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Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, saxophonist
Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-Bore transposing instrument musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a Single-reed instrument mouthpiece similar to the clarinet....
, clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
tist, flautist
Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
, pianist
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
, and philosopher. He has created a large body of highly complex work. Braxton is one of the most prolific American musicians/composers to date, having released well over 100 albums since the 1960s. Among the vast array of instruments he utilizes are the flute
Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
; the sopranino
Sopranino saxophone

The sopranino saxophone is one of the smallest members of the saxophone family. A sopranino saxophone is tuned in the key of E-flat, and sounds an octave above the alto saxophone....
, soprano
Soprano saxophone

The soprano saxophone was invented in 1840 and is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument. The soprano is the second in size of the saxophone family which consists, as generally accepted, of the sopranino saxophone, soprano, Alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, and contrabass saxophone....
, C-Melody, F alto, E-flat alto
Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by the Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax. The alto, with the Tenor saxophone, is the most common size of saxophone....
, baritone
Baritone saxophone

The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the larger and lower pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax....
, bass
Bass saxophone

The bass saxophone is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family . It is similar in design to a baritone saxophone, but it is larger, with a longer loop near the mouthpiece....
, and contrabass
Contrabass saxophone

The contrabass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family. It is extremely large and heavy , and is pitched in the key of E, one octave below the baritone....
 saxophones; and the E-flat
E-flat clarinet

The E-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family. It is usually classed as a soprano clarinet, although some authors describe it as a "sopranino" or even "piccolo" clarinet....
, B-flat
Soprano clarinet

The soprano clarinets are a sub-family of the clarinet family. They include the most common types of clarinets, and indeed are often referred to as simply "clarinets"....
, and contrabass
Contrabass clarinet

The contrabass clarinet is the largest member of the clarinet family that has ever been in regular production or significant use. Modern contrabass clarinets are transposing instrument, sounding two octaves lower than the common B soprano clarinet and one octave lower than the B bass clarinet....
 clarinets.

Critic Chris Kelsey
Chris Kelsey

Chris Kelsey is an American jazz musician, composer, and journalist who was born in Bangor, Maine. Kelsey is one of the few prominent jazz musicians to focus exclusively on the soprano saxophone....
 writes that "Although Braxton exhibited a genuine — if highly idiosyncratic — ability to play older forms (influenced especially by saxophonists Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh

Warne Marion Marsh was an United States tenor saxophone born in Los Angeles....
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an United States jazz saxophonist and composer.Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later pioneered free jazz. He influenced generations of other musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history....
, Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophone and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"....
, and Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophone, Western concert flute #In jazz, and bass clarinetist.Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto saxophone players to rise to prominence in the 1960s....
), he was never really accepted by the jazz establishment, due to his manifest infatuation with the practices of such non-jazz artists as John Cage
John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer. A pioneer of Aleatoric music, electronic music and Extended technique, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde and, in the opinion of many, the most influential American composer of the 20th century....
 and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries....
.






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Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, saxophonist
Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-Bore transposing instrument musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a Single-reed instrument mouthpiece similar to the clarinet....
, clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
tist, flautist
Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
, pianist
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
, and philosopher. He has created a large body of highly complex work. Braxton is one of the most prolific American musicians/composers to date, having released well over 100 albums since the 1960s. Among the vast array of instruments he utilizes are the flute
Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
; the sopranino
Sopranino saxophone

The sopranino saxophone is one of the smallest members of the saxophone family. A sopranino saxophone is tuned in the key of E-flat, and sounds an octave above the alto saxophone....
, soprano
Soprano saxophone

The soprano saxophone was invented in 1840 and is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument. The soprano is the second in size of the saxophone family which consists, as generally accepted, of the sopranino saxophone, soprano, Alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, and contrabass saxophone....
, C-Melody, F alto, E-flat alto
Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by the Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax. The alto, with the Tenor saxophone, is the most common size of saxophone....
, baritone
Baritone saxophone

The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the larger and lower pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax....
, bass
Bass saxophone

