ANTHONY BRAXTON - Octet (New York) 1995 (1997) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This octet documentation of Anthony Braxton's "Composition 188" is solid evidence of the state of the decline of the recording industry's ability to nurture an artist -- even one of Braxton's stature -- and see to much less beyond the bottom line in order to fulfill their function as documenters of cultural history. They may claim no responsibility, but they're wrong. This disc is angering, and it's not for the quality of the written music or even Braxton's performance, which is, as usual, excellent. It's the fact that he had to record it himself with a group of players who, despite their individual qualities, were not up to the task of performing with any kind of inspiration on work as wondrous and difficult as this. Braxton is clearly working with his students here, and it shows in the recorded result. The muddy mix, the shoddy spatial relationships between instruments, and the evident rigorous effort put in on the part of a group whose entire collective effort, while admirable, is not equal to the challenges of "Composition 188," nearly an hour long and full of knotty harmonic ideas and strange cascading repetitive note patterns that shift from front to back and then side to side in oddly delineated intervals of tonal ebullience. But what was Braxton supposed to do? Not document it in performance? A label would have allowed Braxton to hire -- rather than ask their favor -- a group of handpicked musicians for this particular work and have given them the money and the time to rehearse it adequately before recording it. That used to happen.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1     Compostition No. 188 58:06
Credits :
Accordion – Ted Reichman
Baritone Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone [B-Flat Soprano Saxophone], Tenor Saxophone, Flute [Hungarian Shepherd Flute] – Andre Vida
Bass – Joe Fonda
Drums, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Percussion – Kevin Norton
Electric Violin – Jason Kao Hwang
Sopranino Saxophone [E-Flat Sopranino Saxophone], Alto Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet [E-Flat Sopranino Clarinet], Clarinet [B-Flat Clarinet], Contrabass Clarinet, Saxophone [F-Saxophone], Composed By – Anthony Braxton
Soprano Saxophone [C-Soprano Saxophone], Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute, Flute [Wooden Flute] – Brandon Evans
Tenor Trombone, Trombone [Alto Trombone] – Roland Dahinden