cessful. In many arenas his success has been used to disrespect the historical importance of his music, but Dave Brubeck would influence Lennie Tristano and Cecil Taylor, and his music would demonstrate fresh poly-rhythmical strategies and fresh poly-harmonic strategies, a la the great French <strong>com</strong>poser, Darius Mihaud. I grew up with a total grounding in the music that we call bebop. I grew up on the Southside of Chicago and would go to the 58 th Street Record Store. At that time, there were record booths so I could go in after grammar school and later, after high school, and listen to records of Art Pepper and the great Sonny Criss, who no one talks about anymore. I rejoiced in the music of Jackie McLean. There I discovered the music of the great Warne Marsh, the great tenor player whose work when historically viewed from a mature perspective will one day be seen as equal to the great work of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane in the 1950’s. Warne Marsh’ music represented a very different concept of chromaticism and phrase construction logics and so, yea, I’m grounded in the tradition, I still love the tradition. Two weeks ago, I ordered seven new CDs of Bob Dylan from Amazon.<strong>com</strong>. I want to go back and re-review and re-examine this great master because his work was very important to me as is, of course, the great work of Captain Beefheart. I’m a Beefheart kind of guy! The tradition has always been important to me, it’s just that my relationship to the tradition was not a generic relationship that started at New Orleans and advanced up to 1965. Indeed, I even disagree with present day concepts about New Orleans’ significance in the greater scheme of the <strong>com</strong>posite music, but that of course is a different question, so let me move on and deal with your question. Tradition, restructurism, I was interested to take the tradition and be a part of those forces that would refashion the <strong>com</strong>ponents of tradition with respect to mechanics, with respect to conceptual dynamics and with respect to correspondences, and to fashion a music that would demonstrate what those <strong>com</strong>ponents could mean from a <strong>com</strong>posite perspective. I should also say that when I use the phrase tri-centric thought unit model, I am referring to a model that demonstrates a context of information, that being the tri-axiom writings, a music system, which at this point in time consist of 400 or something <strong>com</strong>positions, and also a system of transpositions, ritual and ceremonial musics and extended methodologies. This is what I have devoted my life to. JI: Since you brought up New Orleans, perhaps you could extrapolate on what you meant when saying its importance to the music is over emphasized. Now a days, after Hurricane Katrina, most people are bending over backwards to pay tribute to New Orleans. AB: First I would say this, I have nothing but love and respect for the creative music that has <strong>com</strong>e out of New Orleans and I have nothing but love and solidarity for the citizens of New Orleans who have gone through such an incredibly traumatic and negative experience and like all Americans, I am appalled and sickened by the ill response by our government to the <strong>com</strong>plexities that the good people of New Orleans have experienced. Having said that, going back to “I have tried to document given aspects of my creative work. Documentation, for me, is not an economic consideration that results in lots of monies <strong>com</strong>ing in to me for my work, but rather, a form of closure. Once a given target project is documented and distributed, I can then go on to the next areas of my music system.” your question, while New Orleans has most certainly contributed a <strong>com</strong>ponent to America’s creative music history, I feel that the notion of New Orleans as a genesis foundation for American creative music or African American invention dynamics is absurd, is not true, is a <strong>com</strong>plete fabrication related to market place forces, related to the antebellum political realignment that in the 1920’s first presented this argument. It was an argument that would seek to contain the vibrational dynamics of African Americans and <strong>com</strong>posite Americans; it is an argument that would seek to reemphasize ethnic vibrational parameters at the expense of <strong>com</strong>posite vibrational conversion experiences. This was due to the desire to blunt the forward thrust of W. E. B. DuBois’ work and the intellectual continuum that moved forward and involved African Americans who had Universalist aspirations. One reason my work has been considered not Black is because I’ve always been an African American with universal aspirations as opposed to an African American functioning under the antebellum ethnic-centric circle. New Orleans, in this subject, was used to blunt the <strong>com</strong>posite dynamic implications of the music and in its place, to install a mythical perspective where New Orleans was this singular territory that produced all the music. In fact, going back and