The Squid's Ear Magazine


Braxton, Anthony / Derek Bailey: First Duo Concert (London 1974) (Emanem)

A much-need reissue of the 1974 Emanem LP presenting saxophonist Anthony Baxton, also on flute, with guitarist Derek Bailey on acoustic and electric, performing at London's Wigmore Hall for twelve duets of a diverse, playful, and accesible character.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Anthony Braxton-flute, clarinet, soprano clarinet, contrabass clarinet, alto saxophone, sopranino saxophone

Derek Bailey-amplified guitar, 19-string (approx.) guiyar


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UPC: 5030243503827

Label: Emanem
Catalog ID: 5038
Squidco Product Code: 21147

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2015
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded at the Wigmore Hall, in London, England, on June 30th, 1974, by Martin Davidson. Originally issued in 1974 on Emanem as double LP 601.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"These twelve duets between African-American avant-gardist Anthony Braxton and Brit Derek Bailey are remarkable for several reasons, not the least of which is that this is the first recording of these two seminal figures performing in tandem. For this live concert, Braxton brought his array of horns: contrabass, soprano, and Bb clarinets, flute, and sopranino and alto saxophones, while Bailey alternated between amplified and acoustic 19-string guitars.

Coming from entirely different traditions of free music, Braxton emits a more melodic, tonal approach, while Bailey exemplifies an atonal, abstract concept. The results are hugely successful, with the two meeting halfway. As an indication of Braxton's remarkable diversity, it is worth noting that he recorded his two mainstream In the Tradition albums for SteepleChase just the month before. The duo recorded here with Bailey is surprisingly accessible, and contrasts two complementary approaches within the free music genre."-Steve Loewy



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

[Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American composer and instrumentalist.]

"Genius is a rare commodity in any art form, but at the end of the 20th century it seemed all but non-existent in jazz, a music that had ceased looking ahead and begun swallowing its tail. If it seemed like the music had run out of ideas, it might be because Anthony Braxton covered just about every conceivable area of creativity during the course of his extraordinary career. The multi-reedist/composer might very well be jazz's last bona fide genius. Braxton began with jazz's essential rhythmic and textural elements, combining them with all manner of experimental compositional techniques, from graphic and non-specific notation to serialism and multimedia. Even at the peak of his renown in the mid- to late '70s, Braxton was a controversial figure amongst musicians and critics. His self-invented (yet heavily theoretical) approach to playing and composing jazz seemed to have as much in common with late 20th century classical music as it did jazz, and therefore alienated those who considered jazz at a full remove from European idioms. Although Braxton exhibited a genuine -- if highly idiosyncratic -- ability to play older forms (influenced especially by saxophonists Warne Marsh, John Coltrane, Paul Desmond, and Eric Dolphy), 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 and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Many of the mainstream's most popular musicians (Wynton Marsalis 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. Braxton was able to fuse jazz's visceral components with contemporary classical music's formal and harmonic methods in an utterly unselfconscious -- and therefore convincing -- way. The best of his work is on a level with any art music of the late 20th century, jazz or classical.

Braxton began playing music as a teenager in Chicago, developing an early interest in both jazz and classical musics. He attended the Chicago School of Music from 1959-1963, then Roosevelt University, where he studied philosophy and composition. During this time, he became acquainted with many of his future collaborators, including saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell. Braxton entered the service and played saxophone in an Army band; for a time he was stationed in Korea. Upon his discharge in 1966, he returned to Chicago where he joined the nascent Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The next year, he formed an influential free jazz trio, the Creative Construction Company, with violinist Leroy Jenkins and trumpeter Leo Smith. In 1968, he recorded For Alto, the first-ever recording for solo saxophone. Braxton lived in Paris for a short while beginning in 1969, where he played with a rhythm section comprised of bassist Dave Holland, pianist Chick Corea, and drummer Barry Altschul. Called Circle, the group stayed together for about a year before disbanding (Holland and Altschul would continue to play in Braxton-led groups for the next several years). Braxton moved to New York in 1970. The '70s saw his star rise (in a manner of speaking); he recorded a number of ambitious albums for the major label Arista and performing in various contexts. Braxton maintained a quartet with Altschul, Holland, and a brass player (either trumpeter Kenny Wheeler or trombonist George Lewis) for most of the '70s. During the decade, he also performed with the Italian free improvisation group Musica Elettronica Viva, and guitarist Derek Bailey, as well as his colleagues in AACM. The '80s saw Braxton lose his major-label deal, yet he continued to record and issue albums on independent labels at a dizzying pace. He recorded a memorable series of duets with bop pioneer Max Roach, and made records of standards with pianists Tete Montoliu and Hank Jones. Braxton's steadiest vehicle in the '80s and '90s -- and what is often considered his best group -- was his quartet with pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Gerry Hemingway. In 1985, he began teaching at Mills College in California; he subsequently joined the music faculty at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he taught through the '90s. During that decade, he received a large grant from the MacArthur Foundation that allowed him to finance some large-scale projects he'd long envisioned, including an opera. At the beginning of the 21st century, Braxton was still a vital presence on the creative music scene."

-All Music, Chris Kelsey (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/anthony-braxton-mn0000924030/biography)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. The First Set - Area 1 8:23

2. The First Set - Area 2 3:13

3. The First Set - Area 3 (Open) 8:44

4. The First Set - Area 4 (Solo) 2:44

5. The First Set - Area 5 5:22

6. The First Set - Area 6 6:15

7. The Second Set - Area 7 6:48

8. The Second Set - Area 8 6:24

9. The Second Set - Area 9 (Solo) 5:57

10. The Second Set - Area 10 4:29

11. The Second Set - Area 11 (Open) 15:25

12. The Second Set - Area 12 4:02

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
NY Downtown & Jazz/Improv
Bailey, Derek
EMANEM & psi
Duo Recordings
EMANEM & psi

Search for other titles on the label:
Emanem.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Braxton, Anthony
Trillium J [4 CDs + Blu Ray]
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Newly Distributed in 2021: A multimedia box set of Anthony Braxton's opera work "Trillium J", containing live performance video on Blu-ray disc of a 2014 performance at Roulette in NY, and studio recording on 4-CD set, with 12 vocalists, 12 instrumental soloists and a full orchestra.
Braxton, Anthony / Fonda, Joe
Duets 1995
(Clean Feed)
Braxton, Anthony / Frith, Fred
Duo (Victoriaville) 2005
(Les Disques Victo)
Bailey, Derek & Fine, Milo
Scale Points on the Fever Curve
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