EFG London Jazz Festival : Anthony Braxton New Quartet/Henry Threadgill's Zooid, Barbican Centre, London (GB) - 13 nov. 2022

Braxton (alto, soprano, sopranino saxes/electronics) performed with Susana Santos Silva trumpet, Carl Testa double bass and María Portugal drums/percussion; Threadgill (alto sax and flutes) with José Davila tuba/trombone, Liberty Ellman guitar, Christopher Hoffman cello and Elliot Humberto Kavee drums/percussion. Both these venerable musicians come out of the AACM of the 1960s and have since then sustained a modernist conception of cutting-edge music. Braxton is a prolific composer and this was very much to the fore here since there was no hint of the lively and exciting soloing that I’ve seen him do, albeit in an arranged context, and so here we had a series of composed miniatures, with the customary astringent harmonies, somewhat static, carefully conducted and with impressive playing, especially from the bass and percussion. There were similarities in the Threadgill set but more liveliness and individual expressivity, I think, more passion, especially in Threadgill’s final solo. Hints of melody too. We could have done without the drum solo (I didn’t think they still were obligatory) though the percussion overall was excellent. So, really good music from a pair of exceptional collectives led by two great jazz figures of my lifetime. Reviewed by Ivan Hewett in The Telegraph and by Peter Slavid in London Jazz News, 14 November 2022.