we'll have to assume that this job was included in Ehrlich's remit. Then again, with the instrumentation so close to that specified by B., it might be argued that the piece "arranges itself": all that really needs to be worked out is the identity and order of the soloists, the manner of linking up the structural phases, the precise allocation to the three main sections (Ehrlich has at his disposal five woodwinds including himself - he will take the first solo - plus three trumpets, two trombones and french horn; the two keyboards, bass and drums will presumably more or less take care of themselves)... and the backing for the four solo phases. That sounds like quite a lot of work, come to think of it... maybe "director" is indeed the optimal term.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I played this a few times last week (doing so was what prompted me to write this in the first place), but I have put in a lot of research since then and my understanding of the piece is rather deeper. The main take-away from previous spins was how old-fashioned the horn arrangement sounded, as if any "big band" piece must sound like something from the 1920s (not <i>really</i>, of course) - but then, having looked at the notes I withdraw this observation, and besides: it does also sound pretty similar to the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#Orchestra76">1976 Arista bash</a>, being (I thought) especially reminiscent of <b>Comp. 55</b>... well before the end of the piece, it gets extremely hot and intense, and generally gives the impression of being a good and worthwhile reading.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then I wrote most of the above, before returning to the music. Once you know how the horizontal structure is set out, and have an understanding of the ethos or flavour of the piece, it is very easy to follow what's happening in real time - at least, as regards the actual primary territory. There is a very short introduction, establishing the rhythm and tempo while Anderson and one of the trumpets warm up, then at 0.11 we are straight into the A phase. This does exactly what we would (by now) expect: the reeds, trumpets and lower brass start up "three independently superimposed sectional phrase grouping line formations that are cast over a medium to fast tempo driving rhythm section." This phase lasts about forty-five seconds - long enough for the notated material to be played through - and then a brief swelling chord takes us into the S1 phase, where Ehrlich takes his solo<span style="color: red;">@@</span>. This consists exclusively of fast runs and assorted extended techniques, entirely in the spirit of the music and not in the least bit "jazzy", and it sounds fine if at times maybe a little hesitant. Backing statements are provided principally by Anderson, with Holcomb mainly laying down sporadic (dis)chords and Previte providing a steady beat, which nevertheless sounds at times as if it might be edging towards a <i style="font-weight: bold;">pulse track</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">An organ phrase from Horvitz at 2.08 signals the switch to the C phase, and we're back to the threefold notated material. This time, Previte - with Horvitz and (bassist) Lindsey Horner - is definitely laying down a pulse track as opposed to a steady beat. Here, then, is the "fourth line" strategy we read about earlier. Anyone who isn't really paying attention would miss this altogether in the maelstrom of sound; by 3.04, Anderson has begun flexing his way into the S2 phase, and this begins properly at 3.11. His solo is complemented by crazy, queasy swirls from Horvitz over a backing in which Horner plugs away at a walking bass line while Previte pretty much plays as a second soloist. At 4.14, more written unison material tells us we are now already in the E phase. The rhythm section "behaves itself" again here, reinforcing the tempo rather than disrupting it, but as we approach the end of the fifth minute the mood is very intense, and stabbing chords from Holcomb see her getting ready for her solo, ushered in by Horner's switching to <i>arco</i> bass at 5.10. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This S3 phase sees Holcomb playing (I would guess) more freely than she ever did in her whole career, taking her cue perhaps from Marilyn Crispell (though without MC's preternatural fluency) - while (second trombone) Art Baron interjects and Horner and Previte both break things up. This does not sound like a pulse track as such, not least because the bass and drums play completely independently of one another at this point. Previte keeps foot to throttle, but there is not really a steady beat during this very open phase. At around 6.20 Holcomb signs off and at once the G phase is underway; from around 6.30 a long roll on Previte's snare seems to cue up the second <i style="font-weight: bold;">pulse track</i>, both he and Horner now once more taking the "fourth line" approach. This is a brief phase, and it precedes what is easily the longest: the S4 phase, which comes closest of all to the "collective solos" specified in B's original plan, begins at 7.06 and lasts almost three minutes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A sustained organ note ties the G and S4 phases together, during which time the bass and drums suddenly start playing at furious speed. The featured soloists in this final open phase are the three trumpeters, in the order Jack Walrath - Eddie Allen - Steve Bernstein, but what that really reflects is the order in which they <i>start</i>, since improvised phrases from all three get traded back and forth as this phase progresses. The pickup of the pace, in the meantime, sounds so natural and subtle that it could go completely unnoticed - until one eventually realises how <i>fast</i> Horner and Previte are playing: as the trumpets continue to trade phrases over increasingly intense backing, the mood becomes terrifically exciting, and this is underlined by the "traffic noise" interpolations from the other horns and the keys, which build little by little to an almost unbearable pitch. This phase really does feel like a sort of tightly-marshalled chaos, if that makes any sense; by 9.20 there are effectively as many as seven or eight "soloists" all doing their thing at once, and the intensity is sustained all the way until 9.56, when the final I phase begins. This is preceded (just) by a quick press roll from Previte, signalling what is then a seamless switch from a furious flat-out sprint to the badass swing of the closing written statements, leading up at last to a six-second <i>crescendo</i> attack from the horns, whipped home with a few final snaps on the snare. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- And that's that. We might quibble: the S4 phase is clearly along the lines of a "collective solo", but is there really enough of a distinction drawn between "tempo solos" and "collective" in the other three S phases? For that matter, the piece is really quite short and could in principle have been developed quite a lot further. But as regards the second point, it's not an album of <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/11/repertoire.html">B-rep</a> as such, and a really long and involved reading could have unbalanced the overall programme; trust me, most of the rest of the album does NOT sound like this. Besides, as regards<i> both</i> quibbles: some (most?) of these players were not used to negotiating material of this level of complexity or ambition, and within certain inescapable limitations, the orchestra delivered the most successful outcome which could have been expected. Nor is that intended as faint praise: Ehrlich and Anderson do a great job, Holcomb and Horvitz do too, and both Horner and (especially) Previte just tear the place up. The rest of the ensemble acquits itself extremely well on this highly challenging material, and everyone could be justifiably proud of this reading.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The one legitimate gripe concerns the use of the solo piano music. Even if we assume that Holcomb's solo consists exclusively of excerpts from all three of those scores, and for that matter if we assume further that every note played by both keyboardists originated from <i>some</i>where in amongst them - which is unlikely - that still adds up to a vanishingly small percentage of the actual total available to them, and one is left wondering if maybe it wouldn't have been more honest to cite just <i>one</i> of the three piano pieces (- even then, only a tiny portion could actually have been used). As it is, the impression is given that this rendition utilised collage elements from five different pieces equally, which simply cannot have been the case. But if that is the <u>only</u> real demerit here - and I would say it is - then we can easily find it in our hearts to overlook it. I really enjoyed this delightful one-off, and the effort I put into making sense of it definitely helped me to appreciate it more.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you've read this far, thank you, and well done! I hope that it aids you, too, in enjoying this intriguing addition to the discography.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> As one would hopefully infer from the inverted commas, these are direct quotes attributed to Horvitz, included in the liner notes for the CD. (Just to confirm that I am not putting words into his mouth: "antidote" and "conservative" would both sound highly inflammatory if said by anybody else...)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> One of the Horvitz pieces, "Paper Money", uses a slimmed-down nonet, featuring <b>Butch Morris</b> (making what by then must have been a rare appearance on cornet); he does not play on the rest of the album.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> I don't mind saying that the album as a whole is rather <i>too</i> "conservative" for my tastes: there are plenty of charming details if one pays close attention, but it's all too easy to use (most of) the album as background music, and the majority of the pieces sound... a little unambitious. To my (admittedly warped) ears, Sharp's knotty and dissonant "Skew" is easily the most interesting thing on here (with the obvious exception of the opener).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> This is about as precise as I am ever likely to get: I could live to be 150 and I doubt I would ever reach the point where I could confidently say <i>which</i> solo piano piece is being quoted <i>when</i>. (Indeed we might go further: given that at least two of the three pieces used here consist of multiple written pages to be assembled in whatever order the performer chooses, we can infer that even pianists who have <i>played</i> these works might not necessarily be able to say for sure "these fifteen seconds are from page ten of <b>32</b>... these eight seconds are from page sixty-five of <b>30</b>", etc. The task is almost unimaginably difficult: more than three decades later, I doubt really that Horvitz or Holcomb could tell us either, unless of course they made exceptionally detailed notes at the time of performance.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> This is not a typo: he is actually credited as Derk, not Derek (or Dirk). New one on me.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> I say this as someone who did write music reviews for a magazine for a few years, a long time ago - albeit not professionally. It can be extraordinarily difficult to find things to say under these circumstances, unless the writer is actually powerfully impressed by what s/he is hearing. You do end up racking your brains to avoid simply repeating the same stuff <i>ad nauseam</i>.... I could never have done it full-time. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> Restructures also included the following rubric for <b>Comp. 92</b>: <i>Twenty-six pages of notated music with improvisation, for the creative orchestra. Instrumentation: 3 reeds (alto, tenor, bass), 3 tpt, 3 trom, b. trom, TB, guitar, piano, SB, Per (set)</i>. This is not from the full notes as such, but rather from the Catalog of Works - I feel obliged to use the US spelling there, which I would not normally do - at the end of the book. The instrumentation is not precisely replicated by NYCO, although they come pretty damn close, and do (coincidentally) comprise a quindectet, as specified here! In any case, whilst B. often wrote with specific instrumentation in mind, it was very seldom (if ever) the case that a given interpretation would not be "valid" if it didn't stick to the prescribed instrumentation. (Quite the contrary, if anything.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^</span> The earliest recording I can find of any of these five pieces is on <i>Eugene (1989)</i> on Black Saint, which includes both <b>91</b> and <b>93</b>. (The exact same programme was of course later replicated by the official bootleg BL024/-025 <i>Creative Orchestra (Portland) 1989</i>.) The album was actually released in 1991 - twelve years after these works were composed, and one year before NYCO's sophomore effort (which would appear to be less than coincidental); <i><a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/repertoire-redux-jump-or-die.html">Jump or Die</a></i> was also recorded in 1992, including <b>Comp. 90 </b>(in collage form), and again this doesn't feel like a coincidence. The upshot is, none of these five works were officially <i>recorded</i> until 1989, though naturally this does not mean that none of them was <i>performed</i> before then; who knows, some Swedish collectors may have airshot recordings which would prove that they were..? (What a tantalising possibility <i>that</i> is...)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^^</span> This is not a criticism, nor is it said in irony: B. has every right to make his writings difficult, and demanding of close and careful reading. I have been thinking quite a lot about this, and will make it the subject of another post, later this month (at least, that's the idea...)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~</span> This phrase, which I wrote down and underlined as I was working through the notes, is taken directly from the text; but I have exercised some considerable licence in using it, since the phrase appears in the middle of a much longer sentence, in which the "series... of events" is not strictly a definition of the actual piece. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~~</span> To say this is not my strong suit would be an understatement, but one detail I have retained from the jazz history books which I read twenty or so years ago is that prior to Ellington, big band arrangers routinely played sections off against one another, voicing one individual written part for reeds then giving the next to the brass, etc; Ellington is (as I recall) credited with being the first leader to use the innovative technique of "scoring across sections" (in works such as "Mood Indigo") by pairing, say, a clarinet with a trombone. [This is all unpacked a bit further in the next footnote.]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~~~</span> Fourth, because in B's original chart, the three sections which voice the written lines comprise the reeds, the trumpets and the trombones. Bass trombone was presumably included in the latter group, whilst I would guess the tuba was intended to be in the rhythm section (as a brass bass, to complement the string bass). This is all notional of course, since we don't have any recordings of B's own arrangement(s), and NYCO's instrumentation does not include either of those voices. - As we can see, B's chart gives the sections of the orchestra their own parts, and of course Ellington very often would have continued to do this as well; I don't mean to imply that he <i>always</i> scored across sections, once he had begun to experiment with that. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">@</span> It is a creative choice which wouldn't have been available to the composer, in 1979: the pulse track <i>per se</i> had not yet been invented, although of course it was <a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2008/04/braxtothon-08-session-003.html">foreshadowed in 1975</a>, by <b>Comp. 23g</b>... [Incidentally, if anyone - besides the present writer - has ever wondered why B. used the term "pulse track" for rhythmic lines which are generally irregular, the answer is found in the Glossary of Terms (one of the numerous appendices in the books of <i>Composition Notes</i>): <i style="font-weight: bold;">pulse</i> "is my term for tempo when the actual tempo is removed and the force of the operative is retained". OK, so that may not <i>exactly</i> explain things, but... it helps?]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">@@</span> I thought that the lower notes - and general tone - sounded more like a tenor sax, but the liner notes say the solo is on alto. (Ehrlich plays both, plus soprano sax and two clarinets, over the course of the album.)</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-35653430886037187502024-02-07T12:13:00.000-08:002024-02-12T15:47:36.545-08:00Preview of happened attractions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHqaBm3UvxQPevaQ1THoU2QFba3KeWfZN3Z40tjdg537Jsavz8qCVPuN8sr6P2Ng8fslYAa-GU9VUmv91s4IKwiR3FWAhtvEbyKyVLLEkBTj9eB405_quFLJvvmqbLibdzPYHOOvoAcsjjudv-64odGzCNuC8IE0612gB-rzSDDFR0HhyfhAvZ3fC1hR5/s3264/IMG_6400.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHqaBm3UvxQPevaQ1THoU2QFba3KeWfZN3Z40tjdg537Jsavz8qCVPuN8sr6P2Ng8fslYAa-GU9VUmv91s4IKwiR3FWAhtvEbyKyVLLEkBTj9eB405_quFLJvvmqbLibdzPYHOOvoAcsjjudv-64odGzCNuC8IE0612gB-rzSDDFR0HhyfhAvZ3fC1hR5/s320/IMG_6400.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, I did say <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/slowly-going-viral.html">last time</a> that this post should really have come first, but never mind ( - quite apart from anything else, it feels rather delightfully <i style="font-weight: bold;">Braxtonesque</i> to be doing these things out of order - and it's only appropriate in this instance, as will become clear).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>McClintic Sphere</b> - who does tend to keep a closer eye on such developments than I do - tipped me off about these two events in the middle of January, but what with one thing and another, it's taken me until now to get round to documenting them here...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The first event</i> has definitely <a href="https://www.ictus.be/forces">already taken place</a>, over two nights in November last year. The Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Ilan Volkov, joined <b><i><span style="color: #ffa400;">forces</span></i></b> with a sextet representing Ictus (including the blog's "new best friend" <b>Kobe Van Cauwenberghe</b><span style="color: red;">* </span>and keyboardist Jean-Luc Plouvier, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9egTwgYuRk">seen here</a>) on 16th and 17th November to present an ambitious programme including a piece which they appear to have entitled simply "Creative Orchestra", based around readings of B's <b>Comps. 151 </b>and<b> 147</b>. Sharp-eyed readers will note that these were the two works presented on the hatART CD <i>2 Compositions (Ensemble) 1989/1991</i>, <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1186351-Anthony-Braxton-2-Compositions-Ensemble-19891991">released in 1992</a>; mind, in that instance the two works were recorded by very different orchestras in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200217001359/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#hat6086-1">different</a> venues and in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200217001359/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#hat6086-2">different</a> years, whilst last year's Belgian extravaganza incorporated material from both scores - and more: the Ictus website (as linked in the first line of this para) only details those two works, but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJu7x1laGUk">this teaser trailer</a> suggests that <b>Comp. 63</b> was also represented. The very brief - but rather mouth-watering - video clip in fact suggests that even still yet further materials may have been involved; KVC was apparently present in the capacity of second conductor, besides (presumably) playing the guitar at some point<span style="color: red;">**</span>, or at least he was when this footage was shot, in Bruges on the first night (16th). Confusingly, the audio track heard on the video appears to have been recorded on the <i>second</i> night, in Antwerp. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The website also includes a brilliant excerpt from (what I presume are) B's composition notes for <b>151</b>, explained as a high-speed car chase, with two police officers pursuing two fleeing felons into and around the territory which represents the structure of the composition itself. I have never seen this written text before, and can only hope that when I eventually get a physical copy of the 1992 hat CD mentioned above, the full text will be in the liners. (The published <i>Composition Notes vols. A-E</i> do not go anywhere near this far.) In the meantime, it's well worth checking out the <a href="https://www.ictus.be/forces">programme's Ictus page</a>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The concerts, then, have already happened. However, the fact that this "teaser" was uploaded to Youtube in mid-December rather implies that something longer and more substantial will be made available at some point...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The second event </i>is pretty similar, being a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8jPICsduw&t=6s">trailer </a>- or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gvq9RXrC9o">series</a> of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhStv4yZs5w">trailers</a> - relating to something which already happened, the difference being that in this case, there definitely is a major release forthcoming: the trailers are teasing that, rather than the original event. The first clip was shot in Prague, on 1st August 2023, on the occasion of the world premiere of the five-hour operatic marathon <b>Trillium X</b>. Clips two and three were shot in Darmstadt during B's residency there from 3rd-5th August. <b>Roland Dahinden</b> (<a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/07/curious-roland.html">him again</a>!<span style="color: red;">***</span>) is conducting. The footage would seem to be part of the "making of <b>Trillium X" </b>documentary, which is intended to be part of PMP's future release of the opera itself, on eight CDs - and a Blu-ray. Yes, so - this project (unlike the Belgian one) was very much carried out with the maestro present, and by the looks of the blurb which accompanies these videos, was extremely well received. One critic described the premiere as "the cultural event of 2023" (which is certainly not something we would be likely to hear from a British or American publication, alas). But although the event was of course recorded and the documentary has (presumably) already been made, the actual physical release <a href="https://www.znesnaze21.cz/en/campaign/be-part-of-a-groundbreaking-cultural-project-trillium-x-is-being-released#o-sbirce">requires further funding</a> - at time of writing they are only 12% of the way towards their crowd-funding goal. It's not clear what will become of this undertaking if that goal is not reached; I shall be genuinely fascinated to see whether they get there. Given that <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/what-pmp2301-might-tell-us.html">PMP releases generally</a> don't seem to be properly distributed outside the Czech Republic, and that the prospective audience for this stuff is still pretty rarefied, I'd say it's touch and go whether or not they achieve their target. <b><span style="color: #ffa400;">Good luck to them</span></b>. You never know, this may finally make an opera convert out of me ;-)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">***</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I had intended to flag up something else I mentioned in passing (in a footnote) <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/02/slowly-going-viral.html">last time out</a>, namely the fact that French guitarist and composer <b>Noël Akchoté</b> has been very busy issuing a ton of music on his own digital label, including a <a href="https://www.discogs.com/search?q=No%C3%ABl+Akchot%C3%A9+braxton&type=release">ludicrous amount of Braxton</a>. But the above took longer than expected to write, and besides, I haven't actually found time to listen to any of this stuff yet. I'm not even sure how one would go about it (besides, you know, buying it from his website, something which my budget wouldn't really permit) - although given that I found out about this accidentally, on Youtube, I would guess that a fair amount of it is available on there. So much..! Dare I say it, this stuff is really beginning to catch on... whether or not the human race will survive to manifest this promised flourishing of possibilities is, I fear, very much up for debate...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> I have never been in contact with Kobe at all, you understand - I just seem to be writing about him rather a lot. He has rather successfully established himself as a specialist <i>Doctor Braxtoniensis</i>, as one might say, and his expertise is apparently sought almost as keenly as that of Herr Dahinden...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> The credits given on the Ictus site are for the entire concert, rather than for the Braxton piece specifically. It is possible, therefore, that KVC was present on the latter only as a specialist co-conductor. Or something. (All will perhaps become clear, at some point.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> This is someone else I seem to keep tripping over. As laid out in the main post, the biggest difference between the Swiss and the Belgian is that the former has "direct lineage" to B., having not only played with him, toured and studied under him, but (apparently) acted as his assistant at Wesleyan for several years. KVC has not done any of this - but it seems undeniable that he has built up a real understanding of the music and its associated systems, and as one of the photos <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/12445294-Ghost-Trance-Septet">seen here</a> would imply, his endeavours do have the maestro's blessing. (And why would they not?)</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-37418202896871151172024-02-05T05:02:00.000-08:002024-02-05T05:02:43.331-08:00Slowly going viral<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSF91vZ-YMMLYI_C4jPXRSyouiUoFtAyL3v5K1kE9krTTYInfCLiFdLuwqUPWBGKOUvQR75LQo2nEjL1wKGcvyCfxqqgnvrRfE7jgh4eyZFoHWuENt11BryIvIRUMu1Kia1SYTj8bIek3ZyjoMQL2krXAOo4M5InNgXGudnFjavHBpCey1qjb5K5Gr8LhI/s3264/IMG_8558.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSF91vZ-YMMLYI_C4jPXRSyouiUoFtAyL3v5K1kE9krTTYInfCLiFdLuwqUPWBGKOUvQR75LQo2nEjL1wKGcvyCfxqqgnvrRfE7jgh4eyZFoHWuENt11BryIvIRUMu1Kia1SYTj8bIek3ZyjoMQL2krXAOo4M5InNgXGudnFjavHBpCey1qjb5K5Gr8LhI/s320/IMG_8558.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now look - I know what "going viral" means. Hell, I have a teenage daughter! I am not <i>that</i> out of touch... so of course I understand that what is going to be discussed here today - the gradual spread of B's music and ideas across the wider musical community - does not really represent what we would usually mean by "viral" in the <i>internet craze</i> sense. Quite the opposite, probably... nevertheless, there is a real sense that this stuff is actually, finally, beginning to catch on. The metaphor was irresistible.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This post is somewhat out of sequence, in that the site which led me to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9egTwgYuRk">the two</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG-M_EqoVpM">videos</a> I'm about to share with you is one to which I was led by <b>McClintic Sphere</b>, and the event he was telling me about is one which is not going to fit into this article... so there will still need to be a little follow-up. But you see, that page led me to quite an exciting video, and that in turn led to another one, and this all just feels as if it needs to be taken care of first...