Decoding the Metaverse of Anthony Braxton | s c o r e s t u d y 0 6

[@tu_nonna_emiliana]

Adam Neely: music theory is racist Ben Levin: music theory is satan David Bruce: here's music Brian Krock: music's about gathering firewood in the morning, eating Mcdonald, being broke, being unrecognised and cosmicly loving humanity and the universe

[@march1600]

Great intro to Braxton's world!

[@BrianKrock]

Really appreciate this comment coming from you, Marc. I remember you showing me some of Anthony’s writings after we played at Columbia one day... which makes me think... we have to do that again!

[@AnAverageItalian]

As someone who loves contemporary and modern music Braxton is a fresh air breeze for me. His mind-boggling concepts are really crawling inside my brain and are nesting eggs of questions and knowledge. Thank you so much!

[@BrianKrock]

Glad you dug it! Thanks!

[@joaquinmendozas]

forget about Ligeti's.... now this is THE best video I've ever seen in youtube, Braxton is a very formative influence for me (he is in the same league as Ligeti, Xenakis or Berio), and the way you approach his music here is wonderful, another BRAVO! for you my dear =)

[@BrianKrock]

Braxton is the one most like himself!

[@birdwatching_u_back]

I watched this video a few years ago and it’s stuck around in my head ever since. I brought up Braxton in a discussion in a liberal arts class about rhetoric…somehow the “turfism” thing became relevant. Thanks for this wonderful little essay :)

[@zangsax]

Conference of the birds is one of my favorite recodings of all time. Sam is also killing it. I had to by a sopranino after owning that lp for a while.

[@BrianKrock]

I want a sopranino sooooo bad!

[@zangsax]

@@BrianKrock Sorry to sound like a pig but I have a VI to Eb and a serie II to F. The six is much sweeter

[@YaoEspirito]

Braxton blowing on that album made me wise to him. I heard Four Winds on the radio, and I had never heard a soprano played like that; it sounded like it transcended the reeds and became superhuman.

[@donbroni]

I love this, the fact that you embrace the spiruality and don't push it away as an embarrassing quiff but as a real integral part of the compositional intent here , spks to your integrity

[@LOS_NEGRITOS]

love that last quote.

[@Qwazim0d00]

Thank you for the introduction to Braxton's music. You're always doing a great job with your videos.

[@fredjacksonjr.4422]

This is a great video Brian. Thank you for putting this together this is a gift.

[@hatephone]

wow, just found your channel!!! incredible topics! you are now one of my fav music nerd YT channels

[@depauleable]

My new favorite youtube channel

[@henrywhitbymusic1778]

This video was my intro to Braxton, and I’m coming back to it months later having binged his stuff almost non stop since. I’m just about to submit my portfolio of compositions for my Masters degree, a huge part of which was influenced by Braxton and by extension this video (and tons of your other content of course), so thank you so much!

[@charlesneuzil5765]

This is a great video you have put together here, thank you so much. For some reason I never looked closely at Anthony Braxton, even though I've been playing music for a long time now, particularly getting deeply into Jazz in the seventies when in high school. I was and have been aware of Anthony Braxton, but simply never looked more at his work. I find it so crazy that as I march through time I am constantly uncovering stuff that for whatever reason I passed over. I suppose that is just life and budgeting the time available. But you have spurred me on to dive into Anthony Braxton here and have already started doing so. Thank you!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[@petethomas1013]

Thanks for reintroducing me to one of my favorites. His music in the 70's struck a chord. Never got to see his group live but attended a solo alto concert in Ohio in the 80's. I've got a lot of catching up to do. On a side memory: I attended a Computer music conference at U of IL in the 80's where I was too shy to talk to Iannis Xenakis whose book I had brought with me. Two weeks later I was playing bass with Spencer Davis at Mabel's Club down the street.

[@guitarquartet]

great video! I got here because I'm currently reading the Graham Lock book - I was a music student in Leeds, England when Braxton came to visit as part of that tour, it was extremely memorable and mind blowing! (and I was completely unaware that there was ever going to be a book written about it).

[@mattdowie92]

This is great. Very detailed and enjoyable. Braxton's world can be hard to penetrate but things like this help me a lot!

[@BrianKrock]

Thanks- I agree. His music is so immediate and viscerally enjoyable, but when you try to parse through it, it’s very intimidating.