The bass saxophone is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family . It is similar in design to a baritone saxophone, but it is larger, with a longer loop near the mouthpiece....
, and contrabass
Contrabass saxophone

The contrabass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family. It is extremely large and heavy , and is pitched in the key of E, one octave below the baritone....
 saxophones; and the E-flat
E-flat clarinet

The E-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family. It is usually classed as a soprano clarinet, although some authors describe it as a "sopranino" or even "piccolo" clarinet....
, B-flat
Soprano clarinet

The soprano clarinets are a sub-family of the clarinet family. They include the most common types of clarinets, and indeed are often referred to as simply "clarinets"....
, and contrabass
Contrabass clarinet

The contrabass clarinet is the largest member of the clarinet family that has ever been in regular production or significant use. Modern contrabass clarinets are transposing instrument, sounding two octaves lower than the common B soprano clarinet and one octave lower than the B bass clarinet....
 clarinets.

Critic Chris Kelsey
Chris Kelsey

Chris Kelsey is an American jazz musician, composer, and journalist who was born in Bangor, Maine. Kelsey is one of the few prominent jazz musicians to focus exclusively on the soprano saxophone....
 writes that "Although Braxton exhibited a genuine — if highly idiosyncratic — ability to play older forms (influenced especially by saxophonists Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh

Warne Marion Marsh was an United States tenor saxophone born in Los Angeles....
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an United States jazz saxophonist and composer.Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later pioneered free jazz. He influenced generations of other musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history....
, Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond

Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophone and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"....
, and Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophone, Western concert flute #In jazz, and bass clarinetist.Dolphy was one of several groundbreaking jazz alto saxophone players to rise to prominence in the 1960s....
), he was never really accepted by the jazz establishment, due to his manifest infatuation with the practices of such non-jazz artists as John Cage
John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer. A pioneer of Aleatoric music, electronic music and Extended technique, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde and, in the opinion of many, the most influential American composer of the 20th century....
 and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries....
. Many of the mainstream's most popular musicians (Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is an United States trumpeter and composer. He is among the most prominent jazz musicians of the modern era and is also a well-known instrumentalist in European classical music....
 among them) insisted that Braxton's music was not jazz at all. Whatever one calls it, however, there is no questioning the originality of his vision; Anthony Braxton created music of enormous sophistication and passion that was unlike anything else that had come before it."

Biography

Early in his career, Braxton led a trio with violinist Leroy Jenkins and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith
Wadada Leo Smith

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter and composer working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He started out playing drums, mellophone, and French horn before he settled on the trumpet....
 and was involved with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is a non-profit organization, founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States, by pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall , and composer Phil Cohran....
, the "AACM", founded in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
, Braxton's birthplace.

In 1968, Braxton recorded the double LP For Alto
For Alto

For Alto is a jazz Double album-Gramophone record by composer/multi-Reed Anthony Braxton. Delmark Records released the double-album in 1969....
. There had been occasional unaccompanied saxophone recordings previously (notably Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins , nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was a prominent jazz Tenor saxophone.He is commonly regarded as the first important and influential jazz musician to use the instrument: Joachim E....
' "Picasso"), but For Alto was the first full-length album for unaccompanied saxophone. The album's songs were dedicated to Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an United States pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the inventors of free jazz....
 and John Cage
John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer. A pioneer of Aleatoric music, electronic music and Extended technique, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde and, in the opinion of many, the most influential American composer of the 20th century....
, among others. The album influenced other artists like Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy

This article is about the jazz musician. For the CEO of Meredith, see Steve Lacy .Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York, was a jazz saxophone....
 (soprano sax) and George Lewis
George Lewis (trombonist)

George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971....
 (trombone), who would go on to record their own acclaimed solo albums.

