Performance (Quartet) 1979 is a live album by American composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton recorded in Switzerland in 1979 and released on the hatART label. The album has also been issued as Performance 9/1/79 and Performance for Quartet.

Composition 113 is an early recorded example of Braxton's "ritual" music; a dramatic, storytelling piece that, when performed live, involved specific staging instructions and visual accompaniment. The album is in six sections, representing six characters, each with a certain sound strategy/character tendency: humor, acceptance, strength, dependability, courage, and belief. As much as this information may provide an interesting background to the work, one listening to the record is left simply with six stunning solo performances by Braxton on soprano saxophone. While he has recorded numerous solo excursions on alto, this is the only time he devoted an entire release to solo soprano and one could only wish for more…

Braxton had long been fond of working with improvising wind ensembles. In fact, the earliest incarnation of what would become the World Saxophone Quartet appeared on his landmark Arista album, New York, Fall, 1974. So his collaboration with the ROVA quartet, perhaps the most important practitioners of the form after the WSQ, came as no surprise…

Formed in Chicago, the Creative Construction Company was initially a trio formed by Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, and Wadada Leo Smith. It originated at the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a non-profit organization founded among others by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and drummer Steve McCall. After spending a few years in Europe, the trio returned to the United States, recording the present concert soon after. For the performance, they were joined by AACM co-founders Abrams and McCall, as well as by legendary bassist Richard Davis. Their unique performance, taped years before the three leaders gained well-deserved fame, still constitutes a landmark in modern jazz.

The band Anthony Braxton assembled for this unique exploration of the compositions of Thelonious Monk is one of the wonders of the composer's retinue. Braxton, pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Buell Neidlinger, and drummer Bill Osborne use six Monk tunes and go hunting for harmonic invention; in order, they are "Brilliant Corners," "Reflections," "Played Twice," "Four in One," "Ask Me Now," and "Skippy." From the jump, the listener can tell this is no ordinary Monk tribute. The music is fast, skittering along at a dervish's pace on "Brilliant Corners," and Braxton's horn - an alto on this album - moves right for that street where interval meets modulation and sticks his solo in the center, careening over the arrangement - which is what the tune is in essence, an arrangement rather than a "song"…

Recorded at the Institut fur Elektronische Musik und Akustik in Graz, Austria during the first week of August 2003, Anthony Braxton's (+ Duke Ellington) Concept of Freedom is a dazzling exercise in collective creativity. Braxton does not perform on this recording. Neither does Ellington, for that matter. Both men and their substantial accomplishments are honored and invoked by a quartet of skilled improvisers. These are trombonist Roland Dahinden, pianist Hildegard Kleeb, violinist Dimitris Polisoidis, and electronics artist Robert Holdrich. Kleeb, like her life partner Dahinden, has worked with Braxton's music in other contexts, most importantly perhaps her four-CD set devoted to 20 years' worth of his notated piano music which was released on the hatNOW series in 1996…

A live duo performance by musicians of this extraordinarily high caliber occasionally results in something incredible but perhaps more often describes a battle of egos with neither side giving in. In this case, the participants appeared willing to compromise and to some extent lay aside their commitment to the vast and idiosyncratic musical structures that they had developed over the year. If the recording still fails to live up to impossibly high expectations, it is nonetheless a fine album on its own merits. The session consists of five improvisations of varying moods, textures, and intensities. Much of the time is spent in areas of surprising lyricism and restraint, as on "ParkBrax #3," a lush, contemplative piece. But even when things become somewhat frenetic, as on the second and fourth tracks, the absolute control of these masters over their instruments is clear…

Anthony Braxton (who on this set plays alto, soprano, C-melody sax, clarinet, and flute) met up with his longtime pianist Marilyn Crispell for the first time on this Black Saint release. With bassist John Lindberg and drummer Gerry Hemingway forming what would be (with Mark Dresser in Lindberg's place) a regular group for nearly a decade, his quartet was off to a strong start. Braxton seems quite comfortable playing this complex music, and his diagrams (which serve as song titles) are actually fairly humorous.

Braxton released a number of solo alto saxophone albums in the wake of his extraordinary For Alto recorded in 1968, all of which are both fascinating documents in their own right as well as glimpses into the mechanisms which underlie his music. This live set from Wesleyan University in 1992 is no exception. One evolutionary difference here is that around this time Braxton began incorporating into his solo concerts a strategy he had developed during the '80s for his quartet: collage procedures. This means that, while initially playing one composition, he allowed himself the option of interpolating others as he saw fit, making for an even wider array of "sound spaces" available for exploration. Indeed, the range he covers is amazing…

This December 1977 recording features two of the most prominent AACM musicians, Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton. Mitchell's composition 'run the gamut, beginning with the darkly gorgeous opener that features Braxton's contrabass clarinet nestling evocatively beneath the composer's earthy flute, Mitchell's other pieces investigate the sparer, more abstract realm, as the duo's wide variety of reeds populate the sonic environment with scattered moans, squeaks and pops. Overall, this is a fine meeting between two of the most forward-looking thinkers and players in the music. Recommended. ' - Brian Olewnick, Allmusic

Celebrating Anthony Braxton on his 75th birthday, THUMBSCREW digs into the Tricentric Archives, focusing on previously unrecorded pieces by the legendary composer, multi-wind master and bandleader. The all-star collective trio releases its fifth album for Cuneiform, The Anthony Braxton Project. For fans familiar with Braxton’s music the project offers a whole new window into his genius for designing protean musical situations pregnant with possibilities. Those less acquainted with his work might find themselves enthralled and amazed by the sheer diversity of rhythmic and melodic material explored by Thumbscrew.

Anthony Braxton’s new recording Duo (Improv) 2017 to be released on his 75th birthday June 4th.