Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Anthony Braxton: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003

Anthony Braxton: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003

By Glenn Astarita
August 18, 2010
View read count

Anthony Braxton: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003

Innovative progressive-jazz and avant-gardist

Anthony Braxton

woodwinds
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Anthony Braxton employs his arsenal of saxophones while covering gems from the past, evidenced by his smoothly swinging spin on

" data-original-title="" title="">Tommy Dorsey's "So Rare," amid a medley of jazz and pop standards. These four discs capture the quartet's 2003 European tour, enamored by the crystalline audio processing and a muse that transmits an antithesis to the musical roads often traversed.

Braxton's rippling notes generate a consortium of sublime and heated contrasts with the under-recorded and hugely talented guitarist Kevin O'Neil. The band swings and bops during the majority of the program; however, Braxton tosses a few curves into the mix, most notably on the ethereal and dark improvisational segment, "G. Petal (Improvisation)."

The soloists coalesce understated grooves while redefining a given melody. And they spiral into heated exchanges while tempering the various flows. Percussionist

Kevin Norton

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Kevin Norton adds timber with his over-the-top vibes treatments. Nonetheless, the quartet generates a revved-up level of excitement via blistering exchanges, evidenced when Braxton and O'Neil launch an aerial assault, consisting of turbo-mode 16th notes and other components.

Braxton and O'Neil execute scat-like phrasings on

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' "Half Nelson" and reconfigure Frank Loesser's "Inch Worm," by morphing free-form stylizations into a jazz-waltz groove. Here, the musicians intertwine the familiar hook into bustling and multidirectional movements, their progressive-jazz and avant tendencies offering more than just an album of retreads. Similar to the basic groundwork laid out by the quartet's previous efforts, they inject a modernist edge into the roads previously traveled. With sterling musicianship, the quartet expressively melds sheer firepower with elegance, and a persuasive mode of execution, which seeds a refreshing ambiance into these time-honored standards.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

CD1: Four; Body and Soul; Petal (Improvisation); So Rare; It's You or No One. CD2: Half Nelson; Ruby My Dear; The Girl from Ipanema; Afternoon in Paris. CD3: East of the Sun' Afro-Blue; Nancy with the Laughing Face; Little Melonae; What's New. CD4: Minority; Inch Worm; Mr. P.C.; Dear Old Stockholm; Like Someone in Love.

Personnel

Anthony Braxton

woodwinds

Kevin O'Neil: guitar; Kevin Norton: drums; Andy Eulau: bass; Anthony Braxton: saxophones.

Album information

Title: 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003 | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Leo Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Newport Jazz Festival: Sunday, Augus...
< Previous

Jimmy Dawkins Presents the Leric Rec...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.