Braxton joined pianist Chick Corea
Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is a multiple Grammy Award winning American jazz pianist, keyboardist, drummer, and composer.He is known for his work during the 1970s in the genre of jazz fusion....
's existing trio with Dave Holland
Dave Holland

Dave Holland is a United Kingdom jazz bassist and composer who is a significant representative of avant-garde jazz....
 (double bass) and Barry Altschul
Barry Altschul

Barry Altschul is a drummer who gained fame in the late 1960s with the pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea, playing in the "outside" style of jazz that had been evolving steadily since the innovations of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane....
 (drums) to form the short-lived avant garde quartet "Circle
Circle (jazz band)

Circle was an avant garde jazz ensemble active in 1970 and 1971. Its core members were Chick Corea, piano; Dave Holland, bass; Barry Altschul, drums and percussion....
", around 1970. When Corea broke up the group, forming Return to Forever
Return to Forever

Return to Forever was the name of a jazz fusion band founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. The band cycled through many members, with only consistent band mate of Corea's bassist Stanley Clarke....
 to pursue a fusion
Jazz fusion

Fusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that merges jazz with elements of other styles of music, particularly funk, Rock and roll, R&B, electronic music, and world music, but also pop music, classical music, and folk music, or sometimes even Heavy metal music, reggae, ska, country music, hip hop...
 based style of composition and recording, Holland and Altschul remained with Braxton for much of the 1970s as part of a quartet, with the rotating brass
Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" ....
 chair variously filled by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler

Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, is a Canada composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s.Most of his output is rooted in jazz, but he has also been active in free improvisation and has occasionally contributed to rock music recordings....
, or trombonists George Lewis
George Lewis (trombonist)

George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971....
 or Ray Anderson
Ray Anderson (musician)

Ray Anderson is an independent jazz trombone and trumpet player. Anderson is a boisterous trombonist who is masterful at multiphonics. Trained by the Chicago Symphony trombonists, he is regarded as pushing the limits of the instrument....
. This group recorded on Arista Records
Arista Records

Arista Records is an United States record label. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operates under the RCA Records....
. The core trio plus saxophonist Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers

Samuel Carthorne Rivers is an United States jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
 recorded Holland's Conference of the Birds
Conference of the Birds (Dave Holland album)

Conference of the Birds is a 1973 album by jazz bassist Dave Holland. It is Holland's second collaboration with composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, as well as his second album on ECM Records....
, ECM
ECM (record label)

ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. ECM is best known for jazz music, but has released a wide variety of recordings, the artists associated with it often refusing to acknowledge boundaries between genres....
. In the 1970s he also recorded duets with Lewis and with synthesizer player Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Teitelbaum

Richard Teitelbaum is an United States composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. Born in New York, he is a former student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, Luigi Nono....
.

In 1975, he released an album on Muse Records
Muse Records

Muse Records was an American record label which released jazz and blues music.Muse was founded in the early 1970s by Joe Fields , who had previously worked as an executive for Prestige Records in the 1960s....
 titled Muhal with the Creative Construction Company
Creative Construction Company

The Creative Construction Company was an American jazz ensemble active briefly in the early 1970s.The ensemble recorded two albums for Muse Records and was comprised of six noted improvisationalists: Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins , Muhal Richard Abrams, Richard Davis, and Steve McCall ....
, a group consisting of Richard Davis
Richard Davis

Richard Davis is an United States double bass player who has been a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1977. Originally from Chicago, he first became known in that city before establishing himself in New York City for twenty-three years....
 (Bass), Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams is an United States educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and Jazz piano in the Modern Creative and Free jazz mediums....
 (Cello), Steve McCall
Steve McCall (drummer)

Steve McCall was an American jazz drummer.McCall was born in Chicago and began his career there in the 1950s. One of his early gigs was playing behind blues singer Lucky Carmichael....
 (drums), Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams is an United States educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and Jazz piano in the Modern Creative and Free jazz mediums....
 (piano), Wadada Leo Smith
Wadada Leo Smith

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter and composer working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He started out playing drums, mellophone, and French horn before he settled on the trumpet....
  (trumpet) and Leroy Jenkins
Leroy Jenkins

Leroy Jenkins was a composer and free jazz violinist and Viola.Jenkins was involved in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians while a public school teacher in Chicago....
 (violin).