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What we have here is two separate, unrelated <b><span style="color: #ffa400;">GTM</span></b> performances, both recent, neither of which had (as far as I know) anything to do with the maestro. <i>This is good</i>, because it proves that the message is at last getting spread among musicians (if it wasn't already - and I'm not totally convinced that it was). Something else which is good, and which I know would greatly please the man himself, is that women are much represented in both groups: it's an established imperative for B. to try and encourage more women into creative music, and I can't help thinking that the well-balanced ensembles we're going to look at here are a sign that this plan, too, is working<span style="color: red;">*</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9egTwgYuRk">first video</a> is undated (as yet, although I have asked <a href="https://www.ictus.be/">Ictus</a> if they can provide this information - so we'll see); but given that it was posted on 6th July 2022, it must be of a performance earlier than that. I found the video on the "<a href="https://www.ictus.be/listen">Watch & Listen</a>" page of Ictus' site; the institution itself is a Belgian enterprise, founded in 1994 as the live band for a dance company, but which has grown steadily ever since. Anyone who has been reading this blog since I resumed posting on it will not be surprised to learn that guitarist <b>Kobe Van Cauwenberghe</b> is currently one of <a href="https://www.ictus.be/ensemble/crew">the (many) members</a>; a quick scan down that list reveals that trumpeter <b>Susana Santos Silva</b>, one of B's most recent touring musicians, is also involved. Anyway, the video we're concerned with here is "the result of a 2 day workshop where Advanced Master students from the School of Arts Gent join forces with a squad of Ictus musicians" - and the workshop in question was given by Kobe Van C., drawing on what is by now a fair bit of time and experience working with B's music. He can't claim to the same <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/07/curious-roland.html">sort of direct lineage</a> as <b>Roland Dahinden</b>; unlike the trombonist, the Belgian has never studied under B. or collaborated with him. But he has immersed himself in the maestro's music to a degree that few "outsiders" can match: he <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/12445294-Ghost-Trance-Septet">leads a group</a> which plays only GTM, and has himself recorded a solo album of GTM pieces, using tape loops and electronics for accompaniment<span style="color: red;">**</span>. It doesn't seem at all arrogant or inappropriate for him to be hosting GTM workshops - he has clocked up the mileage and established his credentials beyond doubt<span style="color: red;">***</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The main territory for <a href="https://www.ictus.be/listen/anthony-braxton">this triumphant performance</a>, then, is <b>Comp. 255</b> - a <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/09/grammar-and-syntax.html">Syntactical</a> GTM work which, in principle, is an eccentric choice for an all-instrumental ensemble. But although the syllabic content of the score must necessarily be missing, there is no other reason why any one work should not be undertaken by any grouping of voices, human or otherwise; and KVC's septet has <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/25899790-Kobe-Van-Cauwenberghes-Ghost-Trance-Septet-Ghost-Trance-Septet-Plays-Anthony-Braxton">already tackled</a> this piece, so it's a score he presumably knows pretty well. He will have had his own reasons for preferring this territory for the ensemble to work from. As for the ensemble, it's a very Braxtonian <b><span style="color: #ffa400;">tentet</span></b>, albeit with rather unfamiliar instrumentation: two electric guitars, three woodwinds, one brass, keyboards, two drum kits plus one mallet percussion. (The full line-up is given on the website, although the instrument credits are not all that complete: Berndt plays piccolo as well as flute, (Dirk) Descheemaeker more than one clarinet; the leader switches from guitar to electric bass at one point.) As for who represented Ictus, and who came from School of Arts Gent: besides the leader here, Plouvier, Messler and Dirk Descheemaeker are all listed as being part of the Ictus roster, so let's assume for the time being that the others had attended the workshop as students.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Kobe Van Cauwenberghe is shown right at the beginning of the video, counting everyone in; a few minutes later, when the second guitarist (playing the red Strat) displays a prominent hand signal, the viewer could get confused as to who is who, but no, that really is him at the outset<span style="color: red;">#</span>. Not all players seem to be fully audible, at first, with the two guitars and two drum sets, plus the piccolo, dominating the sound - as the camera pans slowly around the room, this is if anything emphasised, but as the music develops, everyone gets plenty of chances to make themselves heard. It's not long at all before the written theme gives way to an open space, and from here on, freedom of expression is the order of the day. I have no intention this time of trying to run through the video describing the music - which incorporates secondary and tertiary materials, as one would expect (<b>Comp. 115</b> is much used<span style="color: red;">##</span>, as well as <b>Comp. 40i</b>, and <i>of course</i> the repetition series <b>Comp 40(o)</b>, which just seems to be everyone's favourite<span style="color: red;">###</span>) - but suffice to say, with top-class musicians given the right sort of instruction and encouragement, this is music which one can <i style="font-weight: bold;">inhabit</i>, not just <i>hear</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG-M_EqoVpM">second video</a>, if anything, excited me even more, because none of the names meant anything to me at all - which potentially implies a completely new set of musicians finding this stuff for themselves (although I did eventually discover connections, as explained below). What we have here is a sextet performance (entitled simply "Ghost Trance Music") given by the <b>Plus-Minus Ensemble</b>, <a href="https://plusminusensemble.com/">a British group</a> "committed to commissioning new work and placing it alongside recent and landmark modern repertoire". The video was filmed at MINU Festival, Copenhagen, on 18 November 2023 and has only been up on Youtube since December. (The performance was one part of a four-piece programme, and this was the fourth time the programme itself had been presented<span style="color: red;">^</span>.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's not a new thing for an ensemble such as this to interpret B's work alongside that of other contemporary composers; but we seem to have come a long way since the <b>Cygnus Ensemble</b> gave <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/9378067-Cygnus-Ensemble-William-Anderson-2-Chester-Biscardi-Anthony-Braxton-Sebastian-Currier-John-Halle-Dav">a completely-straight reading</a> of the written score of <b>Comp. 186</b><span style="color: red;">^^</span>. Starting with what sounds like a second-species GTM theme - no opus numbers are provided on the group's website - the group takes us on a twenty-one minute journey through some very free and open territories, with the presence once more of electric guitar and synth (plus piano, bass clarinet and two strings) guaranteeing some pretty fiery and adventurous sounds along the way. Almost inevitably, <b>Comp. 40(o) </b>makes yet another appearance, kicked off by the pianist around 3.15, then played faster and faster by the whole group. What delights me so much about this rendition is the way in which the musicians have fully grasped the music's possibilities, leaving the written material far behind in their willingness to embrace the freedoms coded into the model. I have no idea whether the maestro is aware of what this ensemble has done, but if he is, he must surely be jumping for joy. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With a little digging, I did discover that these guys didn't exactly find the music all by themselves: guitarist Primož Sukič is a member of Ictus (although not one of the musicians present for the first video described above), and furthermore, selecting the <a href="https://plusminusensemble.com/tags/braxton/">keyword Braxton</a> on the British group's website reveals that the very first public readings of a work entitled "Ghost Trance Music" were given in February 2022, led by none other than... Kobe van Cauwenberghe. But the fact that they have continued to nurture and develop the music all by themselves is nonetheless hugely encouraging. The human race finds itself in a terribly dark and dangerous place at the time of writing, but it's no exaggeration at all to say that this sort of creative art gives me real hope for the future. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">* </span>There is absolutely nothing new about women playing serious music, if by "serious" we mean <strike>classical</strike>. The jazz world has tended to be overwhelmingly masculine, though, and B. seems to have been painfully conscious of this - and determined to prevent such an imbalance from spilling over into his ensembles.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> Both the <a href="http://www.elnegocitorecords.com/releases/eNR105+.html">septet's release</a> and the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/21212845-Anthony-Braxton-Kobe-Van-Cauwenberghe-Ghost-Trance-Solos">KVC solo album</a> will <i>eventually</i> get covered in these pages. All in good time, etc. (Both these albums include readings of <b>Comp. 255</b>, which is clearly a favourite.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> As it turns out, KVC is not the only musician - or even the only guitarist - keen to establish his credentials as a master interpreter of B's works. While preparing this article I stumbled across a recording of <b>Comp. 115</b> arranged for solo guitar by Noël Akchoté; the Frenchman's is not a new name to me, but what I had no idea about is how prolific he has become in recent years, issuing dozens of recordings as digital downloads on his own label, including <a href="https://www.discogs.com/search?q=No%C3%ABl+Akchot%C3%A9+braxton&type=release">a huge range of B's pieces</a>. Once I went looking, I was amazed at how many of these there were. (So much I have missed in recent years, and so many things to catch up on..!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> If there is one thing we would expect to emerge from a workshop such as this, it's surely an emphasis on musical democracy: section leaders may or may not have been chosen beforehand, but in any case, each player must be at liberty to cue up certain secondary or tertiary materials as the mood takes them. There will of course be times when everyone is required to play from the score, but we know that these scores have extensive pockets of space written into them.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> Well, that's what it sounds like, anyway - although I can't shake the nagging feeling that I have misidentified this one, and that the group is actually playing something else. I am still a bit rusty here. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> Marilyn Crispell may have been bitten by this number before anyone else was, but in any case, it's long since become an almost mandatory inclusion in any proper examination of B's work. Keyboard players just seem to love it - though evidently KVC does, too.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> The three previous concerts were given in the last week of October 2023, all in Britain. (The other three pieces played are listed as world premieres - although I wasn't aware that a piece can receive its premiere every time it is played..! I suppose technically the <i>actual</i> premieres must have taken place on October 25th, in Edinburgh...) By the look of it, the Braxton piece was the final selection on the programme, each time. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^</span> The <a href="https://www.cygnusensemble.com/">Cygnus Ensemble</a> still exists, by the look of it. None of the current players are familiar to me - and I don't know if the reference (on their main page) to their having "commissioned" work from B. - among numerous others - is just poetic licence. I am not personally aware of their having played any of his music, except for that one time: at that point, the group's roster included violinist <b>Jacqui Carrasco</b>, who did have a previous <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/tentet-new-york-1996">direct connection</a> to the maestro's music. </span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-19940324517290413592024-02-03T14:03:00.000-08:002024-02-03T17:08:08.367-08:00Gold standard(s)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCg4Jg8gABRrCWHk0RHwKS9vEuzz6v-yjMWnFd9H5oJnPO7ImLyhnhiEuiLU_yQflJXhBDmHlXVAZn3Yar-txru-x3IlfHegIpuuWWgFR0AQDbs_buFHjnhJhuK71mUpdDxT460X4BErUcGqLlA3lXLKuuThBDA4p5rml7qx3uuQrBeIYxIJPSjG1ajVVo/s3264/IMG_1585.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCg4Jg8gABRrCWHk0RHwKS9vEuzz6v-yjMWnFd9H5oJnPO7ImLyhnhiEuiLU_yQflJXhBDmHlXVAZn3Yar-txru-x3IlfHegIpuuWWgFR0AQDbs_buFHjnhJhuK71mUpdDxT460X4BErUcGqLlA3lXLKuuThBDA4p5rml7qx3uuQrBeIYxIJPSjG1ajVVo/s320/IMG_1585.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, I finally made it right through the massive <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/standard-form.html">NBH standards box</a>... virtually, in my case... and I have to admit that in the end, it wore me down and won me over: if you're looking for a collection of standards<span style="color: red;">*</span> played by a band under B's leadership, I really don't think you will ever find one better than this. That probably seems like a pretty redundant recommendation - even for me - given that very few people are going to feel like shelling out for a <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/20046394-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-Standards-2020">13-cd box set</a>, even if they can find a copy; but don't forget, this stuff is <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/quartet-standards-2020">available for streaming</a> via Bandcamp, so there's really nothing stopping people from <i>hearing</i> this music, at the very least. As for whether the sheer size of it should put you off: look, if you're reading this at all you are probably familiar with the scale of the maestro's discography at this point, and are unlikely to be deterred by something like that. Right?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In case anyone is wondering, I haven't suddenly gone all sentimental for the new year; I still have my reservations about quite a bit of the material here, much of which is far too saccharine for my personal taste. It's just that on balance, the sympathy between the leader and the ready-made backing trio, and the quality of the playing which results from that, plus the adventurous nature of the interpretations (... when things <i>don't</i> get too saccharine, obviously), left me with the impression that there would be no point in looking for a level "higher" than this on this sort of project. Overall, the undertaking succeeds to such a degree that I'm happy to consider the release which documents it as a pinnacle of sorts. This is the yardstick against which I will be measuring any other such endeavours from now on<span style="color: red;">**</span>. (And yes, dammit, I missed the chance to see this band play in London... I know, I know.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I refer above to a "ready-made" trio, I mean that bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis were already playing with Alex Hawkins by this point, and although I have no idea of the circumstances that led to Hawkins being sounded out for this project in the first place<span style="color: red;">***</span>, it can't have been a difficult decision to use his trio for it once that connection was made. Charles was playing in the Hawkins Trio <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/6832278-Alexander-Hawkins-Trio-Alexander-Hawkins-Trio">back in 2014</a>; at that stage, the drum chair was still occupied by Tom Skinner, and I'm not sure at which point Davis replaced him, but in any case by the time these 2020 performances came about, the three Brits must have had ample opportunity to establish the sort of quasi-telepathic interplay which is the proud hallmark of the seasoned improvising musician. On this material, they show themselves again and again to be comfortable in the most far-out environments, constantly busy and creative while never being obstreperous or overbearing. If anything, the elements of sweetness which are present here - and which I continue to struggle with - would appear to be down to the leader, not his sidemen. The impression I get is that they would be more than happy to play completely free at all times. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hawkins himself was already a player and composer for whom I had a high regard, before I took my long time out from these pages. Academic jazz programmes in the UK had been turning out highly-skilled <i>players</i> for quite some time already, but when it came to the projects led by such players - and to their compositions - I kept finding a mind-numbing homogeneity, doubtless the result of all such musicians being trained on the same materials, and feeding off the same set of modern influences<span style="color: red;">#</span>. To put it bluntly, everyone seemed to sound like everyone else, and this made it impossible for me to delve too deeply into the "British scene" (insofar as there was one). Hawkins, however, did seem to buck this trend and although it might be argued that I came to his work more favourably as a result of my having (sporadically) corresponded with him, I don't think this is really much of an issue: I am too much of a cynic to allow any personal feelings to cloud my perception for very long, and if I spent plenty of time listening to <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3018803-Alexander-Hawkins-Ensemble-No-Now-Is-So">some of</a> Hawkins' <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/879414-Alexander-Hawkins-Ensemble-All-There-Ever-Out">recordings</a> as <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/6908490-Alexander-Hawkins-Ensemble-Step-Wide-Step-Deep">a leader</a>, that was because I found plenty to enjoy about them<span style="color: red;">##</span>. By the time I came back to him - as a player only, of course, in this quartet context - I marvelled at his ability to condense huge volumes of past musics into his own work, and reflect these back piecemeal in his playing, while retaining his own style. In this regard one might even think of him in the same terms as, say, Jaki Byard or Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Over the course of sixty-seven numbers here, I found myself mightily impressed by his qualities as an interpreter; he really does make an ideal playing partner for B. in this context - and Charles and Davis, in turn, provide ideal foils for the pair of them. What, as they say, is not to like?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's always going to be the case that I come to this sort of recording with <i>some </i>reservations - and I feel as if I have done this subject to death already, so don't wish to bang on about it again now - and my initial optimism on hearing Gigi Gryce's "Minority" (the very first track) didn't take long to be tempered; overall, though, I found more to like than dislike. But the general seesawing continued right to the very end of the album. (It feels slightly ridiculous to refer to a collection as long as this one as an "album" - but I suppose that is what it is.) The last disc - which comprises six tunes - is particularly heavy on the stuff which I would never willingly listen to ("I'll Never Smile Again", "<span style="white-space: normal;">It's The Talk Of The Town", "</span>Thanks For The Memory"), although the band doesn't really <i>play</i> these numbers like the old chestnuts they are; it ends on a high, with the Mingus composition "Peggy's Blue Skylight", but thrown in the mix we also get another modern jazz tune, "Strange Meadowlark" (by Mr and Mrs Brubeck), which is so honeyed up that it might as well be one of the old chestnuts, and I did struggle with this. On the other hand, the twelfth disc includes a rendition of "Django" by John Lewis - I don't know the original, but I think I am right in saying it's an MJQ number - which is so utterly "out" that there is nothing <i>standard</i> about it. There are two statements of the core theme, early on and towards the end, and in each case this is followed by passages of completely free expression, in which all four players dig deep into the bag of extended techniques, and take the music very far away indeed from what we might traditionally expect from a "standards date".</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I suppose what I'm saying here is that there is probably something on offer for (almost) everybody: there are enough numbers which I struggled with (and probably won't listen to again) to keep happy those with more conventional tastes, whilst there is also plenty herein for B's natural audience. This makes the project worthy of its compendious dimensions, coming as it does so late in the maestro's career; and it makes it very easy to recommend. There was a lot of music here which I will happily revisit - and in the meantime, I have some catching up to do, with Alexander Hawkins...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still on the subject of standards: something quite rare has just recently turned up for sale on Discogs... a new seller account has just popped up with quite a bit of B's stuff for sale, almost all of which I already have on CD<span style="color: red;">###</span>; one which I not only <u>don't</u> have, but have never heard, is <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/2476608-Anthony-Braxton-And-The-Fred-Simmons-Trio-9-Standards-Quartet-1993">the double-CD</a> which B. cut with the Fred Simmons Trio in February 1993<span style="color: red;">^</span>. This is absolutely not an item which is easy to find, and I confess I am curious; but then I would be, simply <i>because </i>of the album's scarcity. My curiosity is not likely to be satisfied: the days have not yet come when I could declare that money is no object, and I just have to have any album of B's that I don't already own; and in the meantime, £25 is (I think) too much to ask for this, and certainly quite a lot more than I might be willing to shell out for it. Interesting, though...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> As always, when I say "a collection of standards", I don't mean <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#BS120116">a project</a> dedicated <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#CIMP236">to one</a> specific <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sextet-parker-1993">composer</a>; that type of undertaking is essentially different. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> Just last April, I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/reconstruction.html">rather in passing</a> gave this notional honour to the second volume of standards B's recorded for Magenta. I have now changed my mind.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> Which is to say, I have not (yet) taken the time to read David Grundy's liner notes for the box set - not that I <i>have</i> the box set, you understand. I don't even know whether those same notes explain how this tour came about, but it seems likely that they might. [Sorry, David - if you're reading! I will get round to it at some point, and in the meantime: if it's any consolation, it's not any reflection on you... I do tend to put off reading this sort of thing. Undoubtedly this is one of my numerous shortcomings.]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> I am certainly not the only person to have come to this conclusion. A few months back, Youtube tried to tempt me into watching a video which purported to answer the question "Why do all modern jazz musicians sound the same?" I did start it, though I quickly lost interest - and it did seem very much as if contemporary academic syllabuses were going to get the blame (as well they might)...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> By way of contrast, having very much enjoyed Julian Siegel's unexpected <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/10189626-Julian-Siegel-Trio-With-Joey-Baron-Greg-Cohen-Live-At-The-Vortex">moment in the sun</a> - leading a trio with two vastly more experienced and in-demand sidemen - a decade or so ago, I took the time to check out some of Siegel's other work as leader-composer, but lost interest very quickly indeed, once I realised that this was going to mean sitting through yet more of the same reheated MBASE-meets-Berne-via-the-Guildhall fare that I had already grown more than tired of. The point here is not to bash Siegel, who was really no more guilty than anyone else in that scene, but to emphasise that I went in with an open mind, and didn't like what I found at all. My occasional correspondence with Hawkins would not have prevented the same reaction if his music had been of a similar stripe. I carried on listening to <i>his</i> music, only because I actually liked it. [One of these days I may find time to make some related observations about Ingrid Laubrock... but this is not that day.]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> Pretty much any time someone lists more than a handful of B's albums for sale, these days, you are guaranteed to find Leo Records well represented - especially those albums which tended to come up in that label's annual sale. The same ten or fifteen albums do tend to keep each other company quite a lot, on eBay. (Of course, the Fred Simmons album is also on Leo, but must have sold out its only pressing; I'm sure it was deleted long before the label ever started its online sale.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> The only other time this album has previously even come up for passing discussion in these pages was last year, when the fifth footnote on <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/parker-and-recreation.html">my Parker post</a> saw me mention Mr Simmons for the first and only time, before today...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-525395493341622952024-01-28T10:06:00.000-08:002024-01-28T10:06:04.255-08:00... and now for the good news <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfgcvjIgnsbN5pBI1CF6W_4OZm2VWipMzIKaBsa4tomaLWiyX27xb39YH0JwSbb6ob_2VEp-NstUyks8t8kBk8M2BG7gxny3IEuPjaNG_H8PgUJLCDhZ2ENZ4VTzz0r7BqyGIYa418vISoyRL-EFi5OGEkp6-uk6x4FNE2DqCHpvjmP4we_wB0Pe7Rh_A/s2318/AB%20solo%202023.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2318" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfgcvjIgnsbN5pBI1CF6W_4OZm2VWipMzIKaBsa4tomaLWiyX27xb39YH0JwSbb6ob_2VEp-NstUyks8t8kBk8M2BG7gxny3IEuPjaNG_H8PgUJLCDhZ2ENZ4VTzz0r7BqyGIYa418vISoyRL-EFi5OGEkp6-uk6x4FNE2DqCHpvjmP4we_wB0Pe7Rh_A/s320/AB%20solo%202023.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This gorgeous poster image was produced for <a href="https://www.theunwrinkledear.org/archives/82">a solo concert given by the maestro</a> on 6th October 2023, under the auspices of The Unwrinkled Ear: two nights after <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2024/01/reunion-with-wolf-eyes.html">the reunion show with Wolf Eyes</a>, B. played one of his solo saxophone recitals at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. So far, just two clips have turned up from this performance - and thanks again to McClintic Sphere for hunting these down and passing them on: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yETY3MuX9PA">a beautiful ballad structure</a> (which I definitely recognise<span style="color: red;">*</span>) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xywinoc1G4g">a superb multiphonic piece</a>. Filmed on an audience member's phone, these are far from professional, but they capture the sound pretty adequately.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The quality of the playing is not even remotely surprising - or not to anyone who has listened to any of B's previous solo recordings (live or otherwise). What is extremely heartening to see is that B's apparent physical problems of two days prior to this were an aberration of sorts: there looks to have been a chair available for his use during the solo recital - visible to his left, at the right of the "picture" in these two video clips - but he didn't need it, or at least not during these two pieces. The second number, especially, is very demanding from a technical point of view, requiring a substantial sample from the maestro's huge lexicon of extended techniques; and some of these necessitate quite a lot of physical exertion as well as a high degree of skill. This exertion, I am pleased to report, does not seem to trouble him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm being realistic about this: none of us is immortal, and B's career is as finite as the next musician's; obviously, it will all end at some point. But there is a difference between knowing and accepting that, and having to deal with visual evidence of his struggling to fulfil engagements which have already been booked; the difficulties implied by what happened at the Wolf Eyes show are not something that any of B's admirers would wish for him. Clearly, some days are worse than others; but it does look as if the stumble-and-fall at the Zebulon Cafe was a one-off... for now.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is arguably more reassuring in B's case than it would be for (just) any performer of his age, because unlike most musicians, the maestro is still pushing boundaries and striving to create new work even in his (academic) retirement. Terms such as <b>Lorraine</b> and <b>Thunder Music</b> have recently been added to the panoply of his existing compositional strategies, and his restlessly inventive mind shows no sign of slowing down. If his body is able to hold out for a while yet, this will mean that he can continue to lead from the front... and much as I might wish for him to enjoy some peace and quiet at his advanced age, I rather doubt that that is what he would wish for himself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As for the music in these two clips - well, what more can we say at this point? B's approach to solo performance continues to be an inspiration: he sets himself a ridiculously high standard, and never fails to meet it. Heard here in an environment full of natural echo, carefully captured by multiple microphones (so that the percussive clacking of keys on the second piece is just as faithfully rendered as any of his actual notes), he displays yet again the immaculate skill and unmatched subtlety of expression that has been amazing us for decades now. Cherish him while you can.