Anthony Braxton 12+1tet and The Sonic Genome in Vancouver

Photo of 12+1 tet courtesy of Scott Friedlander Anthony Braxton has a singular and unique musical vision. Braxton’s resume is enough to give mere mortals an inferiority complex. Braxton was an early member of the AACM along with Muhal Richard Abrams and The Art Ensemble of Chicago. His body of compositions is massive with music for his own groups, piano music, operas, a piece for four orchestras performing simultaneously, a piece for 100 tubas (finally recorded in 2006) and complex generative and improvisational systems. He plays the piano and the full range of woodwind instruments including the flute, the sopranino, soprano, C-Melody, F alto, E-flat alto, baritone, bass, and contrabass saxophones and the E-flat, B-flat, bass and contrabass clarinets. He has been enormously influential as a musician in exploring solo instrumental performance notably starting with the landmark 1968 double album recording For Alto. He has written a 3 volume 1600-page treatise (Tri-Axium Writings) on his musical philosophy and compositional techniques. Besides his own groups, he has performed and recorded with a diverse group of musicians including Max Roach, Dave Brubeck, Lee Konitz, Cecil Taylor, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, George Lewis, Derek Bailey, Mal Waldron and noise-metal experimental rockers Wolf Eyes. He was once a professional chess player. A deluxe 8-cd box set of his 1970s-era Arista Recordings was a surprise hit for Mosaic Records in 2009. He was a 1994 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship “Genius” Grant. He has outlined plans for his music to be played simultaneously in different theatres, in different cities and on different planets! For the last 20 years he has been a faculty member in the Music Department at Wesleyan University famous for its experimental music inaugurated by a John Cage residency and its World Music program. In conjunction with his faculty position, he launched the Tri-Centric Foundation to develop a stable community of like-minded players and composers to share “the premise that musical principles inform and are informed by sociocultural and philosophical dynamics; and that music education and practice can be a vital force in learning to adapt to and positively influence today's rapidly changing world”. This stable community has produced his current working group, The Braxton 12+1tet, which will be performing at Christ Church Cathedral on Friday January 29th. In 2006, this group did a five night run at a New York club which resulted in the 10-disc (nine CDs and one DVD) set Nine Compositions (Iridium) 2006 released on Firehouse 12 Records. Braxton’s accomplishments could fill a book and they have. A number of books in fact with two notable ones – the first is Graham Lock’s 1988 Forces in Motion which combines a chronicle of a mid-80s tour by Braxton’s longest standing group (a quartet with Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway), conversations with Braxton, and an attempt to explain some of Braxton’s philosophies and methods including a brief outline of the Tri-Axium Writings. Braxton has been quoted as saying “This book should be required reading for anyone interested in my music.” Forces in Motion is a fascinating multi-faceted work which paints as complete a portrait of Braxton as is possible up to its date of publication in the late 1980s. But Braxton has been very busy both musically and philosophically in the intervening 20+ years and so an update is more than welcome. The second notable biography is the recent 2009 release by Canadian jazz journalist and musician Stuart Broomer called Time and Anthony Braxton. This latter book is principally organized around recurring themes that have influenced Braxton’s work (time, sonorities, composition systems, cardigan sweaters) and how they have manifested themselves in his various projects. For example, it discusses the evolution of Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music series originally inspired by a Wesleyan seminar on native American trance music but eventually expanded to absorb influences from Sufism, European and African trance music traditions. The Ghost Trance Music derives its trance-like qualities not from long tones like much ambient music but through a complex melodic language reinforced through repetition and pulse. But Braxton claims it that it also embraces influences from Bach and Richard Wagner. Like many complex systems (especially those originating with Braxton), attempting a simple description is inadequate – aspects of the system are revealed through a dialogue between Braxton and Broomer (The Ghost Trance Interview) which forms one of the book’s sections. Time and Anthony Braxton is so recent that it discusses Braxton’s upcoming performance in Vancouver of The Sonic Genome – a free 8 hour epic performance with an expanded group of about 50 musicians at the Roundhouse on Sunday January 31st. I participated in an extended conference call interview with Anthony Braxton last week courtesy of Coastal Jazz. Although his responses to