Quartet (Standards) 2020
by Anthony Braxton
John Cratchley
John Cratchley
Always an absolute pleasure when Mr Braxton turns his unique sensibilities towards the ‘standard’ repertoire…this set looks monumental but feels anything but: alive, contemporary and compelling…if his music is new to you, please also check out ‘19 Standards’, ‘20 Standards’, ‘23 Standards’, ‘The Charlie Parker Project’ et al…you will be delighted.
Noël Akchoté
Noël Akchoté
Listening to Anthony Braxton is always such a joy and alert, but this particular Quartet and Repertoire is a real source of renewal for me!
Sailor Dog
Sailor Dog
The beatnik says to the waiter, How's the soup? Waiter says, oh the soup is gone. Beatnik says, I'll have some of that crazy soup!
Favorite track: I Remember You.
pbevan
elrockers
Howard Martin
Francois Couture
Taylor
paul_graham
ronoffbeat
gushbcamp2020
Bert Schurink
slideecho
mauro paolis
marchannaford
Marc Mayer
Kyoko Kitamura
Cameron D. Campbell
Fionn
Paul Parris
David Weininger
LPT
Pedro Solla
schindelbeck
Charles Hutchins
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Franz
Joe Gillis
Aaron Bragg
Steve Smith
jsb23p
ipchrist
bluesphere
Michael Moorman
Jon Panish
Colin Cahill
Stephen Simpson
Ian Kavanagh
John Chantler
john cagematch
OOOII
John Sax
altschul
efiftyseven
Alberto Cecilio Manuel Garcia
joebee
morndewey
Paradachs
Joe Rutherford
tortkis
_Stefano____
aberdones
kammerspiele
quietusjohn
Reece
AlexBz
mber
James Agar
Daniel Burt
mjacklin
Roberto Ortiz
djjazzpants
Andrew Schamess
|
Minority
00:00
/
12:20
|
|||
-
Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Includes two digital booklets with liner notes, track listings, and photosPurchasable with gift cardDownload available in 24-bit/48kHz.$95 USD or more
-
Full Digital Discography
Get all 62 New Braxton House releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022, Quartet (Standards) 2020, Duo (Improv) 2017, Anthony Braxton with Robert Schumann String Quartet, Kol Nidre, Solo (Kent) 1979, GTM (Syntax) 2017, Echo Echo Mirror House (NYC) 2011, and 54 more.
Purchasable with gift card$909 USD or more (25% OFF)
about
On June 18, 2021, the Tri-Centric Foundation and New Braxton House Records will release Anthony Braxton's "Quartet (Standards) 2020", a 13-CD deluxe box set documenting Braxton’s European tour in January last year. Armed with a songbook of over one hundred tunes, Braxton crossed the Atlantic and assembled a stellar ensemble of British musicians – Alexander Hawkins on piano, Neil Charles on bass and Stephen Davis on drums. The box set comprises sixty-seven tracks culled from nine evenings of performances in London, Warsaw and Wels representing decades of American music, from the Great American songbook to Paul Simon via music by jazz luminaries including Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Andrew Hill, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, and many more.
Widely revered as one of the most original composers and conceptualists of the past fifty years, Braxton has also pursued his own idiosyncratic path through the jazz repertoire throughout his career, including his 1974 recording "What's New in the Tradition" and his more recently released eleven-album Charlie Parker tribute, “Sextet (Parker) 1993”. “Mid-way through his eighth decade, Braxton is doing the opposite of slowing down or resting on his laurels, and whereas the instantiation of a ‘standards quartet’ might elsewhere be taken as a retreat into comfortable, familiar traditionalism, Braxton’s history with standards thus far should lead us to expect nothing of the kind,” writes David Grundy in the liner notes for “Quartet (Standards) 2020”.
Indeed, in the hands of Braxton and his cohorts, the familiar is an entry point into the unknown. Take “Virgo” for example, on which the musicians liberally weave in Language Music, Braxton’s conducted improvisation system, as a backdrop behind Braxton’s playing. Braxton’s role as the interpreter in the ensemble is thus unified with his immense legacy as composer and creator of music systems by the next-generation musicians versed in his system. That kind of shared understanding by the musicians is palpable throughout the recording. Nestled among the more jazzier side of things are the familiar but unexpected selections from Simon & Garfunkel repertoire which highlight another dimension of the band.
The tour took place in January 2020, just as the world was starting to shut down. There were a slew of events scheduled to celebrate Anthony’s 75th birthday – including multi-day performances at the Big Ears Festival, an international conference on his work and another European tour – which never happened. As David Grundy writes, “Never buying into the myth of the old separated from the new or the new separated from the old, such music is palimpsestic. You can see through the layers to the music’s origins at virtually every point; but equally, you can see ahead to the future, what Braxton calls “the open space”. In a time at once of unmooring and of “shelter-in-place”, we need such approaches more than ever. This music can help us, all—in our individual, joined and separated ways—to know where we are.”