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">McC also passed along to me a few other links at the same time - not to full sets but to "trailers"; but even these would seem to warrant a separate post in due course. The solo clips, in the meantime, demanded their own attention...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> I know for sure that I have heard this before, and I want to say that I've heard it on more than one occasion; but I can't identify it, for the time being. It sounds tuneful enough to be a standard, almost; and B. does play standards at his solos recitals, so we should never rule that out, but I think it's an original. His lyricism on alto is one of his more consistently underrated qualities (though not by me..!); but his original ballad structures tend to retain a level of abstraction that refuses to resolve into anything straightforwardly "melodic". I have a feeling that if I spent long enough trawling through my (admittedly rather large) collection, I would find this piece before too long. But I did have a quick attempt at it and was not able to do it. - As for the experiment in multiphonics, that would be harder to identify in principle: I believe that all of the solo series include at least one composition somewhat along these lines, and I am quite some way from being able to say with any confidence which one of them is being played here. Whatever it is, it sounds fantastic...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-19215819991339299882024-01-21T15:51:00.000-08:002024-01-21T15:51:50.888-08:00Reunion with Wolf Eyes<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGmCOKvWtnyZxQgWAQBDV6ztizBHXkmnFzfED-C8PUK2J0dT-4B8GTWWJa6_DWRTIr72xqlFzAMuXcW_tNuKjsfHsLuJIJr1UnbrsYksd_7p3fDHzT2PP_5-cGqpSVs-uqaetnI2zJ8FjJjR0FQUyJZqaSuUyLka-wXsUnvIlvMB-ghJP2ijudweygpAhM/s2048/IMG_3590.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGmCOKvWtnyZxQgWAQBDV6ztizBHXkmnFzfED-C8PUK2J0dT-4B8GTWWJa6_DWRTIr72xqlFzAMuXcW_tNuKjsfHsLuJIJr1UnbrsYksd_7p3fDHzT2PP_5-cGqpSVs-uqaetnI2zJ8FjJjR0FQUyJZqaSuUyLka-wXsUnvIlvMB-ghJP2ijudweygpAhM/s320/IMG_3590.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Wolf Eyes and Anthony Braxton</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Zebulon Cafe, Los Angeles</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4th October 2023</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The notorious original meeting of B. with (former?) noise terrorists <b>Wolf Eyes</b> took place, of course, at the Victoriaville #22 Festival in 2005, and chances are that anyone who is reading this already knows the story of how it came about - but just in case: B. caught the experimental band's show at a festival in Sweden in 2004, and was so excited by their music that he bought all their CDs from the merch table, joking afterwards that he had been feverishly planning to move to Sweden so that he could play with them (not realising at first that they were American). When the band was booked to play at Victoriaville the following year, on the day between B's <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/recently-acquired-most-wanted.html">duo with Fred Frith</a> and the working sextet's <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1204191-Anthony-Braxton-Sextet-Victoriaville-2005">GTM performance</a>, it seemed inevitable that the maestro would end up sitting in with the group. <b>John Olson</b> described the meeting as "a perfect match"; B. himself said "they felt like family immediately. The communication was immediate."<span style="color: red;">*</span> As we all know, this ended up being <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/975012-Wolf-Eyes-Anthony-Braxton-Black-Vomit">released on CD</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Fast-forward eighteen years...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The "rematch" features a slimmed-down Wolf Eyes, now just a duo with longtime member Olson<span style="color: red;">**</span> partnering founder <b>Nate Young</b>. The concert comprised two sets: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH6KUoIHTQI">one of almost fifty minutes</a>, and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3m7FJA2ZPs">much shorter one</a> in which two brief pieces were played. [Thanks to <b>McClintic Sphere</b> for sending me the links to these clips.] In an ideal world we would only need to consider the music; unfortunately, that wasn't the main takeaway from watching these videos. For those of us who had been wondering if age would ever really start to catch up with the evergreen Mr B., the answer is found right here. We need to deal with this before we go any further.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The good news is that I'm not sure what happened is quite as bad as I probably just made it sound. B. begins the first set standing up, although a chair has been provided for him in case it's needed; within the first ten minutes, it becomes clear that he is struggling a bit. In full flow, he begins stumbling backwards towards his chair, and as the backs of his legs locate it, he sits down hard and immediately stops playing. (This occurs at 09.45 in the first video.) He makes an instant attempt to stand up again, but doesn't manage it; a second attempt is successful, and he takes a couple of steps forwards as he begins to play once more - with all of his usual fluency and power: Olson and Young are completely absorbed in their own work, and if either of them has noticed what just took place, they give no sign of it. When B's knees begin to give way again, he staggers backwards in search of the chair, finds only the front edge of it, and at 10.30 he commits his weight to the unbalanced chair, overturning it and falling to the ground in the process. There are shocked gasps from the audience, and Young and Olson stop playing and help B. back to his feet, righting the chair and settling him on it before returning to their places as if nothing has happened; after a few seconds to compose himself, B. begins playing again, rather tentatively at first, but by 11.25 he is in full control again. Some <i>altissimo</i> squeaks precede a short demonstration of his "harsh breathing" technique, one of his trademarks for years now, and this elicits a broad smile and rhythmic nods from Young. From this point on, it is <i>almost</i> as if nothing untoward has happened.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">B. continues to play seated for the rest of the concert, which is evidently not his preferred way to do things, but the flesh is weak... or at least weakening. From the chair, he proceeds to give a perfectly good account of himself and although he lays out for several minutes late in the set, this does not appear to be forced on him. He plays with all his customary authority and control and does not seem to be overly discomfited by his fall - and to be clear, it's not <i>precisely</i> a fall that we've just witnessed, more that he sits on the wrong part of the chair, which then cannot hold him. But it's not nice to see, and I was quite glad that McC had already warned me about this. What is clear, and undeniable, is that much as B. wishes to play standing up, his legs - I presume it's really his knees - can't cope with this for more than a few minutes. This happens to us all eventually, assuming we live long enough; with all the musicians of the "free era" who have already departed from this plane, it's quite a wonder that B., Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill are all not just still among us, but still active and creative, but age will catch up with everyone and as much as I have dreaded having to address this issue in these pages, it was inevitable that I would have to do so at some point.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the end of the first set, the applause is loud and enthusiastic, and B. rises cautiously to his feet to take a bow, and punch the air a couple of times; there is a quick consultation between the players, and Young announces that "Anthony wants to chill, then come back and play...". And this is indeed what transpires, although as outlined above, the second set is more like a double-encore really. The maestro wisely remains seated for this, but once again, he takes the applause standing up and repeats both the careful bow and the clenched-fist salute. Life in the old dog yet. As the three players make their way slowly from the stage, B. does like an old man: the brain - and lungs, and fingers - still functions as well as ever, but the appendicular skeleton is starting to feel all those long years. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the risk of delivering an anticlimax, then, there is relatively little to say about the actual music: not that there is anything wrong with it, it's more that it is just what one would expect to result from this sort of meeting. The maestro sticks to alto sax throughout; Young plays electronics exclusively, with just some occasional vocals (especially in the second set); Olson uses electronic processing as well, but mainly plays a small horn or pipe followed by a three-piece metal frame with a mouthpiece attached, apparently of his own devising. The ambience in the long main piece is mournful and ominous rather than harsh and confrontational (hence my wondering in the first line above if the group is now to be considered "former" noise terrorists, after all this time), and it need come as no surprise at all that B. feels at home within such a soundscape, which is really not that different from <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/when-is-wall-not-wall.html">some of the more experimental</a> <b><span style="color: #ff00fe;">DCWM</span></b> pieces. At least some of the electronic processing appears to consist in sampling the aerophones in real time and playing them back in modified form, or at least that's how I heard it. The first short number in the second set is a little more aggressive in tone, with not just a regular electronic pulse but a sort of siren effect as well. None of this puts B. out in the slightest... but then, if he actually listened to his CD purchases back in 2004 and afterwards, he will have been fully prepared for all this and more ;-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For the time being, at least, the live performances continue - it may be that eventually our man will be restricted to composing and will no longer want to play live at all, but let's be thankful that we aren't there yet. A few days after this performance, B. gave a solo concert, also in LA - I have been pointed towards some (short) clips from this, too, but haven't seen them yet. Another post will be in order, in due course...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> This event has its own fairly detailed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Vomit_(album)">Wikipedia page</a> these days. (I had remembered the background and context to the meeting - but the direct quotes were new to me.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> John Olson in particular is a <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/439840-John-Olson">hugely prolific</a> noise musician, basically an American analogue to Masami (Merzbow) Akita. He also runs the American Tapes label - which, again, is ludicrously prolific <a href="https://www.discogs.com/label/29866">in its output</a>. Much of its catalogue was both strictly limited-edition, and regarded as highly collectible: I know that at one point our very own Avto G. used to find himself bidding for these items on eBay against Henry Rollins, a dedicated collector of such stuff who was (apparently) convinced that Olson's label and its output were the "new thing" of our time and would command high prices in years to come...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-89853090005913534112024-01-14T15:28:00.000-08:002024-01-14T15:28:40.453-08:00Looking forwards (Cent's 2024 manifesto)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ihOqaDk8ecvem8RX4NRZB6RnjMcb0GG4kuAF0IzqVJt2SReqTZMzHRpNazeQXeUQ68IW3H8bieIGhsQO0YlqWY-1lmsgn4bXPWJaa1fZiYMJHV28C5_LNyqVC5fe3rPNpKlQKYVAMgvmfZBh1ZS6SFxun8M8CnrPdddTdlT3jGiNcfmOxwqUcHQ9Ap_R/s3264/IMG_8544.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ihOqaDk8ecvem8RX4NRZB6RnjMcb0GG4kuAF0IzqVJt2SReqTZMzHRpNazeQXeUQ68IW3H8bieIGhsQO0YlqWY-1lmsgn4bXPWJaa1fZiYMJHV28C5_LNyqVC5fe3rPNpKlQKYVAMgvmfZBh1ZS6SFxun8M8CnrPdddTdlT3jGiNcfmOxwqUcHQ9Ap_R/s320/IMG_8544.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This feels more than usually pointless, but... I'm going to do it anyway. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">After the last eighteen months, the question is not whether I can keep posting, but whether I can actually say anything worthwhile. I have mentioned before how acutely aware I am of being up against the limits of my musical knowledge when trying to get properly to grips with this stuff; that's not going to get any easier in the near future. Of course, I am also aware that "I can't read or write music" or "I haven't formally studied music" are no longer valid excuses: all of that was true in 2007, but I have had ample time to teach myself if I had really wanted to<span style="color: red;">*</span>. More than sixteen years on, both of those sentences are still <u>true</u>, but neither of them really counts for anything. Still, the fact of the matter is that I am very much an enthusiastic amateur when it comes to musicological analysis, and if I ever became tempted to forget that and adopt ideas above my station... an afternoon's intensive listening to the maestro's oeuvre would soon jerk me back to reality. I don't understand this stuff nearly as well as I would like.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But I've been through all this before, and it's never stopped me yet. I just make very slow progress... as anyone can see from how long it's taking me to engage with Herr Dahinden's <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/4898527-Anthony-Braxton-Ensemble-Montaigne-Bau-4-2013">2013 Swiss offering</a>. Trying to obtain a real understanding of this performance entails more than simply establishing whether or not we can substitute <b>Comp. 147</b> for the posited <b>Comp. 174</b> in the listed programme; it means internalising <b>Comps. 94</b>, <b>96</b> and <b>98</b> to the point where I will recognise any material quoted from any one of them as soon as it pops up. That, admittedly, would presumably be a hell of a lot easier if I could hear music <i>as notes</i>, as <i>structures</i>, rather than just as sound. But that's not where I am and it remains to be seen if I am up to the task. And bear in mind, it is entirely a self-appointed task, and one which probably no-one else cares about - ! As Nick Cave would have it, "Onward and onward and onward I go/Where nobody else could be bothered to go"<span style="color: red;">**</span>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So there's that... and my unfinished business with <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/11/repertoire.html">repertoire</a>... and I'm still striving to get truly <i>inside</i> the massive phenomenon that is <span style="color: #ffa400;"><b>GTM</b></span>, really get to the heart of it. What with one thing and another, there is plenty to keep me occupied here, even if hardly anybody is reading it<span style="color: red;">***</span>. Besides, B. is still out there, still active as both creator and player, and I will want to report on any news as I get it. If <b>McClintic Sphere</b> fancies chipping in as well, so much the better... I'd be astonished if 2024 yields another attempt at the "most posts" record, but I hope to remain active and post regularly over the next twelve months, and we'll see where that takes us. The world outside is clearly in a parlous state, and very little about the future can be taken for granted; but while there is still art and beauty in it, I still feel a need to play a small part in acknowledging that.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">(Oh, and there is <i>still</i> the unanswered question of when I will get into the box of tapes, and what I will do about it... )</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> This is actually somewhat debatable, as the times in those years when I was most strongly drawn to deep musical research coincided with other demands on my time and attention. Nevertheless, there must have been opportunities in the last sixteen years for me to teach myself a lot more than I already know; perhaps I am just afraid to commit myself fully..?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> "Do You Love Me? (Part 2)" (1994). [<i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/17506-Nick-Cave-And-The-Bad-Seeds-Let-Love-In">Let Love In</a></i> is probably my favourite Bad Seeds album, when it comes down to it... certainly that and <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/18354-Nick-Cave-And-The-Bad-Seeds-Murder-Ballads">Murder Ballads</a></i> are the two I listen to most often these days.]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> At time of writing, we are already fourteen days into January - and the blog has not yet racked up a hundred hits for the month. This gives a pretty clear idea of what sort of attention it gets when there is no bot activity... but then, it's also rather obvious that I am avoiding trying to gain a wider audience at this point. (In an era when every bugger is seemingly spouting off on Youtube or TikTok or - wherever, I "ought" to be able to find my niche, but I'm far from sure that I really want to try...)</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-71189144976653479102023-12-31T11:33:00.000-08:002023-12-31T11:33:04.914-08:00Looking backwards (2023 recap)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDGqNarnsSq5ssBKfbNSgmmBzfELWrCWFKLvjAHEe7DRkyz7puFTJTnattUx22xFUDQBn-F9mKqg1JCWd_ImQ1-DnjqjFGZcRx2TblZNodqV-Azt526TAv7XhG5jux7DFjVSxKEox_afRDQuroZwCHhxzK669iPyZ6frdY_mh1b035wNXdWp2ungiODB0m/s2048/IMG_3915.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDGqNarnsSq5ssBKfbNSgmmBzfELWrCWFKLvjAHEe7DRkyz7puFTJTnattUx22xFUDQBn-F9mKqg1JCWd_ImQ1-DnjqjFGZcRx2TblZNodqV-Azt526TAv7XhG5jux7DFjVSxKEox_afRDQuroZwCHhxzK669iPyZ6frdY_mh1b035wNXdWp2ungiODB0m/s320/IMG_3915.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">What a curious year <i>that</i> was.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I was starting out from a peculiar position anyway: having finally done in 2022 what I had vaguely promised to do for years - resume posting on here - I had then (predictably enough) run out of steam at the end of that year, and apparently I carried this inertia into 2023 with me. It was a slow start, and not a promising one. But it's true what they say: sometimes just <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/02/this-may-count-as-progress.html">reorganising your environment</a> can help to achieve the same effect internally, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of a difference it made to have all my <b><i>Braxtoniana</i></b> within (relatively) easy reach at long last. The focus which I had been sorely lacking then seemed to align itself into place, and in March I was finally able to <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/03/thumbscrew-pt-2-other-details.html">deliver a piece of writing</a> which had been <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2021/06/birthday-card-with-difference.html">gestating</a> for more than twenty-one months. (This in turn confirmed a long-held supposition: that the more detail I include in a post, the fewer people are likely to read it<span style="color: red;">*</span>. Long-gestating it may have been, but when it finally arrived it was very slow to acquire page-views...)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">March was an odd month in general, as I found myself needing to take a step back in my working life, and spent a few weeks away from work while a move to a different department was arranged behind the scenes: this allowed me time to write, and also to read; however, from April onwards what I found was that my continuing attention to B's music came at the expense of my reading, which itself died off almost completely for the next few months. I don't know about anybody else, but I only have so much "mental bandwidth" available, and the change of role at work - which entailed assimilating lots of new information - limited what I could do with my downtime, beyond simply decompressing. I managed to keep posting at a decent rate, but I almost stopped reading altogether. Pretty much anything I do, it seems, requires a certain degree of obsessiveness if I am to do it with any sort of success.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You can fairly well map out what happened after that by glancing at the blog's post count for the rest of the year. By the end of August, I was getting fed up with the piles of unread books and began trying to redress the balance, which meant a dip in the blogging activity. By the end of October, I was reading a lot more avidly again - and you don't have to be a genius to figure out what <i>that</i> meant. Only while I was absent from work was I able to maintain both interests at once. So it came about that a year which I thought for several months might end up being the most productive ever seen in the history of the blog eventually fell some way short; still, 57 posts is far more than we managed in any previous year, except only for 2008. The renewed interest of <b>McClintic Sphere</b> had a lot to do with this, for sure. As for my own stated intentions, I was able to follow through on some of these, while others have remained on my to-do list. And speaking of lists: I put together a long-overdue "<a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/recently-acquired-most-wanted.html">most wanted</a>" list, and promptly acquired about two thirds of the items thereupon... I also heard a huge proportion of the digital-only releases <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/new-braxton-house-records-discography">from New Braxton House</a>, which I had been putting off for years and years. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What I never came close to achieving is a greater understanding of how the blog's traffic works, at this late stage of its maturity. At times it seemed as if I could at least be sure that increased posting activity led directly to more page-views, but that has by no means always been the case. Daily "hits" have varied from almost none at all (i.e. 1 - 5) to some number too large to comprehend: I thought June had gone crazy when I started to see daily spikes of 200 or more, and a monthly total in excess of 5,000; but September saw more than 13,000 page-views, and by the last third of that month the daily count was well into four figures. This makes no sense at all: at the height of <b>C#9</b>'s popularity, back in the <i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #ffa400;">Golden Age of Music Blogging</span></i>, it was racking up about a thousand hits a day, and of course we were posting actual music files back then, as well as maintaining a lively discussion in the comments section. To see that level of activity exceeded by a special-interest site, on a marginalised and outmoded platform, offering nothing more than written analysis of music which isn't even being offered to the reader (and is, in many cases, not exactly readily available)... is beyond my ability to understand. Clearly the activity is not all human - indeed, in the "mad months" the activity <i>must</i> have been mainly "bot-driven" - but even then, how this actually works, and what factors are responsible for the rollercoaster graph that would represent this year's page-views, are all things just as unknown to me as they were this time last year. (If anything, I can make even less sense of it all now.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's fine, though. However illusory it may be, the sense that "someone is reading" keeps me from feeling as if I am merely wasting my time; and I do know that a few actual, real people <i>do</i> continue to read, for which I am grateful; and besides, my own stark limitations as an amateur musicologist prevent me from being tempted to switch to a more contemporary platform (you know - the type where people actually try to monetise their stuff). I have written <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/on-problems-of-identification.html">enough already</a> about these limitations, not out of modesty but rather with a view to (re)setting expectations; my lack of formal musical training did overshadow much of my writing this year, and it will continue to do so from now on. Still, that won't stop me from wrestling with the problem, or from continuing to delve into the maestro's work. I am, as they say, in it for the long haul... here's to 2024!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QPBUS0Lu4g7U09Wz-LZPA1PCSe99UMUikNcsXcdk6zRza2cKymQ2EnRX23EIbtIrTWABt2woUdt8fOvIh1FRaNEIOarblPbej4Vo1GvlXmqKJdesdMTQjuFRij_ajiztb_-fZc11tcdvhl_eDu6NI9tV0sojnP7ALUS1DjstmOTOe-CywDOmPyFL6ROV/s1991/IMG_4075cr.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1991" data-original-width="717" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QPBUS0Lu4g7U09Wz-LZPA1PCSe99UMUikNcsXcdk6zRza2cKymQ2EnRX23EIbtIrTWABt2woUdt8fOvIh1FRaNEIOarblPbej4Vo1GvlXmqKJdesdMTQjuFRij_ajiztb_-fZc11tcdvhl_eDu6NI9tV0sojnP7ALUS1DjstmOTOe-CywDOmPyFL6ROV/s320/IMG_4075cr.JPG" width="115" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> This puts me in good company, of course - as B. himself could attest. As a general rule of thumb: the more time and effort that goes into <u>any</u> human endeavour, the less anyone will be inclined to pay any attention to the results. Whether it surprises me that such a rule should extend to something as specialised as this blog, and its output, is another question. But given that I didn't post a rip of the Thumbscrew covers album along with the article, and that not everyone will have a copy (or otherwise be able to hear it), it is probably natural enough that few people were seduced by the prospect of an overly long and detailed analysis of said album...</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-46513886180674796962023-12-17T15:35:00.000-08:002023-12-17T15:35:12.454-08:00Still here...<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaDVe3TaM2AhjswY-d0rNubfY2IjvgpwAjfqPnFc9GwaiF6Ry_Cei8smfC43jODz3Y1TdBib14ViuPwt_1E9UlULgLwmRP0KgZJe3PLU1S9x9se-bYA7R9m0c-hhhwBJ7SbDCzibPWz-OGsOR4XkjrGCbdnonGE3KZa7spgtidAL58NOXrD_3Z00jU9rI/s3264/IMG_5724.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIaDVe3TaM2AhjswY-d0rNubfY2IjvgpwAjfqPnFc9GwaiF6Ry_Cei8smfC43jODz3Y1TdBib14ViuPwt_1E9UlULgLwmRP0KgZJe3PLU1S9x9se-bYA7R9m0c-hhhwBJ7SbDCzibPWz-OGsOR4XkjrGCbdnonGE3KZa7spgtidAL58NOXrD_3Z00jU9rI/s320/IMG_5724.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... just about ;-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My "<a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/sense-goes-to-moon.html">Hallowe'en post</a>" contained no exaggeration at all, but it was a one-off: I failed to follow it up. This is ultimately just a cyclic thing, and does not signify any greater shift in my tastes or opinions or interests; I listen (in depth) to several unrelated<span style="color: red;">*</span> types of music, and in spending so much of my free time in B's world(s) this year I have inevitably neglected some of the other areas which are close to my heart. That imbalance rectified itself over the last couple of months.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's also definitely the case that, once I decided I was no longer<span style="color: red;">** </span>going to be able to match or exceed the blog's post count for 2008, I withdrew my attention from B's music completely for a while. At the beginning of November I did listen to one long-unheard item from my collection over the course of three or four days, the misleadingly-named <i>Quartet (GTM) 2006</i> (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Important184">recorded in 2005</a>, <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1298503-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-GTM-2006">released 2008</a>); this, though, was a set which I found rather uninvolving when it first came out, and my experience this time (having not heard any of the music for the best of a decade) was somewhat similar. I didn't find the impetus to write about it - despite my <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/thaumatogenesis-1995.html">recent</a> close <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/growth-over-time-movement.html">examination</a>(s) of the GTM phenomenon - and indeed I probably went almost six weeks after that without listening to any of B's music at all. Of course, by the standards of <i>previous</i> such gaps in my listening... six weeks is nothing; but still, I hadn't yet finished even listening to the <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/standard-form.html">Standards</a> or <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/09/grammar-and-syntax.html">SGTM</a> "megaboxes", so this definitely qualified as unfinished business. