Braxton piano quartets

[Bol]

Any comments would be appreciated.

[GregK]

I'm curious too. I just ordered one from Verge from their clearance sale but I don't have any idea what to expect

[Alexander Hawkins]

The ones I have are the concerts from Birmingham, London and Coventry, each recorded in 1985 during Braxton's tour (and brilliantly documented in Graham Lock's book 'Forces in Motion', IMHO).

I'm a huge fan of all of these, but - as at the moment I'm prefacing any post I make about Braxton - I'm in awe of the guy and has music, so maybe not entirely impartial.

As far as I'm concerned, there's some great playing all round. Braxton sticks to the smaller horns (alto upwards, mostly, although I forget whether there mightn't be some C-melody sax on there) - I imagine this is for ease of touring. Marilyn Crispell plays wonderfully, although I don't know her work outside of this quartet so couldn't offer any comparison. The bass and drums are great as well. Mark Dresser's bass in particular was a revelation to me - very inventive playing.

They are each 2-cd sets, and each disc is an entire set of the concert (the Coventry disc has the nice bonus feature of some interviews with Braxton - although the material almost all finds its way into Lock's (the interviewer) book in any case). It's collage structure music, so a continuous performance, integrating various of Braxton's compositions. I was a little worried before starting this music that the concept was a little academic, and the music might sound obtuse, but not a bit of it. There's a great flow to the music, and it develops very organically: it doesn't sound (as is technically the case at some moments) that there are 4 players each playing a different composition. But perhaps because of the amount of 'set' material, and the collage idea, it's a really interesting study in group dynamics.

I think these quartet music are also an object lesson in 'freedom from' versus 'freedom to': to my ears, the fact that there are written compositions integrated with free improvisation etc. increases choice, and freedom, rather than restricts it, as some caricature composition as doing.

Couldn't pick a favourite out of the discs. London, I think, has substantially longer sets, but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

Of the quartets, I also enjoyed the Black Saint albums from 1984 and 1986.

Edited July 28, 2005 by Red

[Bol]

Thanks, Red, for your comments. But I meant (I should have been clearer) the recordings in which Braxton plays the piano, with Marty Ehrlich on sax. Well, GregK, let me know what you think of the recording you get.

[Alexander Hawkins]

Ah - sorry - I was confused by the mention to Leo. My mistake. I was listening to the piano quartets on the Music and Arts label at the time, and forgot that there were some on Leo!

I don't know the Leo piano quartets. My first reaction to the Music and Arts recordings (done Live at Yoshi's) were consternation. But since that time, I've come to like them A LOT. A lot of it still gets past me (e.g. Cherokee), but by the same token, I get a lot out of the recordings. I especially like his way with the ballads. Whereas up tempo there is a lot of work with clusters and block chords, at the slower speeds he occasionally picks out fascinating single lines. Reminds me of Monk, and more than anyone, Elmo Hope.

Again, don't know about the Leo discs, but these are disc-length performances, with the individual standards bridged by free passages, essentially. Apart from in these moments, the bass and drums are pretty 'functional' - not in a pejorative sense, but just that they don't 'do' much other than stay out of the way (although I occasionally get the impression that their straight playing is expressly to get in the way, to try to keep Braxton 'on the planet' - he goes FAR AWAY on some pieces!).

Ehrlich I haven't really gotten into on these recordings...And I don't know enough of his other stuff to know whether this is me not liking his style in general, whether it's him having a bad day, or what!

[Bol]

Red, thanks. That is very helpful. I once had an Ehrlich recording. Didn't like his playing on it very much. Couldn't quite figure out why. He didn't seem that interesting. A lot of fire, but no ideas. Or so it seemed to me. I was listening to Ab Baars last night. Wow! He is an interesting player.

[GregK]

Thanks, Red, for your comments.  But I meant (I should have been clearer) the recordings in which Braxton plays the piano, with Marty Ehrlich on sax.  Well, GregK, let me know what you think of the recording you get.

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Sorry, guess I won't be able to comment- there was a mix-up with my order. It wasn't received for some reason, and now they are sold-out. So I'll have to get them somewhere else, some other time