In addition to the two sets from "Tri-Centric Modeling: Past, Present and Future, I" that we posted last week, WNYC is also streaming a performance from that night that features Richard Teitelbaum and Anthony Braxton.
After Richard Teitelbaum explained the roots of his 41-year friendship (they met in a muddy Belgian cow pasture), and music collaboration (ten albums together) with Anthony Braxton, the evening’s honoree spontaneously jumped on stage with his alto sax in hand. The ensuing highly abstract set was based around Teitelbaum’s heavily processed electronic sounds that often seemed to mimic sounds of the natural world with facsimiles of raindrops, crickets and gale force winds. Braxton gracefully complimented these abstractions; and at other times completely stole the spotlight.
You can check out that set, in addition to Anthony Braxton's 12+2tet and his performance with Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, below.
Richard Teitelbaum With Anthony Braxton:
12+2tet:
Pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Gerry Hemingway with Anthony Braxton on sax:
Braxton also joined his former quartetmates: pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Gerry Hemingway. A renowned ensemble, this was the moment everyone had been waiting for. Unannounced, Braxton strode up to the stage, entering the flow during one of the group's dexterous shifts between compositions. With Crispell playing arched chords, her face hidden by a curtain of hair, Dresser bouncing his right hand off the strings with a modified karate chop and Hemingway laying down a crisp beat, Braxton dove into the fray with quick patter and swam through the texture with strong and lean tenor tones.
NPR is currently streaming both that set and his performance with the Anthony Braxton 12+2tet. Check it out over here.
Mr. Braxton, bespectacled and cardiganed as usual, was a hands-on honoree during Tri-Centric Modeling: Past, Present and Future, a two-day festival commemorating his legacy as well as his age. With proceeds going to the nonprofit Tri-Centric Foundation, which supports performances and archival preservation of his music, the festival gathered a marvelous cohort of his protégés and peers, outlining something like a living index of contemporary improvised music.
ANTHONY BRAXTON file under: experimental, jazz, avant-garde
Although Braxton exhibited a genuine — if highly idiosyncratic — ability to play older forms (influenced especially by saxophonists Warne Marsh, John Coltrane, Paul Desmond, and Eric Dolphy), he was never really accepted by the jazz establishment, due to his manifest infatuation with the practices of such non-jazz artists as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Many of the mainstream's most popular musicians (Wynton Marsalis among them) insisted that Braxton's music was not jazz at all. Whatever one calls it, however, there is no questioning the originality of his vision; Anthony Braxton created music of enormous sophistication and passion that was unlike anything else that had come before it. –Chris Kelsey
Anthony Braxton 12+1tet will play at LPR on June 18th in celebration of his 65th Birthday. Check out a video of them performing below.
GLENN BRANCA file under: experimental, no wave, contemporary classical
Over the course of his career, the highly influential avant-garde guitarist Glenn Branca has composed 13 symphonies (including one for 100 guitars) and has worked with the likes of Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Rhys Chatham, among many others. For his performance on June 19th at LPR, he’ll be improvising on his harmonics guitar, which is a two-bodied guitar connected by a single neck. How does that even work? Check out the video of him playing it with Paranoid Critical Revolution below!
Timetable Percussion is a percussion trio that specializes in music that crosses boundaries of style and discipline, often focusing on new and experimental pieces. At their June 20th show at LPR they will be joined by award winning contemporary classical pianist Yejin Gil. Check out the video of Timetable Percussion performing Bernhard Lang’s “Monadologie IV” at LPR below.
MARC PONTHUS file under: classical, contemporary classical, experimental
Marc Ponthus is among the few promoters and interpreters of avant-garde piano music. He specializes in complex contemporary music for the piano, particularly in the piano repertoire of the Darmstadt School from the 1950s and 1960s. At his performance at LPR on June 21st, he will play some of his unpublished works under the name Outis. All of these works are in a different state of revision and/or transformation. Check out a trailer for his release of Pierre Boulez’s “Deuxième Sonate” below.
Click here to get tickets for the show, which will feature guest artists Nadav Lev, Tim McCarthy, Kate Sheeran, Tom Verchot and Roger Verdi.