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Last week I got an ideal opportunity to put an end to that, and as is often the way, I gorged myself. On a couple of days when I was working from home, with a task to do which required quite a lot of time but only some of my attention, I managed not only to press on with those two box sets (working my way through another two discs of each), but also to replay some of the huge quantities of NBH digital-only content which have found their way into my ears over the last six or seven months.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The music making up disc ten of the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/20046394-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-Standards-2020">Standards box</a> is heavy on modern jazz rep and light on (what I will insist on calling) cheese: in fact it has an oddly-unbalanced feel, comprising three Coltrane numbers, plus one each by Mingus and Monk, and one - I don't even know what it is, a show tune or an ancient Tin Pan Alley pop song, but Bing Crosby (of all people) gets a co-writing credit on it, and that's sufficient to tell me that it's not the kind of material I'm looking for in my life<span style="color: red;">***</span>. Disc eleven, again, mainly features pieces by modern jazzmen; although one of these numbers - "Skating in Central Park" by John Lewis (... I don't know it) - sounds saccharine enough that it could easily be out of the "other category": this being followed, as it is, by something called "When Joanna Loved Me" - <i>definitely</i> out of the "other category" - the cumulative effect on me was almost nauseating<span style="color: red;">#</span>. As regards the Lewis/MJQ number, if what B. likes about this is the chord sequence, it did occur to me that he could have achieved much the same feel by playing "This I Dig of You" by Hank Mobley, constructed over very similar changes and not nearly as sentimental-sounding... but there we are.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These feelings aside, I found much to enjoy on these two discs, where for the most part, at least, the leader and his pianist (plus the latter's sidemen) are able to explore the outer implications of the music without resorting to - you know, <i>playing tunes</i> or anything so incongruous. Oddly, both B. and Alex Hawkins seem to struggle to get to grips with Mingus' "Self Portrait in Three Colours" - both of them apparently thrown by a decision to play <i>rubato</i>, even though presumably this was something they discussed beforehand - but I did find much to like about <i>most</i> of this music. (Hawkins continues to be drawn irresistibly to the same Andrew Hill-isms I've observed from him on this collection before: specifically, he is apparently fascinated by a sort of "rocker" motif in the right hand, where (presumably) the thumb and little finger alternate notes in a fast figure, the former remaining static while the latter ascends a partial scale.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The SGTM material is, of course, utterly astonishing. Over those two days I heard <b>Comps. 255</b> and <b>256</b>, the latter of which I have heard before<span style="color: red;">##</span>, but not sounding like this. The ensemble for these recordings was at such a peak of collective creativity, and so secure in the support of the composer, that they pushed these works into completely uncharted territories, resulting in music which is never even slightly predictable and which covers pretty much all bases from childlike "vocal scribbling" upwards. Given my own awkward relationship with "clean" vocals<span style="color: red;">###</span>, it says a lot for this music that I love it as much as I do; I really don't think I could ever get bored with it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As for the replays, there will need to be many more of these before I feel even vaguely <i>au fait</i> with the massive treasure-house of NBH digital material... I <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/composition-no-146-moogie-and-stetson">chose</a> a couple of these pretty much <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sextet-piacenza-2007-2">at random</a> on the day, but did also consciously pick out two "all-star" creative orchestra projects: <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/creative-music-orchestra-nyc-2011">NBH034</a> and <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/alumni-orchestra-wesleyan-2005">NBH028</a>, each of which is far too complex and layered for me to have absorbed it properly while working, never mind attempting any sort of analysis. They are recordings which will withstand much repeat listening, being interpreted by musicians who are chiefly (034) or wholly (035) selected from among B's own former students, and thus thoroughly familiar with his methodologies; that sets them apart from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Leo453">recordings</a> undertaken <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#NA050">by musicians</a> of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#Leo169">short acquaintance</a>, and indeed from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#Orchestra76">recordings</a> made by experienced <b><i><span style="color: #ffa400;">creative</span></i></b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-1.htm#Intakt5">musicians</a>, who nevertheless may <i>not</i> have had much experience of playing B's music. Who knows... maybe one day I will feel qualified to undertake some sort of comparative analysis of these three sets of possibilities.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For the moment, that's that; although I do still plan at least one further post before the year is out. It feels as if a "2023 retrospective" is in order... and in principle, if I am able to recover my own train(s) of thought, I would still like to be done with that pesky <b>Comp. 136</b> piece as well... but it wouldn't surprise anyone, least of all me, if that doesn't materialise until next year...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> Zappa considered everything he liked to be "from the same universe": he posited some sort of qualitative connection between the (post-)modernist neoclassical stylings of Stravinsky, Charles Ives and Edgard Varèse on the one hand, and his beloved doo-wop on the other, not to mention all points in between. But the chances are that nothing <i>really</i> connects these musics apart from Zappa's own taste, unless it be a degree of artistic authenticity ( - which he felt was lacking in much commercial music). If that is the case, I can sympathise: but of course that doesn't mean that I would like everything which <i>he</i> liked, and it certainly doesn't mean that FZ would have approved of everything that I like. These distinctions eventually melt away into subjectivity and ultimately become redundant.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">- Insofar as I have identified any common features in my own various musical pleasures, the matter of <b>structural density</b> arises fairly frequently, but not always... I am happy to indulge these pleasures separately and severally, and not look for commonalities on the whole. Would I feel that way, if I had studied under B. myself? Probably not, but I will never know. (I read an interview with Tyshawn Sorey where he said that B. had encouraged him to compose music which reflected <i>all</i> of his own listening - and in Sorey's case, that really was a very wide range of musics indeed. Whether the student succeeded in meeting this challenging remit is not something I am qualified to judge.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> For much of the past year, I was intrigued to see whether I would be able to sustain the rate of posting enough to hit "the magic 64", and at the start of November it was still "on" - but it became apparent pretty quickly after that that it wasn't, any more; and once I accepted that, it freed me up a bit to step away for a while. (I am still slightly amazed at how much I actually managed to get done this year.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> It is clear that B. loves playing standards - he must do, he's done it often enough - and he seems to take some specific pleasure in rooting out obscure old numbers that nobody else (with the possible exception of Sonny Rollins) would dream of playing. I can respect that, but at a distance; I don't have to like everything which <i>he</i> likes, which is just as well, since in practice...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> ... I am simply unable to do it. If I were merely exaggerating grotesquely in using words such as "nauseating", I would long ago have forced myself out of the habit; it's a genuine reaction, both powerful and unpleasant, and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to work out whence it derives. It's not that I'm incapable of appreciating a pretty tune played simply, for all I might joke about being allergic to pop music, etc; but I do seem to be unable to tolerate it when it's done by the maestro, for whatever reason(s). With <i>his</i> voice, there (apparently) must be a minimum degree of complexity and harmonic abstraction in order for the results to be palatable to me. If I had to hear him lead a quartet through a "straight" reading of "My Funny Valentine" or something like that, I might actually be sick. Some of the stuff on this gigantic box set comes perilously close to it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">- I don't expect this to be a popular opinion, and (believe it or not) I do try not to bang on about it for that reason. But it is genuine, and it does only seem fair to unpack it a bit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> The first ever recording of a SGTM performance to <a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2011/11/broadcasting-to-you-live-ish-from.html">circulate among collectors</a> was, in fact, a reading of <b>Comp. 256</b>; it was later <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/syntactical-gtm-choir-nyc-2011">released digitally</a> as NBH031.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> The designation "clean" for uninflected vocal timbre is one derived from extreme metal, where it is usually contrasted with "harsh" vocals. I first heard the terms used in the '90s, by musicians whose first language was not English; the term "clean", at least, does seem to have caught on somewhat. </span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-89598985254226143142023-11-26T08:40:00.000-08:002023-11-26T08:40:04.597-08:00And the award...<p> ... for "most unexpected reference to Anthony Braxton on British TV" goes (belatedly) to:</p><p>Stewart Lee <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk_l1pKTUZg">on Celebrity Mastermind</a> (question 13).</p><div style="text-align: left;">[This actually took place almost fourteen years ago: well, it doubtless took place more than fourteen years ago, but was broadcast in January 2010. I wasn't watching much TV back then (don't watch at all, these days) and had no idea this had happened until last week.]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Deadpan stand-up comedian Lee is/was evidently a fan of free improv, or at least knew his stuff about Derek Bailey - and the maestro gets a quick mention there, courtesy of the <i><a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2008/03/october-07-braxtothon-bailey-day.html">First Duo Concert</a></i>. Whether for reasons of time, or... I don't know why else, John Humphrys makes no attempt to explain to the audience who Bailey was, meaning that the questions - and answers - will have been a completely mystery to most of the viewers, both in the studio and in their living rooms. Still, this is probably the case for many contestants' specialised subjects.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Extremely random... but I apparently needed a way back into posting after several weeks in the doldrums. It happens...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[I didn't know in advance that I was going to dry up like this, but it's not a big deal - especially after such a productive year for the blog. I will be back..!]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-45445122107613365772023-10-31T17:34:00.005-07:002023-10-31T17:34:57.822-07:00Sense Goes To the Moon<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioNli5iKO7EtS3KwCCCkMfbQQy-y8jY21abT5zFoqn_MLggEzm9C4g-W1iesDcAnX2snjXitbT-STHLxN98WIqG5kwGnrqz230OUgoliROZjgchHqPWR-PGyJBJfG7O350eW3qdYIZJTpVOF-dik9giqsH5noTWTdm9XnS1S-IY0hYPcA88DAaOWtCMYUA/s1024/IMG_4500.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioNli5iKO7EtS3KwCCCkMfbQQy-y8jY21abT5zFoqn_MLggEzm9C4g-W1iesDcAnX2snjXitbT-STHLxN98WIqG5kwGnrqz230OUgoliROZjgchHqPWR-PGyJBJfG7O350eW3qdYIZJTpVOF-dik9giqsH5noTWTdm9XnS1S-IY0hYPcA88DAaOWtCMYUA/s320/IMG_4500.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I wasn't having a good evening at all; it had been a very trying afternoon at work, and just before I called it a day, I got some - you can't even really call it bad news, but that's how I took it, and everything went downhill from there. The clocks have just gone back here - so it was already almost dark when I finished for the day; it was pouring with rain - again - and I was thoroughly cold and miserable. I wasn't doing anybody any good with my presence, so I withdrew upstairs and tried unsuccessfully to get warm: but my extremities were just frozen now, and all my attempts at insulation achieved was keeping the cold <i>in</i>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And lo... I spent fifty-seven minutes in the company of the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Syntactical Ghost Trance 12tet</i>... and I emerged transformed. This is a true story.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have thought quite a bit recently about why my reactions to <b><span style="color: #990000;">Syntactical</span> <span style="color: #ffa400;">Ghost Trance Music</span></b><span style="color: #ffa400;"> </span>should be so different from my reactions to B's operatic works - which I still can't seem to befriend... this year has seen me take in a great deal of new (to me) music from B's massive <i>oeuvre</i>, including a very sizeable proportion of the <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/new-braxton-house-records-discography">NBH material</a>; but I've only really dipped a toe into the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Trillium</i> seas, and didn't (yet) go any further. I couldn't - I can't - penetrate it. Out of all his music, only this and (arguably) the solo piano music remain too difficult for me to get inside - and the solo piano music is still something I can at least <i>listen</i> to, albeit sparingly. The opera - it doesn't help of course that I couldn't stand opera to begin with. I have very limited experience of it, and that's basically the way I planned to keep it... of course this is the maestro's opera, and that makes a big difference - in theory, anyway: in practice, I don't seem to be able to get into it yet. It also doesn't help that - unlike my colleague McClintic Sphere - I've never <i>seen</i> any of it performed, and the glimpse of it that is provided <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/09/grammar-and-syntax.html">in the recent film </a>by <b>Kyoko Kitamura </b>suggests that watching it performed is the only way to go, really. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It needn't be a huge surprise to anyone who's read any of my blathering over the years that I would struggle with (creative) <i>vocal</i> music, even when B. is writing it. But this does not seem to apply to SGTM at all. On the contrary, I find this absolutely delightful - and always have, from <a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2011/11/broadcasting-to-you-live-ish-from.html">the first time</a> I heard it performed. Here, though, the human voice is above all just being deployed as another instrument - even when it is being used to utter identifiable phonemes. Because of the increase in my daily workload recently, I have found less time for exploring new music, and have thus far only got halfway through the <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/gtm-syntax-2017">giant 12-disc set</a> which documents these works; but the ones I have heard have all proved extremely enjoyable, something I can't yet say about the operatic works. Still, the next opus on the list happened to be <b>Comp. 254</b> - which is both much featured in KK's <a href="https://vimeo.com/858217550">brilliant video</a>, and unusually replete with segments of actual text. (Some of this is almost certainly from the full libretto of <b>Comp. 173</b>, some of it may be from <b>172</b> or <b>174</b>; <i>some</i> of it presumably must derive from one or more of the operas themselves..?) Would this prove more challenging for me than any of the previous five readings..?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- But the answer is: no, apparently not. In this context, even written text given voice proves no more challenging to my ears than any of the other utterances to be found here - and these are many and varied, to say the least. The actual words are quite witty, of course - but then, this observation can just as readily be made on behalf of the operas, and that alone has not yet been enough to win me over. Here, though, the continual juxtaposition of <i>non</i>-verbal utterances with the scripted lines seems to frame the latter in a wider context which is completely unpredictable and joyously chaotic. For one specific example of this, you can zero in one the passage around 25.15 and onwards, when one of the male voices begins saying "I have a vision about this period in time" - a very Braxtonian phrase, right there - and this is met at once by the most extraordinary series of sucking/clicking/lip-smacking noises from one or more of the ensemble. The entire performance is basically like this: from one moment to the next, you really have no idea where the music is going to take you. It is <i>crazy</i> - in the best possible way. I hadn't listened to all of the other pieces through headphones - indeed, until very recently I had gone for a number of years without really using headphones at all - but I did hear this piece that way, and didn't even attempt to give my attention to anything else while I was playing it. Just the number of times I laughed out loud with delighted amazement... The time more or less flew by, whilst simultaneously being crammed full of movement and detail - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- and it is true, long before the end of the piece I felt <i>so</i> much better. In all honesty, I am sure I knew deep down that this was likely to be the case, and had denied myself for as long as I did out of nothing so much as bloody-minded self-sabotage; but in any case, I was sensible enough not to keep denying myself indefinitely, and once I started, there was no stopping. By halfway through the piece, I had even warmed up at last<span style="color: red;">*</span>. The rest of the night, and the following day, had a completely different complexion from what would have been inflicted on me otherwise. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Braxton saves!</i> Hallebloodylujah, and happy halloween! 😈</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> This is not an exaggeration at all, so I had probably better attempt to explain it - lest it sound as if I am actually trying to impute quasi-miraculous powers to this stuff. The music alone did not warm me up physically: rather, what it did was lift my spirits out of a locked-in, "poor me" state of determined misery and <i>into</i> a far more open state - in which the <i>qi</i> could flow freely, and the blood could follow. That would be my reading of it, anyway. Whatever the mechanism, my feet in particular had been frozen cold for hours by this point and I couldn't get properly comfortable at all. Within thirty minutes that changed completely, without my noticing at first (too absorbed in the music). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Oh, and yes, this is of course yet another interim trifle until such time as I get my act together to write about <b>Comp. 136</b>... but fuck it, this felt as if it was worth saying :)</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-24698608459962076722023-10-25T16:24:00.009-07:002023-10-25T16:35:23.855-07:00Repertoire: The Locals<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRtWRM6vs97o1aQ1dliD4vl0XThOxRFm1RA1pCzUWCP1WSTZdw1bIRjNqZfTPt4AjX88cx60UW7wEwKUI2Vfd_6puJnRj5rmKj53hzltzrYK9HKUgJsabCdOo3zedSRGAwhTOYJQbF2MEwBUfTaX0be60ld4A25uiZupEhogE4ZLC1OVOcdqHiV-4vm28l/s3264/IMG_6671.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRtWRM6vs97o1aQ1dliD4vl0XThOxRFm1RA1pCzUWCP1WSTZdw1bIRjNqZfTPt4AjX88cx60UW7wEwKUI2Vfd_6puJnRj5rmKj53hzltzrYK9HKUgJsabCdOo3zedSRGAwhTOYJQbF2MEwBUfTaX0be60ld4A25uiZupEhogE4ZLC1OVOcdqHiV-4vm28l/s320/IMG_6671.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>The Locals Play the Music of Anthony Braxton </i>(Discus, 2021)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I never saw these guys live, but I eventually talked to several people who did; everyone remembered their (sporadic) performances very fondly - and rumour had it that B. himself was a big fan. A project of the maverick British keyboardist <b>Pat Thomas</b><span style="color: red;">*</span>, The Locals had a unique <i>shtick</i>: they played exclusively Braxton's compositions, but played them as if they were jazz-funk numbers. Or something like that, anyway: I don't know exactly what the band's original self-imposed remit was, but it evidently did involve electric instrumentation, and repetitive and groove-based rhythmic vamps.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When I first heard about this, I had to admit it did sound pretty cool. The idea that anyone would use this outrageous formula as the foundation for a live band is, after all, utterly and irresistibly charming. Unfortunately I discovered that in practice, the approach can be somewhat problematic, even (arguably) self-defeating: the very nature of the material's recontextualisation leads to an inevitable smoothing-off of (most if not all of) the music's jagged edges. As soon as I listened to the band for the first time<span style="color: red;">**</span>, this presented a major problem for me; indeed at the time it seemed to be an insuperable problem, and in my own mind at least - and therefore in the half-(in)formed opinions which I spouted on the old BBC R3 messagebored - I wrote off the band completely as an experiment doomed to failure. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was still the case when I first exchanged emails with Alexander Hawkins (yep, him again<span style="color: red;">***</span>), back in... whenever it was exactly<span style="color: red;">#</span>: Alex mentioned how much he enjoyed the band and that he had some great recordings of them; I responded that (... as detailed above). He obviously had quite a personal connection to the band, being very close to bassist Dom Lash in particular - and given that Lash seemed to me to exemplify the problem (in practice) with the band's approach, that didn't precisely win me over, but it did at least give me some real pause for thought, since it was so obvious that AH knew his stuff and also was genuinely interested in B's music. But then, I never got to hear these recordings that he was so fond of, and months and years passed, and...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... and eventually <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/17256481-The-Locals-Play-The-Music-Of-Anthony-Braxton">this album</a> came out<span style="color: red;">##</span>, and by the time it did, I had warmed to the idea enough to stick it on a "wants list", though I still didn't buy it straight away. It didn't take me too long, though. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The album was recorded live in Austria, at the Nickelsdorf <i>Konfrontationen</i> Festival in 2006. (No more precise date than that is provided with the CD, but the <a href="https://www.konfrontationen.at/ko2006/old/pat.html">festival website confirms</a> that this concert took place on the Friday night, i.e. 14th July.) The following pieces were played:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 40b</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 6c</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 115</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 23b</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 6i</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 23g</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- although there is some doubt as to whether this was, in fact, the entire set<span style="color: red;">###</span>. Besides Thomas and Lash, the band comprised clarinet wizard Alex Ward, guitarist Evan Thomas (who may or may not be related - anyone?) and drummer Darren Hasson-Davis.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The CD itself is pretty nicely put together, to be fair (whatever one might think of the Kandinsky-cum-Klee-cum-Miró cover art courtesy of Mark Browne): some actual thought has gone into it, and some effort at making a product which somebody might actually want to buy. There are no photos of the band as such, only a smallish one of Thomas - which is fair enough: it was his brainchild, after all - and three larger ones of the maestro: one (recent) full-panel shot in colour, with our man looking intensely off into a distance nobody else can see, as is his wont; and two half-panel b&w shots. These are presented as "then" and "now" portraits of B. taming the <a href="https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/photos/yates_19770319_AnthonyBraxton_02.jpg">seamonster</a>, a nice idea which gives some real character to the physical product. (The earlier shot is probably from the '70s or early '80s; the later one is of much more recent vintage. Full photo credits are given, as well as the basic recording and mastering info.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The band's logo - shown inside, and on the disc - is a cool creation (even if it does slightly resemble some sort of '80s clothing emporium...), riffing on B's own diagrams and schematics. (We're not told who came up with this.) The track listing may seem unnecessarily spaced, occupying as it does an entire inside panel; but this in fact allows the label to do what some others don't, i.e. present the titular diagrams large enough to be worth showing. The actual disc is tucked away inside one of those panels, and another nice touch is that it comes inside a protective plastic envelope<span style="color: red;">^</span>. All in all, it's quite a pleasing album to own and I certainly don't regret buying it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Did the music win me over, after all this time? Basically, yes - though I still have some reservations about it. I certainly shan't undertake a track-by-track analysis here, mainly because most of the pieces follow a very similar pattern: often beginning with a brief (completely free) intro featuring just some of the band, the music quickly settles into a groove laid down by the (electric) bass and drums, giving no clue which number is about to be unveiled; Ward will then start to reveal this, while the leader provides an accompaniment entirely devoid of conventional harmony, and the guitar fits in where it can. (In some of its noisier moments, the guitar actually threatens to drown out the clarinet; the live engineer is not credited, and you can make of that what you will<span style="color: red;">^^</span>.) As the pieces progress, the bass and drums remain completely locked-in, while the other three players provide the actual <i>movement</i>. Lash's role in particular is fairly thankless, though I imagine he still had some fun playing in this band.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ward - as anyone familiar with him will not need to be told - is a brilliant player, one of the most creative clarinet specialists since the late John Carter; and Thomas manages to furnish support which cleaves closely to the rhythm of whatever theme is being played, while smashing the harmonic structure to smithereens; but as anarchic as this sounds, he does it in a manner which always sounds completely controlled and deliberate. These two players between them are responsible for almost all of the actual music being played, on a bar-by-bar basis; Evan Thomas contributes to the overall sound without necessarily playing anything very memorable. Of course, the band's ethos being as it is, all five of the players are essential to the formula; and as limited as the roles are which are assigned to the bass and the drums, this could not be done without them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are some specifics which are worth highlighting. In all cases, the themes are eventually spelled out by Ward in some way utterly unlike any previous recordings of the pieces being played; in the case of <b>6c</b>, one of B's "circus marches", the spacing of the written line both tessellates neatly with the wacka-wacka rhythmic groove, and captures somehow the intrinsic spirit of the original theme. <b>23b</b>, meanwhile, is slowed right down and rendered almost unrecognisable, in a way which really has to be heard to be believed; here, the original spirit of the theme is transmuted into something else altogether, but it is nonetheless pretty clever and creative. Anyone who knows the material reasonably well will find plenty to hold their attention while listening to these readings. (Anyone who is <i>not</i> paying close attention might struggle to recognise <b>23b</b> even once the theme is fully underway.