Anthony Braxton

[papsrus]

I recently got my hands on a copy of Ron Blake, Anthony Braxton -- "A Memory of Vienna" and if you can find it, I'd highly recommend it. I've never heard Braxton sound so soulful as he does on "Round Midnight." A beautiful and surprising disc.

Track listing:

Round Midnight

Yardbird Suite

You Go To My Head

Just Friends

Alone Together

Four

Soul Eyes

I'm Getting Sentimental Over You

Has anyone else heard this one?

Edited January 24, 2008 by papsrus

[Chuck Nessa]

Ran not Ron

[7/4]

Ran not Ron

not to be confused with Ren.

[papsrus]

My mistake. Sloppy. Wonderful album. I don't think I've ever quite heard Braxton sound as he does here.

I've listened to some of his standards music and it all seems to me to have his sort of staccato style stamp on it. Great, but distinctly his playing. This on is different, to my ear. More lyrical than I'm used to with him.

[7/4]

I don't own that one.

I should.

Someday, I will own all the Braxton I can get my hands on.

[jlhoots]

My mistake. Sloppy. Wonderful album. I don't think I've ever quite heard Braxton sound as he does here.

I've listened to some of his standards music and it all seems to me to have his sort of staccato style stamp on it. Great, but distinctly his playing. This on is different, to my ear. More lyrical than I'm used to with him.

hatOLOGY 505 - one of my favorites.

[papsrus]

I don't own that one.

I should.

Someday, I will own all the Braxton I can get my hands on.

It's difficult to find (especially when misspelling the first name of one of the performers). There are some downloadable copies. I have an MP3 version, just ordered a hard copy from amazon marketplace for a high but not outrageous price. There's three left here. The prices on the new ones are insane, IMO.

Listening now.

[7/4]

I don't own that one.

I should.

Someday, I will own all the Braxton I can get my hands on.

It's difficult to find (especially when misspelling the first name of one of the performers). There are some downloadable copies. I have an MP3 version, just ordered a hard copy from amazon marketplace for a high but not outrageous price. There's three left here. The prices on the new ones are insane, IMO.

Listening now.

Thanks. One of the things that keeps me from buying any new Braxton is the amount that I already own. There's about 71 titles that I should listen to more often.

An even greater problem right now is financing...

[papsrus]

I don't own that one.

I should.

Someday, I will own all the Braxton I can get my hands on.

It's difficult to find (especially when misspelling the first name of one of the performers). There are some downloadable copies. I have an MP3 version, just ordered a hard copy from amazon marketplace for a high but not outrageous price. There's three left here. The prices on the new ones are insane, IMO.

Listening now.

Thanks. One of the things that keeps me from buying any new Braxton is the amount that I already own. There's about 71 titles that I should listen to more often.

An even greater problem right now is financing...

I know what you mean, both in terms of listening and financing. I probably have somewhere around 20 Braxton titles ranging across his career. Highlights would include Dortmund, Montreux/Berlin, the 85 quartet discs, his standards stuff and the Charlie Parker project, the Iridium box (MP3). All of it compelling to listen to.

These duets with Blake, though, are something entirely different, to my ear. It's almost shocking to hear Braxton in this context, playing a lot of straight ahead bluesy phrases with a much warmer tone than I'm used to hearing from him. And he is really on top of his game here, with lightning-fast runs around Blake's playing. He soars on "Just Friends." An incredibly nimble player.

Maybe he has other similar discs, but I've not heard them. You may want to check out an MP3 version. Several pop up on a Google search for this album title.

[stuartjewkes]

I've got a small collection of Braxton stuff, my two most recent additions being Six Monk's Compositions (1987) and Eugene (1989). The Monk cd is superb, pretty straight ahead and contained with his tone swinging between the full and the brittle. Eugene is a completely different kettle of fish with a 17 piece take on 8 compositions. Braxton conducts and plays alto sax throughout, and he really brings out the individual players within each piece. Real blissful stuff.

