12 Comp (Zim) 2017

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With his changing ensembles Braxton does achieve some startling patchworks that take full advantage of the enormous precision with which the musicians can control legato and presto phrasing,... — Jazzwise, July 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 4th Jun 2021
Catalogue No: FH120104033D
Label: Firehouse 12 Records
Length: 10 hours 38 minutes

Braxton: Composition No. 402

Work length46:20

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 408

Work length53:52

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 409

Work length49:54

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 410

Work length40:45

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 411

Work length57:58

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 412

Work length51:10

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 414

Work length51:40

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 415

Work length49:17

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 416

Work length47:20

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 418

Work length46:00

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 419

Work length1:13:06

Album only

Braxton: Composition No. 420

Work length1:10:53

Album only

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Firehouse 12 Records is pleased to release the latest iteration of Braxton's musical system, called ZIM Music, which is derived from language number 11: gradient logics. Gradient logics pertain to aspects of music that continually change, faster and faster, slower and slower, brighter and brighter, darker and darker. 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 documents 12 performances over the course of two years, showcasing the development of ZIM music as the compositions and ensemble adapted to new musical situations.

The very first ZIM Music composition was in fact presented to the quartet with Nels Cline, Greg Saunier, and Taylor Ho Bynum documented on Quartet (New Haven) 2014. During that session it was used only sparingly, and later became the first of four ZIM compositions (398 - 401) to be recorded during a residency at the University of Alabama in the summer of 2015.

While the first four ZIM compositions were short, linear, single-lined and mostly graphic, Composition No. 402 was scored for a quintet of reeds, brass, tuba, and two harps. Combining traditionally notated sections with sections of individual and tutti graphic notation, Composition No. 402 was premiered in Poland in November 2015, and appears on this Blu-ray as the opening track, recorded live at Wake Forest University in March 2017. At the Big Ears Festival in 2016, Braxton debuted Composition Nos. 403 & 404 which are primarily non-linear graphic compositions.

After the Wake Forest performance of Composition No. 402, the recordings in this set move through Composition Nos. 408 through 420. Recorded in a variety of contexts, these compositions maintain the gradient logics of dynamic and timbre change, but infuse gradients into the notated material itself. He dubs this computer-aided notation "extraction notation": the musicians are given technically impossible music and are expected to "extract" a performance from the notation as part of their improvisational process. This resulting transformation, from notated to performed is in itself a gradient process.

The stellar core ensemble of Taylor Ho Bynum, Dan Peck, Jacquline Kerrod, and Shelley Burgon is augmented and altered with roster of star emerging musicians, including Tomeka Reid, Adam Matlock, Jean Cook, Stephanie Richards, Ingrid Laubrock, Brandee Younger, and Miriam Overlach.

Reviews

July 2021

With his changing ensembles Braxton does achieve some startling patchworks that take full advantage of the enormous precision with which the musicians can control legato and presto phrasing, acknowledging and extending Ellington’s harmonic flourish all the while introducing a very different sense of rhythm and meter, as if all the fraught sensuality of ‘The Mooche’ were freeze-framed in icy mystery.

12 Comp (Zim) 2017

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