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>6i</b>, an old favourite of mine <a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2007/10/october-07-braxtothon-day-three-1.html">from way back</a>, is given a reggae-flavoured lilt to complement the '70s-porno-movie guitar, and although as always it's Ward who picks out the written theme, (Pat) Thomas himself provides much of the actual movement on this number, even though (Evan) Thomas and Ward do get stuck in during the second half. The leader here, playfully joins in with the theme, even though all he is really joining in with is the rhythmic figure, "playing the theme" in such a radically reharmonised manner that it almost makes Misha Mengelberg's approach to the <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/parker-and-recreation.html">Parker Project</a> seem conventional by comparison. It is, however, very exciting to listen to and - as noted above - never sounds remotely haphazard. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The piece which I was most curious to hear when I first bought the album is <b>Comp. 115</b>: this, for those who don't recognise the opus number, is B's "accordion-time" piece, <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/202730-Anthony-Braxton-Six-Compositions-Quartet-1984">originally rendered</a> in such a way that the tempo continually accelerates and decelerates as the theme progresses. The problem here is surely obvious: given the essential nature of the source material, the approach taken by this band does not so much constitute a reimagining of the piece as just a simplification of it, removing from the work precisely the element which made it unusual in the first place. However, when I came to listen to it with open ears, I realised that this element has not actually been stripped away at all; it's just that only Ward gives voice to it, while the rest of the band remain locked into their unchanging groove. As the theme develops, the clarinet does indeed begin to introduce the <i>accelerandi</i> and <i>rallentandi</i> which characterise the original composition, and the fact that he is able to do this while all around him remains fixed in time is a testament to how much care and thought actually went into this project. The leader, again, is so thoroughly <i style="font-weight: bold;">out</i> that he provides the perfect contrast to the enforced stability of the backing players. This piece, along with the closing <b>23g</b> - the <a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2008/04/braxtothon-08-session-003.html">prototype pulse-track</a>, much collaged later on - seems a risky choice for this approach; but in both cases the overall rendition is so thoroughly and delightfully <i><span style="background-color: red; color: #04ff00;">messed up</span></i> that the band succeeds in making it work.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The blueprint, then, to sum up: the bass and drums provide the anchor, the clarinet fills in the melodic content as well as providing a great deal of the fire, and the piano and guitar counterbalance the rooted rhythms by demolishing the harmony. Thus, one could argue, whilst not playing B's music the way he would play it at all, they do end up covering its various bases - having a great deal of fun doing so, and treating the very appreciative audience to a generous dose of the same. I do still think that the formula has (quite obvious) limitations, and this was always going to be an occasional "festival band", but it has more going for it than I originally considered, for sure. When the time came, I did really enjoy listening to it, and it's an album I will be happy to play again from time to time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> I did actually see Thomas live once, though I had no idea who he was at the time, and it wasn't until years later that I figured it out... When I saw John Zorn play at the Barbican (with Fred Frith, Bill Laswell and Dave Lombardo - a band <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdikQalC-8E">retroactively dubbed Bladerunner</a>, though they were never billed as such at the time), the opening act was a trio led by Derek Bailey, plus two musicians whose names immediately disappeared from my memory: I only remembered that one played a keyboard, and the other turntables. Eventually I pieced together that it was none other than Thomas on the keys - and presumably Steve Noble on the decks (though I'm not quite so sure about that)...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> The only time I heard them, back in the day, was courtesy of three tracks broadcast by Jez Nelson (Jazz on 3). Even at the time I felt a bit ungrateful to be criticising an actual <i>Braxton-rep band</i> of all things, but it seemed to me on first acquaintance that the sacrifices entailed by the formula were too great to be worth making. I like to think I have mellowed out a bit since those days ;-) As for the broadcast itself, see also <span style="color: red;">###</span> below.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> Hawkins was most recently <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/10/standard-form.html">mentioned here</a>, of course.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> For some reason I don't seem to be able to find them right now, but there were two posts which date from this time: one in which I discussed a recording of Hawkins' group, which I had heard for the first time, making various erroneous conclusions about it; and a follow-up in which I detailed all the manifold ways in which I'd been wrong (the pianist having contacted me in the meantime - people sometimes did back then, the blogging scene being a lot more active in those days). I did look for them, but I'm not going to take all night over it. Dammit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">## </span>The blurb went like this: Discus asked Pat Thomas which project or recording of his would he most like to see released - and naturally he said this one. That seemed like a pretty good vote of confidence, if true...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> Jazz on 3 played three tracks - which purported to come from this very same performance. Two of them are on this album: one, a reading of <b>Comp. 23e</b>, is not. The editing on the CD is quite close to being seamless, but if you pay very close attention, you can hear how, for example, track two and track three might be concealing something which was originally between them. (Why the full set was not released, one can only imagine; it's nothing to do with running time, but could of course be a familiar sad story of corrupted tape, etc.) Much to my irritation, not only can I not find those two posts mentioned in <span style="color: red;">#</span> above, I can't even put my hands on the CD-r which includes those three radio recordings - despite <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/05/house-in-order-1.html">all the work</a> I put in <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/house-in-order-2.html">earlier this year</a>. They can't have gone far, but... again, I'm not spending too long on this. In the meantime, I can't currently even confirm what the other two pieces broadcast actually were. {tt}</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> One problem with CD digipaks of this type is that, with the disc itself tucked away tightly inside a fold-out panel, sometimes it can be a right pain to get the fucking thing out without damaging it (or at the very least covering the laminate with fingerprints). Adding the plastic sleeve must jack up the cost a fraction - but it is a great boon to the consumer.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^</span> Chances are, this signifies nothing at all beyond the fact that the information was not forthcoming at the time of eventual release. Given that the label didn't even nail down the precise date of the performance, we can't seriously expect them to have identified the sound man...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-56172109134014376722023-10-18T15:56:00.001-07:002023-10-18T15:56:12.099-07:00Doctores subtiles*<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgng3THuWMCka48wf3tB0hiJRqQRpArW2mZAY_60QIxX5I-alabXSax_hZcJUkwwmi_FrDymA1FZeYYnTost6oOJPqhCoAFS2Umtxl3kUfqbPM9Zf35sZeWw3FZlxTrOCKN6iJDZhRzvzS-qkaKz7n5uDko7Z1JdntF5lXeHGzCjNPQeisxBoxxNE6IKgPo/s3264/IMG_1365.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgng3THuWMCka48wf3tB0hiJRqQRpArW2mZAY_60QIxX5I-alabXSax_hZcJUkwwmi_FrDymA1FZeYYnTost6oOJPqhCoAFS2Umtxl3kUfqbPM9Zf35sZeWw3FZlxTrOCKN6iJDZhRzvzS-qkaKz7n5uDko7Z1JdntF5lXeHGzCjNPQeisxBoxxNE6IKgPo/s320/IMG_1365.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Abraham Adzinyah (<i>sic</i>) / Anthony Braxton - <i>Duo (Wesleyan) 1994</i> (Leo 1995)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Anthony Braxton & Ben Opie - <i>Duets (Pittsburgh) 2008</i> (OMP 2010)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Yes, this is another "placeholder" post - until such time as I get my head organised enough to deliver the analysis of <b>Comp. 136</b> which I've repeatedly promised - but it does give me a chance both to revisit something I wrote about just over a year ago, and to put down in writing for the first time an observation which I have several times made (to myself).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Last September, in the middle of a house move (and also in the middle of a Braxton binge which went on for weeks, being after all long overdue), I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/09/another-quick-round-up.html">wrote briefly</a> about the (album of the) duo concert which B. gave at Wesleyan with the Ghanaian master percussionist properly known as <b>Abraham K. Adzenyah</b> (sometimes also credited as <b>A. Kobena Adzenyah</b>). At the time, I had just listened to the album - in two halves, on separate occasions - on Youtube, and such is the bewildering scale and variety of the maestro's discography that it took me almost thirteen months to get back to this recording; but this time I did get hold of the CD. It feels as if I am now hearing it properly for the first time; some of the subtlety present in the drumming, in particular, didn't really come across the first time. (I wasn't using headphones; one can't expect miracles...)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In that previous article, I said that I'd made the initial mistake of assuming that the percussionist must have been one of B's students, since that would usually be the case with a recording made at his (then) place of employment. But although I got <i>that</i> misconception straightened out in due course, I still hadn't realised the actual background to this concert: the percussionist wasn't present as some sort of "special guest" on a visit to the US; rather he, too, was on the music faculty at Wesleyan - and indeed his tenure may have been longer than B's own. (I only found this out very recently when double-checking the correct spelling of Adzenyah's name online: that took me to a post about how the university <a href="https://kwamewrite.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/ghanaian-traditional-drummer-to-be-the-first-african-musician-ever-to-have-a-u-s-university-building-named-after-him/">eventually honoured him</a> with a building named after him, something I am pretty sure B. himself has not yet achieved.) I honestly can't remember now whence I gleaned the idea that "the concert was a special live performance, billed at the time as a highly unusual opportunity"; I wouldn't have just made that up, so I must have read it somewhere, but the hassles of moving must have distracted me sufficiently that I failed to cite my sources<span style="color: red;">*</span>. Anyway, I don't know how rare an opportunity it really was, given that at the time of the performance these two musicians were technically also work colleagues, but it certainly is an unusual item in B's vast discography...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... and it does draw from him some rather unusual playing. The opening section of the concert has B. on what is presumably a standard concert clarinet, but in response to the tribalistic percussion, he manages to make this sound almost like a shehnai; any friendly experiencer worth her or his salt would have no trouble recognising his voice within a few bars, but as the performance unfolds, he keeps coming up with things I wouldn't expect to hear from him. He does of course produce phrases and strategies which anyone familiar with his work <i>would</i> expect, but he also worries away at these melodic fragments or - cells, I suppose we might call them, phrases which other players might come out with on a regular basis, but which sound quite startling coming from <i>this</i> guy's horn. Needless to say, it works: more to the point, it works perfectly within the context, makes sense as an artistically-authentic response to the percussionist's patterns. Adzenyah himself demonstrates an ability to produce the subtlest of variations in rhythm, timbre and dynamics, remaining responsive and creative even while he lays down a beat which at times borders on the hypnotic. These two players may not seem, on the face of it, to make a natural pairing; but they shared both a degree of mastery and an affinity for <i>fine distinctions</i>. They had no trouble meeting somewhere in the middle.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's not an album for which I made any detailed notes - actually it's been a pleasure just to listen to it, without the added pressure of analysing it in any real depth - and for that matter, when I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/09/but-being-new-is-actually-nothing-new.html">said last year</a> that it's unlike B's duets with <b>Andrew Cyrille</b> or <b>Max Roach</b>, I was being a bit cheeky there since it's years since I heard any of those recordings (all of which I do, however, have in my collection... in one form or another); I was better placed to make comparisons with the maestro's duo album with <b>Gino Robair</b>, having <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/09/steady-diet.html">only very recently</a> heard that one. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy hearing it "properly", and it did still impress me as being unusual... and I can recommend it without hesitation. Oh, and there was one detail which I wanted to clear up: in my post from 22 Sept 2022<span style="color: red;">**</span> as linked above, I referred to a passage in the second half of the concert where B. "plays <span style="text-align: center;">his saxophone in such a way that it sounds more as if he is talking through it". This is definitely how it struck me at the time - I can remember thinking exactly that - but I don't necessarily hear it exactly like that now. What I did hear this time was a passage in which B. seems almost to <i>cry</i> through his horn, and this does, for a while, sound rather like a human voice. I wouldn't have been able, at the time, to make the connection which I can make now: the same technique is deployed to great effect in </span><i>Sextet (Istanbul) 1996</i><span style="text-align: center;">, </span><a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/growth-over-time-movement.html" style="text-align: center;">as reported here</a><span style="text-align: center;">. That album, despite its title, captured a performance given in 1995, the year after the duet with Adzenyah. Had B. used this technique prior to 1994? I don't know, but I will be keeping an ear out for other examples of it from now on...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">***</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">At the end of my most recent post, I brought up another duo album, this time <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#OMP006">an encounter between two saxophonists</a>. And I said that I needed to play the album again, if I could find time for it; I then surprised myself by promptly doing just that. - Actually, when I thought about it, I remembered that when I bought <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3344791-Anthony-Braxton-Ben-Opie-Duets-Pittsburgh-2008">this double CD</a>, I only played the first disc, and never quite got round to hearing the second one<span style="color: red;">***</span>. That, then, needed immediate rectification: I played disc two a few nights ago (and replayed disc one just tonight). This, in turn, reminded me of something which (as I said above) I have noted before, but may never have really mentioned here. A recording comprising a duet between two saxophonists may not, in principle, sound like something very appealing - may indeed conjure up images of something dry and cerebral and, you know, not very enjoyable at all. But when I've heard such encounters between B. and another reedman, I have found almost the opposite to be the case - not that I myself would expect such meetings to be "dry and cerebral", given that I (more than most) know how inaccurate, how unmerited these epithets are when applied to the maestro; but even I can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that recordings featuring nothing but saxophones </span><span style="text-align: center;">might turn</span><span style="text-align: center;"> out to be hard work. And yet, they pretty much never are, at least not when our man is at the wheel. I recently heard for the first time the second half of </span><span style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sax-quintet-middletown-1998">Sax Quintet (Middletown) 1998</a></i> - having heard the first half back when it was released<span style="color: red;">#</span> - and it was a riot. Of course, there's a lot more you can do with five saxes than with just to, but still - </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">- as it turns out, you can do a hell of a lot with just two, as well. The two long duets with Opie are consistently </span><span style="text-align: center;">fascinating: </span><span style="text-align: center;">varied, lively, witty, continuously creative and never, ever dull. It irritates me a bit that after all this time, I still can't recognise <b>Comp. 173</b> when I hear it played as an instrumental only (it is very easily recognisable when its verbal text is quoted), given how many times it has been used as tertiary material, as well as <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sax-quintet-new-york-1998">being played</a> as a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160621093440fw_/http://www.restructures.net/BraxDisco/braxton_discography-2.htm#Konnex5071">standalone track</a>; but that's just something I shall have to pursue in due course. That, it's fair to say, is the only irritating aspect of these listening sessions. It's not a well-known album, I am pretty sure; and contrary to what I surmised last time, Opie probably <i>wasn't</i> one of B's students<span style="color: red;">##</span>, so his is not a name that even fairly well-informed Braxtonheads are likely to know. But if anyone happens across a copy of this for a sensible price, they should snap it up at once. More subtle mastery in evidence, even in what might appear an unlikely context.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">* It strikes me that I am trying to be too clever with this title, and thus failing even to be comprehensible. So perhaps I had better explain: <i>doctor subtilis</i> was the sobriquet bestowed upon the monastic philosopher Duns Scotus in the middle ages (Roger Bacon having been known as <i>doctor mirabilis</i>, and Aquinas as <i>doctor angelicus</i>), and when I first considered writing again about the 1994 duo, that title popped into my head as being appropriate for Adzenyah. But of course it would apply equally well to B. - and for that matter, once I'd decided to scoop up the 2008 duo in the same post, it would apply pretty well to anybody able to cut it in the context of "reed meets reed". That left me needing to pluralise it, as I have attempted to do; whether many people will figure out what I meant is another matter. Still, I am above all pleasing myself at this point, am I not ;-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> I'm amazed now that I managed to post so many times last year at all, especially in September. I must have been writing more quickly than I can manage now; oh, and I suppose for some of that time, while the move was approaching and then underway, I wasn't actually at work so I was less mentally drained in the evenings. And I needed the distraction from day after day of sorting through boxes and drawers full of papers, etc... even so..!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> The other half of this post talks of the <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/duo-improv-2017">box set with Eugene Chadbourne</a>, something else I was planning to come back to "at some point soon"... again, it took me some time, but earlier this year I did manage to hear the entire thing. And most excellent it is, too :-D</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> This was right in the middle of my "doldrums years", unable to write, and not listening all that much either - or <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-i-am-among-other-things-born-again.html">not to this type of music</a>, anyway. I did at least make occasional purchases, trusting that at some point I would be more able to listen to them... it took a while, but as you can see, that worked out...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> <span style="text-align: center;">NBH006.1 was a "recording of the month" back when TCF was doing such things for its members. I never did feel comfortable with shelling out for digital recordings, and it would be years before I got round to hearing the various other releases on NBH; indeed there are still a few that I haven't heard. Getting there, though...</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> The 2008 album was recorded the day before (what would become) the <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/septet-pittsburgh-2008">very first NBH release</a>: <i>Septet (Pittsburgh) 2008</i>. The liner notes for that recording are by Opie, and he explains (some of) the circumstances by which the trip to Pennsylvania came about. (He did have a friend and bandmate who was also on the faculty at Wesleyan. Have a look at the notes if you're curious.)</span></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-70975528456678628502023-10-14T16:43:00.005-07:002023-10-14T16:43:59.680-07:00Standard form<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGe2zKIoZ8albix6x7fIXrJEESr5ktY9i8cr44cQQMYFGaf8z5NmAu_S6hFY7c9HT2wYZXMuvDQlDDjQ-Ik9uchcnICfgEev1Ql9977H4UDwcog7oEgN4l2VeBW72rdbIG6GmpIsY-cs_OKUjeL8p02_PIihMQHCpQ_BQVjU3t7psokALBFnraL2ChWmiO/s3264/IMG_1618.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGe2zKIoZ8albix6x7fIXrJEESr5ktY9i8cr44cQQMYFGaf8z5NmAu_S6hFY7c9HT2wYZXMuvDQlDDjQ-Ik9uchcnICfgEev1Ql9977H4UDwcog7oEgN4l2VeBW72rdbIG6GmpIsY-cs_OKUjeL8p02_PIihMQHCpQ_BQVjU3t7psokALBFnraL2ChWmiO/s320/IMG_1618.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I may perhaps have let slip <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/reconstruction.html">just once</a> or twice that I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of jazz standards, even when B. is playing them - although that does depend on what <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/197747-Anthony-Braxton-Six-Monks-Compositions-1987">we mean</a> by <i>standards</i>, <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/parker-and-recreation.html">and also</a> on who is <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3220474-Anthony-Braxton-Nine-Compositions-Hill-2000">in the band</a> at the time... anyway, I'm not looking to belabour the point, but when McC first suggested to me earlier this summer that I might want to check out the mammoth NBH release <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/20046394-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-Standards-2020">Quartet (Standards) 2020</a></i>, I didn't quite leap to it. I was already aware of this huge undertaking, of course: some of the material came from concerts I'd missed out on in London, for a start, and I knew the band included pianist <a href="http://www.alexanderhawkinsmusic.com/">Alexander Hawkins</a>, for my money one of the more consistently interesting British player-bandleaders in the new millennium; I also knew - though I only found this out within the last year - that the liner notes for this box set had been penned by one of my former BBC Radio 3 "messagebored" comrades, <a href="https://eartripmagazine.wordpress.com/">David Grundy</a>. All points in favour, one might say... but... <i>thirteen</i> discs? I am as susceptible to <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/12-duets-dcwm-2012">giant</a> <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sextet-parker-1993">box sets</a> <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/gtm-syntax-2017">by the</a> <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/duo-improv-2017">maestro</a> as the next friendly experiencer - more than most, I daresay - but <i>sixty-seven</i> standards just seemed like too many to bite off, never mind chew<span style="color: red;">*</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Still, I spent much of the summer working my way through a considerable proportion of the <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/new-braxton-house-records-discography">NBH back catalogue</a>, and at a certain point I just found myself thinking: why not, let's give it a go. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, my initial impression was: wow! The band is so good, and the approach so fresh and creative, that I was easily able to avoid dwelling on the core material itself. I wasn't previously familiar with bassist Neil Charles or drummer Steven Davis - but they weren't plucked out of the air: both of them play with Hawkins, for some time now in Charles' case<span style="color: red;">**</span>; the pianist himself, a longtime admirer of B's, seized this opportunity with both hands (literally...) and plays at a high level throughout. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Almost inevitably, though, it wasn't long before clouds began to threaten my sunny mood. I've said numerous times that for me there is quite a significant difference between "modern standards" - composed by jazz musicians - and numbers from the Great American Songbook<span style="color: red;">***</span>, whether that means old Tin Pan Alley hits or show-tunes. In the case of the latter... something very creative had better be done with them, is all I can say. (By the same token, just because a given tune was penned by a jazz musician doesn't automatically mean that a cover version of it will be worth hearing.) By the middle of the first disc - or the set of five numbers, since I don't have the physical box set - I was already struggling a bit through "Desafinado", which (purely from my heavily-skewed perspective) rather falls in between the above categories: it was written by a modern composer, sure, but with all due respect to the "Father of Bossa Nova" (and to his numerous admirers), Jobim didn't make the kind of music I am ever likely to listen to voluntarily. [My taste may be peculiar, but it is my own... and I know what I <i>don't</i> like.]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Entirely predictably, then, by the time I'd got through the first couple of sets/ discs, I'd already concluded that the best way for me to approach this monster album is... slowly, bit by bit. The preponderance of material which I would never normally want to hear just proved a bit too much for me, and even the excellent musicianship wasn't enough to maintain my enthusiasm. Amongst those first ten cuts, Andrew Hill's "Pumpkin" sticks out like a sore thumb as the only piece which I would ever actually seek out; I'm sure most of the tracks here did sound pretty good in these interpretations, although it's now quite a few weeks since I heard them and I can no longer remember the details, not having made any notes. But I did decide to take a bit of a break, if only to give myself the best possible chance of enjoying the rest of the music.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That turned out to be a good idea, because as I carried on <i>gradually</i> listening my way through, I found myself warming to the album more and more. This was not always limited to the more obvious selections, either; B. really dug deep into the bag to pull out "standards" that probably nobody else would play, such as "The Inch Worm" (disc six) and - no, really - "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (disc nine), but these sound fine enough with this treatment; I would probably never want to hear the old Cole Porter chestnut "I Get a Kick out of You" at all, if asked - let alone a rendition of it lasting twenty-two minutes - but the version which opens disc six pretty much blew me away, its superb playing taking the music way beyond the source material. (I don't share B's enthusiasm for Paul Simon, suffice it to say - I am sure I am firmly in the minority there so I really shan't elaborate much, but some of his numbers came closest to wearing me down. I didn't need to hear Johnny Cash doing "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and I didn't need to hear it here either.