In the late 1970s he recorded two large ensemble recordings, "Creative Orchestra Music 1976," inspired by American jazz and marching band traditions, and "For Four Orchestras." Both of these records were released on Arista.

Braxton's regular group in the 1980s and early 1990s was a quartet with Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell

Marilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer.Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music....
 (piano), Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser

Mark Dresser is an United States virtuoso double bass player and composer.He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation....
 (double bass) and Gerry Hemingway
Gerry Hemingway

Gerry Hemingway is an United States jazz composer and percussionist.He has performed with Ernst Reijseger, Anthony Davis , Earl Howard, Leo Smith, George Lewis , Anthony Braxton, Ray Anderson , Mark Helias, Reggie Workman, Michael Moore , Oliver Lake, Marilyn Crispell, Don Byron, Cecil Taylor, and Cuong Vu....
 (drums), "his finest and longest standing band".

Braxton has also recorded and collaborated with European free improvisers such as Derek Bailey
Derek Bailey

Derek Bailey was an English Experimental music guitarist and leading figure in the free improvisation movement....
, Evan Parker
Evan Parker

Evan Shaw Parker is a United Kingdom free improvisation saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques....
, and the Globe Unity Orchestra
Globe Unity Orchestra

The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble.Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the JazzFest Berlin....
, or with giants from the 'regular' jazz world, such as Max Roach
Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history....
. Throughout the years Braxton has played with a wide variety of people, such as Mal Waldron
Mal Waldron

Malcolm Earl Waldron was an United States jazz and world music pianist and composer, born in New York City.His jazz work was chiefly in the hard bop, post-bebop and free jazz genres....
, Dave Douglas
Dave Douglas (trumpeter)

Dave Douglas is a United States jazz trumpeter and composer whose music is notable for drawing on many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, European folk music and klezmer....
, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman is an United States saxophoneist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1950s and 1960s....
, Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck

David Warren Brubeck , better known as Dave Brubeck, is an United States Jazz piano. Regarded as a jazz icon, he has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke"....
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz is an United States jazz composer and alto saxophone born in Chicago, Illinois. Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings....
, Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann

Peter Br?tzmann is a Germany free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Br?tzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings....
, Willem Breuker
Willem Breuker

Willem Breuker is a Dutch jazz bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophone, and bass clarinetist.In 1967, with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, he co-founded the Instant Composers Pool , with whom he regularly performed until 1973....
, Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams is an United States educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and Jazz piano in the Modern Creative and Free jazz mediums....
, Steve Lacy, Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell is an African American composer, jazz musician and educator, mostly known for being "a technically superb ? if idiosyncrasy ? saxophone." He has been called "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz who has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past thirty years....
, Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny

Patrick Bruce Metheny is an United States jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects....
, Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St....
, Wolf Eyes
Wolf Eyes

Wolf Eyes are a noise rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States....
, Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg is a Netherlands jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.Mengelberg was born in Kiev in Ukraine, the son of the conductor Karel Mengelberg, who was himself the nephew of the conductor Willem Mengelberg....
, Chris Dahlgren, Lauren Newton
Lauren Newton (singer)

Lauren Amber Newton is an avant-garde jazz and Contemporary classical music singer, composer and teacher, best known as a founding member of the Vienna Art Orchestra....
, and countless others.

In 1994, he was granted a MacArthur Fellowship. From 1995 to 2006, Braxton's output as a composer concentrated almost exclusively on what he calls Ghost Trance Music, which introduces a steady pulse to his music and also allows the simultaneous performance of any piece by the performers. Many of the earliest Ghost Trance recordings were released on his own Braxton House label (now defunct). His final Ghost Trance compositions were performed with a "12+1tet" at New York's Iridium club in 2006; the complete four-night residency was recorded and released in 2007 by the Firehouse 12 label.

In addition, during the 1990s and early 2000s Braxton created a prodigiously large body of "standards" recordings, often featuring him as a pianist rather than saxophonist. He had frequently performed such material in the 1970s and 1980s, but only recorded it occasionally; now he began to release multidisc sets of such material, climaxing in two quadruple-CD sets for Leo Records recorded on tour in 2003.

