ANTHONY BRAXTON - Quartet (Standards) 2020 (2021) 13CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks), lossless

On June 18, 2021, the Tri-Centric Foundation and New Braxton House Records will release Anthony Braxton's "Quartet (Standards) 2020", a 13-CD deluxe box set documenting Braxton’s European tour in January last year. Armed with a songbook of over one hundred tunes, Braxton crossed the Atlantic and assembled a stellar ensemble of British musicians – Alexander Hawkins on piano, Neil Charles on bass and Stephen Davis on drums. The box set comprises sixty-seven tracks culled from nine evenings of performances in London, Warsaw and Wels representing decades of American music, from the Great American songbook to Paul Simon via music by jazz luminaries including Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Andrew Hill, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, and many more.

Widely revered as one of the most original composers and conceptualists of the past fifty years, Braxton has also pursued his own idiosyncratic path through the jazz repertoire throughout his career, including his 1974 recording "What's New in the Tradition" and his more recently released eleven-album Charlie Parker tribute, “Sextet (Parker) 1993”. “Mid-way through his eighth decade, Braxton is doing the opposite of slowing down or resting on his laurels, and whereas the instantiation of a ‘standards quartet’ might elsewhere be taken as a retreat into comfortable, familiar traditionalism, Braxton’s history with standards thus far should lead us to expect nothing of the kind,” writes David Grundy in the liner notes for “Quartet (Standards) 2020”.

Indeed, in the hands of Braxton and his cohorts, the familiar is an entry point into the unknown. Take “Virgo” for example, on which the musicians liberally weave in Language Music, Braxton’s conducted improvisation system, as a backdrop behind Braxton’s playing. Braxton’s role as the interpreter in the ensemble is thus unified with his immense legacy as composer and creator of music systems by the next-generation musicians versed in his system. That kind of shared understanding by the musicians is palpable throughout the recording. Nestled among the more jazzier side of things are the familiar but unexpected selections from Simon & Garfunkel repertoire which highlight another dimension of the band.