all questions were detailed and occasionally bewildering (I was warned by one of his former students that he “speaks Braxton”), I was struck by his vitality, his confidence in his musical vision and his sense of humour. Far from being a dour serious music academic, he was quick to infectious laughter and held forth on a variety of topics from his suggestion that people need to go to Europe or Japan to understand American culture (“it’s not practiced here anymore”) to his love of football and marching bands (“today marching band music is more innovative than jazz … because of their use of space”). He also talked about sport and his recent interest in war game strategies for improvisation which seemed reminiscent of John Zorn’s game pieces. Braxton was asked about preparations for the Sonic Genome which was inspired by and named for the completion of the mapping of the human genome in 2003. The marathon Sonic Genome performance augments the 12+1tet with Vancouver-area musicians and students. Ensemble members Taylor Ho Bynum and James Fei will be arriving early to work with the local musicians in advance of the performance. The members of the 12+1tet being most familiar with the compositions will each lead sub-groups or cells in simultaneous performances. The bulk of the material to be performed is drawn from Braxton’s Ghost Trance Composition series which also forms the basis of the 12+1tet’s repertoire but the Sonic Genome will move through periodic (hourly) stages which will move through the space and evolve through compositions, interactions between musicians and interactions with the audience to form the sonic equivalent of a living organism. As he put it, “The sonic genome seeks to have a living organic holistic corporeal space.” Braxton spent some time outlining the stages (which he referred to as species) and which of his compositions were to be used in each stage as well as additional devices to achieve his desired effects. He made it clear that despite its length, this is not a blowing session, this is a highly structured musical event.The Sonic Genome has apparently been performed once before in 2003 without an audience; a recording of that performance is being prepared and if all goes well, it will be available at the Vancouver performances. When asked how an audience member should best experience the Sonic Genome, Braxton talked about how he would like the “friendly experiencer” to become aware that they are “in the house of music”, that they should be aware of differences in sonic density, differences in timbre, cellular effects, combinational effects, to move around and experience the special aspect of the music, have an active music experience. Listening to his descriptions and his professed admiration for marching bands, I was reminded of how Charles Ives was inspired to write parts of "St.-Gaudens" in Boston Common by hearing approaching and retreating marching bands in the square with their serendipitously syncopated rhythms and overlapping melodies. All in all, it promises to be a unique landmark performance conceived and actualized by one of the musical geniuses of our time. Anthony Braxton 12 +1 Tet Friday, January 29 @ 8 PM Christ Church Cathedral Anthony Braxton reeds/composition, Taylor Ho Bynum cornet/trumpet/flugelhorn/bass trumpet, Nicole Mitchell flutes, Andrew Raffo Dewar reeds, James Fei reeds, Steve Lehman saxophones, Sara Schoenbeck bassoon, Jessica Pavone violin/alto viola, Mary Halvorson electric guitar, Reut Regev trombone, Jay Rozen tuba, Carl Testa double bass/bass clarinet, Aaron Siegel drums/percussion/vibes. Further concert and ticket information at: http://www.coastaljazz.ca/concert/anthony_braxton_12_1_tet_0 Presented by Coastal Jazz & Blues Society in association with The Cultural Olympiad Anthony Braxton's Sonic Genome Project (World Premiere as a public performance) Sunday, January 31 @ Noon The performance runs continuously for approximately eight hours and features 50+ musicians including the 12 + 1 tet, members listed above. Roundhouse Community Centre Free admission Concert information at http://www.coastaljazz.ca/concert/anthony_braxtons_sonic_genome_project Presented by Coastal Jazz & Blues Society and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in association with The Cultural Olympiad As an addendum, several of the members of the 12+1tet will be staying in Vancouver to participate in the Time Flies Improvised Music Festival. Time Flies 22nd Annual Improvised Music Festival Thursday, February 4th @ 8 PM Friday, February 5th @ 8 PM Saturday, February 6th @ 8 PM The Ironworks Torsten Müller bass, Mei Han zheng, Dylan van der Schyff drums, Sara Schoenbeck bassoon, Jessica Pavone violin/alto viola, Taylor Ho Bynum cornet/trumpet/flugelhorn/bass trumpet, Mary Halvorson electric guitar, Fred Lonberg-Holm cello Further concert and ticket information at: http://www.coastaljazz.ca/concert/time_flies_22nd_annual_improvised_music_festival Presented by Coastal Jazz & Blues Society in association with The Cultural Olympiad Time and Anthony Braxton by Stuart Broomer Published by The Mercury Press, Toronto 2009