ANTHONY BRAXTON - 4 (Ensemble) Compositions 1992 (1993) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Composition No. 100    15:41
2    Composition No. 96    10:16
3    Composition No. 164    23:09
4    Composition No. 163    24:09
Credits :
Accordion – Ted Reichman
Accordion, Other [Bodysounds] – Guy Klucevek
Artwork [Cover Art] – Niridan
Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Randy McKean
Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Don Byron
Conductor, Composed By [All Compositions By] – Anthony Braxton
Flute, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Piccolo Flute – Marty Ehrlich
Flute, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto Clarinet, Flute [Bamboo] – J.D. Parran
Harp [Uncredited] – Anne LeBaron
Marimba, Vibraphone – Jay Hoggard
Organ, Voice – Amina Claudine Myers
Percussion – Warren Smith
Steel Drums – Lynden Achee
Trombone – John Rapson, Roland Dahinden
Trumpet – Robert Rumboltz

ANTHONY BRAXTON — Small Ensemble Music (Wesleyan) 1994 (1999) FLAC (tracks), lossless

The first issue from the prolific Italian label Splasc(h)'s international series, this CD fills an important gap in the work of Braxton by focusing on his non-quartet work of the mid-90s. Actually taken from a single concert of duo, trio, and quartet performances, the compositions are characteristically complex, though absorbingly and fascinatingly so. While the level of his classic quartet recordings is hard to beat, these small groups give a different view of the composer/performer - one laced with abstraction and densely layered harmonies. "Composition No. 107," with trombonist Roland Dahinden and pianist Jeanne Chloe, revisits an earlier version recorded with Garrett List and Marianne Schroeder. The two saxophone features, "Trio Improvisation" and "Duo Improvisation," incorporate harmonies in strikingly different ways. "Three Compositions for Sextet," is perhaps the highlight, with two of the three compositions never before recorded. Unfortunately, the sound quality is a tad weak throughout. Steve Loewy
Tracklist :
Duo And Trio Music    
1    Trio Improvisation 8:53
Alto Saxophone, Bass Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet – Anthony Braxton
Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – André Vida
Bass Clarinet, Oboe, Shenai – Brandon Evans
2    Composition N° 107 20:24
Piano – Jeanne Chloe
Soprano Saxophone, C Melody Saxophone [C-Melody Saxophone] – Anthony Braxton
Trombone – Roland Dahinden
3    Duo Improvisation 6:42
Percussion – Eric Rosenthal
Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
4    Three Compositions For Sextet (21:13)
4.1    Composition N° 44 (108D+96)+168    
4.2    Composition N° 136    
4.3    Composition N° 43 +(96)+168
Accordion – Ted Reichman
Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Sopranino Saxophone – Anthony Braxton
Bass – Joe Fonda
Drums, Vibraphone – Kevin Norton
Trombone – Mike Heffley
Violin – Jason Wong

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

ANTHONY BRAXTON - Tentet (New York) 1996 (1996) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist :
1    Composition No. 193    1:07:11
Anthony Braxton    
Credits :
Accordion – Ted Reichman
Alto Clarinet, Piccolo Flute – J.D. Parran
Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone [E-flat], Saxophone [F-], Clarinet [E-flat Sopranino, B-flat], Contrabass Clarinet, Flute, Composed By, Producer – Anthony Braxton
Bass – Joe Fonda
Drums, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Percussion – Kevin Norton
Soprano Saxophone [B-flat], Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – Andre Vida
Soprano Saxophone [C-], Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute – Brandon Evans
Trombone [Tenor, Alto] – Roland Dahinden
Violin – Gwen Laster, Jacquie Carrasco

