Anthony Braxton | Artist
Anthony Braxton is an American experimental composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist born 1945 in Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto, and was a key early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Braxton is a prolific composer with a vast body of cross-genre work and he received great acclaim for his very first full-length album of solo saxophone music in 1969, the double LP entitled For Alto. He has a long-standing collaboration with electronic musician Richard Teitelbaum, and is part of a saxophone quartet with Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett. His compositions for four orchestras and ensemble arrangements of Creative Orchestra Music 1976 was named the Downbeat Critics' Poll Album of the Year. Always the experimentalist, the artist has projects such as the Diamond Curtain Wall, in which Braxton implements audio programming language 'SuperCollider', the Ghost Trance Music series, inspired by his studies of the Native American Ghost Dance; and Echo Echo Mirror House Music, in which musicians "play" iPods containing the bulk of Braxton's oeuvre. He has also released the first six operas in a series called the Trillium Opera Complex. Braxton has an enormous body of recorded works, including over 115 studio albums and 182 live albums. A small selection of standouts includes 3 Compositions of New Jazz (1968), For Alto (1969), Saxophone Improvisations Series F (1972), New York Fall 1974 (1975), Five Pieces 1975 (1975), Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (1992) and the live album The Montreux / Berlin Concerts (1977). Braxton taught at Mills College from 1985 to 1990 and was Professor of Music at Wesleyan University from 1990 until his retirement at the end of 2013. Braxton's son Tyondai Braxton is a musician and former guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist with American math rock band Battles.
Artist Website: tricentricfoundation.org
Featured Albums: Anthony Braxton
Related Artists: Derek Bailey, Chick Corea, Richard Teitelbaum, Tyondai Braxton
