Anthony Braxton Project
Chapter Three (MEV/Circle)
1970-1971 Chronology
Returning from his first trip to Europe in early 1970, Braxton settled
in New York, staying at Ornette Coleman’s apartment. In March, a
group of AACM musicians, including Muhal Richard Abrams, played under
the name the Creative Construction Company at New York’s Peace
Chuch. Later that night, Braxton sat in with Chick Corea’s trio
with Dave Holland and Barry Altschul. In a few months Braxton
would join the group, touring as Circle.
"We all came from very different
directions. Anthony Braxton came from the Chicago school, with Cage's
music and the theatricals you spoke about the other day. And of course
Chick came from quite a melodic Latin kind of thing and I came from
England, with all that stuff that's going on there...and Barry was from
New York, and had played with people like Paul Bley. There's quite a
wide variety of viewpoints that came to me in the music which is why it
has got such a lot of attention, and I figure that we had many
different directions going on in the group." - Dave Holland,
interviewed by Bill Smith in Coda, vol. 10, no. 12 (March-April 1973), p.3.
In the meantime, Braxton hooked up with Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) for a
tour of the Midwest. The spring and summer of 1970 was also the
fabled period when Braxton made a living playing chess in Washington
Square Park.
Touring the coasts and Europe with Circle, Braxton gained further
public attention. In between Circle gigs, Braxton continued to do solo
concerts, and this period yielded several more recordings.
The stream of privately recorded Braxton expands in this period, with several unreleased Circle concerts in circulation.
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