ANTHONY BRAXTON - Sextet (Istanbul) 1996 (1996) 2CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Of the Braxton House recordings, the Sextet (Istanbul, 1996) issue is the best of the instrumental recordings released by the label. Recorded at the Akbank Jazz Festival in October of 1995, the sextet Braxton employs to perform the first compositions in his Ghost Trance Musics series is made of veteran improvisers rather than students: Braxton plays all of his usual instruments, while Roland Dahinden plays tenor and alto trombones, Jason Hwang appears on violin, Ted Reichman on accordion, Joe Fonda on bass, and Kevin Norton holds down an entire percussion section, including marimbas, glockenspiels, a drum kit, vibraphone, and other assorted instruments. The Ghost Trance Musics make up roughly Compositions 185-195 in Braxton's oeuvre thus far. Here "Composition 185" and "Composition 186" are performed in their entirety without any of the side-walling or mainstays from the middles of other compositions skating their way into the mix. Essentially, both compositions are engaged thoroughly with theme and variation. Ostinato is the heartbeat, the pulse of each of the works. The improvisational sections take place in the middle of these scalar thematics, which are designed in multiples of three-instruments, measures, bars, melodies, etc. Braxton seems to be going after something he can't quite nail down here, and the band knows it. This is when he's at his best, when in pursuit of an ethereal something that gives him glimpses of an ideal but then slips away like mercury under the thumb. Here tonal studies match contrapuntal ones; timbral intrigues are given host to melodic threads and augmented harmonic passageways into the maze. Make no mistake, this ensemble isn't nearly as capable of careening through Braxton's music as the classic quartet was, but they don't have to be because this music is far more structured and doesn't lend itself as much to individual improvisational voice or to fiery pyrotechnics. Instead the sextet is a unit that relies of nuance and the trace elements in the composition that lend themselves to acts of surprise and spontaneity.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1-1    Composition No. 185    38:31
1-2    Composition No. 186    19:09
2-1    Composition No. 186 (Continued)    40:19
Credits :
Accordion – Ted Reichman
Alto Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone [E-flat], Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Flute, Composed By [All Compositions By] – Anthony Braxton
Bass – Joe Fonda
Drums, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Marimba, Percussion – Kevin Norton
Tenor Trombone, Trombone [Alto Trombone] – Roland Dahinden

ANTHONY BRAXTON (+ DUKE ELLINGTON) — Concept Of Freedom (2005) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Recorded at the Institut fur Elektronische Musik und Akustik in Graz, Austria during the first week of August 2003, Anthony Braxton's (+ Duke Ellington) Concept of Freedom is a dazzling exercise in collective creativity. Braxton does not perform on this recording. Neither does Ellington, for that matter. Both men and their substantial accomplishments are honored and invoked by a quartet of skilled improvisers. These are trombonist Roland Dahinden, pianist Hildegard Kleeb, violinist Dimitris Polisoidis, and electronics artist Robert Holdrich. Kleeb, like her life partner Dahinden, has worked with Braxton's music in other contexts, most importantly perhaps her four-CD set devoted to 20 years' worth of his notated piano music which was released on the hatNOW series in 1996. The Braxtonian ingredients for the Concept of Freedom album combine his Ghost Trance Music Composition No. 257 with elements from Compositions 30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136. The Ellingtonian aspects were inspired by three different segments of "Freedom" from Duke's Second Concert of Sacred Music, which was presented in 1968 and posthumously released by Fantasy Records as a gatefold double LP. The bracing combination of minds and influences, patterns and evocations on this recording resulted in music of exceptionally inventive complexity and multi-dimensionality, as the full measure of perpetually evolving tradition was taken and expanded into precisely the kind of ritual function that Braxton has extolled and celebrated during virtually every day of his adult life. Finally, let's not overlook the other piece from Ellington's Second Sacred Concert that inspired an impassioned and creative instrumental: "Something ‘Bout Believing," done up joyously by Rahsaan Roland Kirk on his 1972 Atlantic album A Meeting of the Times. arwulf arwulf  
Tracklist :
1     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ... 9:58
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
2     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ... 8:14
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
3     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ... 8:27
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
4     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ...
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
5     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ... 4:10
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
6     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ... 10:49
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
7     Comp. No. 257 (+30, 31, 46, 69, 90 and 136)/Freedom No. 1, 4, And ... 11:04
Anthony Braxton / Duke Ellington
Credits :
Electronics – Robert Höldrich
Piano – Hildegard Kleeb
Trombone – Roland Dahinden
Violin – Dimitris Polisoidis