The American musician Anthony Braxton is known to many for the power and precision of his blistering saxophone solos. But Braxton’s expertise spans a much wider range than reed-based improvisation alone, and hcmf 2009 has gathered a cast of leading musicians to highlight a side beyond performance: Braxton the composer.

Two concerts on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November feature the UK premieres of Braxton’s solo piano works Composition No.1, No.2 and No.3 and The Trip, performed by Geneviève Foccroulle. In contrast, For Braxton on Sunday 22 November branches out into larger-scale interpretations of his work. Apartment House and Frank Gratkowski team up for further Braxton compositions and for the world premiere of a new Gratkowski work, co-commissioned by hcmf and November Music.

In addition, the concert will see the first performance of The Braxton Project by ELISION ensemble and John Butcher, an innovative assemblage of Braxton music and inspiration that connects his compositions, musical language and improvisation with new music created by the performers. Timothy O’Dwyer, ELISION saxophonist and curator of The Braxton Project explains more about the unique work:

What qualities do ELISION have to tackle a work such as The Braxton Project?

ELISION has a history of playing large structured improvisations as an ensemble. The players bring highly developed skills in interpretation and extended techniques combined with being able to expand and extemporise on given conceptual frameworks. There has been a unique ensemble approach to improvisational material developed over the years whether it be self-devised, or directed by others like Richard Barrett, John Butcher or myself. The Braxton Project enables the players to interpret and improvise within the works of Braxton while pushing the music in unexpected ways that are informed by the collective history of the group.

What challenges did the compositions present, both as discrete pieces, and for integrating into this larger work?

The approach for the performance has been to take some older works in the Braxton oeuvre and arrange them, utilising some of the more modern performance techniques he has developed for large ensemble over the past decade. We are using a number of compositions from the 40 and 69 series that will be played end to end and also simultaneously with one another. The challenge is for all the members of the group to play the notation and to improvise within the discreet worlds of each of these pieces given the brevity of information, so when played they all have distinct identities that can be deduced clearly by the listener.

How have you used the pitch and rhythmic language of Braxton’s improvisations in the solo, duo and trio compositions?

In addition to Braxton, there are three other composers that have contributed works. Ben Marks (trombone) has contributed two structured improvisations for two trios that utilise information gleaned from 69M. Richard Haynes (clarinet) has also contributed a tutti piece that is indirectly inspired by both the 69 and 49 series and my own offering for this particular performance is in the form of a violin solo which will appear toward the middle of the set.

I initially transcribed Braxton's solo 8F from his For Alto record using a time line (down to tenths of a second); there was no way that I could put this into a metre or irrational rhythm! I then transformed the transcription into violin music using spacial rhythmic notation and literally using the pitch material. The second layer of the composition included me adding phrasing, dynamics and some extended techniques that were specific for the violin. My previous work at Huddersfield in 2006 involved a similar project in collaboration with John Butcher where he improvised within one of my notated works. Since that performance I have transcribed what he played and converted his solo into a clarinet/ bass clarinet part. This process is a part of my PhD candidature, so there is obviously a longer answer here for next time!

What is your favourite aspect of Braxton’s work in general? Is he underrated or misunderstood as a composer?

As an alto player, I have to say his solo improvisations are my favourite thing about his work followed closely by his small groups of the 1970s and his quartet of the 1980s. But he has written great music and had great recordings after this time as well, so it is hard to say! I don't think there is any doubt about Braxton the instrumentalist being at the forefront of the technical development of the alto saxophone, the bass saxophone and the contrabass clarinet over the past 30 years.

Braxton the composer is a trickier subject and this will only be my opinion here. I think in his compositions and writings he courageously brings together very disparate legacies from the last half of the 20th century.  These influences come together unequivocally in his music and they include the free jazz of John Coltrane et al, the experimental music of Stockhausen and Cage with the strong sense of the connection between music and mysticism found in the work of Coltrane, Stockhausen  and Sun Ra amongst others.

Braxton along with many of the other composers from the AACM, including George Lewis and Henry Threadgill, have stood heroically at the cross roads of Afrocentric and Eurocentric music pulling together the intrinsic ideas of both these worlds in their own music, which strangely seems to be still controversial... The problem of 'rating' him as a composer lies within these areas- people can't pin him down and rate him against composers in one particular camp: he defiantly sits between them all!

Other musicians on Anthony Braxton:

Anton Lukoszevieze
"Braxton's music reminds me of the paintings of Bradley Walker Tomlin, strangely. With their calligraphic whimsies and constructions, jostling the picture plane. His music is also fundamentally about communication and a post-free-experimental-jazz-ghost-trance sound world that is glorious and rumbustious."

Evan Parker
"Ever since he made the ground breaking solo saxophone recording For Alto in 1969, Anthony Braxton's music has been characterised by his vision and determination to innovate. The scale of his imagination is boundless, his courage limitless."

Frank Gratkowski
"Anthony Braxton has been a strong influence to my music for a long time. He is one of the very few composers who really found a way to blend all kinds of aspects of contemporary classical music, spiritual music, jazz, improvisation, determination and many others. He is a great spirit who is always looking for new directions. Also in person he's a beautiful and open minded character. I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to perform his music."

Anthony Braxton events at hcmf:

Braxton Solo Piano 1, Fri 20 November
Braxton Solo Piano 2, Sat 21 November
Pre-concert talk, Sun 22 November
For Braxton, Sun 22 November

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