On June 12th and 13th boomBOOM Presents and Search & Restore (the same guys who organized Winter Jazzfest) are bringing the Undead Jazzfest to three venues in Greenwich Village. Their goal for the festival is to shake the image of jazz as a genre of the past, and instead present it as a vibrant form hinged on the excitement of improvisation. To get a taste of just a few of the 35+ artists that will participate in the festival, check out the mixtape that the Undead organizers put together: http://undeadjazzfest.bandcamp.com/
ANTHONY BRAXTON file under: experimental, jazz, avant-garde
Although Braxton exhibited a genuine — if highly idiosyncratic — ability to play older forms (influenced especially by saxophonists Warne Marsh, John Coltrane, Paul Desmond, and Eric Dolphy), he was never really accepted by the jazz establishment, due to his manifest infatuation with the practices of such non-jazz artists as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Many of the mainstream's most popular musicians (Wynton Marsalis among them) insisted that Braxton's music was not jazz at all. Whatever one calls it, however, there is no questioning the originality of his vision; Anthony Braxton created music of enormous sophistication and passion that was unlike anything else that had come before it. –Chris Kelsey
Anthony Braxton 12+1tet will play at LPR on June 18th in celebration of his 65th Birthday. Check out a video of them performing below.
REVIVE DA LIVE BIG BAND WITH SPECIAL GUESTS NICHOLAS PAYTON AND TALIB KWELI file under: hip-hop, jazz
Since its inception, Revive Da Live’s mission has been grounded in the exposure and education of jazz music among larger, younger audiences and the influence of hip-hop on jazz music today. On June 24th Revive Da Live Big Band will be joined by jazz trumpeter Nicholas Payton and rapper Talib Kweli. Check out the below video of Revive De Live Big band performing Dizzy Gillespie's version of "A Night in Tunisia" and Gangstarr's "Words I Manifest" the last time they were at LPR.
JAZZ MAFIA'S BRASS BOWS AND BEATS file under: hip-hop, jazz
Brass Bows and Beats is a 40-piece symphony that combines a jazz big band with hip-hop beats and vocals. It was developed composers Adam Theis, Joe Bagale (vocals and arrangements), Jon Monahan, and Jeanne Geiger (guitar/trombone and arrangements) over the course of a year with help of a $50,000 grant from The Wallace Alexander Gerbode and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations. Check out a clip from the piece below.
Click here to get tickets to the performance on June 25th.
Leonid Fedorov, Vladimir Volkov, John Medeski, Marc Ribot and Ches Smith file under: experimental, jazz, avant-garde, indie
Russian experimental jazz musicians Leonid Fedorov and Vladimir Volkov recently collaborated with John Medeski, Marc Ribot, and Ches Smith to record an album titled Razinrimilev, which translates to “Razin Rome and Lion.” The Razin they are referring to is the seventeenth-century Cossack rebel, Sten’ka Razin, who rose up against the Russian nobility and Czar in a bloody rebellion, and who’s story was interpreted through the poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov (d. 1922) in the text of “Razinrimilev.” The album by Fedorov and his collaborators uses the poetry for both inspiration and the actual lyrics. While the poetry is so dense with palindromes it’s often considered untranslatable, it's often described as being best when heard rather than read. You can read much more about the album, and hear some of the tracks, over here.
Click here to get tickets to the show on June 26th.
Jazziz Magazine highlighted "Tri-Centric Modeling: Past, Present and Future," a two-night multiple-venue event in honor of Anthony Braxton's 65th birthday.
Set to begin at 5:30 p.m., the Poisson Rouge gig will feature performances by Steve Coleman & Jonathan Finlayson, Marilyn Crispell/Mark Dresser/Gerry Hemingway, Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Strings, Richard Teitelbaum, Matthew Welch, John Zorn/Dave Douglas/Brad Jones/Gerry Hemingway and other special guests. The headline act will be the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, which has not performed in New York since its historic four-night run at Iridium Jazz Club in March 2006.
You can read more about the events over at Jazziz, and get tickets for the June 18th performance at LPR here!