[@MattLeGroulx]

I miss these episodes Brian but the ones you made are extremely re-watchable.

[@BrandonScottColeman]

Fuck yes Brian. This is rad. I am so stoked that someone with musical interests so closely aligned to mine is generating such quality c o n t e n t. You rule my friend.

[@BrianKrock]

Thanks Brandon! Wow, but I really wish I knew what I know now when I made this video... especially w/r/t audio and video quality...

[@looch8319]

Great stuff, I actually found out about Anthony Braxton through looking up his son Tyondai. Very different styles, but both are incredible in their own right.

[@BrianKrock]

So true. I attended a lecture Ty gave at Columbia last year, and he absolutely blew my mind!

[@badatsmalltalk1220]

Omg thank you so much for mentioning Tyondai! Never heard of him before but I'm writing my thesis on the relation of electronic music and jazz and he might be a new lead! Also, thanks Brian for the amazing video!

[@looch8319]

@@badatsmalltalk1220 no prob, if you weren't already aware, he was also in the band Battles for their first couple EPs and their first full length.

[@badatsmalltalk1220]

@@looch8319 Thanks for the tip! Can't wait to hear it!

[@BrianKrock]

Hufnágel Gábor co-sign re: Battles! Amazing band. Ty’s 2009 record “Central Market” is another amazing piece of work. Glad you might have a new lead for your research!!

[@paxwallace8324]

I can't imagine he wasn't awear of Buckminster Fuller. I actually had a animated but respectful conversation with Wynton Marsalis who said you actually like that? I replied honestly "Im very happy he's out there." And Wynton responded I'm glad he has a fan. He continued you do know thats some kinda European Art Music dontcha? That's not our music. By then I no longer had the microphone.

[@MrMangaman1]

Stumbled across this by accident whilst looking for "Four Compositions 1973", excellent video! Enjoying the rest of your channel and music as well

[@BrianKrock]

Thank you! (Four Compositions is so so great.)

[@vincentbilodeau2467]

This is a great video and thanks a lot for introducing me to this awesome artist! Looking forward to more of your work

[@brancofrandi]

Amazing work Brian!

[@BrianKrock]

Franco Brandi thank you!

[@Zepster77]

The Roy & Dale part slayed me. A true classic

[@jayfoster]

Thanks so much for this. I've been marginally aware of Braxton but you've inspired me to explore his work in earnest. I am grateful.

[@miles0543]

It’s strange that I was just randomly thinking of Anthony Braxton and this video was uploaded

[@BrianKrock]

Miles 0 the google monster is in our heads...

[@gatheringstormgaming9061]

Found your video while working on some of Braxton's pieces from For Alto (1969), really fantastic stuff, keep it up Brian!

[@swayze_mane]

i've been waiting for this video for over 20 years. ur awesome, thank u ; )

[@1998Cebola]

A scorestudy of Julius Eastman would be amazing

[@tomorrett]

Thanks for this, really interesting, been interested in Braxton for a while but needed some guidance on where to start, a 'way in if you like. Also I'd like to know what some of the music going on in the background of the video is, some of its awesome, particularly the stuff played at around' -20:35 to - 19:31 (when you're quoting from his book). This is a kind of music that really resonates with my strange musical mind! A bit Eric Dolohygish to my ears, but more abstract. Do you have a list by any chance of the music you used on this you could share? I'm gonna check out the big band recordings you mentioned anyway. Cheers!

[@BrianKrock]

Glad the video offered you a way in to braxton! If you look in the description to the vid, I always say what music I used in the underscoring. More often than not, it's my own music- so I don't get copyright violations! That tune is called "Eyes beseeching, hands gagged" from my most recent album, VISCERA: bigheartmachine.bandcamp.com

[@tomorrett]

@@BrianKrock thanks, I've bought the album

[@MrRandyFlaggTDM]

such great content you deserve so much more attention

[@julianbrezon4181]

Excellent work and thanks for the book recommendations. What a fascinating man.