More recently he has created new series of compositions, such as the Falling River Musics that are documented on 2+2 Compositions (482 Music, 2005).

Braxton studied philosophy at Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University

Roosevelt University is a Private school institution of higher education with full service campuses in Chicago Loop and Ordinal directions suburban Schaumburg, Illinois....
. He has taught at Mills College
Mills College

Mills College is an independent Liberal arts colleges in the United States Women's colleges in the United States founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men....
 and now is Professor of Music at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private university Liberal arts colleges in the United States founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut, Connecticut....
 in Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown, Connecticut

Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River, in the south-central part of the state, 16 miles south of Hartford, Connecticut....
, teaching music composition, music history, and improvisation.

One of his children, Tyondai Braxton
Tyondai Braxton

Tyondai Braxton is an United States musician and the son of jazz musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer Anthony Braxton. Tyondai grew up in Northern California and Middletown, Connecticut, where his father teaches....
, is also a professional musician. He is a guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist with American math rock
Math rock

Math rock is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based style of experimental rock that emerged in the late 1980s. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures , angular melodies, and Consonance and dissonance chords....
 band Battles
Battles (band)

Battles is an United States experimental rock Musical band. The band's line-up includes ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier , ex-Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams , ex-Lynx guitarist Dave Konopka, and Tyondai Braxton , who plays guitar and keyboard and creates live voice samples....
.

Beyond his musical career, Braxton is an avid chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
 player; for a time in the 1960s he was a professional chess hustler
Hustling

Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling with the hustler, as a form of confidence trick....
, playing in New York in Washington Square Park.

Music

Braxton's music is difficult to categorize, and because of this, he likes to reference his works (and the works of his collaborators and students) as simply "creative music." He has claimed in numerous interviews that he is not a jazz musician, though many of his works have been jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 and improvisation
Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings....
 oriented, and he has released many albums of jazz standards. In addition to these, Braxton has released an increasing number of works for large-scale orchestras, including two opera cycles.

Braxton's music is highly theoretical and mystically
Mysticism

Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, Unio Mystica with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, Spirituality, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight....
 influenced, and he is the author of multiple volumes explaining his theories and pieces—such as the philosophical three-volume Triaxium Writings and the five-volume Composition Notes, both published by Frog Peak Music
Frog Peak Music

Frog Peak Music is a composer's collective that produces and distributes experimental works, and functions as a home for its artists. It was co-founded in 1984 by Jody Diamond and Larry Polansky....
. While his compositions and improvisations can be characterized as avant garde, many of his pieces have a swing feel and rhythmic angularity that are overtly indebted to Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
 and the Bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 tradition.

Composition notation and titles

Braxton is notorious for naming his pieces as diagrams, typically labeled with cryptic numbers and letters. Sometimes these diagrams have an obvious relation to the music — for instance, on the album For Trio the diagram-title indicates the physical positions of the performers, but in many cases the diagram-titles remain inscrutable. The titles can themselves be musical notation
Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written Modern musical symbols....
 indicating to the performer how a piece is played. Sometimes the letters are identifiable as the initials of Braxton's friends and musical colleagues.

Braxton has pointedly refused to explain their significance, claiming that he himself is still discovering their meaning. Braxton eventually settled on a system of opus-numbers to make referring to these pieces simpler, and earlier pieces have had opus-numbers retrospectively added to them.

By the mid-to-late 1980s, Braxton's titles had become increasingly complex. They began to incorporate drawings and illustrations, such as in the title of his four act opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 cycle, Trillium R. Others began to include life-like images of inanimate objects, namely train cars. The latter was most notably seen after the advent of his Ghost Trance Music system.

Current musical involvement

Anthony Braxton, even in his 60s, still actively performs with ensembles of varying sizes, and has to date written well over 350 compositions. He has just recently finished the last batch of Ghost Trance Music compositions, and has now shown his interest in three other music systems: The Diamond Curtain Wall Trio, in which Braxton implements the aid of the powerful computer audio programming language, SuperCollider
Supercollider

A Supercollider is a high energy particle accelerator. The term may refer to:* Superconducting Super Collider, planned 80 km project in Texas, canceled in 1993...
; Falling River Musics; and, most recently, Echo Echo Mirror House music, which is meant to hone in many different types of performance arts in addition to music.

