Those who have trouble keeping up with the phases and systems of Anthony Braxton are to be forgiven. There is certainly an academic side to the heralded composer/saxophonist’s work, something which—at least in his early years—was often held against him by the jazz gatekeepers. Braxton is a tireless sonic researcher to be certain, and the fruits of his labour can be provocative, impassioned, chaotic, and sometimes quite beautiful.
Lorraine is a new branch of his expansive work devising new methods of structuring parameters for musical improvisers and, in recent years, SuperCollider interactive electronics. Spring 2024 brought fourteen hours of Lorraine listening: the ten pieces on 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022 (released by New Braxton House), featuring a saxophone, a trumpet, an accordion trio, and a saxophone/bass double duo; and the four compositions on Sax QT (Lorraine) 2022 for saxophone quartet, a surprisingly uncommon assemblage in Braxton’s massive catalogue. (Both are available as a download or CD boxed set.)
The introduction of a new branch of invention makes this a good time to get in on the ground floor of another Braxton skyscraper, not just because Lorraine is likely to blossom into fractals before long, but because it’s some of the most accessible (albeit abstract) music he’s made in quite some time. While Braxton’s systems allow the players enormous latitude in moving between notated (whether traditional, graphic, or hybrid) sections alone or in subgroupings, Lorraine reintroduces such conventional notions as ensemble cues and full-ensemble cohesion. Unison and near-unison themes, and variations on and progressions from common starting points, roll gently atop waves of extended electronic tones. It is all, of course, filtered by Braxton’s designs on convention, but the result is rather calm music, beautifully ethereal, and yet more tethered to a centre stake than he’s been in a while.
Of the two Lorraine sets, the saxophone quartet set finds a particularly lovely singularity. The ensemble includes James Fei, one of the top Braxton interpreters, and Chris Jonas. Ingrid Laubrock is featured in three of the pieces and André Vida on the fourth. Together, they represent the sax family, from sopranino to baritone. Recorded at four concerts within ten days of an Italian tour, Sax QT (Lorraine) 2022 is a rare thing of simple yet challenging beauty.
Kurt Gottschalk is an author, journalist, and broadcaster based in New York City. His work appears in publications in North America and Europe, including Bachtrack, The New York City Jazz Record, The Red Hook Star-Revue, Stereophile, and The Wire and he can be heard on WKCR-FM and WFMU-FM.