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New Musical Figurations: Anthony Braxton's Cultural Critique
New Musical Figurations exemplifies a dramatically new way of configuring jazz music and history. By relating biography to the cultural and musical contours of contemporary American life, Ronald M. Radano observes jazz practice as part of the complex interweaving of postmodern culture—a culture that has eroded conventional categories defining jazz and the jazz musician. Radano accomplishes all this by analyzing the creative life of Anthony Braxton, one of the most emblematic figures of this cultural crisis.
Born in 1945, Braxton is not only a virtuoso jazz saxophonist but an innovative theoretician and composer of experimental art music. His refusal to conform to the conventions of official musical culture has helped unhinge the very ideologies on which definitions of "jazz," "black music," "popular music," and "art music" are founded.
New Musical Figurations gives the richest view available of this many-sided artist. Radano examines Braxton's early years on the South Side of Chicago, whose vibrant black musical legacy inspired him to explore new avenues of expression. Here is the first detailed history of Braxton's central role in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the principal musician-run institution of free jazz in the United States. After leaving Chicago, Braxton was active in Paris and New York, collaborating with Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and other composers affiliated with the experimental-music movement. From 1974 to 1981, he gained renown as a popular jazz performer and recording artist. Since then he has taught at Mills College and Wesleyan University, given lectures on his theoretical musical system, and written works for chamber groups as well as large, opera-scale pieces.
The neglect of radical, challenging figures like Braxton in standard histories of jazz, Radano argues, mutes the innovative voice of the African-American musical tradition. Refreshingly free of technical jargon, New Musical Figurations is more than just another variation on the same jazz theme. Rather, it is an exploratory work as rich in theoretical vision as it is in historical detail.
Born in 1945, Braxton is not only a virtuoso jazz saxophonist but an innovative theoretician and composer of experimental art music. His refusal to conform to the conventions of official musical culture has helped unhinge the very ideologies on which definitions of "jazz," "black music," "popular music," and "art music" are founded.
New Musical Figurations gives the richest view available of this many-sided artist. Radano examines Braxton's early years on the South Side of Chicago, whose vibrant black musical legacy inspired him to explore new avenues of expression. Here is the first detailed history of Braxton's central role in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the principal musician-run institution of free jazz in the United States. After leaving Chicago, Braxton was active in Paris and New York, collaborating with Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and other composers affiliated with the experimental-music movement. From 1974 to 1981, he gained renown as a popular jazz performer and recording artist. Since then he has taught at Mills College and Wesleyan University, given lectures on his theoretical musical system, and written works for chamber groups as well as large, opera-scale pieces.
The neglect of radical, challenging figures like Braxton in standard histories of jazz, Radano argues, mutes the innovative voice of the African-American musical tradition. Refreshingly free of technical jargon, New Musical Figurations is more than just another variation on the same jazz theme. Rather, it is an exploratory work as rich in theoretical vision as it is in historical detail.
- GenresMusicNonfictionJazz
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 1994
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December 23, 2009
After the first two chapters, which at times seemed more footnotes than pages of writing, the theory calmed down a bit (it was all pretty solid theory, mind; it's just been a while since I've done the old slog) and the narrative was solidly-researched and worthwhile. When Radano let slip later in the book that he did his dissertation on Braxton, it became apparent that this was probably just a fleshed-out version of same.
Radano's grad-student dedication to research, however, was the book's major strength. Even if he was mostly quoting from '70s jazz mags, from 'Down Beat' to 'Jazz Hot,' Radano really drew a vivid portrait of the clashes in the jazz community in the '70s, the fights between the crossing streams of free, trad, and fusion, and the power vacuum that opened up, somehow allowing Braxton (through his unexpected nine-album deal with recently-founded label Arista) a brief window of time when the jazz press all allied for just long enough to brand him 'The Next Big Thing.' It was a smoke-and-mirrors job worthy of Copperfield, the label execs front-loading 'accessible' tracks towards the start of side one of the first few albums, guaranteeing radio play, while the jazz press painted Braxton as a raw, emotional firebrand wrapped in the cardigan sweater of nerdy academia...but someone who RESPECTED the jazz tradition!
It was a ruse that worked for a while, until Braxton was allowed to follow his own whims, at which time the pieces for two pianos, four orchestras, and two trios with Cagean pictorial scores started dropping, and Braxton's U.S. popularity dropped to near-zero by 1980.
Without going into the big, scary (read: COSTLY) books that come next (Heffley's composition-by-composition analysis, Braxton's own 'Composition Notes'), this book and Lock's 'Forces in Motion' appear to be the two Braxton books readily available (it remains to be seen where Stuart Broomer's 'Time and Anthony Braxton' will fit in). Radano and Lock do a nice job of analyzing two different sides of Braxton from two different perspectives. There's definitely a progression in place -- you should really start with Lock's book to get the immediate visceral thrill of hearing and experiencing Braxton for the first time -- the road stories, the candid interviews, the exhausting tour schedule. Once you've read 'Forces in Motion,' and ideally have heard some of the recordings by Braxton's classic '80s quartet (w/ Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemmingway), once you've got the ITCH, you can jump headfirst into Radano, which gives a much fuller context for Braxton's roots (Radano does an excellent job gathering threads of influence throughout the South-side Chicago community Braxton grew up in) as well as his early influence by (and on) the AACM (further exploration into this topic can and should be done via George Lewis's exhaustive tome, 'A Force Stronger Than Itself'). While I'm unsure of Broomer's scope in his recent book, I hope that he or some other author will pick up the narrative thread in the future, giving a better documentation of Braxton's explorations since 1985, including his decade-plus writing of his 'Ghost Trance Musics,' as well as his attempts to release his planned 36 single-act opera cycle, 'Trillium,' throughout the past 15 years.