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I still haven't finished, because I really have been stretching it out, but so far I would say probably disc nine - or the five tracks which are included on it - proved the most enjoyable for me. Some old show-tune I've never heard of opens this group (I can't very well call them"sets", since the tracks are presented out of sequence, not in the order in which they were recorded), which also includes "... Big Bad Wolf", as noted above; B. has great fun with that one on sopranino sax. It's rounded out with the rather obscure "Double Clutching" by Chuck Israels<span style="color: red;">#</span>, "Sue's Changes" - also not one of the better-known Mingus compositions - and "Nardis", which is actually a Miles Davis number<span style="color: red;">##</span>, although Hawkins seems fiercely determined to play it like Andrew Hill. The upshot is, this approach of eking out the discs one at a time seems to be working out well, because my enjoyment of the music has only increased; dare I say it, these may be some of the most enjoyable standards of B's I've yet had the pleasure of hearing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, that's about all I have to say on this for the time being - and that's just as well, since my attention seems to be elsewhere just now, and even this feeble excuse for a post has taken something like four days to write. Still plenty more in the pipeline though..!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On a completely unrelated note, I got briefly excited the other day when a Discogs notification led me to the reed duo album <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3344791-Anthony-Braxton-Ben-Opie-Duets-Pittsburgh-2008">Duets (Pittsburgh) 2008</a></i>, with Ben Opie<span style="color: red;">###</span>: the master record had been updated to change the reference to <b>298</b> (in the tertiary material on the first disc) to <b>29b</b>. I actually have this album on CD, but I bought it six or seven years ago (i.e. during the period when I wasn't listening to much of this kind of music) and only played it once, so far; it suddenly seemed to offer the chance of some backup for my <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/12/thumbscrew-pt-1a-mysterious-track-7.html">contesting the accuracy</a> of TCF's identification of <b>Comp. 61</b>, something which is currently <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/03/thumbscrew-pt-1aa-mysterious-track-7.html">still up in the air</a> (and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future). But then I remembered that the piece on the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/2568059-Anthony-Braxton-Mario-Pavone-Duets-1993">duo album with Mario Pavone</a> is <b>29a</b>, not <b>29b</b>... never mind. It's reminded me to play the album again anyway, if I find time for it... until I can clone myself, finding time is always the problem... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> It doesn't help that I never got very far with the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1081654-Anthony-Braxton-23-Standards-Quartet-2003">three</a> <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1204067-Anthony-Braxton-20-Standards-Quartet-2003">box-set</a> <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/2426683-Anthony-Braxton-19-Standards-Quartet-2003">albums</a> of standards on Leo. I was put off these very early on, and basically I never went back to them. (In those cases, the fact that the fourth voice is supplied by undistorted electric guitar presents an additional problem for me; but B's own playing on that material had a completely different effect on me from normal. Strange but true.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> Neil Charles must have replaced Dom Lash as Hawkins' go-to bassist round about the same time I sort of stopped listening to Hawkins' music; there was no real reason for that, it was just a natural development at the time, but when I found myself listening to a lot more jazz and creative music again more recently, I didn't re-establish my interest in Hawkins. Yet. (Still time, of course.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> I had to force myself not to put this phrase in inverted commas, or strike it through, or couch it in irony some other visible way... such is my resistance to the whole concept which the phrase itself represents. Various reasons for that, and... I've decided to leave it there ;-)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> The original can be found on the one and only recorded meeting of Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane, which was effectively sabotaged - or at least heavily undermined - by the unsympathetic presence of Kenny Dorham, not the first choice of trumpeter on the date. (Most people probably now know the resulting album as <i>Coltrane Time</i>, although Taylor was actually the session leader and the album was originally released, with a different running order, under his name.) I don't know of any other covers of this tune. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> Davis himself never recorded it, and the tune became more associated with Bill Evans (apparently - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nardis_(composition)">says Wikipedia</a>! I had to look it up as I couldn't remember where the piece was originally from). Miles didn't really write much - at least not once he'd got himself firmly established on the scene - and generally preferred to have other people around to do that for him, when he himself wasn't mining standards. Any later numbers with his name on tend to sound as if they were "composed" in a few idle minutes in the studio; it will be noted, though, that B. particularly likes playing "Four", and did bring it out again for this project.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> I personally only know Opie from this recording, though his name crops up in the discography a couple of times besides... a decade prior to the duo meeting, Opie's <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/13378868-Water-Shed-5tet-Circuit-Breaker">Water Shed 5tet</a> had recorded <b>Comp. 23i (+40c)</b> on their album <i>Circuit Breaker</i>; later, he took part in the Three Rivers Tri-Centric Ensemble, which turned out <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3346309-Anthony-Braxton-and-the-Three-Rivers-Tri-Centric-Ensemble-Ensemble-Pittsburgh-2008">this fascinating-looking recording</a> (which, alas, I may never actually get to hear; it seems so obscure that I didn't even bother to include it on <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/recently-acquired-most-wanted.html">my wants list</a>, though properly speaking it does belong there...). I'm not sure if he studied under B. at Wesleyan, though that seems at least plausible.</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-7715134562070956432023-10-05T14:37:00.003-07:002023-10-05T14:37:34.567-07:00What PMP2301 might tell us<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1LRPZZXup-lTHf0yl9ZK2RIYUe_m8rI_BZtpc0iT7eCJyxLm3BXvIFdxGi6gRH5KsLhFQtJgXKFsA3A6N_pQCVHQ3K7DNVKsuOO_5pUUDDjTsz78GDwgvGSoafX8fF-la3JJ2zKPnoEDrDIHVpTR1ncm9cLwJLQEeZZo682mB-ZY71zhd-hwp9wr0noKX/s2048/IMG_3814.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1LRPZZXup-lTHf0yl9ZK2RIYUe_m8rI_BZtpc0iT7eCJyxLm3BXvIFdxGi6gRH5KsLhFQtJgXKFsA3A6N_pQCVHQ3K7DNVKsuOO_5pUUDDjTsz78GDwgvGSoafX8fF-la3JJ2zKPnoEDrDIHVpTR1ncm9cLwJLQEeZZo682mB-ZY71zhd-hwp9wr0noKX/s320/IMG_3814.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">No, I haven't got hold of a physical copy of this - it may be a while yet before those start to find their way out of Eastern Europe - but (as McC pointed out to me the other day) the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lahRQII6_Cre3mwSf3yCXAyA85CfkRVoU">whole thing is now available on Youtube</a> (and no doubt elsewhere). So as much as I can't vouch for what - if anything - the liner notes will clarify for us, I have listened to the whole album now; and, if I don't yet have a clear explanation for what was going on with the music, I do at least have a working hypothesis...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/when-is-wall-not-wall.html">pondered recently</a> how we might interpret the meaning of "track titles"<span style="color: red;">*</span> such as <b>Composition No. 366b (+214, 365b)</b> or <b>Composition No. 364e (+346, 363a)</b>. Bear in mind, these are both to be found within a release entitled <i><a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/12-duets-dcwm-2012">12 Duets (DCWM) 2012</a></i> - of course, anyone can see right away that in each case, one of the territories listed is actually a <b><span style="color: #ffa400;">GTM</span></b> piece<span style="color: red;">**</span>; still, that in itself is hardly problematic. A <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/tentet-wesleyan-2000">performance from 2000</a> of the second-species GTM piece <b>Comp. 277</b> incorporates as tertiary material <b>Comps. 6n</b> and <b>40(o)</b>, among others; the reading of <b>Comp. 278</b> from the same occasion includes <b>Comps. 114</b>, <b>23c</b> and <b>40i</b><span style="color: red;">***</span>, but this does not somehow rule out the classification of the performances themselves as GTM. So, there is no inherent reason why a <b><span style="color: #ff00fe;">DCWM</span></b> performance might not utilise part of a GTM score as tertiary material; indeed, by this stage it seems to be par for the course that many such readings do just that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But what are we to make of the presence of the <i>other</i> opus numbers thrown into the mix? The <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/09/one-final-round-up.html">2016 Brazilian release</a> <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/8069081-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-Ao-Vivo-Jazz-Na-F%C3%A1brica">Ao Vivo Jazz Na Fábrica</a></i> goes much further, presenting us with the intimidating rubrics <b>Composition No.366d (+214, 366e, 366f, 366g)</b> and <b>Composition No.367b (+70, 364g, 365a, 366b)</b>. These latter performances are again primarily to be considered as DCWM, but are we really to understand that the musicians worked from four different DCWM scores in each case, as well as the listed tertiary material? Are the listed works from the <b>36x</b> range <u>themselves</u> to be considered as tertiary material? How would that even work? Many questions here, and no particularly obvious answers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh, and just to make matters more complicated again, I had <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/when-is-wall-not-wall.html">already remarked</a> back in August that <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/quartet-frm-2007">opus numbers within the exact same range</a> might appear under the aegis of <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Falling River Music</span></b> instead...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> - Lo and behold, with perfect timing we are then presented with a <a href="https://www.praguemusicplatform.com/">new release</a> of <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/27855357-Anthony-Braxton-Roland-Dahinden-Hildegard-Kleeb-Four-Compositions-Wesleyan-2013">four full-length recordings from 2013</a>, which might be DCWM or FRM or - somehow - both at once. The label certainly seems to want the listener to think of this as an example of FRM, whilst <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/09/news-bulletin.html">I have already observed</a> that the music <i>sounds</i> like DCWM; that latter observation was of course based on just a few short samples. However, now that I have heard the entire thing from start to finish, I can confirm that this is definitely <b><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Diamond Curtain Wall Music</span></b>, with all four pieces featuring the "classic" SuperCollider sound (as heard on numerous <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2008/09/diamond-curtain-wall-is-now.html">previous recordings</a>). So, has someone just made an embarrassing error, confusing two different strategies within B's compendious musical system? That is of course possible, but I'm disinclined to think the answer is that simple.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The programme for the new release is as follows:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">1. <span style="white-space: normal;"><b>Composition 364F (+364G +272)</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="white-space: normal;">2. </span><b>Composition 366E (+220)</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">3. <b>Composition 364E (+367B +366D +264)</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4. <b>Composition 363A (+363H +219)</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- which is to say, it's all very similar (at least on the face of it) to the 12-disc 2012 release... which was, just to remind ourselves, packaged as DCWM. The template: a primary territory in the <b>36x</b> range is presented along with at least one other such territory, plus a GTM territory as (presumably) tertiary material. (It will be noted that disc 2 on this album doesn't follow that same pattern, listing only the primary territory plus a tertiary; there, at least, I am inclined to think that a simple mistake <i>could</i> have been made.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The music, too, sounds indubitably like DCWM from the get-go. As I say, this already appeared to be the case from the sound samples <a href="https://www.supraphonline.cz/album/765108-four-compositions-wesleyan-2013">I had found online</a>; but hearing the complete performances just underlines and reconfirms that impression. There is no doubt about it. I can unequivocally state that... ah, but, but. After all this time, can I really be that sure about <i>anything</i>, where the maestro's music is concerned? It's probably best if I back away from that. What does an open ear tell me, at this point?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The first impression, though, is just what I said above: this is not FRM, but rather DCWM. As previously mentioned, it's not even "experimental" DCWM - such as can be found on some of the discs <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/12-duets-dcwm-2012">in the 2012 set</a>; the soundscape generated by the SuperCollider software here is effectively indistinguishable from that used in the very earliest DCWM performances. What <i>is</i> different, of course, is the instrumentation: with no disrespect at all to <b>Taylor Ho Bynum</b> or <b>Mary Halvorson</b>, it is rather refreshing to hear some "new" voices interpreting this stuff. (For a number of years it looked impossible for a recording of this type to exist without THB's involvement... It's another reason why the 2012 box was so invigorating<span style="color: red;">#</span>.) The music kept drawing my attention in, not for the overall shape of it - which remains pretty much beyond my understanding at this stage - so much as for fabulous details in the playing. The sounds - the <i>human</i>-generated sounds - are consistently fresh and intriguing. In particular, <b>Roland Dahinden</b>'s range of extended techniques really gets showcased on these recordings; in fact all three players are on peak form for this<span style="color: red;">##</span> - it just so happens that I was especially captivated by the trombone wizardry. Anyone who might be wondering whether the quality of the musicianship here warrants checking out the whole recording can rest assured that they will find no shortage of marvellous moments...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... and I did take note of some of these while I was listening; but it would be an unnecessary distraction to go into them here, because none of that is directly relevant to the question of what this release might tell us. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I wasn't very far into the first piece before I realised I was just listening to the instrumentalists, without any electronics. I hadn't been giving the music my undivided attention, so it was more the less the case that shortly after I figured out what I was hearing, SuperCollider patched back in and the temporary spell was broken; however, it wasn't more than a few minutes before the same thing happened again, and now that I was primed to notice, I found quite a few examples of such passages. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What that got me wondering, of course, was whether these "unaccompanied" sections might not be where the FRM strategies were being deployed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here, then, is the hypothesis: these four pieces - or at least three of them! - may be "hybrid" performances, in which the first territory listed is to be interpreted under DCWM protocols, and the secondary territory/-ies as FRM; tertiary material will presumably always remain just that, as with any other long-form performance. <i>If</i> this is correct then we can pretty safely assume that whenever the software drops out of the mix, the music system has itself reverted to the secondary type and a different score is being used for that. As I say, this is all hypothetical; but it would explain why the interactive software frequently vanishes from the soundscape, and it would also shed light on why FRM is now being talked about in the promotional material, given that it has never previously been associated with the use of SuperCollider. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's an idea, anyway... and naturally, once it had occurred to me, I found myself wondering whether some other (later) DCWM works - or rather other works which I had assumed were DCWM - might not be set up the same way; although that possibility really raises more questions than it answers, since surely we would expect there to have been some mention of it before now. Releases such as the <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/12-duets-dcwm-2012">2012 box itself</a>, or the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/9164669-Anthony-Braxton-Miya-Masaoka-Duo-DCWM-2013">duo with Miya Masaoka</a>, might seem tempting places to look for further evidence to support the hypothesis; but, with those all comprising duets, it must surely be pretty obvious if the software falls silent for any length of time. (The Brazilian release, on the other hand... I only heard that once, around a year ago, and can I say for sure that I would have noticed if there were prolonged passages with no SuperCollider..?)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, of course my next task - in this regard at least! - is twofold: firstly to read the full liners for the PMP box, as soon as they become available to me, and secondly to keep a close ear out for any other "DCWM-primary" performances which follow the template outlined above. - Needless to say, the other three readings in the new box did indeed follow this template; or rather, the third and fourth did, whilst the second did a bit, but to a lesser extent. Here, when I finally encountered a sustained passage with no electronics I was left to suppose that it represented the point at which the tertiary material - in this case, the <b><span style="color: #e06666;">S</span><span style="color: #ffa400;">GTM</span></b> piece <b>Comp. 220</b> - was being exploited; that really was a best guess, though, and in practice I can't hazard <i>much</i> of a guess as to how instrumentalists would begin to render material designed specifically for the human voice (and including actual syllables, etc), B's general principle of "anything can fit anywhere" notwithstanding<span style="color: red;">###</span>. Even though the second disc is the shortest, by a few minutes, and even though it seemed to incorporate fewer moments of "human-only" activity, I am still not 100% convinced that the published track listing - with only two territories for the second piece, but four for the third - is actually correct and not some sort of mistake.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anyway, that's what all this has left me thinking about, and since the post on <b>Comp. 136</b> is theoretically ready, but doesn't seem to want to be <i>written</i> quite yet - THAT feels awfully familiar - I figured I would squeeze this in first. Regardless of whether any other friendly experiencers feel like wading into the theoretical waters with me, listening to this album purely for the music will surely repay their time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> This term seems pitifully inadequate, and it irritates me a little that I can't think of anything better just at the moment...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> <b>214</b> is first species, first unveiled as one of the "Yoshi's ninetets"; <b>346</b> is third species, probably (...) accelerator class, and can be found as a primary territory <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1298503-Anthony-Braxton-Quartet-GTM-2006">here</a> and <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/461082-Anthony-Braxton-GTM-Iridium-2007-Volume-3-Set-2">here</a>, having also seen quite a bit of use as a tertiary. (The <a href="https://rateyourmusic.com/list/smartpatrol/anthony-braxton-numbered-composotions/1/">composition index</a> by RYM user <b>smartpatrol </b>- as mentioned in <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/09/news-bulletin.html">the last post</a>, section 2 - was useful at this juncture. Nice one, whoever you are...) </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> In these - and all analogous - instances, tertiary materials never get listed; we are left to catch them as they drift past the ear. It occurs to me that this may be at least partly because they are not (or not always) pre-selected, but may be thrown in <i>ad hoc</i> by <b><i>sections</i></b>, or by individual players as the case may be. (Does that mean that if a piece <i>is</i> listed, it's not actually "tertiary material" at all, but something else altogether? My head hurts...)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> Of course, of B's three duet-partners in that box, one of them - bassoonist <b>Katherine Young</b> - had taken part in (group) DCWM previously. (She still seemed like quite a bold choice for a duettist, though. Bassoon is not the most versatile of instruments, especially if we compare it with the human voice, or with the violin...)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> It scarcely needs saying that B. himself is <i>always</i> on "peak form". I mean, you find me an example - any time after 1970, or thereabouts - of a date when he wasn't. I've remarked before that he may (notionally) have an "A game" and an "A+ game", but nothing like a "B game" really (lame pun not intended). Still and all, there were many occasions while listening to these four long pieces that I found myself thinking "wow, that just sounds fantastic" - so it feels only appropriate to flag up the overall quality of the playing here.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> Two of the "extra" territories fall into this precise category: disc four uses <b>219</b>. (The other two use second-species GTM works; <b>265</b> is SGTM, but <b>264 </b>is not.) Obviously, (parts of) any score can be deployed in any context, but the use of vocal pieces in a purely-instrumental context does seem a trifle perverse, although... <b>Comp. 173</b> has been interpreted both ways, and at varying length... I daresay nothing about this need surprise me, at this point...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-60134182290431767882023-09-23T15:52:00.003-07:002023-09-25T16:01:29.145-07:00- - news bulletin - -<div style="text-align: left;"> ... still in the process of preparing for a post looking at <b>Comp. 136</b> here, I came across a few updates in the course of my online research... enough, collectively, that they warrant a post of their own rather than being stuck on the end of another article like an afterthought:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. McC recently tipped everyone off about a new album - a new box set, really - featuring B's trio with <b>Roland Dahinden</b> and his wife, <b>Hildegard Kleeb</b>, recorded a full decade ago at Wesleyan. <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/27855357-Anthony-Braxton-Roland-Dahinden-Hildegard-Kleeb-Four-Compositions-Wesleyan-2013">Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013</a></i> is supposedly out already (Discogs lists the release date as 1st August), but I had never had the slightest bit of luck in finding it for sale anywhere online; at time of writing two Discogs users claim to have it already, but those could of course be promotional/review copies... who knows. Anyway, poking around again last night, I found a couple of leads which suggest that the physical product does at least exist, even if it might take a little while to make its way out of the Czech Republic. The very first release on a new label, <a href="https://www.praguemusicplatform.com/">Prague Music Platform</a>, the album is real and not <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/15827956-Charlie-Mariano-Meets-Anthony-Braxton-Elegy-For-A-Goose">some weird wind-up</a><span style="color: red;">*</span>: we now have an actual website to prove that, after all. I even managed to find <a href="https://www.multiland.cz/braxton_anthony_roland_dahind_four_compositions_wesleyan_2013">another Czech site</a> which appears to list it for sale; mark you, both the label's own site and this other one reckon the release date is this month, not the beginning of August (this makes more sense). Indeed, the vendor's site gives the date as just <i>yesterday</i>, which certainly helps to explain why it's not been possible to find anyone up until now that's carrying it... and the same date, 22nd September, <a href="https://www.supraphonline.cz/album/765108-four-compositions-wesleyan-2013">is confirmed here</a> - another Czech online retailer, which also offers short sound samples of the four disc-long tracks.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These, by the way, suggest that the music sounds awfully like <b><span style="color: #ff00fe;">Diamond Curtain Wall Music</span></b>, and nothing whatsoever like <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Falling River Music</span></b> - regardless of what the label's promotional blurb might say. Yes, we've already established that it won't necessarily be easy to tell DCWM apart from, say, the new <b><span style="color: #04ff00;">Lorraine</span></b> strategies, <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/24910886-Anthony-Braxton-James-Fei-Duet">which also make use</a> of interactive software; and I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/when-is-wall-not-wall.html">recently examined </a>the way in which DCWM itself does not always have the "classic" sound. That said, these clips would tend to indicate that the 2013 recordings in the Czech box set <u>do</u> have the classic SuperCollider sound; and besides, since when does FRM use computer software at all? In my fairly limited experience of that system, it's <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/sextet-frm-2007">always</a> been <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/quartet-frm-2007">organic</a> (- or primarily organic, anyway: the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1223776-Anthony-Braxton-Chris-Dahlgren-ABCD">2003 duo recording</a> with Chris Dahlgren includes FRM strategies, and Dahlgren is credited there with both bass and electronics; but then he always was credited that way, pretty much any time he played in B's groups<span style="color: red;">**</span>). The label's site goes into a bit of detail about what FRM is and how it's employed in performance, and I've already <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/when-is-wall-not-wall.html">highlighted the fact</a> that recorded compositions in the <b>360</b> range<span style="color: red;">***</span> might turn out to be either DCWM or FRM in practice; I certainly can't say for sure that these 2013 trios don't use <i>both</i> systems. But it would be a bit embarrassing for all concerned if Dahinden's memory has just failed him on this and the performances didn't actually use FRM at all. (I have it in my head that this project was driven by RD... although I am now wondering exactly where I got that idea...)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, coming soon... maybe! I'll be hanging on to my money until someone a bit closer to home starts offering it for sale, I think.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">2. No idea who this guy is, but a user called <b>smartpatrol</b> on Rate Your Music has put together <a href="https://rateyourmusic.com/list/smartpatrol/anthony-braxton-numbered-composotions/1/">a list of B's compositions</a><span style="color: red;">#</span>, in numerical order, together with albums where each one can be found. (This was something Jason Guthartz had previously been doing at Restructures, but it was a work in progress even before the site was yanked from the internet.) I haven't yet had a really good look at it, and I don't suppose for a minute that it's comprehensive, but kudos to the guy for even attempting this. (I've just started doing something similar myself, but I'm nowhere near the point of being able to put it online.) Incidentally, the "excellent videos on Braxton for the uninitiated" that he links to there are the same two which I <a href="excellent videos on Braxton for the uninitiated">flagged up last year</a>, albeit I did rather bury my own links in the middle of something else...