Anthony Braxton Quartet Standards 2020

[tranemonk]

I'm a couple of cds' in (probably 2 or 3). I'm enjoying it via small bites at a time. 

[tranemonk]

On 9/6/2021 at 11:42 AM, tranemonk said:

I'm a couple of cds' in (probably 2 or 3). I'm enjoying it via small bites at a time. 

Have to say I'm about halfway through and I'm loving it. My only annoyance is there seems to be very few tracks which include the audience response, which is frustrating. Wasn't all of this recorded live in front of audiences pre-COVID? Why wouldn't it be included??? 

[mjazzg]

2 minutes ago, tranemonk said:

Have to say I'm about halfway through and I'm loving it. My only annoyance is there seems to be very few tracks which include the audience response, which is frustrating. Wasn't all of this recorded live in front of audiences pre-COVID? Why wouldn't it be included??? 

I have spotted that a number of tracks fade bout which seems odd given the size of the boxset. Heavens alone knows how many discs would have been required to hold all the concerts in their entirety.  Also, the start of some of the tracks seem very abrupt, presumably because they've cut the audience appreciation of the previous tune.  All of which may be a product of AB's decision not to present the music as played on each night but to cut/paste from different nights and venues.

None of the above detracts in any significant way for me from what is a tremendous release overall.

[tranemonk]

I'm just about finished listening to this set. Overall I really like it. As previously mentioned my main pet peeve is the lack of audience response. Much of sounds like a studio recording (which would be fine) but if I didn't know better I would not assume this was recorded before an audience. My only other minor complaint is a few tracks (not many) just feel uneven. I can't really explain but that is what it feels like to me. However generally..... I'm a happy camper... On to Lee Morgan sometime later this week. 

[king ubu]

Taking some time off and finally making my way through all of this ... I was in Wels for the final three nights, and what I heard there is amongst the very best concerts I've experienced so far. Glad to report that almost all of the Wels material is included (not "Bemsha Swing" and "Unforgettable", alas).

I put together the playlists of all the sets, fixed some mistakes in the sources (a attributed title here, a switch of sequence there), spotted the mistakes in the booklet (tracks assigned to wrong dates) and marked the tracks that had been shortened.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqa4rebqnbo46of/AnthonyBraxton-Quartet-Standards2020.pdf?dl=0

So, the tracks shortened are (chronologically, as performed; dates and CD/Track nos. in brackets):

- Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darlin' (Theme from "High Noon") (Jan 15 / 4-5)
- Take Ten (Jan 15 / 3-2)
- Minority (Jan 21 / 1-1)
- Too Marvelous for Words (Jan 23 / 2-2)
- I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together (Jan 23 / 2-4)
- Jinkrisha (Jan 25 / 8-1)
- I'll Never Smile Again (Jan 25 / 13-1)

Wrong dates (the ones in brackets here, I've added CD numbers to quickly find them; check the PDF above for correct sequence) are given for the following titles: "Desafinado", "Why Shouldn't I" (both Jan 17, CD 1); "Invitation" (Jan 19, CD 3); , "Out of Nowhere" (Jan 21, CD 1), "Lullaby in Rhythm", "Impressions", "The 59th Street Bridge Song", "Prelude to a Kiss" (all Jan 21, CD 5).

As the AUD versions obviously have applause, I didn't bother to pin the exact amount of music cut for each of the tunes. That "Marvelous" has a cut somewhere in the released part I'd not previously noticed - I think it's the only such edit present, the others seem to just quickly fade at some point (sometimes noticeable, sometimes barely so). That they chose to not include any applause ... well, not sure what to make of it, but it certainly does not spoil the listening experience for me).

Either way, while my initial impression has been confirmed that the band grew considerably, got into much freer stylings and grew pretty tight with its leader during those nine nights, and still considering the final nights in Wels the high point here, I love all of what's on this box (okay, maybe not "Who's Afraid of the Big Band Wolf", but that's a minor quibble). I'm not sure it had to be rearranged as it was, also not sure the cuts were necessary (the biggest one was performed on "Too Marvelous for Words", which lasted nearly a quarter of an hour but got cut to 6:30 minutes - what's interesting there is that a portion of Braxton's own solo was cut, too - the bits from around the 6 minute mark only happen around 8:30/9 minutes in the uncut version).

--

(And yeah, all well here, just too busy elsewhere to drop by here regularly  )

[Rabshakeh]

Just listening to the 11th disk, and I notice that all of the tracks are 11 minutes long. Not exactly, but between 11:00 and 11:59 minutes.

Are there any other quirks like that which anyone has noticed?

[disaac]

If anyone who procured this set decides to part with it, I'd be very interested in purchasing it at a fair price.