The tour took place in January 2020, just as the world was starting to shut down. There were a slew of events scheduled to celebrate Anthony’s 75th birthday – including multi-day performances at the Big Ears Festival, an international conference on his work and another European tour – which never happened. As David Grundy writes, “Never buying into the myth of the old separated from the new or the new separated from the old, such music is palimpsestic. You can see through the layers to the music’s origins at virtually every point; but equally, you can see ahead to the future, what Braxton calls “the open space”. In a time at once of unmooring and of “shelter-in-place”, we need such approaches more than ever. This music can help us, all—in our individual, joined and separated ways—to know where we are.”  https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com
Tracklist :
1.1    Minority 12:20
Composed By – Gigi Gryce
1.2    Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West 11:25
Composed By – John Lewis
1.3    Desafinado 11:28
Composed By – Antonio Carlos Jobim
1.4    Why Shouldn't I? 9:41
Composed By – Cole Porter
1.5    Out Of Nowhere 7:05
Composed By – Johnny Green
2.1    Alfie 4:20
Composed By – Burt Bacharach
2.2    Too Marvelous For Words 6:37
Composed By – Richard Whiting
2.3    Pumpkin 13:22
Composed By – Andrew Hill
2.4    I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together 9:16
Composed By – Joe Hamilton
2.5    The Duke 10:32
Composed By – Dave Brubeck
3.1    Invitation 17:32
Composed By – Bronislaw Kaper
3.2    Take Ten 9:07
Composed By – Paul Desmond
3.3    Evidence 4:47
Composed By – Thelonious Monk
3.4    Straight Street 13:50
Composed By – John Coltrane
3.5    Old Friends 5:24
Composed By – Paul Simon
4.1    Along Came Betty 20:58
Composed By – Benny Golson
4.2    Embarcadero 13:59
Composed By – Paul Desmond
4.3    Alfred 8:21
Composed By – Andrew Hill
4.4    You Go To My Head 12:58
Composed By – J. Fred Coots
4.5    Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darlin (Theme From "High Noon") 7:26
Composed By – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington
5.1    Lullaby In Rhythm 11:06
Composed By – Benny Goodman
5.2    The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) 8:05
Composed By – Paul Simon
5.3    Impressions 9:01
Composed By – John Coltrane
5.4    Prelude To A Kiss 10:42
Composed By – Duke Ellington
5.5    I Remember You 16:56
Composed By – Victor Schertzinger
6.1    I Get A Kick Out Of You 22:02
Composed By – Cole Porter
6.2    Where Are You? 3:01
Composed By – Jimmy McHugh
6.3    The Inch Worm 9:12
Composed By – Frank Loesser
6.4    Four 12:50
Composed By – Miles Davis
6.5    Still Crazy After All These Years 8:32
Composed By – Paul Simon
7.1    Virgo 19:14
Composed By – Wayne Shorter
7.2    Bridge Over Troubled Water 9:48
Composed By – Paul Simon
7.3    Autumn In New York 8:43
Composed By – Vernon Duke
7.4    McNeil Island 5:41
Composed By – Andrew Hill
7.5    If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You 17:33
Composed By – Arthur Schwartz
8.1    Jinrikisha 9:20
Composed By – Joe Henderson
8.2    Sweet And Lovely 12:41
Composed By – Charles N. Daniels, Gus Arnheim, Harry Tobias
8.3    The Song Is You 11:37
Composed By – Jerome Kern
8.4    Black Nile 3:48
Composed By – Wayne Shorter
8.5    Remember 10:05
Composed By – Irving Berlin
9.1    (How Little It Matters) How Little We Know 15:20
Composed By – Carolyn Leigh, Philip Springer
9.2    Double Clutching 14:25
Composed By – Chuck Israels
9.3    Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf? 8:44
Composed By – Frank Churchill
9.4    Sue's Changes 9:24
Composed By – Charles Mingus
9.5    Nardis 9:49
Composed By – Miles Davis
10.1    Like Sonny 15:58
Composed By – John Coltrane
10.2    Self-Portrait In Three Colors 8:01
Composed By – Charles Mingus
10.3    Off Minor 9:46
Composed By – Thelonious Monk
10.4    Equinox 7:26
Composed By – John Coltrane
10.5    Where The Blue Of The Night (Meets The Gold Of The Day) 5:51
Composed By – Bing Crosby, Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk
10.6    Moment's Notice 9:31
Composed By – John Coltrane
11.1    Groovin' High 11:38
Composed By – Dizzy Gillespie
11.2    Skating In Central Park 11:14
Composed By – John Lewis
11.3    When Joanna Loved Me 11:15
Composed By – Robert Wells
11.4    Pannonica 11:15
Composed By – Thelonious Monk
11.5    The Bridge 11:08
Composed By – Sonny Rollins
12.1    Have You Met Miss Jones? 15:54
Composed By – Richard Rodgers
12.2    Django 7:40
Composed By – John Lewis
12.3    Eronel 10:42
Composed By – Idrees Sulieman, Sadik Hakim, Thelonious Monk
12.4    Easy Living 10:28
Composed By – Ralph Rainger
12.5    Dee's Dilemma 8:48
Composed By – Mal Waldron
13.1    I'll Never Smile Again 9:06
Composed By – Ruth Lowe
13.2    Strange Meadowlark 8:48
Composed By – Dave Brubeck, Iola Brubeck
13.3    It's The Talk Of The Town 12:18
Composed By – Jerry Livingston
13.4    Thanks For The Memory 8:23
Composed By – Ralph Rainger
13.5    Way Out West 6:41
Composed By – Sonny Rollins
13.6    Peggy's Blue Skylight 14:43
Composed By – Charles Mingus
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
Bass – Neil Charles
Drums – Stephen Davis
Piano – Alexander Hawkins