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Late last year I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/11/some-duo-stuff-and-other-stuff.html">wrote a little bit</a> about a (mallet) percussionist by the name of <b>Payton MacDonald</b>, without realising at the time that he had actually recorded a <a href="https://explorations.bandcamp.com/album/explorations-16-anthony-braxton">whole (digital-only) solo album</a> of B's pieces; this was released in 2021, but I didn't know about it until it appeared on B's Discogs <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/200818-Anthony-Braxton?page=13">page</a>(s) earlier this year. I checked out some of it last night, because it includes a version of <b>Comp. 136</b>... It's quite clear that this musician is very serious about his art and craft, and for that matter the "Explorations" project itself is evidently something which goes way beyond the scope of just looking at B's music: this, after all, was volume 16, and he's already (at least) up to vol. 72, so anyone who is really into their marimba sounds could get lost in the man's work and never emerge from it. Even if your interest is mainly in B's music, the album is worth a serious listen; albeit the degree of musical training necessary to appreciate all the work that went into it is whole dimensions beyond what I could pretend to...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">4. This last bit is something which will get covered in (some) more detail later down the line, but: McC recently mentioned an album of B's music <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3823080-James-Ilgenfritz-Compositions-Braxton-2011">performed on solo bass</a> - yep, that's right, solo bass... he hadn't heard of this before. I hadn't either... yet as it turns out, it was recorded more than a decade ago. Anyway, I added it to my Discogs wants list, and was surprised to see a copy suddenly make itself available - as it went down, I ended up buying it... shortly before McC himself got his own notification for it (oops). The artist, <b>James Ilgenfritz</b>, naturally enough didn't get famous off the back of this very interesting recording - not even famous in our rarefied circles, hence the fact that neither McC or I had heard of him - but he was a student of <b>Mark Dresser</b>'s - which is where he originally got the idea. Anyway, like I say - later<span style="color: red;">##</span>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's all for now - back to the research...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> A full explanation of this bizarre (and abstruse) practical joke <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/recently-acquired-most-wanted.html">can be found here</a>. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> Dahlgren played bass both with and without added electronic effects when I saw him <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1204166-Anthony-Braxton-Quintet-London-2004-Live-At-The-Royal-Festival-Hall">play in B's quintet</a> at the (old) <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2009/04/gardens-of-myriad-delights.html">Royal Festival Hall</a>; it was (is?) evidently a speciality of his. Come to think of it, Jay Rozen often used electronics in these settings too. In any case this is still different, still "organic" insofar as the sound is directly controlled by a human musician, not computer-generated.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> Not all of them, of course. <b>362</b> is the very last GTM composition - it's surely not a coincidence that the last one bears a number precisely double <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/thaumatogenesis-1995.html">that of the first one</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> Technically he's created a list of "composotions", but I think we can assume what he meant... it's still amusing that a guy who is clearly a fellow detail-freak has managed to miss such a glaring typo..!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> That's <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3823080-James-Ilgenfritz-Compositions-Braxton-2011">now two</a> solo <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/21212845-Anthony-Braxton-Kobe-Van-Cauwenberghe-Ghost-Trance-Solos">recordings</a> of B's music that I've picked up this year - I will probably tackle both of them at once when the time comes.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-23905362539768742552023-09-20T14:46:00.007-07:002023-09-25T16:10:26.231-07:00Nitpicking (further detective work)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4eWBxKSjVXSkarl3CQkh0aGQ8rbkWNeuk_9IwWUtcyqNTX-_-6GfOt18jABib_Z4PWoDcaV-SDN7nBH4J88025kngOOfKgj8IlBUcxJePhz3yuINPUUccVUGIxqLrLxKprxe7b7m2HajHKg4NVHfdtJeq2VWm8bQfHCp4q-PJW6HKmiw85BB9-EjQtuP/s2048/IMG_3716.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4eWBxKSjVXSkarl3CQkh0aGQ8rbkWNeuk_9IwWUtcyqNTX-_-6GfOt18jABib_Z4PWoDcaV-SDN7nBH4J88025kngOOfKgj8IlBUcxJePhz3yuINPUUccVUGIxqLrLxKprxe7b7m2HajHKg4NVHfdtJeq2VWm8bQfHCp4q-PJW6HKmiw85BB9-EjQtuP/s320/IMG_3716.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's taken a while {cough}, but I've actually started in earnest the preparatory work for a post looking at <b>Comp. 136 (</b>- which in turn is part of the groundwork for an analysis of <i>Ensemble Montaigne (Bau 4) 2013</i>, as <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/reorientation.html">most recently discussed</a> last month).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's the thing: in getting into <i>that</i>, I also answered a couple of outstanding questions which I first put <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/09/steady-diet.html">out there last year</a>, and unfortunately the upshot is that I now have to explain a couple of instances where information formerly on Restructures<span style="color: red;">*</span> was wrong, and in at least one case, information on officially-released product on the Music & Arts label is wrong as well. Nitpicking, or worthwhile emendation..? Well, you be the judge ;-)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The cases in point are two of B's duo albums, both of which (naturally) include versions of <b>136</b>: <i>Duo (Leipzig) 1993</i> (with Ted Reichman) and <i>Duets 1987</i> (with Gino Robair). Actually it was the latter which started this, what with its being the earlier release and (not coincidentally) the one which contains the first recorded version of <b>136</b> that I can find. The problem here is quite simple, and given that it mainly concerns a correction to a discography which technically no longer exists<span style="color: red;">*</span>, it really <u>does</u> fall into the category of nitpicking, but - look, I can't help it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, it was already established that Rastascan made a mistake with one of the titles on the original LP release; actually there were a couple of oddities regarding the '87 LP, which is credited rather eyebrow-raisingly to Gino Robair / Anthony Braxton, not the other way around; true, it was on Robair's label, but even so... anyway, the more significant issue with it was that the last track on Side A was listed as "Composition No. 134 (+96)". This was wrong, and it got corrected when Music & Arts put out the expanded version of the album on CD the following year: at that point, the title of (what was then) track six became <b>Comp. 136 (+ 96)</b>, and to confirm it, the graphic title for <b>136</b> is displayed (albeit not the one for <b>96</b>, but that will be explained in a later post). The album is also credited, as one would frankly expect, to Anthony Braxton / Gino Robair at this point.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This - some of it - was detailed on Restructures, back in the day (albeit the artist credit still followed the original LP). What was wrong was the track listing, or rather the precise running order: aware that tracks one and three on the CD were the previously-unreleased recordings, Jason G. allotted these their correct slots, but then reverted to the running order of the LP for the rest of the entry. In other words, it was listed thus:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Improvisation & Prelude<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Robair / Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[6:05]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">2.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 86<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[12:03]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">3.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Frictious Singularity<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Robair / Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[8:19]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">4.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ballad For The Children<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Robair / Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[3:11]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">5.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 136 (+ 96)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[6:55]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">6.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Counting Song<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Robair)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[5:22]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">7.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 40 D (+ 96 + 108 B)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[8:25]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">8.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Decline Of Reason<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Robair)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[4:08]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- which is not the correct order at all, from track four onwards. The entire programme was switched up for the CD release: <b>Comp. 40d (...)</b> is at 4, then "<span style="text-align: center;">Ballad For The Children" at 5, </span><span style="text-align: center;"><b>Comp. 136 (+ 96)</b> at 6, and "</span><span style="text-align: center;">Decline Of Reason" at 7, with "</span><span style="text-align: center;">Counting Song" bringing the album to a close<span style="color: red;">**</span>. OK, so you could (sort of) argue that the published listing represented the expanded version of the original release, and was thus "accurate in principle", but the fact is, it doesn't match any physical version of the album in the real world. It was, at best, a rather eccentric way of doing it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">That's it for that one, though: the titles and running order on the actual CD are fine, as far as this friendly experiencer can tell; and I can confirm that the graphic title for <b>136</b> - reproduced in miniature on the back cover, and blown up in the liner, and which depicts downhill skiers in the sun (on a hill the slope of which turns into one of B's familiar diagrams-with-numbers-and-letters) - is the same one which is reproduced pretty much everywhere else you'd expect to see it. So it's definitely that opus number, and not <b>134</b> as the vinyl had it; while I remember, the graphic title for <b>86</b> is correct also (albeit not reproduced in colour, as would ideally be the case): the reason for pointing <i>that</i> out will become clearer presently.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;">The album with Reichman is a little more problematic, inasmuch as the fault was both with the label and with Restructures (understandably, in this instance). This release only ever existed in one edition, on CD, and a rather bizarre feature of it is that the actual track listing <i>per se</i> does not appear anywhere on it; not on the back cover, not on the disc itself and not in the liners. Now, the back cover <i>does</i> list the tracks which are included, with their graphic titles (but read on) - however, it <i>doesn't</i> number these as such, and they are laid out in such a way that the running order is not exactly clear. Jason was doubtless giving us his best guess when he rendered it thus:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="white-space: normal;">1.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 101<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[20:58]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">2.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 168<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[11:07]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">3.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 136<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[14:27]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">4.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 167<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[12:39]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">5.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Comp. 86<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Braxton)<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[6:56]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- which is certainly one reasonable way of interpreting this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjDCU5lhjWKh3uXdXXkLUkMW3ix25BzBrRzaj4D_wZ6AygM7glqmp6bVBrWF7OIu3ixe2gH3NwLO93MkbwjsAZIi96cxPPW5BkEkMFOHQQHF8EVO8IjfOSzDBSihNBiXoJ5leQY6_5B5vr_YTQ8Tfti4kPg7ZHRxfKkNtcwhNYu1fqXGxiinBR0oxfJbpu/s640/IMG_3953.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjDCU5lhjWKh3uXdXXkLUkMW3ix25BzBrRzaj4D_wZ6AygM7glqmp6bVBrWF7OIu3ixe2gH3NwLO93MkbwjsAZIi96cxPPW5BkEkMFOHQQHF8EVO8IjfOSzDBSihNBiXoJ5leQY6_5B5vr_YTQ8Tfti4kPg7ZHRxfKkNtcwhNYu1fqXGxiinBR0oxfJbpu/s320/IMG_3953.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- but not quite the right way, alas. He was only slightly out: <b>Comps. 136</b> and <b>167</b> are transposed<span style="color: red;">***</span>. (This led to some confusion when I was researching <b>136</b>, as will - again - be explained in a later post.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The other issue is one which I first flagged up <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/on-problems-of-identification.html">earlier this year</a>: the diagram which relates to <b>Comp. 86</b> in the above photo is <u>not</u> the same one which appears on the duo album with Robair, a problem which at the time I simply didn't have the energy to try and sort out. As detailed above, though, I have now established that the correct graphic, minus colouring, was used for the Robair duo; the one shown in the photo here is in fact the graphic title for <b>Comp. 100</b>. So is the track itself, which closes the Reichman duo, actually <b>100</b> rather than <b>86</b>? I don't have an answer yet to <i>that</i> question, but it seems unlikely: <b>100</b> is a work for <i style="font-weight: bold;">creative orchestra</i>, and it would be quite out of character for B. to have used it in a duo setting - whilst <b>86</b> was specifically <i>written</i> as a duet<span style="color: red;">#</span>, even if it most often turns up as a collage piece. Hence, I will presume for the time being that the opus number is correct, and that it simply uses the wrong graphic title. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Have I just cleared some stuff up, then, or simply confused everyone further? Answers on a postcard... but for now, that's it, and the next post will (probably..!) be an attempted comparative analysis of <b>Comp. 136</b>, at long last.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> Anybody reading this presumably has access to the version of the discography as it appears on the Wayback Machine, but it still seems only appropriate to refer to Restructures in the past tense :(</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> Also - and this really is such a micro-nitpick that even I didn't put it in when I posted this - the track times for "Ballad..." and "Counting Song" are wrong as well; again, this is because they are taken from the credits for the original vinyl (and must have been wrong there). </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: center;">The correct running order and timings can be found on </span><a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/3929498-Anthony-Braxton-Gino-Robair-Duets-1987" style="text-align: center;">the relevant Discogs page</a><span style="text-align: center;">, even if nowhere else... </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> Again, the correct order is <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1580921-Anthony-Braxton-With-Ted-Reichman-Duo-Leipzig-1993">provided on Discogs</a>. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> <b>Comp. 86</b> is one of a set: </span>FOUR DUET COMPOSITIONS (1978): Comp. 85-88</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A set of four compositions for one woodwind instrument and string bass. Each piece is designed to establish a particular conceptual area for improvisation - both thematically and structurally. This material can also be linked together for performance in any combination desired. The score is written in concert pitch and can be executed by any wind instrument in any key.</i> [This was also on Restructures, but of course it was sourced from the published <i>Composition Notes</i>.]</span></div><div><br /></div></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-81575418686048986242023-09-17T03:12:00.004-07:002023-09-25T16:15:55.371-07:00Grammar and syntax<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi55XbQnQ0hTahx1l1FtdKTUfy1w96cP9vZOzn7TwBHRCCrRvdj49ye1H-9tVaYnqU9qubIsDJq19rLv0mLucNI6A0VHMX5oLPBFJAYxd_6oN6K2xPcTamTs2D9seHjA4z1kTwENXBUZ8CHIl79nYesrlWq5f97044P_JxRk5AduYjUiXiA8IOY6JFgg0bK/s1024/IMG_4499.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi55XbQnQ0hTahx1l1FtdKTUfy1w96cP9vZOzn7TwBHRCCrRvdj49ye1H-9tVaYnqU9qubIsDJq19rLv0mLucNI6A0VHMX5oLPBFJAYxd_6oN6K2xPcTamTs2D9seHjA4z1kTwENXBUZ8CHIl79nYesrlWq5f97044P_JxRk5AduYjUiXiA8IOY6JFgg0bK/s320/IMG_4499.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I've mentioned before that McClintic Sphere keeps a much closer eye on the goings-on <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/">at TCF</a> than I do; just last week he pointed me towards <a href="https://vimeo.com/858217550?fbclid=IwAR1GJmgj9doXlegPq0sygPKyjz5ijBNU0nfF6wK2OabRcQkUGZpgab16lkA">a new video there</a> which really does merit the attention of any friendly experiencers who find themselves reading this. - And yes, I'm well aware that one or other of us is <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-videos-some-furious.html">forever</a> recommending <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/07/video-round-up.html">videos</a> of <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/05/lost-and-found-dept-video.html">some sort</a>, <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/03/another-zim-video.html">mostly</a> <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/11/if-you-only-watch-one-video.html">of live</a> <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2022/11/zim-video.html">performances</a>; but worthwhile as those undoubtedly are, this one is another matter again, and more deserving of attention than even the <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/07/treats-vintage.html">1991 Jazz Cafe sets</a> by the Forces quartet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This, you see, is a rather entertaining <a href="https://vimeo.com/858217550?fbclid=IwAR1GJmgj9doXlegPq0sygPKyjz5ijBNU0nfF6wK2OabRcQkUGZpgab16lkA">educational video</a>, put together by <b>Kyoko Kitamura</b>, all about (the rather mysterious) <b><span style="color: #e06666;">Syntactical </span><span style="color: #ffa400;">Ghost Trance Music</span></b>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As well as being worth a watch purely for fun, this is a mine of useful information for those of us who like to delve into the details. So it goes without saying that I commend it to the attention of any reader here, but I will also unpack it a bit in this post (not least for my own ease of reference, so that I can simply come back here if I need to remind myself of anything - without having to hunt back through the actual video).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The video begins with the opening bars from <b>Comp. 254</b>, one of the twelve full-length compositions which B. wrote for this most curious of subspecies - all twelve of which were recorded, by a choir of twelve voices, for the New Braxton House box set <i><a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/gtm-syntax-2017">GTM (Syntax) 2017</a></i>. The viewer is given the chance to do what most of us will seldom <u>get</u> the chance to do in life: follow along with the written score, as the ensemble sings out its cyphers. By seeing these latter written out on the score, we get a clearer understanding of the different pieces of information which the singers are expected to process - even if the meaning of the cyphers themselves remains opaque. (I doubt if even B. could tell us what exactly these "mean"; I would guess rather that they are similar to the graphic titles, in that he would know <i>when</i> they are right, but not necessarily be able to say <i>why</i>.<span style="color: red;">*</span>) The diamond clef is clearly marked at the beginning of the score; of course, we can hear for ourselves that this is in effect, meaning that the intervallic contours are prescribed, but not the precise pitches, which are left to individuals to choose.<span style="color: red;">**</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From here, we are brought into the studio, panning slowly round the circle as the camera introduces the different singers; and from here, we are brought to the first lesson, so to speak. For anyone out there who was still wondering, KK is about to lay out the different phases - or <b><i>species</i></b> - of GTM in general. - Or, to be precise, she is going to do that in basic terms and this will segue to a rehearsal studio in which the maestro himself gives a more colourful explication of this. First species: "a steady stream of eighth notes". Second species, "with more tuplets, and rhythmic diversity". Third species, "with even more rhythmic complexity". Fragments of relevant scores appear onscreen for illustration, although these are not really explained: for example, the staves illustrating third species at this point contain coloured notes, not just standard black ones - but this, at any rate, is not commented upon as KK runs through the different types: this is probably understandable, since after all this part of the video is essentially back story, so to speak. As KK reminds us that third species "includes a subset, called the accelerator class", the visual cuts to B. in the rehearsal room.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This portion of the video would appear to be from the preparatory sessions for the <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/10-1tet-knoxville-2016">2016 10+1tet</a> concert in Knoxville, TN: on B's left we see <b>Nate Wooley</b>, then <b>Ingrid Laubrock </b>and <b>Brandon Seabrook</b>; I am not aware of any other event or recording of B's which featured all of these musicians<span style="color: red;">***</span>. (In due course it emerges that the band is about to start rehearsing two pages from the score of <b>Comp. 206</b>, a first-species GTM piece which is one of the tertiary materials worked into the 2016 extravaganza, and this seems to confirm it<span style="color: red;">#</span>.) In any case, expounding on the same exposition just given by KK, the composer gives his own figurative explanation: <i>"There are three species of Ghost Trance: continuous state, </i><i>continuous state with abruptions, </i><i>continuous state with </i>(insert hand gestures)<i>...</i> <i>more moving material; the three primary species can be looked at as... if we would use the subway analogy: there is the local train, that stops at every stop - that's the </i><i>continuous state, species one; you have the express trains, that will pass three or four stops, that accelerate along the way; and then species three is like the crosstown train, that represents a transfer in directions; the accelerator class compositions are like plugins. Like, if there's no subway line from Houston Street to Lexington Street, the </i><i>accelerator class is like putting in a special subway line to get you to those points."</i> <span style="color: red;">## </span>I would suggest that this is the paragraph to which we should all return, any time we find ourselves a bit confused about the (3+1) different basic types of this music.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">... and the band launches into a sight-reading of (two pages from) <b>206</b>. With this laid out, at 4 minutes in, KK now proceeds to explain about <b><i>Syntactical</i></b> GTM as such, using extracts from the written score of <b>Comp. 265</b> for illustration. Once again, though, what she says at first applies across the board to all types of GTM - and to other systems of B's music, besides. <i>"The score... contains the primary melody, and in the back, secondary material: miniature pieces, which can be integrated into the performance." (</i><span style="color: red;">###</span>) This neatly sums up what I only just very recently figured out for myself, which is to say the difference between <b><i>secondary</i></b> and <b><i>tertiary materials</i></b> in these contexts<span style="color: red;">^</span>. Right away, though, KK proceeds to explain what makes <b><i>SGTM</i></b> distinct and different: <i>"</i><b>syntactical</b><i> contains letters, syllables, numbers and words"</i> - these being what I have collectively summarised as "cyphers" above - and again we cut away at this point to the maestro, in the midst of what is either an interview or a lecture, expounding on this in rather more detail<span style="color: red;">^^</span>. The units of his new language, he says, <i>"will later be used, in the real-time space, for location, for transfers, for interlocking, for transposition, for tracing"</i>... it is left to the viewer at this juncture to presume that such terms make more sense to those immersed in B's systems of musical thought than they will to most of us watching; but it's fascinating nonetheless to be invited "inside the door."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Kitamura next outlines us a principle which is true of B's musics generally, as it applies to <b>SGTM</b>: it can be used in small ensembles (cue clip of herself and <b>Anne Rhodes</b> singing <b>254</b> in a studio), in larger ensembles (a tentet of singers, performing live onstage), as "part of another composition, like the opera" (a tiny fragment of <b>Trillium J</b>, in which the cluster of musicians is flanked onstage by two groups of actors or dancers, each performing its own routine with a long skipping rope - and each at different speeds; the choir, meanwhile, is seated at the rear of the stage); it can also be used, she continues, "to trigger functions in another system, like <b><span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: #01ffff;">Pine Top Aerial Music</span></b> (Rhodes, seated at stage right, sings her lines while assorted dancers and musicians stand, move or walk around the stage)<span style="color: red;">^^^</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- And now we are back to the maestro again, standing in front of his curtain while holding forth<span style="color: red;">~</span>. Redundant though it might seem, I am going to transcribe the next part what he said verbatim, in order to demonstrate how sure he is in deploying terminology which may mean little or nothing to the uninitiated - terminology, that is, which is fundamentally esoteric: <i>"The </i><b>Ghost Trance Musics</b><i> are like a system of stop signs and lights - go this way, you can check into <u>this</u>... you can meet someone at the corner of - whatever, and go back (in)to the highway and go in different directions... As I began to evolve my work, it became clear to me that it could be a good thing to have a way of <u>connecting</u> materials, a way of using the materials to go to <u>this</u> point; a way of transposition, where a particular logic in one plane can be transposed to another logic in another plane, and at the same time, fulfil the mechanics of the system."</i> Actually, what this transcription reveals is how quickly B's thought-processes can flip between something fairly <i>exoteric</i>, illustrated in a way readily comprehended by most, and something entirely <i>esoteric</i>, as above. The end of this declaration is accompanied by a firm stare towards someone off to his left; he is in no doubt that he's just made himself clear, even if many of us might be left wondering what exactly is meant by his words. (The thing is, his very certainty makes one feel as if it's up to us to catch up and find out - not up to him to spoon-feed us the meaning of his ideas.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A brief slideshow follows, KK showing us some of the larger community which has grown up around this man and his work: many of them, she tells us, first met while working on <b>Trillium E</b> in 2010. