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Squid Tempest wrote: IanB wrote: Squid Tempest wrote: oh wow, that looks interesting. Braxton sems a fascinating character, from the little I've heard of his music.
Better not let Vybik see it though, it is j*zz...
There's a good introduction to Braxton in Val Wilmer's "As Serious As Your Life" if you can dig a copy out of your local library (I assume it is long out of print).
I loved exploring this music in the early 80s. Seemed as good an anecdote to what was happening to Post Punk as any.
Now I kind of wonder whether a lot of this music was about disowning the listener and falling down the same rabbit hole as the Marxist academics who disappeared into forms of critical analysis almost designed to have no readers other than their peers.
That said when this music hits it really hits and labels are irrelevant.
Hah! Great way of putting it Ian :)
Thanks. I am taking the piss (out of myself) ever so slightly because I loved using Val Wilmer as my guide and exploring that music to its core between 78 ish and 85. Loved the fact that it was political, spiritual and properly artistically independent (unlike our indie rock scene which was totally in hock to the music press for the most part). It seemed truly "far out" musically and both uncompromised and uncompromising.
The fact that the music could be incredibly difficult to find your place in as a listener added value to the experience rather than took it away. The point of entry for most people is going to be the same with modern orchestral and chamber music - it either connects emotionally, viscerally or it keeps you totally outside. There are no familiar and comfortable places until discomfort becomes your comfort level. I think that is the point I reached in '85/'86. The music also had that hair shirt, wearing a Frelimo badge in Collets vibe about it in the early 80s if you know what I mean. Not to be discounted in the era of Thatcher and Reagan.
At the same time I remember seeing fantastic artists in their dotage like Dizzy Gillespie and the up and comers like Wynton Marsalis at Ronnies (£1 for members on Mondays and Tuesday IIRC) in his first run in London as a leader and being thrilled because the thing was like a time machine taking you back to the same spirit as the Shorter / Williams / Hancock Miles group.
It's all music. The fact that Marsalis was at war with Braxton and the music of the 60s and 70s (though that was more his supporters pushing him that way) was probably lost on me until much later. A lot of thanks is due to the London Borough Of Camden's record libraries and that my job counting traffic for the council gave me plenty of time to explore them.
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