This octet documentation of Anthony Braxton's "Composition 188" is solid evidence of the state of the decline of the recording industry's ability to nurture an artist -- even one of Braxton's stature -- and see to much less beyond the bottom line in order to fulfill their function as documenters of cultural history. They may claim no responsibility, but they're wrong. This disc is angering, and it's not for the quality of the written music or even Braxton's performance, which is, as usual, excellent. It's the fact that he had to record it himself with a group of players who, despite their individual qualities, were not up to the task of performing with any kind of inspiration on work as wondrous and difficult as this. Braxton is clearly working with his students here, and it shows in the recorded result. The muddy mix, the shoddy spatial relationships between instruments, and the evident rigorous effort put in on the part of a group whose entire collective effort, while admirable, is not equal to the challenges of "Composition 188," nearly an hour long and full of knotty harmonic ideas and strange cascading repetitive note patterns that shift from front to back and then side to side in oddly delineated intervals of tonal ebullience. But what was Braxton supposed to do? Not document it in performance? A label would have allowed Braxton to hire -- rather than ask their favor -- a group of handpicked musicians for this particular work and have given them the money and the time to rehearse it adequately before recording it. That used to happen. - Tom Jurek
Track Listing
1. Compostition No. 188
JOE FONDA bass
KEVIN NORTON drums, vibraphone, glockenspiel, percussion
JASON KAO HWANG electric violin
ROLAND DAHINDEN tenor trombone, alto trombone
BRANDON EVANS wooden flute, c-soprano saxophone, tenor sax, bass clarinet, flute
TED REICHMAN accordion
ANDRE VIDA baritone, alto & tenor saxophones, hungarian shepherd flute
ANTHONY BRAXTON soprano sax, alto sax, f-saxophone, e-flat clarinet, b-flat clarinet, contrabass clarinet
Music composed by Anthony Braxton
Recorded November 24, 1995 at the Trio-Centric (Thanksgiving 1995) Festival at the Knitting Factory, New York City
Braxton House - BH 006
https://newbraxtonhouse.bandcamp.com