Either/or - Anthony Braxton composer portrait at Miller Theatre (Sep. 2019)
L to R: Chris Mcintyre, richard carrick, james fei, jonathan finlayson
detail of photo by Anthony creamer
Either/Or continues its Fall season with Transpositions: Music by Anthony Braxton & Mendi + Keith Obadike at the recently opened Brooklyn venue Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew. EO presents an evening of works that situate the players and audience in a charged dialog between notation and improvisation, featuring Anthony Braxton's pivotal Composition No.98 (1981) for quartet and selections from Mendi + Keith Obdike's graphic score collection Big House/Disclosure (2007).
PERSONNEL
James Fei (woodwinds), Johnathan Finlayson (trumpets), Chris McIntyre (trombones, euphonium), Richard Carrick (keyboards)
Composition No.98 - graphic
Braxton's Composition No.98 (1981) is an important work in the development of the prolific composer/performer's oeuvre. No. 98 represents a quintessential realization of what he termed “trans-music”, or unification discipline, “a discipline that brings together many different areas and devices, musics that bring people together.” 98 seamlessly integrates conventional, idiosyncratic, and graphic notation. Bracing ensemble interactivity occurs in lightning quick succession, placing the performers in a constant state of interhemispheric activation. On Dec. 8, EO brings together a very special quartet to take on this extremely challenging score: James Fei (long-time Braxton collaborator) on woodwinds, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpets, Chris McIntyre on trombones and euphonium, and Richard Carrick on keyboards.
Excerpt from Big House/Disclosure
To start the evening, the quartet will revisit Mendi + Kieth Obadike's Big House/Disclosure (2007), the fecundated collection of graphic scores “...inspired by Nigerian nsibidi writing, European music notation, and architectural drawings” first performed by EO in May 2023. Big House/Disclosure, the inaugural work in the Obadike's ongoing series of multimedia works entitled The Americana Suites, is an intermedia suite commissioned by Northwestern University for the 200th anniversary (1807-2007) of the abolition of the British Slave Trade.