Discography

  • 1968 Three Compositions of New Jazz
    Three Compositions of New Jazz

    3 Compositions of New Jazz is a 1968 album by Anthony Braxton....
  • 1968 For Alto
    For Alto

    For Alto is a jazz Double album-Gramophone record by composer/multi-Reed Anthony Braxton. Delmark Records released the double-album in 1969....
  • 1969 Anthony Braxton [Affinity]
  • 1969 The 8th of July 1969 w/ Gunter Hampel
    Gunter Hampel

    Gunter Hampel is a Germany jazz Vibraphone, clarinettist, saxophonist, flautist, pianist and composer born in G?ttingen, perhaps best-known for his album "The 8th of July 1969" that included fellow musicians Anthony Braxton, Willem Breuker and Jeanne Lee....
     [Birth Records]
  • 1971 Récital Paris 1971 [live] [Futura]
  • 1971 Together Alone Delmark
  • 1971 Circle
    Circle (jazz band)

    Circle was an avant garde jazz ensemble active in 1970 and 1971. Its core members were Chick Corea, piano; Dave Holland, bass; Barry Altschul, drums and percussion....
    : Paris Concert     [live]
  • 1972 Saxophone Improvisations, Series F (America)
  • 1972 Town Hall (1972) [live] (with Jeanne Lee
    Jeanne Lee

    Jeanne Lee was a jazz singer. Born in New York, New York, she was one of the foremost exponents of free jazz in the vocal application. Her singing style included moods that were sensual, somber, and sensitive....
    )
  • 1974 In the Tradition, Vol. 1
  • 1974 In the Tradition, Vol. 2
  • 1974 Quartet Live at Moers New Jazz Festival
  • 1974 Duo, Vols. 1 and 2
  • 1974 First Duo Concert [live]
  • 1974 Trio and Duet Sackville
  • 1974 New York, Fall 1974
  • 1974 Live at Wigmore
  • 1975 Five Pieces (1975)
  • 1975 Anthony Braxton Live
  • 1975 The Montreux/Berlin Concerts [live]
  • 1975 Live
  • 1976 Creative Orchestra Music (1976)
  • 1976 Elements of Surprise: Braxton/Lewis
    George Lewis (trombonist)

    George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971....
     Duo
  • 1976 Duets (1976)
  • 1976 Donaueschingen (Duo) 1976
  • 1976 Quartet (Dortmund) 1976 [live]
  • 1976 Solo: Live at Moers Festival
  • 1977 Four Compositions (1973)
  • 1978 Creative Orchestra (Koln) 1978
  • 1978 For Four Orchestras
  • 1978 Alto Saxophone Improvisations (1979)
  • 1978 Birth and Rebirth (with Max Roach
    Max Roach

    Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history....
    )
  • 1978 NW5-9M4: For Trio
  • 1979 Performance (9-1-1979) [live]
  • 1979 With Robert Schumann String Quartet
  • 1979 Seven Compositions (1978)
  • 1980 For Two Pianos
  • 1980 The Coventry Concert [live]
  • 1981 Composition No. 96
  • 1981 Six Compositions: Quartet
  • 1982 Open Aspects (Duo) 1982
  • 1982 Four Compositions (Solo, Duo & Trio)
  • 1982 Six Duets (1982)
  • 1983 Four Compositions (Quartet) 1983
  • 1983 Composition No. 113
  • 1984 Prag (Quartet-1984) [live]
  • 1985 Seven Standards (1985), Vol. 2
    Seven Standards

    Seven Standards is a two volume set by Free jazz musician Anthony Braxton. It was recorded January 30 -31, 1985. The album is less free than most of Braxton's previous work and features jazz standards arranged in the usual jazz-combo style....
  • 1985 London (Quartet-1985) [live]
  • 1985 Seven Standards (1985), Vol. 1
    Seven Standards

    Seven Standards is a two volume set by Free jazz musician Anthony Braxton. It was recorded January 30 -31, 1985. The album is less free than most of Braxton's previous work and features jazz standards arranged in the usual jazz-combo style....
     