[papsrus]

I've got a small collection of Braxton stuff, my two most recent additions being Six Monk's Compositions (1987) and Eugene (1989). The Monk cd is superb, pretty straight ahead and contained with his tone swinging between the full and the brittle. Eugene is a completely different kettle of fish with a 17 piece take on 8 compositions. Braxton conducts and plays alto sax throughout, and he really brings out the individual players within each piece. Real blissful stuff.

Nice to see you made your way over stuartjewkes! Very cool.

I've not heard the Braxton discs you mentioned, but it's a great period for him, I think -- mid- to late '80s. I still haven't received the "Vienna" disc I ordered to replace the MP3 version I have. Some sort of snafu with the seller being offline for a while. Maybe today. Ive sort of veered off into Ellington, Basie et al lately, but the appetite for Brax is always there.

[WD45]

This looks interesting:

New Clean Feed releases for late February

CF 100 - Anthony Braxton / Joe Morris - 4 Improvisations (Duets) 2007

(4 CD set)

http://cleanfeed.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/...-late-february/

That looks very interesting -- I have always had an ear for Morris' playing.

[7/4]

This looks interesting:

New Clean Feed releases for late February

CF 100 - Anthony Braxton / Joe Morris - 4 Improvisations (Duets) 2007

(4 CD set)

http://cleanfeed.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/...-late-february/

That looks very interesting -- I have always had an ear for Morris' playing.

I caught him at the Knit once with his trio. Very impressed, was I.

[EulaM]

I never thought I would be posting to the Anthony Braxton thread!

Our local paper the Raleigh News & Observer each day lists celebrities' birthdays. I know I'm getting old as more and more of these celebrities are people younger than me whom I have never heard of.

Most of the celebrities are Hollywood or young rock types, but today they listed Anthony Braxton, age 62! I thought he was older than that.

He is older as I remember us kids not being able to go see him play the contra sax the time he performed on it at the Lighthouse. It was an invitation only, music critics and backers as well as other musicians were the only ones allowed that afternoon and night. We were probably around 16 at the time back in the mid 50's, so he's older. He had to have been in his mid to late 20's at least. Seems they were saying he was 27. That was way back when.

We watched them build the special setup for him to play it in, them closing down the bar while they worked on it, and then they kept the doors closed when he played. Someone was saying this was due to the fact that they wanted a more controlled atmosphere, not wanting the damp ocean air in the bar, as it might cause a different tone or damage I believe. Besides they weren't wanting people photographing or recording him playing it from the doorway, so we just watched him play for a bit through the porthole windows on the Dutch doors, able to hear him pretty well, as well as see him, as he was on the end nearest the door on the West side of the bar. They usually kept both tops of the Dutch doors open when it was warm, but they didn't the night he played there.

I saw him play later on, but never saw the contra sax being played by him again, he didn't even play it very often as it was such an endevor to work out the shipping and other logistics to make it possible to play. When he played it at the Lighthouse, they build a fence, a railing around the stage which was made for it, this to keep it from falling and to keep people from reaching out and handling it. I believe that was being said at that time.

[Chuck Nessa]

Anthony was born in 1945.

[EulaM]

Anthony was born in 1945.

Then he would have been about ten or 11.

[B. Clugston]

Chuck is correct. Braxton held 60th birthday concerts in 2005. I don't believe he started using the contrabass sax until the mid-1970s. The first recorded documentation is in 1976. Braxton did play the Lighthouse with Circle in the early 1970s.

[analogak]

how can this mystery be reconciled?

[EulaM]

The fellow we saw play had longer hair than most of the musicians, was wearing a white sweater, a fisherman knit sweater. He had a goatee, he was tall, slight of build; a lanky build. The picture I see of the fellow playing it is the same or his twin and it is said to be Anthony Braxton. Being born in 1945 would make him the same age as my brother, and he wasn't old enough to have been performing at the Lighthouse. Saw some 16 year olds play there,them being brought there by Milt Hinton, Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins. Other than that, it just didn't happen very often, not even as fans, it wasn't common to have young kids be there to play. Lee Morgan was one of the younger fellows, Ron Carter was another, there were a few more, but I don't recall Anthony Braxton being one of them, not that young. Not ever.

