Getting the word out, part 4

The May 2007 issue of The Wire has Philip Clark's review of 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006:

Anthony Braxton's concept of 'Ghost Trance Music' has governed the evolution of his music since the mid-90s. Described as "the point of definition in my work thus far", this Herculean nine CD set documents what he says will be the last installments of his Ghost Trance Music pieces. *** As Braxton explains in the accompanying DVD documentary, Ghost Trance Musics borrows its name from Native American Ghost Dance rituals of the late 19th century. The DVD concludes with an inspiring filmed [JG: videotaped] performance of Composition No 358, where the musicians grapple with left brain/right brain conflicts of simultaneously reading notation, randomly juxtaposing material and attempting to improvise. The music's trajectory from the 19th century to the present day seems to Braxtonise the entire history of jazz (Fletcher Henderson, Ellington, Mingus) and American music (Ives to Cage) within a single vision.
*** Compositional control and improvisational licence are kept in exhilerating mediation -- musicians need to listen vigilantly to keep the composition moving, judging the consequences of what they're about to do before they act.
It could be argued -- not without justification -- that this set-up inevitably leads to a similar feel of loosely defined 'busyness' throughout each piece. But the flipside is that Braxton achieves an ensemble music assembled from a collective of powerful individual voices. *** A major CD event for sure, and an impressive introductory venture for this new record company.

Getting the word out, part 3

An excerpt from Bill Shoemaker's review at Point of Departure:

Comprised of nine CDs, a DVD and a 56-page booklet, 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 is monumental even by Braxtonian standards. ***

Though it is packaged almost as an addendum to the CDs, the DVD is a recommended starting point, even for long-time friendly experiencers of Braxton’s music. Despite a rough hewn method of cutting between rather static Iridium performance footage and a deposition-like shot of Braxton giving an informal talk at Columbia University, Jason Guthartz’s documentary, “What Kind of “Tet?,” provides a solid primer on the GTM, showing how Braxton’s use of sectional leaders and constantly reconfiguring breakout groups implement the mix of a composition’s primary pulse materials and the performance-specific array of secondary materials, which can include any of Braxton’s prior pieces, and genetic materials, DNA-like samples extracted from Braxton’s works. Seeing the various real-time decisions that Braxton and each of his cohorts can make throughout the hour-long performance of a GTM composition connects Braxton’s descriptions to the music far more simply and securely than an audio-only format accompanied by a text, even one as lucid as Braxton gigographer Jonathan Piper’s “Like a Giant Choo Choo Train System,” included in the booklet.

The DVD also includes the complete performance of “Composition 358.” Clearly, Iridium is inimical to a multi-camera shoot of a large ensemble. The club stage flattened the ensemble’s semi-circular stage configuration, further limiting a shot selection already hampered by room-dictated camera positions. While the video still manages to reveal an enormous amount of information about communications between sectional leaders and within the breakout groups, it’s vexing not to see the full exchanges between trumpeter [JG: cornetist!!] Taylor Ho Bynum and violist Jessica Pavone, saxophonist/clarinetist Andrew Dewar Raffo and others, and it’s frustrating to barely see guitarist Mary Halvorson at all. Despite its shortcomings, the video’s most important contribution to understanding Braxton’s current music is showing the musicians’ excitement as they mold the piece in real time, including the avuncular Braxton, who often gleefully bobs and sways with the pulse of the music. In his Columbia talk, Braxton mentions having fun as one of his current objectives and it is clear he and his ensemble are meeting it, which is notable given the solemnity of early GTM performances.