[@MichaelSlovin]

Thank God. I thought no one would cover his music on this platform. Braxton's generation of improvisors, composers, and thinkers is grossly neglected in KZbin breakdowns and analyses of jazz and jazz-based music. The A.A.C.M. gets no love. The New York loft scene is tossed aside. The post-Coleman west coast receives zero attention. M-BASE (with the rare exception of Steve Coleman himself) might as well not have existed. The super post-modernist jazz punk types, the great European players, the various iterations of Third Stream, the second, third, and fourth winds of dozens of the greatest composers and players the music has ever produced--all of it barely mentioned or hinted at by this platform's most prominent jazz voices, and I'm baffled as to why. Also, that George Lewis book is something else...

[@Bati_]

I agree and I think that’s why harmony discussions in music theory circles and communities are overrated… I’m so tired of seeing the notion that everything is all about the harmony you employ. They completely ignore rhythm, timbre, texture, etc. Music is much more than harmony…

[@MichaelSlovin]

@@Bati_ Preach. For that matter, the polyrhythm crowd makes me sick. Nothing impresses me less than those odd time juggling acts. "You see, the music is innovative for how the 7/8 figure is superimposed over the--" Enough, I say! If you can't compel me in 4/4, I don't want to hear you in nine.

[@Bati_]

@@MichaelSlovin Wow! I like what you said here: “If you can’t compel me in 4/4, I don’t want to hear you nine.” I think any attempt to impress people with theory seems to a bit insincere to be honest. As Ravel said: “Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.”

[@MichaelSlovin]

@@Bati_ to be fair, folks use lines like Ravel's to put down Braxton all the time. My issue with the polyrythm crowd is their tendency to use odd time and tricky rhythmic modulations to lend otherwise unremarkable music superficial depth. It's not even that intellectual, really, just nerdy in a PBS ideas channel kind of way. "Isn't math cool? Music is math!" Great. And?

[@ianbrown3304]

@@MichaelSlovin as a fully paid up member of the Polly Rhythm Krowd (note capitals, double L and K) I feel morally and legislatively obliged to point out that music is fun. Time signatures are semi useful musical constructs, which one is free to observe or not. YOU CAN ALLIGN THOSE CONSTRUCTS TO VARIOUS AXIOMS. Or not. Your choice, it always is. Braxton is a fun guy who constructs systemic musical formulas. His identifying codes draw you in or exclude. A functionally zero framework approach enables the listener to activate their own areas of tone and dissonance.

[@Misterg1997]

this videos are pure golden. thank you so much for your effort

[@tommonda]

Great tribute to some deep music. Love the channel Brian!

[@Gabe-qd4gz]

silly video but i’m glad someone’s covering braxton’s work on youtube with only a little misinformation ;)

[@barsdaghan4296]

Thank you for this.

[@broadpath_intermedia]

Thank you for this! Anthony Braxton has long been one of my favorite musicians and musical influences. Not that I fully understood why.... it was a visceral affinity. I liked Conference of the Birds (under Dave Holland) immediately some 45 years ago and still listen to it often to this day. I often find myself humming 40M out of the blue...

[@johncoltranesethic18]

Oh man man man thank you! I'm so excited! Thank you!

[@gin4106]

Just finished reading "A Power Stronger than Itself" and bump into this, thanks for the information! Are the guitarist and bassist in the performance clip Olli Hirvonen and Marty Kenney? You guys sound great! It's a pity that Cornelius no longer exists.

[@BrianKrock]

They are!! Two of my best friends and closest collaborators. I miss Cornelia so much!

[@alexhopper8049]

What a great study! Thanks dude!!!

[@BrianKrock]

Alex Hopper thank you!

[@patrickrainey305]

"Because I had a very healthy ego" - the subscribe and notification thing pops up. lol that was funny

[@ivancunningham2148]

What is the name of the track you play around 30:40? Great video!

[@BrianKrock]

Thank you! That music is a composition from my record VISCERA called "I am a worm and no man."

[@ivancunningham2148]

@@BrianKrock cool, cant wait to check it out :)

[@ghostandbell2006]

21:34-22:40 yessssss thisthisthisthis ☆♡

[@stephencarroll230]

Awesome video! Thanks. I'm sure Braxton would appreciate it.

[@taogoat27]

Thanks, this was phenomenal

[@teixeiro]

Such a nice video, thank you!

[@tpark89]

Dang Brian I love this and you're so good. Thank you for this!!