looking at all the great work of Frank Johnson in Philadelphia, his work was an important linkage to the transformational musics taking place in the northern part of America and in Europe, such as the Salon. There were the correspondent music strategies with dance that would <strong>com</strong>e out of Frank Johnson’s continuum and the great work of Scott Joplin was connected to Universalist’s musics and aspirations. What I am really saying is it seems that the worst thing that can happen to an African American is to have any kind of connection to, or love and respect for Europe. What am I saying? I’m saying this - why is it if I chose to be a gangster that I could be respected? Why is it if I chose to be a pimp that I could be respected and brought into the music? Why is it if I advocated the position that said stay away from any kind of learning, that my work could be respected? I’ve never seen any of the musicians who have taken some of these positions challenged as to whether or not they’re Black. It seems to me that my biggest mistake was to honestly embrace those musics which touch my heart and changed my life and moved me into a particular direction. Why is it to have love for the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen somehow means that I’m not a legitimate African American? In my opinion, what we’re talking about is a model which was constructed by the antebellum realignment forces of the second part of the ‘70s, which solidified powers in the 1980’s to demonstrate a resurgence of antebellum dictates, reintroducing the idea of legitimate Negro and illegitimate Negro, reemphasizing the tenant axioms underlying this alliance that African Americans have all this rhythm and we don’t have any kind of intellectual power. Why is it that to have any respect for Europe undermines one’s African-ness? And why is it that to embrace <strong>com</strong>posite reality is somehow out of the <strong>com</strong>plete quadrant tenants of African American vibrational dynamics? When I say I’m not a jazz musician, I say that with pride and gratitude. I’m very grateful to not call my music jazz, because as far as I’m concerned, the music that we now call jazz is so separate from the music I grew up with that I am very happy to be separate from it and of course, I’ve paid the price for being separate. I don’t make any money from my music, but that’s OK. I was fortunate to find work in academia and for the past 40 years I basically paid to play my music. I am not <strong>com</strong>plaining, in fact, I am among the luckiest people who have ever lived because I was able to find something that helped me to understand the wonder and beauty of life. I am a lucky guy, indeed! JI: There are two other crosses that you’ve had to bear which critics seem to bring up semi-frequently that stem from other artists. The first item <strong>com</strong>es from a recording by the Russian pianist Vyacheslav Ganelin with the Ganelin Trio. One of his <strong>com</strong>positions was entitled “Who is Afraid of Anthony Braxton,” which the press built up into some sort of criticism of you. The second item I’ll bring up, concerns <strong>com</strong>edian Bill Cosby, who featured a pot-pushing character by the name of Anthony Braxton on his TV show, The Cosby Show, in a 1985 episode. Have you ever spoken to these two men in order to make sense of what they were thinking? AB: Thank you for these wonderful questions. No, I have never met Mr. Cosby even though two-years ago his secretary contacted my agent to ask if I would be a sideman in his bebop group and play at the Monterrey <strong>Jazz</strong> Festival. His secretary also told my agent “be sure to tell Anthony Braxton that Mr. Cosby is not going to be paying that much money, so don’t think of this as some kind of windfall. What a life! What a person! This guy must be really far out to think that he could produce a national TV show and use me as a negative caricature for his own purposes, just because he didn’t like my music! I have never understood that decision. Mr. Cosby might not like my music but he has certainly expressed love for the great work of Max Roach, who has made two albums Continued on Page 24 10 <strong>February</strong> <strong>2010</strong> • <strong>Jazz</strong> Inside Monthly • www.jazzinsidemagazine.<strong>com</strong> To Advertise CALL: 215.887.8880
PERFORMANCE SPOtlight • PERFORMANCE SPOtlight GERI ALLEN – pianist Friday, <strong>February</strong> 26, <strong>2010</strong> • 8:00PM $20.00 Adults / $10.00 Students & Seniors YORK COLLEGE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Tickets available at the Box Office 94-45 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. Call: 718-262-2840 or online at theatermania.<strong>com</strong> For more information call 718-262-3750 www.york.cuny.edu Free Parking Major funding for this series provided by NYC Councilmembers Thomas White Jr. (28th-CD), Chair of Economic Development, and Leroy Comrie (27th-CD) Deputy Majority Leader New York City Council. Keep An Eye Foundation AHK-summerjazz_ad.indd 1 22-01-<strong>2010</strong> 10:36:32
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