112. Composition 23B

Anthony Braxton: New York, Fall 1974 (Arista, 1974);
composed by Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton's discography is intentionally vast, which some skeptics view as of a piece with the obscurantist diagrams he uses for titles (see above), but non-skeptics (like me) take it all as the price of the oddball ticket, and unlike Sun Ra, the more of his oeuvre you get to, the more it coheres. This was not the first time an AACM luminary hooked up with a major label, but his Arista deal would be unusual at any time. Somehow Clive Davis authorized the release (however briefly) of nine incredibly varied and challenging albums, ostensibly underwritten by Barry Manilow's grosses. It could never last, of course - these deals never do - and Braxton made as much as he could out of it, while saving his 3-LP four orchestra piece for next-to-last. This opening track on the first of them might have been his signature number, if he went in for that sort of thing: a no-piano quartet playing a boppish head at light speed, with stop-time variations that sound just as load-bearing as the ostensible themes, which is like Charlie Parker rising from the dead, telling you to pull his finger, and having “Cherokee” in Z-flat major come out.

Note: Secular essays about individual songs, each one exactly 200 words long, appearing not daily - but at least regularly - until Donald goes away.