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Anthony Braxton


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speaking of "not-typical Braxton," he just jammed at Victo with Michigan noise-band Wolf Eyes. I didn't believe this at first, but have now seen this confirmed repeatedly.

From Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth):

"victo fest - friday - braxton has intense press conference in hotel -

after spending 20 minutes on each question where he goes way off on tri-axioms and jazz history metatheoretics. coley asks last question: "is it true you cleaned out the wolf eyes merch table at a swedish festival last year?" -- braxton leaps up and says wolf eyes are the new universe and he decided right then and there to move to stockholm and become a cook so he could be closer to this music. then he learns they are from michigan and his worldview is shifted and he realizes that there is hope for america with new angels of art existing here like wolf eyes. he claims his friends now refer to him as anthony "wolf eyes" braxton. no shit. so wolfs and hair po show up and we hit the hotel bar hard and braxton appears

after his duo gig with fred frith and connects with wolfs and nate asks braxton if he would like to smoke a joint. "I would be honored to smoke marijuana with the

wolf eyes". Again, no shit. Next day braxton is at gig (3 pm) and nate asks braxton if he wants to jam w/ the wolfs and braxton says yes, just let me know when and nate says play the whole gig dude. So after more weed blowing they hit the stage. the audience is all seated at round tables in a huge theatre called the Colisee. Hair police already decimated this crowd, they were awesome. But now we're tripping. this is too unreal. Braxton swoops in and out of the jams, at one point doing killer long sax tone duets w/ olson. Nate announces stabbed in

the face. and then olson asks braxton what jam they should do next. "Black Vomit" sez Braxton. seriously, no shit. unbelievable sickness."

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Wolf Eyes ... hmmm ... if I'm going to get that bummed out on life and the world I think I'll dig out my Nirvana instead ...

What's the point of this shit once you decided you want to live not die but you're gonna die eventually anyway ? I think that's what Kurt didn't figure out in time.

Braxton's too old to be smoking dope. He's gonna get heart arrythmia.

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Wolf Eyes ... hmmm ... if I'm going to get that bummed out on life and the world I think I'll dig out my Nirvana instead ...

What's the point of this shit once you decided you want to live not die but you're gonna die eventually anyway ?  I think that's what Kurt didn't figure out in time.

Braxton's too old to be smoking dope. He's gonna get heart arrythmia.

What a stupid post. Really.

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Wolf Eyes ... hmmm ... if I'm going to get that bummed out on life and the world I think I'll dig out my Nirvana instead ...

What's the point of this shit once you decided you want to live not die but you're gonna die eventually anyway ?  I think that's what Kurt didn't figure out in time.

Braxton's too old to be smoking dope. He's gonna get heart arrythmia.

What a stupid post. Really.

I thought he stopped years ago.

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I have read that there is a recording of this floating around and, while the sound quality is fine, there isn't that much Braxton in the mix.

"wolf eyes came to the stage, and braxton came with them from the start. like hair police, they started rumbly and slow, soupy squelches and splurts, with braxton playing swirly melodic fragments and flares, at some point even playing a bit of a sax duo with olson. i lost track of how long this tension developed, and then like the hp they eventually brought the noise, piling on layer after layer and letting braxton sneak his swirls in the upper register where the wall of scree was thinnest."

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What a stupid post. Really.

Why's it stupid? Sco stopped all drugs a few years ago and he's looks to me to be the happiest guy on the planet, at the top of his game, never played better from what I can hear. Plus, a great family man with a great wife who manages his business and a successful musician daughter.

One of my best friends stopped smoking dope after 20 years daily. One year anniversary this weekend. His whole life turned around. Blood pressure and heart rate went way down. Heart started beating regularly. Lost a lot of weight. New girlfriend. All his friends thinks he's a much better man for it.

You ever listened to a lot of Suicidal Tendencies, or Metallica, or darker Nirvana, or any death metal band, or any of this new shit Sub Pop puts out there, like Wolf Eyes? I mean a lot, like all day long every day, like I used to. All it does is brings you and everyone around you down down down. Sure, sounds so hip when you're loaded, but then you wake up and realize all these guys are about is some lame ass way to avoid the real challenge of life: which is finding a way to think positive about the "real reality" that's out there.

Like Kurt said in his suicide note, all he knew how to do anymore was bum himself out. That's the power of negative thinking: eventually a gallon of smack and a shotgun rammed up your mouth seems like the only way out.

You think because someone's a great musician that everything they do is smart?

And we won't even start talking about what drugs did to Freddie, because that's just too sad.

Edited by johnagrandy
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anyone who thinks drugs are necessary for listening to or making great music are fucking lost

I speak from experience - I have found a new way to live - and it like nothing that I have ever experienced before - some of us have found that we can't smoke a joint anymore - because it leads us to other places where a simple hit of weed seems meaningless.

however - much of what I listen to might be considered music that is suitable for this sort of indulgence - and that might be the case for some who can smoke a couple of joints or have a few drinks - some of us cannot - and let me tell you something - music has never sounded better to this person - with no "help" from mood altering shit

blood and guts, baby

Edited by Steve Reynolds
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Fork, I mean frick, I don't even see it at CD Universe.

Amazon, with sound samples.

Actually, that's a link to the wrong set.

I've been rodcasting it all week with great response!

Don't understand why it isn't listed here in the US yet.

R

---

Now playing: Hannibal and The Sunrise Orchestra - Forest Sunrise

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  • 3 weeks later...

Due to the kindness of a fellow board member, I've just been hooked up with Braxton's double album of solo piano standards (1995).

I sometimes feel in a (small, at that) minority, but I find his piano playing really intriguing. Having been listening a lot lately to the Yoshi's quartet discs, I'd have pointed to Monk and Elmo Hope as clear influences. This solo outing reminds me, in addition, heavily of Mingus Plays Piano. It's a little bit like 'composer's piano', but in no way in a pejorative sense.

Part of the intrigue is the deliberateness with which he does everything; this is another Monkish trait, apart from the touch. It's almost as though he's playing pieces he knows and loves for something like the first time - feeling his way around them on the keyboard. This often leads to really interesting approaches - Remember Rockefeller At Attica is a good example.

Anyway, once again, I'm amazed by Braxton. Whereas the 23 Standards are fairly conventional blowing vehicles, I really hear the piano standards to be far more compositional and musically daring.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm just about done with my first listen to 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003, I just got my copy two days ago. I think I like it even better than 23 Standards, maybe I'm more familiar with the selection of tunes.

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I'm just about done with my first listen to 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003, I just got my copy two days ago. I think I like it even better than 23 Standards, maybe I'm more familiar with the selection of tunes.

7/4, you are a saint, obviously.

Are there any Braxton's releases you actually do not like?

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I'm just about done with my first listen to 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003, I just got my copy two days ago. I think I like it even better than 23 Standards, maybe I'm more familiar with the selection of tunes.

7/4, you are a saint, obviously.

:rhappy:

Are there any Braxton's releases you actually do not like?

I've never made it all the way through Trillium R. His attempts at Minimalism leave me me wondering "what the hell is he thinking?" and I have plenty of experience with the best Minimalism in the man made world.

I lost touch during the Ghost Trance years, eventually I got it, but there's a bit I haven't heard.

I don't remember getting all the way through For Four Orchestras [Composition 82], I should try again this Summer. Same for Trillium R. :rfr

Edited by 7/4
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