BRAXTON Anthony
News from the 70s

Fy 7005

8021750700523
Newtone Records
USA Stati Uniti

 

The CD contains several compositions (unissued or in new versions) of recordings coming from Braxton's private archive. The compilation is curated by Francesco Martinelli, long time Braxton's friend and jazz writer. The booklet includes a long article by Martinelli about the point of interest of this collection, here are presented in short the main points of the article: "The tracks for the CD were chosen from among the dozen tapes I had brought back; the first criteria put musical value first, then how well the music represented that period of history, whereas audio fidelity was put last. In some cases the choices were tapes recorded in an amateur way by Braxton or friends of his, then treated without respecting any of the rules of good conservation. This of course left its mark on the sound quality of the CD, though on the whole it is more than acceptable. Graham Lock writes in his cover notes for Dortmund (Quartet) 1976: "Today having access to the recordings of the last two concerts of the quartet Braxton / Lewis / Holland / Altschul is an incredible stroke of luck. In fact no one has yet found the recordings of the various quartets and quintets that Braxton tried between 1975 and 1978". It is precisely this period -- so scarcely documented, though many records were produced -- on which these cuts shed new light. These recordings in fact were made between 1972 and 1976 and include, besides three quartets that are very different from one another, a historical duo and two examples of solo concerts. We present them in chronological order but on the CD for the sake of continuity they have been rearranged in symmetrical order according to formation. 1. In 1972, the year Braxton returned, after the end of Circle, an important concert was held in the New York Town Hall. He presented himself as the composer and self-appointed band leader. Due to lack of space the version on the LP omitted the first piece, a duo between Braxton on clarinet and Holland on cello, entitled Composition -1. The piece is dedicated to Jerry Barr, the architect, and it is not included in the general catalogue of the compositions published by Braxton in appendix to the Composition Notes. 2. The two solos, followed by a ballad and a piece of grunts and shrieks, are on the original tape and on the third side of For Alto and if they are not compositions 8C and 8G, they are certainly very similar to them. In arranging the sequence of the pieces in concert, Braxton often associated these pieces. So far we have not been able to identify the exact occasion of this recording; possible candidates are the concerts of Royan in April and Paris in December of 1971. 3. During the period in which the saxophone player traveled back and forth between the USA and Europe, without a steady group, there was an interesting "mixed" attempt preceding his steady quartet with Kenny Wheeler which included two European musicians: having come together to do a concert in Nantes in December 1973, the quartet consisted of Antoine Duhamel on the piano and François Mechali on the bass. Duhamel, dodecaphonic composer famous for his soundtracks (Godard, Truffaut, Tavernier), and Mechali, of Algerian origin, often played contemporary music together, whereas very few traces remain of their jazz and improvisational music. The collaboration of this duo with Braxton nonetheless went down in history and has been quoted on several occasions by the French press as an example of music that transcends genres. 4. Two versions of Composition 23E have been published, one on Live at Moers and one in the studio on Five Pieces 1975. Neither is available on CD. This recording comes from a concert held in Gröningen on May 16 or 17, 1974. The piece is dedicated to Ayler. 5. The final piece, also the most recent, comes from the third-to-the-last concert of the quartet with George Lewis, whose recordings of the last performance (Montreux / Berlin Concerts) and next-to-last performance (Dortmund Quartet 1976) were published. It was a concert held in Graz in October 1976 and its quality equals those already known. It includes a composition by Dave Holland, the famous Four Winds from Conference of the Birds which we have chosen to close the CD. " The purpose of this CD, when we started to plan it, was to present in one CD different aspects of the music of one of the greatest musicians of our time in the period, the 70s, that really imposed Braxton as composers and instrumentalist, at the attention of the world. We hope we succeed in this plan and that listening to this tracks will push the listeners to further explore the music of this master of our times.