Widely revered as one of the most original composers and conceptualists of the past fifty years, Braxton has also pursued his own idiosyncratic path through the jazz repertoire throughout his career, including his 1974 recording "What's New in the Tradition" and his more recently released eleven-album Charlie Parker tribute, “Sextet (Parker) 1993”. “Mid-way through his eighth decade, Braxton is doing the opposite of slowing down or resting on his laurels, and whereas the instantiation of a ‘standards quartet’ might elsewhere be taken as a retreat into comfortable, familiar traditionalism, Braxton’s history with standards thus far should lead us to expect nothing of the kind,” writes David Grundy in the liner notes for “Quartet (Standards) 2020”.
Indeed, in the hands of Braxton and his cohorts, the familiar is an entry point into the unknown. Take “Virgo” for example, on which the musicians liberally weave in Language Music, Braxton’s conducted improvisation system, as a backdrop behind Braxton’s playing. Braxton’s role as the interpreter in the ensemble is thus unified with his immense legacy as composer and creator of music systems by the next-generation musicians versed in his system. That kind of shared understanding by the musicians is palpable throughout the recording. Nestled among the more jazzier side of things are the familiar but unexpected selections from Simon & Garfunkel repertoire which highlight another dimension of the band.
The tour took place in January 2020, just as the world was starting to shut down. There were a slew of events scheduled to celebrate Anthony’s 75th birthday – including multi-day performances at the Big Ears Festival, an international conference on his work and another European tour – which never happened. As David Grundy writes, “Never buying into the myth of the old separated from the new or the new separated from the old, such music is palimpsestic. You can see through the layers to the music’s origins at virtually every point; but equally, you can see ahead to the future, what Braxton calls “the open space”. In a time at once of unmooring and of “shelter-in-place”, we need such approaches more than ever. This music can help us, all—in our individual, joined and separated ways—to know where we are.”
credits
released June 18, 2021
Anthony Braxton - saxophones
Alexander Hawkins - piano
Neil Charles - bass
Stephen Davis - drums
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Jon Rosenberg
Produced by Anthony Braxton
Release Production by Kyoko Kitamura and Carl Testa for The Tri-Centric Foundation
Anthony Braxton - saxophones
Alexander Hawkins - piano
Neil Charles - bass
Stephen Davis - drums
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Jon Rosenberg
Produced by Anthony Braxton
Release Production by Kyoko Kitamura and Carl Testa for The Tri-Centric Foundation
license
all rights reserved
tags
discography
-
Mar 2024 -
Jun 2021 -
Jun 2020 -
Jan 2019
contact / help
If you like Quartet (Standards) 2020, you may also like:
-
12 Comp (ZIM) 2017
by Anthony Braxtonsupported by 95 fans who also own “Quartet (Standards) 2020”
Beautifully immersive sound experience. Not familiar enough with the mechanics of ZIM and the liner notes are pretty oblique about those but ample on the poetics and the humor (yes!) of this music. A high water mark for Braxton's music.
go to album -
supported by 83 fans who also own “Quartet (Standards) 2020”
Total mastery of patience, time, and drama create a constantly engaging journey that never gets tiresome or same-y: in fact the harder you listen the better it gets! Somehow Sorey et al. find a way to combine the deep listening and spontaneous interaction of the best jazz with the sense of every tone and sound being worth a universe of listening, which could be equally from Cage and Feldman or the accompaniment to an ancient ritual. The recording/engineering is absolutely perfect as well.
go to album -
Birdland, Neuburg 2011
by Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxleysupported by 78 fans who also own “Quartet (Standards) 2020”
There is a classical grandeur to Taylor’s playing here, spinning gothic arches of sound that never stop rising to the heavens even as they push up undaunted through Oxley’s richly textured hailstorms of percussion. Many delicate moments which Oxley lets breath, bracketing them elegantly. Some of Cecil’s most accessible moments of glittering beauty. A Beethoven’s power, a Scriabin’s poetry, a Messiaen’s colour, a Prokofiev’s playfulness, but all Cecil Taylor. Very good recording quality.
go to album -
Demos PT. 1 AUG-SEPT. 2023 - Sometimes They Can't Stay (ideas you love)
by (Liv).efeatured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 26, 2024
go to album -
Meeting with a Judas Tree
by Duval TimothyThe London composer's latest album is a document of both the joy and impermanence of life.
go to album -
Whipped Stream and Other Earthly Delights
by Moth CockThree-and-a-half hours of electroacoustic improvisations that frequently conjure worlds as wonderful, alien, graceless, and confounding as insect mating.
go to album -