[@Gigg62]

Lovely

[@peterpersson9883]

Please keep getting carried away in the future too! ♡

[@deanmucettirhythmreal4057]

Hi Brian! Thanks for this! What music is playing at 16:04 to 16:07 on the video?

[@BrianKrock]

That’s a little snippet of “opus 23b” as played by my quintet on our record ‘liddle’. Thank you for watching!

[@deanmucettirhythmreal4057]

@@BrianKrock Awesome thank you!!!

[@TotalDESSSS]

Fascinating!

[@squandermania]

Graham Lock's book is very good!

[@BrianKrock]

Sam Hoyland agreed!

[@raoulvanherpen9620]

Love this!! thank you so much! I have a question, what book of the composition notes would you recommend? does it matter? You have the second book, why not the first? hope you can help me ;-) Cheers, Raoul.

[@IsaacOtto]

Hey there - sorry to drop in on an older video, I was just wondering if you were willing/able to share your transcription? I've transcribed the head but stopped short at the coda... If not, no worries :)

[@pliqueguillaume3927]

Thanks for your insightful video Brian. Can I ask you who painted the painting which looks a lot like Big Heart Machine album cover behind you in the video?

[@adriatic.vineyards]

What is the surf rock song that plays at 4:25?

[@BrianKrock]

That's a song I wrote (with Olli Hirvonen on guitar) called "I am a worm and no man"

[@adriatic.vineyards]

@@BrianKrock Is it available anywhere? Edit: found it thanks!!

[@AntilopeDisecado]

Adam Neely was skeptical of Braxton some years ago on a thread, I wonder if you could convice him otherwise with the right records.

[@BrianKrock]

Well... personal taste is one thing, and I think I have always leaned a little to the ‘freerer’ side of things than Adam. But, this would be a fun conversation to have!

[@AntilopeDisecado]

@@BrianKrock Yeah, I get that. The few things that I know of Braxton are a little jazzy like the Parker Project or the things with Wheeler/Lewis. Maybe he should check that? This video convinced me to check out that Creative Orchestra album and it really knocked me out! I'm particularly surprised by the "swing" pieces. I've heard some of the classic lines of braxton on quartet (Dortmund, New York), but I never hear the level of almost bebop swing that has some of those pieces. Really interesting album, thanks for the recommendation!

[@BrianKrock]

Antilope Disecado glad you checked it out- one of my favorites!

[@MichaelSlovin]

That surprises me not one bit. (Rant incoming). Neely strikes me as fairly dismissive of the avant-garde and a bit ignorant of post-sixties, non-fusion developments in the music. He likes harmony, likes changes, likes poly-rhythms. In one of his videos, he characterized the sixties avant-garde as being less concerned with harmony, visually citing Ornette Coleman's "Love Call" and Braxton's "For Alto" as examples. The stuff he likes just isn't there, you can infer. In one of his tour videos (a week in Ireland, I think) Neely points out when one of his friends "plays out" during a solo, and describes it not as expressive or exploratory or interesting, but as an in-joke amongst educated musicians. "Oh, you CAN go out, but just make sure it's not for that long and you chose your moment wisely," is sort of the takeaway. The segment reeks of timidity. Even more than harmony and polyrhythms, Neely likes explaining how music works. Braxton and his ilk are difficult to explain and not well-represented, from what I understand, in theory and history courses. This is not to say that Neely doesn't like difficult or out there music, but that he probably enjoys it more when he has a framework with which to analyze it. He likes David Liebman (a personal favorite of mine) quite a lot, and that dude goes into space like I walk to the grocery store...but Neely also studied under him and owns his book on improvisation and so on. If I may be less charitable than I've already been here, Neely and his colleagues on KZbin have a brand, and that brand is "saying smart things about music." Brian Krock is brave here, because talking about a composer as narrowly understood as Braxton on this platform runs you the risk of looking foolish or pretentious. You have to be willing to do a lot of your own research and draw a lot of your own conclusions. You have to be willing, in short, to say frequently and earnestly, "I don't know," or even more earnestly, "here's what I THINK is going on." "I don't know," is not what Neely has built a following on, it's more like "I know, and now *you* know." He can't do that with Braxton and company. Rick Beato made a video about NHOP, recently, titled something like, "The Greatest Bassist You've Never Heard Of," and I just wanted to yell at the screen, "Who's fault is THAT?" More people would know who these guys were if we stopped reciting the same ten names over and over again like they were the only ones worth paying attention to. Yes, Miles and Coltrane and Hancock and Monk and Ellington and Parker and Corea and Evans and Jaco and Gilberto--all these players and composers are massively important and wonderful. Jazz-based content creators are, however, doing us and the music a disservice by continuing to highlight artists that have already been written about to death. Makes a very rich and expansive world look cramped and linear. And this from people who often point out the lack of diversity in music pedagogy. Okay, great. So, I can expect some videos on the greatness of Joanne Brackeen and Cecil Taylor then...no? No, we're just going to--to keep talking about "Giant Steps?" Yeah? (Rant outgoing). Apologies for using your comment as a springboard. I know you didn't ask for this lol

