The Music of Anthony Braxton

Track List

34a

  8:28

L.A. Genes

  4:20

40b

  11:28

23b+23g

  8:07

23c

  5:46

Unbroken and Unspoken

  5:46

23e+40a

  3:44

Trinkle, Tinkle

  8:21

Steve Lehman – who The New York Times has hailed as a “virtuoso alto saxophonist” and a “state-of-the-art musical thinker” – returns with a highly-anticipated new release with his long-running trio featuring bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid, this time joined by special guest tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. On the self-evidently entitled The Music of Anthony Braxton, Lehman pays homage to one of his earliest mentors, with a hard-swinging live album, commemorating the 80^th anniversary of Braxton’s birth.

Lehman, a Pi Recordings artist for two decades, has built a career creating innovative, uncompromising music that packs a visceral punch. His 2023 release Ex Machina with the Orchestre National de Jazz was awarded 5 Stars by DownBeat, who called it “astonishing, richly detailed, brilliantly colored and full of improvisational power.” The album was also voted #3 album of the year in the annual Francis Davis Poll of over 150 jazz critics and hailed by The New York Times as “an electrifying new concept for a jazz big band.” His signature alto sound – searing with emotional intensity and crystal-clear articulation – has been featured in high-profile partnerships with Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, and Bennie Maupin among many others. As further evidence of the breadth of Lehman’s wide-ranging artistry, his avant-rap collective, Selebeyone, recently received a Doris Duke Technology Lab grant to pursue research in Senegal this year.

Lehman first cut his teeth as a sideman in Braxton’s main touring ensemble from 1999 to 2007, performing at international festivals and appearing on a host of recordings, including a tribute to the music of Andrew Hill (Nine Compositions (Hill) 2000). For this project, Lehman wanted to similarly plant a flag for Braxton’s music: “Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to connect Anthony’s music with new audiences and make a case for his small group music as a really indispensable part of the jazz canon. So, that meant being really discerning about the repertoire and making a conscious effort to work with musicians outside of Braxton’s orbit who could bring new perspectives to the music.” Lehman chose intricate, catchy, one-of-a-kind small-group compositions by Braxton that he originally recorded in the 1970s and 1980s with the likes of Ed Blackwell, Dave Holland, and Kenny Wheeler, among others on albums like Fall 1974, and Six Compositions: Quartet (1981).

To breathe new life into the music, Lehman enlisted the help of his long- standing trio, whose last album – The People I Love, with guest Craig Taborn on piano – was named a Best Jazz Album of 2019 by The New York Times. Pitchfork called it “a full-throttle mind-meld between two of the

best player-composers on the contemporary jazz scene.” This time around, Lehman called on Mark Turner, one of the most influential jazz musicians of the past 30 years: “Mark always felt like a natural fit for this project because I knew he would find a way to make the music his own, and also because his work overlaps with Braxton’s in so many meaningful ways. They’re both heavily influenced by the music of Warne Marsh and the larger Tristano-inspired orbit. And they both have the ability to combine high-concept approaches with more visceral expressiveness.” Lehman and Turner have been working together, off and on, since first appearing on Matt Brewer’s debut recording, Mythology, in 2014. The two saxophonists share an obvious rapport – indeed, Turner’s forthcoming 2025 quartet release on ECM features a composition entitled “Lehman’s Lair” – that is revealed in surprising ways throughout this thrilling set of music.

The live concert was recorded in front of a boisterous crowd at ETA in Los Angeles. On “34a” and “23b” Lehman and Turner both go for broke, with their distinctive saxophone voices thrown into relief by the ever-inventive rhythm section work. The nimble precision of Brewer (SF Jazz, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Tyshawn Sorey) paired with the electrifying dexterity of Reid (Robert Glasper Trio) makes them a highpoint of any performance by Lehman’s trio. “40b” features one of Braxton’s one-of-a-kind melodic lines and the endless unfolding of “23c” is transformed as a result of Reid’s ultramodern rhythmic approach. Lehman notes that “All of these Braxton pieces present really creative and innovative ideas about what you can do with a small ensemble of improvisers. Nothing is taken for granted: the role of the bass; how many instruments are going to be deployed at any given moment; prioritizing timbre over propulsion in the use of the drums, and compositional forms that morph and evolve over time, instead of staying static. It’s really different from what we normally hear in the standard modern jazz format. But it’s also inextricably connected to those roots.”

The set also includes two new Lehman compositions: “LA Genes” and “Unbroken & Unspoken” that provide a fascinating glimpse into the ways in which Lehman’s compositional approach is both informed by and yet distinct from Braxton’s. The album ends with Thelonious Monk’s “Trinkle, Tinkle,” a piece that Lehman chose in an effort to highlight the connection between the melodic line of that piece and “23b.” “I think the Monk piece really solidifies the idea of a kind of continuum of radical experimentation that permeates the entire jazz canon, and Braxton is a huge part of that. It’s something I’m incredibly proud to be connected to. I think that joy and excitement come across in every note that Mark and Matt and Damion and I play on this album. When it’s our turn to turn 80, I think that’s the legacy that we hope to look back on.”