  • 1985 Quartet (London) 1985 [live]
  • 1985 Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984
  • 1985 Szabraxtondos (Duo with György Szabados
    György Szabados

    Gy?rgy Szabados is a Hungarian jazz pianist, and is sometimes referred to as the "father" or "unofficial king" of the Hungary free jazz movement since the 1960s....
    ) 1985 Hungary
  • 1986 Five Compositions (Quartet), 1986
  • 1986 Moment Précieux [live]
  • 1987 Six Monk's Compositions (1987)
  • 1987 ... If My Memory Serves Me Right
  • 1988 19 (Solo) Compositions (1988)
  • 1988 Victoriaville 1988 [live]
  • 1988 2 Compositions (Järvenpää) 1988, Ensemble
  • 1988 Kol Nidre
  • 1988 The Aggregate
  • 1988 London Solo (1988)
  • 1989 Eugene (1989)
  • 1989 7 Compositions (Trio) 1989
  • 1989 Vancouver Duets (1989)
  • 1989 2 Compositions (Ensemble) 1989/1991
  • 1989 Eight (+3) Tristano Compositions, 1989
  • 1991 8 Duets: Hamburg 1991
  • 1991 Duo (Amsterdam) 1991 [live]
  • 1991 Composition No. 107 (Excerpt, 1982)/In CDCM
  • 1991 Composition No. 98
  • 1992 Wesleyan (12 Altosolos) 1992
  • 1992 Willisau (Quartet) 1991[Pt. 2] [live]
  • 1992 Composition No. 165 (For 18 Instruments)
  • 1992 (Victoriaville) 1992 [live]
  • 1993 Duets (1993)
  • 1993 9 Standards (Quartet) 1993 [live]
  • 1993 Trio (London) 1993 [live] (Leo)
  • 1993 12 Compositions: Oakland, July 1993
  • 1993 Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 [live]
  • 1993 Charlie Parker Project 1993
  • 1993 Duo (Leipzig) 1993
  • 1993 Duo (London) 1993
  • 1994 Composition No. 174: For Ten Percussionists
  • 1994 Small Ensemble Music (Wesleyan) 1994 [live]
  • 1994 Duo (Wesleyan) 1994
  • 1994 Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vol. 2 [live]
  • 1995 11 Compositions
  • 1995 10 Compositions (Duet) 1995
  • 1995 Performance Quartet
  • 1995 Octet (New York) 1995
  • 1995 Solo Piano (Standards) 1995
  • 1995 Two Lines Lovely Music
  • 1995 Knitting Factory (Piano/Quartet) 1994, Vol. 1 [live]
  • 1995 4 Compositions (Quartet) 1995
  • 1995 Seven Standards 1995
  • 1996 Composition No. 192
  • 1996 Composition No. 193 [live]
  • 1996 Tentet (New York) 1996 [live]
  • 1996 Live at Merkin Hall
  • 1996 14 Compositions (Traditional) 1996
  • 1996 Composition No. 102: For Orchestra & Puppet Theatre
  • 1996 Sextet (Istanbul) 1996
  • 1996 Composition No. 173
  • 1997 Silence/Time Zones
  • 1997 Amsterdam 1991 [live]
  • 1997 4 Compositions (Quartet) 1995
  • 1998 Compositions No. 10 & No. 16 (+101)
  • 1999 Duets (1987)
  • 1999 4 Compositions (Washington D.C.) 1998
  • 1999 Trillium R [4-CD boxset opera]
  • 2000 Composition No. 94:
  • 2000 Quintet (Basel) 1977 [live]
  • 2000 10 Compositions (Quartet) 2000
  • 2000 9 Compositions (Hill) 2000
  • 2001 Compositions/Improvisations 2000
  • 2001 Composition No. 247
  • 2001 Composition No. 169 + (186 + 206 + 214)
  • 2001 Four Compositions (GTM) 2000
  • 2001 8 Compositions (Quintet) 2001
  • 2002 This Time
  • 2002 Duets [Wesleyan] 2002
  • 2002 8 Standards (Wesleyan 2001) [live]
  • 2002 Solo (Koln) 1978
  • 2002 Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997, Vol. 1
  • 2003 Four Compositions (GTM) 2000
  • 2003 Two Compositions (Trio) 1998 [live]
  • 2003 Solo (Milano) 1979, Vol. 1 [live]
  • 2003 Anthony Braxton [2003]
  • 2003 Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997, Vol. 2 [live]
  • 2003 Solo (NYC) 2002 [live]
  • 2003 23 Standards (Quartet) 2003
  • 2003 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003
  • 2004 Shadow Company (2004)
  • 2004 4 Improvisations (Duets) 2004
  • 2005 Quintet (London) 2004 Live at the Royal Festival Hall
  • 2006 Compositions 175 & 126 (for Four Vocalists And Constructed Environment) [with The Creative Jazz Orchestra]
  • 2006 Sextet (Victoriaville) 2005
  • 2006 Black Vomit (with Wolf Eyes
    Wolf Eyes