Who would have been playing it earlier on that looked like Anthony, I always assumed it was him. Saw the fellow later on and talked to him about that weekend day and night, so really, who was playing the contra in the fiftys who looked like Anthony, as the ages are a mile off. The fellow was young, but in his twenties, not a pre-teen.

.

Edited February 8, 2008 by EulaM

[EulaM]

I have been looking for the photo of the fellow I remember playing there and can't find a thing and I know it's on the web as I've seen it several times.

I've tried to find a listing for the Lighthouse and can't find one for it either, and the only thing I find on Anthony Braxton backs up the age you're saying he is.

I know that there were those who say Ron Carter wasn't the fellow I remember from the Lighthouse, but when I wrote to him, he said I brought back lots of memories, so he is the right musician who I talked about remembering, but as far as Anthony Braxton goes, I have to have it all wrong, however who was it who played that huge instrument during the 50's? I remember talking to the fellow who played it a few months later him talking about the difficulties in playing it and it's temperment, and about him playing there for a special select group, but he didn't play as often as the fellows I got to know, or that I remember really well, this due to lots of reasons, like Clifford and Richie, those were two unforgettable nice fellows and the talent, well they were astounding, and joining us at our table every time we walked in, they just made our day. Can't forget something like that.

Hope someone comes across who it was they built the special stage and railing for that weekend. It was a big happening and the talk of the town, it was just that none of us who lived there, except for the in-house musicians and their guests, could go to see it all happen.

[B. Clugston]

The fellow we saw play had longer hair than most of the musicians, was wearing a white sweater, a fisherman knit sweater.

Definitelynot Braxton. No cardigan.

[EulaM]

The fellow we saw play had longer hair than most of the musicians, was wearing a white sweater, a fisherman knit sweater.

Definitelynot Braxton. No cardigan.

I went on Sonny Rollins website to ask him about this and thought it would be nice while there to not just ask questions of him, but to also compliment him on his great career and since he's one of the fellows who was there on a consistant basis and is still sharp as a tack, I thought I would ask him about it, and just as I'd finished telling him about a lot of other things, remembering to him how he introduced his "Way Out West" album at the Lighthouse,, as well at to how it was with he and Max Roach, and a bet about both of them I had with friends, which I had done, then when I had just started asking him about the contra bass appearance, I hit a button on the righthand side of my keyboard, and my whole note disappeared and I couldn't get it pulled back up, so I just gave up on it.

I know there has to be a written record of it being played at the Lighthouse somewhere, but where? Maybe even a recording as they did record the greats and the unusual. I'm hoping that a fan or a musician out there will remember it.

Edited February 8, 2008 by EulaM

[Chuck Nessa]

nice

[stuartjewkes]

I've got a small collection of Braxton stuff, my two most recent additions being Six Monk's Compositions (1987) and Eugene (1989). The Monk cd is superb, pretty straight ahead and contained with his tone swinging between the full and the brittle. Eugene is a completely different kettle of fish with a 17 piece take on 8 compositions. Braxton conducts and plays alto sax throughout, and he really brings out the individual players within each piece. Real blissful stuff.

Nice to see you made your way over stuartjewkes! Very cool.

I've not heard the Braxton discs you mentioned, but it's a great period for him, I think -- mid- to late '80s. I still haven't received the "Vienna" disc I ordered to replace the MP3 version I have. Some sort of snafu with the seller being offline for a while. Maybe today. Ive sort of veered off into Ellington, Basie et al lately, but the appetite for Brax is always there.

You really should check these 2 out pal, excellent stuff. Then again I get the feeling I'll think that about 90% of his releases!

I hate it when you order something online and don't get it straight away. I'm very impatient and want it now now now!

Nowt wrong with Basie and Ellington too!

[Hoppy T. Frog]

I've got a small collection of Braxton stuff, my two most recent additions being Six Monk's Compositions (1987) and Eugene (1989). The Monk cd is superb, pretty straight ahead and contained with his tone swinging between the full and the brittle. Eugene is a completely different kettle of fish with a 17 piece take on 8 compositions. Braxton conducts and plays alto sax throughout, and he really brings out the individual players within each piece. Real blissful stuff.

"Eugene" is one of my favorites, too, but I haven't heard it in quite a while.