[@alexanderdrury3308]

Summary: Listening to Anthony Braxton is like reading an Elder Scroll

[@NoPizzaProductions]

The fact that buzzworthy rock acts like Perfume Genius and caroline are playing around with the modern creative style only further cements Braxton as creating ripple effects in his intrepid career. Great video

[@gdavis9296]

Where do I buy his books?

[@hakeemahmadjamal7403]

4:41 lol

[@3XATHAT]

What a Krock of BBB!!!...BeAutiFULL BrilliAnce BriAn...Thank You Greatly , Cheers AAA

[@WAValenti]

I don't know how the KZbin algorithm is good enough to market this video to me specifically, but I'm glad it did.

[@pigslam]

Have you heard of Julius Eastman?

[@RMPMcDermott]

Dropping in to shout out that clip of Mary Halvorson!

[@mikewtallen443]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that your shirt isn't referencing the ska band The Aquabats.

[@BrianKrock]

lol, no. The Min-Aquabats are a waterskiing team in the north woods of Wisconsin in a town called Minocqua. Used to watch them every summer as a kid!

[@ghostandbell2006]

@@BrianKrock I've been to Minocqua ... superb video... 9 Minutes in and all the yes

[@BrianKrock]

ghostandbell you have?! Special place. Thanks for the kind words.

[@ghostandbell2006]

@@BrianKrock I remember riding around some Lake I was up there for work I used to do this month-long trip in Wisconsin related to higher education and counseling; I forgot where I stayed // And again your video is superb well done.. I will talk forever about all of these things and all the things you brought up so I'm going to pause ☆♡ My commitment and obsession with this music personally and externally is endless. Yes we are often ignored in Chicago yet we are a home base and fertile ground for this music. I despise and I'm intrigued with this Catch 22 and double standard. And I find it fantastic your partner would whistle that as it seeped into the subconscious.

[@BrianKrock]

@@ghostandbell2006 yo do you live in Chicago? I grew up in the suburbs, and thank god I got to experience that scene (just a tiny bit) before I moved out here. Used to take the train into the city every weekend. (I just checked out your drumset improvisation video and it was gorgeous and moving. Nice to meet you!)

[@Jazzmaster58]

I grew up listening to all of these free Jazz musicians while in the process of becoming a Jazz musician and the thing that bothers me deeply is the fact that most of these artists did believe in gods and souls and "spirituallity" ignoring that these were part of the tools used to justify slavery and racism. Still today, there are numerous musicians (some of whom I used to consider intelligent, based on the music) that express this kind of idiocy. People feel things, there's no god, there's energy and you only have a "soul" to feel energy while you're alive, after that there's nothingness but you won't fell that because without a brain we have no consciousness of it.

[@alexyuwen]

[@paxwallace8324]

Yeah I love Kenny Wheeler

[@monsterjazzlicks]

Strange?! 🤔

[@Hiphopdabop]

😅😅😅

[@ChrisDragotta]

Nah, it's on the same plane as Stockhausen and Cage, and they are often viewed as being full of it, as well. I mean, I sometimes enjoy this sort of thing, but the drawing/ title system is not something meaningful like word titles. He is lying to himself and to us. They may suggest something to someone but something else to someone else. They don't signify the way words signify. They are little abstract artworks that accompany, hopefully, more detailed instructions on what are some performance options for an instrumentalist. 23B inspired by Roy Rogers? Yeah, he is playing his audience. He is being provocative and a bit hostile. Isn't that obvious?

[@nakim55]

Braxton was a McDonald’s addict

[@rinahall]

awful muzak