    Wolf Eyes are a noise rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States....
    )
  • 2006 ABCD (NotTwo) with Chris Dahlgren
  • 2006 4 Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005
  • 2007 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006
  • 2007 Duets 1995 (with Joe Fonda
    Joe Fonda

    Joe Fonda is an American jazz bassist.Fonda was born in Amsterdam, New York to parents who both played jazz. He played guitar as a youth but switched to bass guitar later on....
    )     [reissue]
  • 2008 Quartet (GTM) 2006
  • 2008 4 Improvisations (with Joe Morris
    Joe Morris (guitarist)

    Joe Morris is an United States jazz guitarist. In addition to leading his own groups, he has recorded with William Parker, Whit Dickey, Rob Brown, Joe Maneri and others....
    )     (4CD)
  • 2008 The Complete Arista Recordings (Mosaic) (8CD)
  • 2008 Quartet (Moscow) 2008 (Leo)


Bibliography

  • Braxton, Anthony - Tri-Axium Writings Volumes 1-3 - 1985.
  • Braxton, Anthony - Composition Notes A-E - 1988.
  • Ford, Alun - Anthony Braxton (Creative Music Continuum) - Stride, 2004.
  • Heffley, Mike - The Music Of Anthony Braxton - Greenwood, 1996.
  • Lock, Graham - Forces in Motion: The Music and Thoughts of Anthony Braxton - Da Capo, 1989.
  • Lock, Graham - Mixtery (A Festschrift For Anthony Braxton) - Stride, 1995.
  • Lock, Graham - Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony Braxton - Duke University, 2000.
  • Radano, Ronald Michael - New Musical Figurations (Anthony Braxton's Cultural Critique) - University of Chicago, 1994.
  • Sinclair, John and Robert Levin - Introducing Anthony Braxton - Music & Politics - World, 1970
  • Wilson, Peter Niklas - Anthony Braxton. Sein Leben. Seine Musik. Seine Schallplatten. - Oreos, 1993.


External links



  • by Mike Heffley, 2001 (100+ pages)
  • by Anthony Braxton


  • Interview for Duo Palindrome (2002) w/ Andrew Cyrille
  • , before his concert at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, 10 October 1971.
  • concerning the application of his musical language (1985)
  • featuring tracks from 19 Solo Compositions, 1988
  • Composition No. 186 (1996) and Composition 304 (+ 91, 151, 164) (2002)
  • of Braxton playing a Contrabass Saxophone at Iridium Jazz Club
    Iridium Jazz Club

    The Iridium Jazz Club is a jazz club located on Broadway in New York City. Les Paul, John Colianni and the Mingus Big Band are weekly performers there....
  • Most of Braxton's recordings for are available from . This is no longer the case, but Leo Records has made almost all of Braxton's Leo sessions available as downloads from their own site.