Performing in front of an intimate crowd of students, professors, and visitors, master innovator and Professor of Music Anthony Braxton led his small jazz ensemble Wednesday night in Crowell Concert Hall.
A world-renowned composer, performer, theorist, and writer, Braxton has contributed extensively to the field of abstract jazz improvisation. He has published multiple volumes of composition notes and reports on musical philosophy and science. Winner of the 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award, Braxton is also the founder of the Tri-Centric Foundation, Inc., a New York-based ensemble of 38 musicians and is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Wednesday night marked the premiere performance of Braxton’s electronic music with SuperCollider 3, a complex system which synthesizes music in real time, providing an extraordinary environment for improvisation. The result is music, which although cacophonous, is unlike anything heard before.
“It’s beyond jazz or classical, that’s the point. It’s just art,” said Devin Drew Connelly ’06, who described the SuperCollider as a “digital musical language actualized in the space of the mind’s potential.”
Braxton and five members of the ensemble, made up entirely of University students, walked casually onto the stage a few minutes after 8 p.m. with no introduction except for the hesitant applause of the audience. Braxton began fiddling with the electronic equipment at the front of the stage, producing a loud, shrill noise that filled the hall. After a few moments of experimenting with the sound, Braxton took his seat among the students and picked up his saxophone.
The ensemble, which included a guitar, piano, and woodwinds, started the night by playing a piece for several minutes. The noise produced by the SuperCollider, along with the fluttery, discordant notes of the musicians, sounded a bit like mutant insects or aliens in a Sci-Fi movie but nevertheless captivated the audience.
Sam Han ’06, a student in Braxton’s Music of Coltrane, Mingus and Coleman course, described the concert as a “cerebral experience.”
“He has a completely different way of looking at music and music history,” Han said about Braxton’s teaching style, “Hearing him talk is awesome.”
After another piece with only two members of the ensemble, Braxton gave the audience a fifteen-minute intermission. The second half of the concert included several more students and instruments, including a cello, viola, and conga drums. As they played, the students and Braxton were completely caught up in the spirit of improvisation.
“I was mostly trying to blend in with the electronics to sound like a machine,” said Charlie Wilmoth, GRAD in composition, who explained that Braxton chose the members of this small ensemble out of the 35 members of the large ensemble which performed on Sunday.
Dan St. Clair ’04, who played a “bowed piano” by moving twine against the piano’s strings, said that while the concert was partly improvised, the musicians were following a score. The score, which looked nothing like a conventional music arrangement, was made up of colored symbols dancing across a page.
“There are ways to interpret these various signs,” St. Clair said.
“[Braxton was] one of the reasons I came here,” added St. Clair, saying that performances with Braxton are “always different.”
“Anthony Braxton changed my life,” said Angela Opell, GRAD, who played the clarinet in the ensemble.
“We’re really lucky to have Anthony Braxton be our first exposure to jazz,” said Jessica Feldman, GRAD, adding that playing in the ensemble was “so much fun!”
Tom Crean, GRAD, the teaching assistant for the ensemble whom Braxton thanked profusely at the end of the concert, helped Braxton to program the electronic equipment over the past six months.
“I’m very happy with the concert,” Crean said. “Helping Anthony get to this point was great.”
Braxton himself seemed pleased with the concert as he mingled with friends and students after the show.
“I’m very fortunate to work at such a positive institution with the best of our young people,” Braxton said. “[They are] as good as it gets. They’re learning a little bit from me, but I’m really the one learning.”
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