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unsurprisingly, the remainder of the video (from 8.08) is dedicated to the actual SGTM box set. Perhaps surprisingly - but it's a reassuring surprise! - we learn that the first task was to choose "appropriate <b><i>tertiary material</i></b>". This is the point at which the meaning of the latter term is spelled out for the viewer (although with the nature of <b><i>secondary material</i></b> already clarified, it will be pretty obvious to most of us what is left): "other compositions by AB<span style="color: red;">~~</span>, which can be used within the performance". And from here, we are whisked straight into the sessions themselves, where B. took a back seat for once, and just watched and listened...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Again at this point the viewer is given the chance to follow along with the score for <b>Comp. 265</b> for a while as the ensemble sings it, KK having first established the mood and tempo to her liking. (Credited as co-producer on the box set, KK is not actually listed as director or conductor - or not that I could see - but it does seem clear nonetheless that she took the lead in these sessions.) One thing which is not explained, however, is the use of certain graphic symbols in the score: as the counter approaches the ten-minute mark, the staves we see onscreen include three successive notes with shapes attached, but the choir sings the notes themselves like any other note, and gives them no special attention; this is one detail that remains completely glossed over<span style="color: red;">~~~</span>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When KK moves on to talk about how <b><i>sections</i></b> work - generally established beforehand under the subdirection of <b><i>section leaders</i></b>, as all serious listeners will already know by now - we get to see how the element of surprise works in practice: now watching the recording of <b>Comp. 254</b>, we hear one section riffing on "ta-ta-ta", to the apparent amusement and delight of another ensemble member who is laying out at this point; the section continues plugging away at this while others continue following the score, and then Rhodes starts up with some tertiary material on her own, speech-sung sentences (either from something like the much-collaged <b>Comp. 173</b>, or from one of the <b>Trillium</b> scores). With just these few minutes, we get to see exactly how such a complex meta-texture is constructed; we can of course apply this knowledge when listening to any of the SGTM pieces. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Nor is the maestro completely left out of proceedings: "When in doubt," Kitamura narrates - as we see onscreen the daunting first page of <b>Comp. 339</b> - "we ask <b>Anthony Braxton</b>". He then gives a solo demonstration of how to negotiate this intimidating accelerator-class material; naturally, he can't sing the way the rest of them can, but he does show them the way through the woods. As they applaud him, he chimes in: "- and children will dance to this, and the coins will come in!" - of course we are all to aware of how untrue this is, but at least he can make light of the situation after all this time. Following this, we hear, and see, the ensemble tackling the final part of the same score; after they finish, the final "N" decaying away in the studio air, we hear B's reaction: "Wow, wow, wow... that was <i>great</i>!" - and the reaction to <i>that</i> from the singers themselves, their absolute delight in the maestro's praise, is priceless. There must surely be extraordinary satisfaction to be gained from knowing that one has executed such demanding work in a way that pleases its composer.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To finish, we are back to B's interview, or pep-talk: "In a way, the work that we're doing is <i>restructural</i>; but actually, the work that we're doing is essentially <i>traditional</i>. The farther out we get, the farther <i>in</i> we are, as traditionalists" - cups hand dramatically to mouth as if whispering a secret - "... including <i>romantics"</i>. He adds, with a suitably mischievous expression on his face: "I have my Johnny Mathis records, of course."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- And from there, we are back in the studio as the credits roll, watching another one of these fascinating pieces unfold. As the picture fades to black, and the sound fades with it, a statement from B. appears at the bottom of the screen which we must not miss: "SGTM unlocks every door in my music system." The last thing we hear as the video ends is Rhodes, speech-singing away: "I think we have... <i>understanding</i>". Well, quite a lot more than we did on the way in, I would say. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It really is a <a href="https://vimeo.com/858217550">most instructive and enjoyable little film</a>, with - as I hope I have shown - a great deal of educational matter crammed into its eighteen minutes. I will certainly be making much use of it, as I listen to the music...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> Of course, nobody but the maestro could confirm or deny this; I do remember reading a comment from him to the effect that, after years of using and developing the graphic scores, he was only just starting to comprehend how they work... naturally, I can't now remember <i>where</i> I read this...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> They are free to choose, up to a point: that is, they can visualise the clef as being either treble or bass, and adjust their understanding of the specified pitches accordingly. At least, I think this is the case. (Zappa, who also used this device once or twice - most notably in the early '70s piece called "Approximate" - gave complete free rein to the players for maximum harmonic anarchy, but only for those few minutes.) Even if it is just a choice between one register or the other, this must surely present musicians with yet another tough challenge, on top of the challenges implicit in the music to begin with: once you choose your clef, you must presumably stick to it, reading the pitches your way, regardless of what those around you have chosen to do - but of course you must still be fully open and responsive to what they are playing at other times. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> Nobody else is clearly visible in this clip, although when Wooley sits up to play, we can see <b>Carl Testa</b> in the mirror behind Wooley's right shoulder...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> I eventually came across (a performance purporting to be) a full-length reading of <b>206</b>, as noted in point 8 from <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/house-in-order-2.html">one of my round-ups</a>; but it does seem to be more commonly used as a partial/supplementary territory.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> I am aware that I have punctuated this transcription differently from the way the subtitles present it, onscreen during the actual video. This is the way I hear what B. actually said; also, I hear "...to get you to those points" at the end, where the subtitles have "... <u>through </u>those points". (Nothing if not pedantic, always....)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">###</span> The pages which appear onscreen at this point appear to be extrapolated well past the stage of just being <i style="font-weight: bold;">language music</i> - or rather, the graphic squiggles which make up the majority of the score's content for the secondary material probably are drawn from the language music, but mix the different types thereof very freely. Again, an awful lot is being asked of the musicians, who are expected to work very hard for the extra degree of personal freedom granted to them within B's music systems.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> When I say "figured it out", I don't mean that I worked it out for myself, just that I got it (tentatively) straight in my head, having remembered for a change where I read the definition of these terms. This was only at the end of August, as detailed in the seventh footnote to my <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/growth-over-time-movement.html">most recent GTM post</a> before this one. (The definition of tertiary material is supplied later in the video.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^</span> You really need to see this bit for yourself...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^^^</span> Perhaps the rarest of all Braxtonian birds, <b>PTAM</b> has very seldom been committed to recording, doubtless (at least partly) because it makes no sense at all unless one can <i>see</i> it. <a href="https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com/album/quartet-quintet-nyc-2011">NBH040</a> may indeed contain the only officially recorded rendition of a PTAM piece, which does not even have a primary opus number allocated to it. Probably other performances have been captured on video..?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~</span> What exactly provided the occasion for this is not explained, but it appears to be most likely a sort of introductory talk to the ensemble, at the time of the recording sessions for the eventual SGTM box set. B's eyes fix both to his left and right at different times; he is addressing more than one person, not just speaking to camera, and the acoustics etc - as well as the relatively close proximity of the camera itself - suggest that he is not addressing a lecture theatre either. Later on in the video, as he starts to talk in first person plural, things become a bit clearer...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~~</span> Pages from selected scores are shown successively onscreen during these next few seconds, generally without attribution or comment; the first score shown is that for <b>Comp. 142</b>, as it happens. (This one came up for discussion <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/repertoire-redux-jump-or-die.html">in passing recently</a>, and I recognised the graphic title at once.) Just prior to this, as KK is saying that "we" had the task of choosing, we see a still of her seated on the floor, surrounded by charts, scores and empty filing boxes, opposite (what appears to be) Rhodes..? Kitamura's own seniority within the project is already pretty evident by this point, but who else was involved in these executive decisions is never actually made clear. (When I <a href="http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2011/11/broadcasting-to-you-live-ish-from.html">first wrote about</a> SGTM, <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2012/02/mystical-ludic-syntax.html">more than a decade ago</a>, I just assumed that Rhodes took the lead on it - for lack of further information forthcoming.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">~~~</span> Shapes attached to musical notes on B's scores are not unique or specific to SGTM - I've seen them before. I also have a nagging feeling that their intended use or meaning has been explained somewhere, but...</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-41190447963927445592023-09-11T13:33:00.003-07:002023-09-11T13:33:33.025-07:00As big as all Buffalo (in Memoriam Charles Gayle)<p> Charles Gayle passed away last week at the age of 84.</p><p>He played passionately, and left an indelible impression on those of us who saw him at his best.</p><p> May his memory be a blessing. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2475713415991677653.post-52511870390738263712023-09-09T16:18:00.001-07:002023-09-09T16:18:36.279-07:00Detective work<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRi9_wh7hvZW0NDb4Kx_VFjqT-HfPkvqFsgW4TMwW1gsR9M0vr0WpvHA7mBIJcMLE3D0fPSH-BS3U5he5-QKvAKSK56V7-Ce0lZ972FAPvvKAznCNhdTERvpK58yTuGrpPQ0t4dUWaj_ZceOSwmjB_eMvhCaTDIhtmubWrKPnBBDUWvrhzTVc6UZ52zTYO/s3264/IMG_5833.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRi9_wh7hvZW0NDb4Kx_VFjqT-HfPkvqFsgW4TMwW1gsR9M0vr0WpvHA7mBIJcMLE3D0fPSH-BS3U5he5-QKvAKSK56V7-Ce0lZ972FAPvvKAznCNhdTERvpK58yTuGrpPQ0t4dUWaj_ZceOSwmjB_eMvhCaTDIhtmubWrKPnBBDUWvrhzTVc6UZ52zTYO/s320/IMG_5833.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So: pretty much straight after I <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/08/reorientation.html">outline my current</a> <i>lines of enquiry</i> for the blog, something else comes up... but isn't that always the way? - and obviously I did know that it would happen; I even said as much at the time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Besides, this present matter is effectively a continuation of a <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/04/on-problems-of-identification.html">previously-stated problem</a>, albeit approached this time from a different angle. Here, the issue is not to try and identify individual musical pieces (or fragments thereof), but rather it consists in a challenge which is surely familiar to <i>any</i> serious fans of <i>any </i>group or musician: a recording turns up which claims to be one thing but may possibly be something else. What do we make of it?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The background to this: in discussing recently which of the <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/new-braxton-house-records-discography">NBH recordings</a> McC and I did and didn't have between us, it emerged that neither of us has a copy of the TCF "official bootleg" BL006: <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/415678-Anthony-Braxton-Orchestra-Paris-1978">Orchestra (Paris) 1978</a></i>. This latter purports to present at least part of the Paris performance of the same <i style="font-weight: bold;">Creative Orchestra</i> programme captured for posterity on the album <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/329178-Anthony-Braxton-Creative-Orchestra-K%C3%B6ln-1978">Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978</a></i> (which, in turn, is like a "new and improved" version of the <a href="https://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/2023/06/big-bands-and-botched-plans.html">'76 Arista album</a>, featuring a different all-star group playing extended versions of most of the pieces - made possible by the longer preparation and rehearsal time); like the vast majority of the official boots, it is no longer available from TCF. As to how or why neither of us had already got it: in McC's case this was an accidental oversight, which is to say that he thought he <i>did</i> have it until he actually went to check. In my case, I can no longer remember why I <i>don't</i> have it; back in the day, I grabbed most of these recordings as soon as they were made available, omitting only those which I was sure I already had. BL006 did not fall into that category; but for some reason I either didn't download it, or did, but managed to misplace it at some point. In any case, it's not among my digital music files now (and if there ever was an actual explanation for that, it's long since disappeared in a haze of ganja smoke... I wasn't at my most lucid at that point in time, as I'm sure some of the blog posts from that era make abundantly clear).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/6/resources/12164"><b>The Yale Library Collection</b></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now: around the same time we were discussing this, McC first tipped me off about a new online resource for B's live recordings - an actual official resource, that is. This was first flagged up on the TCF site almost a year ago, but McC only came across a few months ago (and of course I wasn't aware of it at all): B. himself, and longtime "super-collector" Hugo de Craen, had presented TCF with a vast treasure-trove of live recordings, which were passed in turn to Yale Library once digitised. In the first instance, this was <a href="https://tricentricfoundation.org/anthony-braxton-recordings-collection">only available</a> on a "sample recordings" basis, with access to anything else subject to a formal request being made; but within the last few days <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://library.yale.edu/news/rare-collection-recordings-anthony-braxton-enters-librarys-digital-collections?fbclid%3DIwAR24IO_03bSjBFqlpBkBVZsbFWcsbxNUzDFZBX4lbcAnRsOkS8GChp1ngMQ&source=gmail&ust=1694287666485000&usg=AOvVaw2fN34uGUFjfRwp2h2UtX17">it has been officially unveiled</a> and is now supposed to be <a href="https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/6/resources/12164">fully accessible and functional</a><span style="color: red;">*</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, once we'd established that neither of us had this particular recording, McC made a request to the library to see whether it was available. He obtained two (unindexed) digital files, both of which purported to be from May 16th 1978, at Espace Cardin in Paris. If correctly labelled, then, these comprised the source recording(s) which had presumably been used for the BL006 boot as discussed above. The question, as also indicated above, is: <i>were</i> they correctly labelled? Did they contain what they are meant to contain, or are we dealing with another date from the same tour? McC passed them on to me, and I set about seeing what conclusions I could draw (if any).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My initial impressions - formed without even listening to the music itself, but simply by skipping through the files in order to see which compositions they contained - saw me declaring prematurely to McC that "whatever else this is, it's not the Paris '78 official boot - at least not if the accepted tracklist for the latter is at all accurate". Part of this was based on a literal understanding of the two files - the longer of which is labelled Part 2 - being presented in "set order", i.e. with the pieces in the shorter file representing the earlier part of the recording. That appeared to make sense on the face of it, as the first file (on which the sound quality is fairly atrocious<span style="color: red;">**</span>) begins in the middle of <b>Comp. 55</b> and continues with <b>Comp. 45</b>; in the truly random nature of such things, this is then followed up by a totally-unrelated French news bulletin, and finally by an excerpt from what sounds like a '70s fusion concert<span style="color: red;">***</span>, before the file ends. The second file, far more listenable in terms of sound quality, comprises <b>Comps. 59</b>, <b>51</b> & <b>58</b>. That programme, in that order, follows the template established by the official release recorded in Cologne - and I am disinclined to think that B. would have varied the setlist from one venue to the next, although of course I could be wrong<span style="color: red;">#</span>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But having said that, the listing for BL006 places the second half of the programme above <i>first</i>, and follows it with <b>Comp. 45</b> - or at least, that is the order in which the tracks are presented for the bootleg release, which does not necessarily indicate that they were <i>played</i> in that order. Still, without really thinking this through, I worked on the assumption at first that the Paris concert <i>did </i>have a different running order - as you can see, I changed my mind about the plausibility of that - and the putative order for these "Yale files" seemed like part of an argument for these being from a different recording; or possibly for their belonging to <i>two</i> different recordings, since there was always the possibility of the three tracks in the "Part 2" file being from the Paris concert, and the incomplete file having been sourced from another performance again... that wasn't beyond the bounds of plausibility... or was it?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The other thing that led me to conclude so swiftly that the Yale files are not the same recording as the BL006 boot was the relative track lengths. Initially I had said to McC that they were totally different, but I realised then that I was actually looking in completely the wrong place for my comparison, i.e. comparing the timings for the compositions on the Yale files with the Köln album, not with the bootleg. That was just a mistake: after all, why should the readings be the same length from one night to the next, necessarily? Of course the head arrangements (etc) will be basically the same across the duration of the tour, but since this is a big band full of improvisers, the actual performances could vary quite a lot. Once I'd straightened <i>that</i> out, I started leaning towards the idea that "Part 2" very probably <i>was</i> taken from the same recording as BL006, but that "Part 1" was still something else: here, the timings for <b>Comp. 45</b> didn't seem to match up whichever way I looked at them. But then, I still hadn't actually <i>listened</i> to the music at this stage and once I did, I might well end changing my mind again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The following day, I got the chance for a proper uninterrupted listen and made some notes. The first thing that got established: there don't appear to be any dropouts, so any timings which can be gleaned from the recordings are the same as when the pieces were played. These <u>don't</u> match the timings listed for BL006, but they are not all that far off (depending on how one measures <b>Comp. 45</b>, as per below) - and besides, how reliable are the ones listed online anyway? That, I observed, is something we will never know until one of us gets hold of the official boot.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If we suppose that there is no complete recording (of whatever concert is represented in "Part 1") in circulation, and that <b>Comp. 55</b> is only to be found in truncated form - missing its first half - then it's entirely possible that anybody wanting to release the recordings on TCF would have lopped that bit off, prior to release; though even this seemed somewhat questionable, since I vaguely remembered that when they first started putting the bootlegs out, the TCF guys said something to the effect of not making any attempt to tidy the files up, rather just chucking them out as they found them. And of course BL006 would have been one of the first batch, to which this haphazard approach would have applied. Anyway (I reasoned), supposing that, it is quite plausible that the files could have been released including just four numbers, albeit out of sequence; in which case, in principle these Yale recordings could represent the same performances as those in BL006 - although that still doesn't account for the different timings.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, I had also listened to the Köln album again by this point (for the first time in years) and the main thing I took from <i>that</i> is that in this context, trying to establish a "beginning" for <b>Comp. 45</b> is pretty much a matter of sticking a pin into a rather long transition phase. Part of my original certainty that the timings for this number didn't match up at all - between the rendition to be found on the "Yale Part 1" file and the listing for BL006 - stemmed from my having initially located the beginning of the piece at precisely the point where its distinctive main theme is first stated. But the Köln album includes quite a bit of music in disc 1/track 2 <i>after</i> the end of <b>Comp. 55</b>, then places the next index in the middle of the transition phase which follows it; Hat tend to be a bit haphazard with their indices in such cases, and usually add a liner note along the lines of "they are only for playback convenience". In this instance, track 3 on disc one - <b>Comp. 45</b> - begins several minutes before the theme itself is first played. So of course if I really wanted to compare the length of this number as it appears in the Yale file with the stated length of <b>45</b> on BL006, I needed to allow for quite a bit of slippage in terms of where one might decide to "start" it<span style="color: red;">##</span>. But, looking at the two more sensible options available to me - the unedited Yale file could not have been used, as that would give a time of 28.15 (not including brief applause), which is way longer than the 25.04 cited for the BL006 version of this number - I ended up with a "long estimate" of 24.32 (if you say that <b>45</b> begins right at the end of <b>55</b>, and include the entire transition phase) and a "short estimate" of 23.15. When I was actually <i>listening</i> to the file in real time, my impression was that I wanted to regard the brass freakout that follows the climax of <b>55 </b>as unrelated to what comes next, and count the beginning of <b>Comp. 45</b> as being the low-pitched sounds which begin a little later in the file, suggestive of something new happening. That was just <i>my</i> take on it... but like I say, whichever way you slice it up, you don't end up with a track length of 25.04 unless you place the beginning somewhere <i>really</i> random, i.e. while the band is still quite clearly playing (written material from) <b>Comp. 55</b>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Part 2 of the Yale files is rather more straightforward, as previously implied. <b>Comp. 59</b> lasts 21.30, give or take a few seconds, although it may have been longer in the performance ( - we don't know how much is clipped off the beginning: the file begins <i>in medias res</i> and we could have missed one or two seconds, or...). This is longer than the stated time of 21.10 for the boot. <b>Comp. 51</b> lasts 10.18 (shorter than the boot) and <b>Comp. 58</b> is 8.50, plus applause (also shorter). At this point it becomes really tempting to state "definitively"<span style="color: red;">###</span> that these are two different performances - regardless of where you put the indices, those three tracks total about 42 mins on the BL006 boot (supposedly...) and more than a minute less on the Yale file. But of course if BL006 includes a bit more at the beginning of the first track - and has the indices placed differently from where I would put them - we could still be dealing with the exact same recording, presented differently.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><u>In other words...</u></i> after quite a lot of time and effort, I'd concluded basically nothing. For the benefit of anyone who has both read this far, and hasn't personally attempted the sort of detective work I was undertaking here... you can now get a sense, I hope, of all the various ways in which you can mangle your head with this kind of research. The more you look into it, the harder it is to be sure about anything. Weird as it might sound, though, I actually enjoy it - so long as I can find time for it, and don't get interrupted much<span style="color: red;">^</span>; if you can't say as much, just don't even try it..! Your sanity could depend on that XD</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now... has anybody out there got the BL006 files?!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> My colleague has been checking this out, so I'll take his word for it. Me, I'm too scared: I could just be sucked into a black hole from which I might never emerge, and it's not as I don't already have a backlog of music to listen to. I expect I will get round to it eventually, though; in the meantime, it's very encouraging to know that this resource exists, for various reasons...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">**</span> I am pretty much the last person to get overly fussy about the audio quality of live recordings; in this case, the problem is not so much the audible hiss which accompanies the earlier portion of the music, but just the fact that it's so muffled and quiet. The listener can more or less hear <i>what</i> is being played, whilst never being able to say confidently that the whole ensemble is audible. The second file - which is to say, the second set from whichever date it actually was, because <b>58 </b><i>surely</i><b> </b>has to have been the closer - has no such problem and is far more readily listenable.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">***</span> Not that it matters <i>at all</i>, because the clip really doesn't belong here, but the best guess I could come up with was that this excerpt is taken from a live rendition of "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock (the reworked electric version, from <i>Head Hunters</i>). Even I am not about to show my workings on this one ;-)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">#</span> Admittedly, my principal supporting evidence for this assertion dates from more than a decade later: <i>Eugene (1989)</i> and the official boot <i>Creative Orchestra (Portland) 1989</i> (released in two parts as BL024/-025) share the exact same programme. Whether B. was already thinking along the same lines in 1978 is open to question, but it's partly just a gut feeling I have: it makes so much more sense to have <b>Comp. 45</b> close out the first set, then send the audience out into the night with the joyous <b>Comp. 58</b> still ringing in their ears. (Just listen to that rapturous applause! who in their right mind would want to follow that?!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">##</span> By this point it was also becoming very clear how much difference there really might be from one performance to the next: the Yale file, wherever it's from, includes a drum solo as the final part of the transition phase from <b>55</b> to <b>45</b>, and this does not occur on the actual album at all.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">### </span>- anything but, actually, but you know what I mean ;-)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: red;">^</span> This represents growth, progress..! Pre-diagnosis I could not have tolerated any interruption at all when I was "onto something" - even if that did turn out not to lead anywhere... who sez us old dogs can't learn new trix XD</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0