Anthony Braxton looks to the third millenium
with his Tri-Centric Ensemble

New York -- The debut of composer-improviser Anthony Braxton 's 38-piece Tri-Centric Ensemble packed New York hot spot The Kitchen for three nights running, brought the house to its feet, and evoked high praise from the press. Inspired by the success, Braxton looks to a future of more such three-day-&-night events around the world with the ensemble, now trained to execute his most demanding works.

"What this ensemble did with my music after just three rehearsals was downright frightening," says Braxton. "I am fortunate to have such a group of virtuosos from all over the planet who have the dedication to come together for seven more three-hour rehearsals to prepare for this festival. We have something very special to offer New York at this point in time."

The three-night program represented the full range of Braxton's 20-year evolution as a composer for improvisers, including some pieces, both early and recent, not previously recorded. The Thursday night concert opened with Composition 3 , an unrecorded piece from the seminal 25 period (see next paragraph), followed by the also-unrecorded 169 . 96 and 134 , from two of Braxton's most successful recordings, rounded out the evening. Friday's program featured pieces from the middle period of Braxton's career in the late 1970s, when he regularly dominated media polls and critical debate -- 45 , 63 , 58 , and 59 -- along with the more adventurous "Ritual and Ceremonial" and "Storytelling" pieces of his mature work from the 1980s 90s (91 , 92 , 135 , and 147 ). Saturday capped the series with the most ambitious and longest works: 175 , featuring video projections and actors, and 120 , from the Trillium series of operas, featuring four singers.

Braxton's works for large ensemble have been one of the most innovative, dramatic, and carefully-crafted aspects of a body of music itself widely acclaimed for those traits. His Composition 25 is something of a "First Symphony" of the "new music" of the time (1972, on the double LP Creative Music Orchestra) . At that point, no large-ensemble versions of the new musical terrain opened up by Braxton and his colleagues in the seminal Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) existed on record, and there had been few live performances. "Since I realized my next opportunity to work with a creative orchestra might be in the year 2135, there was no reason to hold back any ideas I had been thinking about for this context." He wanted to show what was possible and, hopefully, inspire more such efforts.

Creative Orchestra Music 1976 was one of five recordings contracted by the Arista label; it won "Record of the Year" from Down Beat magazine's 1977 critic's poll. It was soon followed with the further groundbreaking "For Four Orchestras" (Composition 82 ), commissioned through the National Endowment for the Arts, the first in a series of multi-orchestral works Braxton conceived for different locations stretching from cities to star systems. Composition 96 , Eugene (1989) , and Two Compositions (Ensemble) 1989/1991 followed as some of the brightest lights in a similarly acclaimed output throughout the next two decades.

"I think Anthony's doing something that no one else is doing," said pianist Marilyn Crispell, longtime Braxton collaborator, in a recent interview, "and I think he is a major musical voice of the 20th century. He's initiated all kinds of changes and created a true fusion between classical western art music and jazz music."

The New York ensemble's oboist Melinda Newman said about the reactions to her phone calls and subsequent rehearsals that brought Braxton and his new group together: "The best, most in-demand players will drop what they're doing and, in some case, fly across the country to play Anthony's music with him. It's amazing what he draws out of players through his music, and out of the group as a whole."

Braxton's most recent ensembles typically include new-music virtuosi from both sides of the Atlantic (British reeds player Evan Parker, German bassist Peter Niklas Wilson, trombonist George Lewis, trumpeter Paul Smoker, bassist Joelle Léandre, pianist Marilyn Crispell, and percussionist Gerry Hemingway, to name a few). The new ensemble is of a similar caliber, with the added virtue of being an ongoing, incorporated organization. The resumés of the ensemble personnel read like a Who's Who of American and European new-music artists [link to ens bios ]: New York luminaries such as reed players Lily White and J.D. Parran; trumpeter Paul Smoker; Swiss trombonist Roland Dahinden; bassist Joe Fonda, percussionists Kevin Norton and Gino Robair, violinists Gregor Kitzis and Jason Huang; and vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Lisa Bielawa, to name just a few.

The three lecturers were Mike Heffley (Thursday), Art Lange (Friday), and John Szwed (Saturday). Heffley was co-incorporator and first President of the Board of Directors of Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation, and a trombonist/composer whose Northwest Creative Orchestra collaborated with Braxton on the Black Saint CD Eugene (1989) ; Heffley's book, The Music of Anthony Braxton was released by Excelsior Publishing/Greenwood Press (New York/New Haven) in May of 1996. He spoke on the musical continuum between the mainstream jazz tradition and the innovations Braxton's body of work has developed.

Art Lange, editor of Down Beat magazine from 1981-7, is a widely-read writer on music. He spoke on the concept of the "creative orchestra" as developed in Braxton's early- and middle-period works (from 25 to 82 ) throughout the 1970s.

John Szwed, also on the Tri-Centric Board, is the John M. Musser Professor of African American Studies, Anthropology, American Studies, and Music at Yale University. He is a widely published author and scholar in Braxton's genre (currently working on a book about Sun Ra), and director of the New York City nonprofit music production company Brilliant Corners. He spoke on Braxton's place among what he calls the "grand scheme composers -- Scriabin, Ives, Messaien, Stockhausen, Sun Ra, Holst, Schoenberg -- those who aim for the cosmos, the transcendentalists, the mystics, the synesthesiasts."

"We are very excited about what we hope to bring to the New York scene in this time cycle," says Braxton, "and we're looking forward to traveling the world with this ensemble after that. Get ready for the third millennium."

Three Nights (February) 1995 was a Tri-Centric Foundation, Inc. and Brilliant Corners, Inc. coproduction.