For the past 25 years I've been seeking to establish a system of music, and inside that system, a context of components that can help me understand decision making for my own music and, later, for modeling. I discovered that existential freedom was not the answer, but rather the freedom to find the state of relationships that could give me those qualities

Tri-Centric Foundation's mission
more than its founder's music

New York -- Anthony Braxton, seminal American composer-instrumentalist and recipient of the 1994 MacArthur "genius" award, has formed the Tri-Centric Foundation. Created to perform, explain, and document his work, the not-for-profit corporation's mission yet reaches beyond the musical universe of its creator.

"The Tri-Centric Foundation," begins the official mission statement which Braxton wrote for the corporate bylaws, "was conceived and started to further the vision embodied in my work as a composer and improviser. That vision is a synthesis of the many different global musical traditions, cultures, and experiences that make up the American culture. The elements with which I work to forge a body of music that is universal in nature include the American song form; the American folk and blues traditions; the trans-Asian, trans-African, trans-European, and Native American traditions; and the American experimental and concert traditions. I seek the universal principles and expressions common to these elements rather than their differences, to forge a transpersonal expression that is true to my own life in this culture and, hopefully, relevant to that of others."

Braxton also writes that his "music and music system are very much influenced by the writings of 'perennial wisdom,' from those of the ancient Egyptian and European peoples down to their counterparts in the present."

When I think about jazz in this time period, I find myself thinking more and more about a continuum in which the rays of stylistic tendencies have been co-opted and defined by the marketplace. This is very different than a continuum that was all-encompassing and compositely dynamic, which spoke on the intellectual polarities in the African-American community as well as composite America. Maybe in this next time cycle we might find a fresh balance that can help us respect all of the lineage.

The organization is now doing business for Braxton's new ensemble of 35 musicians, its splinter ensembles, and its various associated artists from other disciplines. Its bylaws more specifically declare several distinct objectives that express not only an artist's but also a scholar's and educator's dream:

Braxton: "This organization is not only a dream come true for me but is, I feel, coming at the right time in the culture on a lot of levels. I don't think I'm the only one in this area of our country hungry to create the future. It's been time for a change for a long time, and I feel very fortunate to have gathered this group together from among such great friends and allies, and virtuoso artists, before the award from the MacArthur Foundation."

Braxton's significance as a musical innovator and master is well and widely established (see his long and short bios and recent review quotes). His groundbreaking 1968 recording For Alto opened the door to new instrumental contexts, new compositional platforms for improvisation, new critical criteria and standards that were embraced by much of a new generation of American and European composers and performers. With close musical allies such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins and others, Braxton initiated and explored other new concepts then that fused jazz, concert, electronic, and experimental traditions. Extraordinarily, his work in these areas has continued since that time, as has his critical acclaim, recording and performance career, and sheer artistic growth.

The American marketplace has always been a dangerous proposition. The history of the music is a history of tampering. What offends me has been the marketplace's attempts to redefine the aesthetic of the music. In the final analysis the constructs the marketplace has put in place have never been conducive to real insight into the music.

Braxton's pioneering role in a similar organization--the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) --is as important to this one as his artistic credentials. The AACM is a collective that also incorporated as a nonprofit with a musical mission, in 1960s Chicago. Founded by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and others, it served as an alternative to the marketplace options of the recording industry. It consciously related the work of its artist members to the local community and school system, and sought support from the then newly formed National Endowment for the Arts. Braxton was one of several now-illustrious, then-emerging artists who cut their teeth and developed their work in the AACM. The path started there has led to commissions, performance and educational projects and positions formerly more the province of the Western classical arts "professionals," and away from the relatively harder one (for "jazz" artists) of the commercial arena.

Braxton sums up the meaning of "tri-centric" ensemble:

"Tri-centric in this instance means that we will present and promote, one , my work; two , the work of others directly relating to my work; and three , work by others similar in spirit and intent to my work. It's taken me some three decades to develop what I have. In the light of that, I expect this foundation to be around for the long haul, not some flash in the pan. We're taking our time, and we have great people working with us. We plan on performing regularly in New York but also on traveling just as regularly from that home base."

Braxton has always worked extensively in Western and Eastern Europe, and is popular in Japan; he hopes to take the ensemble to China and Russia and other places new to his music, as well as on the established tours.

Braxton assembled nine fellow members for his Board of Directors (corporation bylaws establish him as the permanent Founder and Artistic Director). They include a few fellow music professionals and academics, arts administrators, and an attorney. Certified public accountants and financial advisors have advisory associations with the board. All are from Braxton's immediate professional and personal circles.

Tellingly, some of Braxton's public words about his career and his musical structures and systems describe equally well some of his vision and ideas behind the Tri-Centric Foundation, and about the appropriateness of the nonprofit (cultural rather than commercial) organization to his own most "transmusical" work.

Any agenda that is not inclusive in terms of the vibrational dynamics of the spectra of people who exist within it is inevitably doomed. The challenge of the '90s will be to find a platform that can integrate all of our people, that can integrate a context of relationships that will allow for various individuals to have their beliefs, that will allow for group consciousness to come together and, finally, will allow for dynamic motivation, a tri-plane motivation based on the highest possible particulars that a given group, sector, individual or vibrational type can realize.

[Quotes in blue/larger font are from an interview with writer Joe Rosenberg (Windplayer Vol. 10 #5) around the time of the Foundation's incorporation.]