I’m not trying to imply you don’t understand this. I’m just popping in my two cents. Braxton can be a little bit of a conundrum because he plays really out there stuff while at the same time being a traditionalist. Perhaps very often when jazz is kicking you in the nuts it’s giving you that wild impression of being uprooted and ungrounded in way that shouts FREEDOM. It doesn’t have to be free jazz to do that. Charlie Parker does that, even though he’s well grounded all the time there’s this wildness that makes the listener forget it. But Braxton is rooted in a more scholarly way so the nutcrunching might demand a more academic listening approach. The album you’re talking highlights something he does incredibly well. And you mentioned it, bop to free, he connects the dots in such a fiercely logical way- so ****ing quickly - this isn’t just collage genre shifting - Braxton takes you there. Every note has a transitory quality and his skill and intuition is stunning.
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