Und gerade kam der Newsletter von Cuneiform mit einem ausführlichen Text zum Thumbscrew-Album sowie Link zu einem Vorab-Track:
THUMBSCREW
The Anthony Braxton Project
Label: CUNEIFORM RECORDS
Catalog #: Cuneiform Rune 475
UPC: 045775047522
Format: CD, Digital Download
Genre: JAZZ / IMPROVISATION
Street Date: July 17, 2020
Thumbscrew:
Tomas Fujiwara – Drums & Vibraphone
Mary Halvorson – Guitar
Michael Formanek – Double Bass
All compositions by Anthony Braxton
Celebrating Anthony Braxton on his 75th birthday, Thumbscrew digs into the Tricentric Archives, focusing on previously unrecorded pieces by the legendary composer, multi-wind master and bandleader. The all-star collective trio, featuring drummer/percussionist Tomas Fujiwara, guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Michael Formanek, releases its fifth album for Cuneiform Records, The Anthony Braxton Project.
Over the course of six decades NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton has created a singularly vast and variegated body of music as a composer and recording artist, an oeuvre encompassing projects ranging in scope from his pioneering 1969 solo saxophone album For Alto to 2016’s epic opera Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables). Musicians around the world have been coming together over the past year to celebrate his 75th birthday with an array of performances and recordings, but leave it to the all-star collective trio Thumbscrew to focus an utterly personal lens on previously unheard compositions with The Anthony Braxton Project. For fans familiar with Braxton’s music the project offers a whole new window into his genius for designing protean musical situations pregnant with possibilities. Those less acquainted with his work might find themselves enthralled and amazed by the sheer diversity of rhythmic and melodic material explored by Thumbscrew. The trio’s fifth album extends the group’s relationship with Cuneiform Records, which has released all of the band’s recordings.
Invited to explore the Tri-Centric Foundation’s voluminous Braxton archives in New Haven, Conn. as part of the Braxton75 celebration, drummer/percussionist Tomas Fujiwara, guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Michael Formanek spent a long afternoon looking for rarely played pieces that could fit their instrumental palette. “The idea was for us to choose compositions of Anthony’s, mostly early compositions, which hadn’t been previously recorded (or, in a couple cases, recorded only once or twice),” says Halvorson. “We chose pieces that captured our imagination and that we thought would work well for the instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums or vibraphone. Our choices included graphic scores, complex notated pieces, and everything in between.”
Like with several previous Thumbscrew albums, the triumvirate used an extended, four-week residency at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh to prepare for the recording. Working on the music daily (while also honing a new book of original Thumbscrew compositions), they developed arrangements of varying detail based on the scores and the corresponding catalogue notes for each composition. While aiming to understand and execute Braxton’s intention with each piece, the nature of his music required them to shape the material anew. “We have a shared language in terms of how we improvise, but the composition very much guides and informs our improvisations, so having music from a new composer puts us in a different frame of mind and adds another layer to what we do as a trio,” Fujiwara says. “Looking through the Tri-Centric Archives, we were like kids in a candy store–a feeling that there were unlimited options that all would work for us and be a joy to explore–and we had a great guide in Tri-Centric’s Carl Testa. Mention a certain flavor and he’d show us all we could ever dream of.“
Each piece shines a light on a different facet of Braxton’s musical universe. “no. 274” is the only entry from Braxton’s Ghost Trance work. Completely notated but requiring constant interpretation, it’s built on musical cells with constantly shifting tempos. The point isn’t to master the system. “It’s about how you deal with music that’s almost impossible to play and what happens when you do them with someone else, opening up possibilities you couldn’t plan,” Formanek says. The shadow of a march falls on “no. 61” a playfully stuttering and surging piece originally written for a saxophone/bass duo. The album closes with a blast of joy with Braxton’s homage to the Southwest territory bands of the 1930s. With an irresistible walking bass line and ringing unison notes on guitar and vibes, it’s a bright, sunny number “with very specific stylistic references,” Formanek says. “The composition notes mentioned playing the way Basie might have played some of this music, with that bounce and feel. The written music really fits in that style, but in a really Braxton way.”
All three of the musicians of Thumbscrew have had significant performing and / or study opportunities with Braxton, so they all can approach this music as ‘insiders’. Formanek’s relationship with Braxton’s music dates back to buying a compilation of his Arista Freedom recordings in the mid-1970s. Immediately struck by the music, he tried to decipher the symbols and diagrams that Braxton used as titles. He followed his output over the decades “amazed at the range of music and how much he pushed himself to be creative and indulge all of his curiosities, the way he used the musicians to help realize the vision,” Formanek says. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that he had a chance perform with Braxton, joining a multimedia production at the Knitting Factory as the second bassist.
Wesleyan is where Halvorson came into Braxton’s orbit during her undergrad years from 1998-2002, a creative relationship that launched her as one of the most celebrated improvisers to emerge in the 21st century. “I consider him one of the main catalysts for me deciding to become a musician,” she says. “Studying with Anthony, learning his musical systems and playing music with him remains one of the most important and inspiring musical experiences of my life.”
Fujiwara met Braxton through Taylor Ho Bynum when the trumpeter was attending Wesleyan, which led to several opportunities to perform with Braxton in different settings, including a trio with drummer Tom Rainey documented on the 2014 album Trio (New Haven) 2013 (New Braxton House). “Having time to talk and hang out with Anthony, his energy and his whole presence has been very inspiring,” Fujiwara says. “Both as a person and a musician he gives this real jolt of energy and creativity and positivity to try things and explore things and push myself.”
In much the same way the album’s compositions are indelibly Braxton, the interpretations are pure Thumbscrew. Part of what makes the ensemble so extraordinary is the sheer density of the musical connections running between the musicians. Beyond their work as a trio, they’re the foundation for Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus, the hair-raising and ridiculously talent-laden large ensemble that released its 2016 debut, The Distance on ECM . Formanek joined Halvorson on Tomas Fujiwara and The Hook Up’s third release, the critically hailed 2015 album After All Is Said (482 Music). And Halvorson featured her Thumbscrew bandmates on 2018’s lavishly praised release Code Girl (Firehouse 12), a song-based project with vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. For Halvorson, Thumbscrew has become an invaluable creative foundation. “It’s one of my favorite rhythm sections to be a part of, the power and energy and everything we create together,” she says. “At this point, all of us have used this rhythm section as leaders.”
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