Five recommended Braxton albums, for newcomers:
1. New York, Fall 1974 LP (Arista, later re-released on the 8 CD Mosaic Records box set)
2. Alto Saxophone Improvisations, 1979 LP (Arista, as above)
3. Quartet (Coventry) 1985 CD (Leo) - includes 60 minutes of audio interviews with Braxton by Graham Lock, as well as extensive liner notes of the ways in which the interlocking compositions are being performed. A veritable Rosetta Stone of Braxton's ideas and art.
4. Quartet (Dortmund) 1976 CD (Hat Hut)
5. 'Anthony Braxton' CD or LP (myriad reissues on Fuel 2000, Get Back!, BYG/Actuel, others). Any of the recordings done by what became known as the 'Creative Construction Company' are a recommended look into Braxton's early workings (see also: '3 Compositions of New Jazz,' and 'This Time...')
Radano's grad-student dedication to research, however, was the book's major strength. Even if he was mostly quoting from '70s jazz mags, from 'Down Beat' to 'Jazz Hot,' Radano really drew a vivid portrait of the clashes in the jazz community in the '70s, the fights between the crossing streams of free, trad, and fusion, and the power vacuum that opened up, somehow allowing Braxton (through his unexpected nine-album deal with recently-founded label Arista) a brief window of time when the jazz press all allied for just long enough to brand him 'The Next Big Thing.' It was a smoke-and-mirrors job worthy of Copperfield, the label execs front-loading 'accessible' tracks towards the start of side one of the first few albums, guaranteeing radio play, while the jazz press painted Braxton as a raw, emotional firebrand wrapped in the cardigan sweater of nerdy academia...but someone who RESPECTED the jazz tradition!
It was a ruse that worked for a while, until Braxton was allowed to follow his own whims, at which time the pieces for two pianos, four orchestras, and two trios with Cagean pictorial scores started dropping, and Braxton's U.S. popularity dropped to near-zero by 1980.
Without going into the big, scary (read: COSTLY) books that come next (Heffley's composition-by-composition analysis, Braxton's own 'Composition Notes'), this book and Lock's 'Forces in Motion' appear to be the two Braxton books readily available (it remains to be seen where Stuart Broomer's 'Time and Anthony Braxton' will fit in). Radano and Lock do a nice job of analyzing two different sides of Braxton from two different perspectives. There's definitely a progression in place -- you should really start with Lock's book to get the immediate visceral thrill of hearing and experiencing Braxton for the first time -- the road stories, the candid interviews, the exhausting tour schedule. Once you've read 'Forces in Motion,' and ideally have heard some of the recordings by Braxton's classic '80s quartet (w/ Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemmingway), once you've got the ITCH, you can jump headfirst into Radano, which gives a much fuller context for Braxton's roots (Radano does an excellent job gathering threads of influence throughout the South-side Chicago community Braxton grew up in) as well as his early influence by (and on) the AACM (further exploration into this topic can and should be done via George Lewis's exhaustive tome, 'A Force Stronger Than Itself'). While I'm unsure of Broomer's scope in his recent book, I hope that he or some other author will pick up the narrative thread in the future, giving a better documentation of Braxton's explorations since 1985, including his decade-plus writing of his 'Ghost Trance Musics,' as well as his attempts to release his planned 36 single-act opera cycle, 'Trillium,' throughout the past 15 years.
Five recommended Braxton albums, for newcomers:
1. New York, Fall 1974 LP (Arista, later re-released on the 8 CD Mosaic Records box set)
2. Alto Saxophone Improvisations, 1979 LP (Arista, as above)
3. Quartet (Coventry) 1985 CD (Leo) - includes 60 minutes of audio interviews with Braxton by Graham Lock, as well as extensive liner notes of the ways in which the interlocking compositions are being performed. A veritable Rosetta Stone of Braxton's ideas and art.
4. Quartet (Dortmund) 1976 CD (Hat Hut)
5. 'Anthony Braxton' CD or LP (myriad reissues on Fuel 2000, Get Back!, BYG/Actuel, others). Any of the recordings done by what became known as the 'Creative Construction Company' are a recommended look into Braxton's early workings (see also: '3 Compositions of New Jazz,' and 'This Time...')
January 24, 2016
Good book; I read it when it came out & at the time it seemed as if Radano had pretty much combined a bibliography of Braxton interviews and reviews and put them into a "cultural studies" machine.
On re-reading it, the book is better than that, and since much of the original source material was published in small magazines and journals that may not be easy to find in many locations, it provides relatively easy access to (edited) primary sources. As noted in an earlier review, this book, the Graham Locke book documenting a tour of Great Britain by Braxton's 1980s quartet, & Stuart Broomer's more theoretical book, are still the major critical sources about Braxton in book form.
On re-reading it, the book is better than that, and since much of the original source material was published in small magazines and journals that may not be easy to find in many locations, it provides relatively easy access to (edited) primary sources. As noted in an earlier review, this book, the Graham Locke book documenting a tour of Great Britain by Braxton's 1980s quartet, & Stuart Broomer's more theoretical book, are still the major critical sources about Braxton in book form.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews