Getting the word out, part 9.3

The Braxton Iridium box comes in at #38 in The Wire's best-of-2007 poll -- though if you eliminate non-improv titles, it'd be something like #3.

There is, however, another Braxton closer to the top of that list: Tyondai, via the (awesome) group Battles.

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.