Forces in Motion: The Music and Thoughts of Anthony Braxton

Born in Chicago in 1945, the composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton is among the most controversial figures in modern music. From an early piece for 100 tubas to his planned compositions for orchestras on different planets, Braxton's boundless imagination has constantly broken through critical definitions of "jazz". This book, which resulted from a tour of England in 1985, features Braxton's thoughts on music history -Ellington, Coltrane, Parker- as well as the never-ending questions of racism and poverty. On one level a fascinating X-ray into the mind of a musical visionary, this is also a very funny account of a group on tour. Braxton talks about chess, hamburgers, astrology, feminism, Chick Corea, Egypt, and acid rain. Most of all this is a book about what it means to dedicate your life to creative music -the rewards, frustrations, and the reasons these players, black and withe, men and women, continue to push themselves and the music toward uncharted territory.

CONTENIDO:

Introduction

Astro Black Mythology
Magic was my name
Doors of the Cosmos
House of Light
"I like all the sounds that upset people"/Goodbye to America/Compulsory tuxedos/Keeping the creators down/"Beauty is necessary for survival"
Astro Black

Road
Tuesday 12, London
Wednesday 13, London

Metaroad
Sweet home Chicago - Factories of Death
Biography 1, 1945-69
- Black and poor in America/Frankie Lymon, James Brown, Live at the Regal/Philosophy-Piano piece 1/Racism in the Army-Korea/The AACM-Multi-instrumentalism/Sound Tools, Live Dump Truck, Environment Strolls/For Alto-a Syntax for Solo Saxophone/Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Leo Smith/ Dying in Chicago

Road
Thursday 14, Newcastle

Metaroad
Foreground Music 1
- Paul Desmond-"Only the essence remained"/The Tightrope of "It"-Masters/ Charlie Parker -Talking of the upper partials/The Post-Parker Continuum/"Black exotica"-the concept of African Inferiority/ Eric Dolphy - Bebop to Extremes/Jackie McLean, Roy Haynes, Jimmy Giuffre/ Ornette Coleman - Reaffirming the African Composer

Road
Friday 15,Manchester

Metaroad
Biography 2, 1969-74
- "People were Throwing Rocks at Us"/ Chess Hustler - a lost generation/ Living with Ornette/Circle-Scientology/ Titles-a crack in the Universe/ Chess-"a world of forces"/"Swing" - the little book of "Jazz"/ African Intellectual Cynamics - the black Spaniard of Bonn / Stuck in LA, Damned to Hell in Downbeat, Paris/ IRCAM: Business as usual"

Road
Saturday 16, Manchester

Metaroad
Foreground Music 2,
-The Unsung Mastery of Warne Marsh - Gravillic Contours/CapablancaŽs Line/The European Mystic Lineage/ John Coltrane - a New Level of sound wonder - "Sit in with God"/Attacked with an Umbrella - Spiritual Power/ Cecil Taylor, a Genius Genius/The Tenth Floor - "Invisible Things"

Road
Sunday 17, Birmingham

Quartet
Mark Dresser, Bass

Road
Monday 18, Liverpool

Metaroad
Biography 3, 1974-85
- The European Improvisers/ The Arista Period - "Under the Rug"/ Notated Music - "You take what you can get"/ Record Companies - "Aarrgghh!!!"/ Four billion projects/ In the Tradition, the Inflexible Group, Valium/Taking the Lumps/ A Fortunate Struggle/ "Keep away from Musicians"/ The Heat of Logs - in the Basement

Road
Wednesday 20, Leicester

Metaroad
Sound logic, Sound magic 1: Musical evolution
- Restructuralism, Stylism, Traditionalism/ Balancing the Trivibrational Dynamics/ "IŽve Always Played the Blues"/ Conceptual Grafting/ Coding, Co-ordinate and Schematic Musics/ Ritual & Ceremonial Musics/ "From the Abstract to the Concrete"/ Structural Criteria/ Territories - the Vibrational Liquid of Improvisation

Road
Thursday 21, Bristol

Quartet
Marilyn Crispell, Piano

Road
Friday 22, Southampton

Metaroad
Sound Logic, sound magic 2: Pulse Tracks, Collage Forms, Multi-orchestralism
- 23G, "Sound Attacks", Vertical and Horizontal Formings/ 116, a Synchronist Pulse Track Structure/ Accordion Sound Space - Diamond Soun space/ The Solar System of Pulse Tracks - Multiple Logic Musics/ Opposition and Collage Forms - Vibrational Clash/ Sound Mass Particles - Environments/82: "Like a city" - Planet Level Music/ A Music to Heal Deserts/ Falling Behind Schedule/ Higher Thoughts - a Music to Play God

Road
Saturday 23, Leeds

Metaroad
Sound Logic, sound magic 3: Titles, Colours, Shapes
- Let "A" Equal Curve Line / Encoding - "The Title will do its own job"/ A reality of fundamentals/ "Think a Thought that will affect the planet"/ Opus numbers/ The Emotional Zone of Red/ The lost sign of the Zodiac - Negative energies/ The difference between talk and talk

Road
Sunday 24, Leeds

Metaroad
Sound Logic, sound magic 4: the Metaphysics of Structure - Affinity Insight - What Structure is/ Bopbe/ Inventing the wheel 500 times/ Going to see the Chicken Fight/ The Theory of the Isolated Pawn - Saved by Unlogic!/ Develop into a Rock/ Where Thinking is a Dirty Word/ Emotional Zones - "I never meant become an Android"/ Freedom - "Now I Can Kill You"/ Transformation and Ritual/ Endgame

Road
Monday 25, Huddersfield

Quartet
Gerry Hemingway, Percussion

Road
1983, Belgrade/ Venice

Metaroad
Coda
-The Quartet/ George Lewis - Mr Rzewski & Mr Teitelbaum/ The Political Option Dynamics for Women/ "Master" - the Sexist Bias of Language/ African-American Intellectuals - the Left/ "Put the Mystics in Charge"/ How to live?/ Everything is a vibration - Forces at Work!/ Multidimensional Language - Choo Choo Trains

Road
Tuesday 26, Coventry
Wednesday 27, London
Thursday 28, London

Postscript 1
Celestial Harmonies: a Note on Music, Mysticism, Ancient Egypt and World Culture

Postscript 2
"In the Light of the Greater Forces": a Note on Tri-axium Writings

Postscript 3
Lecture Notes: i)Language Music; ii) Repetition and Structural Generation; iii) Spatial Distance and Alternative Structural Models

Catalogue of works, 1966-86

Discography
i) Anthony Braxton; ii) Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway; iii) Others Artists

Bibliography

Index