Recorded on December 5, 1985 as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Speaking of Music series, Charles Amirkhanian interviews composer and musician Anthony Braxton before a live audience. The distinguished composer and improviser, (who at the time of this recording had recently been appointed to the music faculty at Mills College in Oakland), discusses foundation materials for vocabulary and structural models in his music. Using the seminal composition “JMK-80/CFN-7 (Composition 26b)” which he premiered in 1971 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco, Braxton illustrates his new methods of structuring sounds in time. Among his works is “Trillium”, a series of 36 autonomous acts which comprise 12 master operas. “Dialogues A” from this series was premiered in April 1985 in San Diego. As composer and performer, Braxton appears on 40 LP's. He has collaborated with Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp and others, and has recorded his own music from reed solos to work for large orchestras. (from the Speaking of Music Program Guide, Fall 1985) |
