Legendary saxophonist, composer and lifelong musical innovator Anthony Braxton turns 80 today — June 4, 2025 — and Burning Ambulance Music is helping to celebrate his life of creativity with the release of Quartet (England) 1985, a digital collection of four complete, previously unreleased concerts featuring pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Gerry Hemingway.
“We could have a box set. Show the complete spectrum of what this group is capable of.” – Anthony Braxton, November 1985
“THIS MUSIC IS REALLY SOMETHING! The music is equal to the best of the quartet – maybe it’s even better than that.” – Anthony Braxton, November 2024
The Denver Post calls the set “a revelation” that “showcases four artists operating at a high level of communication. Braxton’s imaginative sax solos levitate above the dynamic rhythm section, and Crispell’s responses are beguiling. It’s magnificent music that pays off with close listening.” As far as I’m concerned, getting behind the trivia, every time, listening to the music carefully and paying attention brings the listener closer to the core of it and helps not just feel it deeper, but also to understand the structure of it. Loving Braxton’s music through my life-span, and all the musicians on that set, together and each of them separately as well, I can’t even describe how I feel inside of my heart now, when I see that legendary set, I was told by older colleagues about so many times, comes out. Priceless.
photo Nick White
The original dates for the ENGLAND ( November ) 1985 were as below:
THE TOUR DATES
—November 1985—
LONDON Bloomsbury Theatre – Wednesday 13th
NEWCASTLE People’s Theatre – Thursday 14th
MANCHESTER Royal Northern College of Music, Opera Theatre – Friday 15th
BIRMINGHAM Strathallan Hotel – Sunday 17th
LIVERPOOL Everyman Theatre – Monday 18th
SHEFFIELD The Leadmill – Tuesday 19th
LEICESTER Leicester Polytechnic, The Great Hall – Wednesday 20th
BRISTOL Arnolfini – Thursday 21st
SOUTHAMPTON Guildhall, Solent Suite – Friday 22nd
LEEDS Civic Theatre – Sunday 24th
HUDDERSFIELD St Paul’s Hall – Monday 25th
COVENTRY Warwick University, Arts Centre Studio – Tuesday 26th
LINE UP
Anthony Braxton, reeds
Marilyn Crispell, piano
Mark Dresser, double bass
Gerry Hemingway, percussion
Existing documentary of the tour, till date, could only be heard on 2 disc set published by Leo Records in 1988. That’s exactly the one I came across in the middle of the 90s, when my interest in Braxton’s music, and the Jazz Avant Garde in general, was reaching zenith! Here, below, myself and many of you I believe, were aware off. Here is a more complex information about the recorded events, below:
THE RECORDINGS
” The London concert, recorded by the BBC, and those at Birmingham and Coventry, recorded by freelance sound engineer Michael Gerzon, were released by Leo Records as three separate two-CD sets, in the middle of the 90s – remembers Graham Lock, to whom we own the chance of hearing these release now. ” There are no known recordings of the Newcastle and Manchester concerts. The remaining seven concerts – at Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Bristol, Southampton, Leeds, and Huddersfield – were recorded by me, from the audience, on a small mono cassette recorder. (I no longer remember why I failed to record those other two concerts.) My aim at the time was to have a documentary record of the performances that, together with the copious notes I made, could inform the descriptions of the concerts I planned to include in my book Forces in Motion. It did not occur to me that the tapes might ever become publicly available. I listened to them several times while writing the book, then packed them away in a cupboard. I thought the music was fabulous, but the sound quality of the tapes was less so. They were mono, which meant no separation or rebalancing of the instruments was possible, and they were subject to the wild acoustic vagaries of the various venues, from the cavernous murk of Liverpool and Leeds to the shrill, echoing resonances of Huddersfield. What’s more, my recorder’s automatic volume control had a tendency to cause frequent and sometimes abrupt fluctuations in dynamic levels. Forty years on, I’m pleased to say many of these initial acoustic deficiencies have been greatly mitigated by the advent of digital technology. And thanks to the expertise and keen ear of recording engineer Chris Trent, four complete concerts—at Sheffield,
Leicester, Bristol and Southampton— have been restored close to their original pulsating life, full of the fire and tenderness and magic that I remember from 1985. Being on that tour was one of the highlights of my life, and I’m delighted these recordings can now be shared with anyone who wishes to listen. What you will hear is a music of exceptional virtuosity and startling innovation, testimony both to the skill and imagination of a remarkable quartet and, more particularly, to the nonpareil genius of Anthony Braxton. It’s a happy coincidence that the music’s release this year can mark both his 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the quartet’s only English tour.
– Graham Lock
photo Nick White
THE CONCERTS
SHEFFIELD CONCERT – 19/11/85
Set 1. Time 40:34
Composition 69B
Composition 60 (+108C)
Composition 110A (+108B)
Composition 34
Set 2. Time 46:29
Composition 105A
Composition 69N
Composition 40M
Bass solo (from Composition 96)
LEICESTER CONCERT – 20/11/85
Set 1. Time: 46:33
Composition 85 (+108D)
Composition 69F
Composition 122 (+108A)
Set 2. Time 46:52
Composition 69C
Composition 69O
Composition 116
Composition 40N
BRISTOL CONCERT – 21/11/85
Set 1. Time 42:06
Composition 69H
Composition 88 (+108C)
Piano solo (from Compositions 1, 30-33)
Composition 23J
Set 2. Time 40:56
Composition 6A
Percussion solo (from Composition 96)
Composition 115
Bass solo (from Composition 96)
Composition 69J
SOUTHAMPTON CONCERT – 22/11/85
Set 1. Time 43:53
Composition 105B
Composition 40(O)
Composition 124
Composition 86
Set 2. Time 36:42
Composition 52
Collage Form Structure
Composition 40F
Composition 108A
Each concert — Sheffield, Leicester, Bristol, and Southampton — consists of two sets, entirely different from each other, and the set also includes five soundcheck performances of jazz standards like “After the Rain,” “All the Things You Are” and “On Green Dolphin Street.
photo Nick White
A Brief Note on the Compositions and their Performance
” In 1985, Anthony Braxton’s quartet sets flowed as an uninterrupted stream of music. There were no pauses between the listed compositions (which Braxton referred to as ‘primary territories’) because the group moved from one to another via collective and/or solo open improvisation. These ‘primary territories’ might comprise a single composition played by all four musicians, two compositions played simultaneously by pairs of musicians or, occasionally, four different compositions played simultaneously in what Braxton termed ‘collage form structures’. A common feature of the latter two options was the use of ‘pulse tracks’, repeating rhythmic loops (part-notated, part-improvised) that Braxton conceived as an alternative kind of layering to conventional rhythm section accompaniment. The ‘pulse tracks’ were often, but not always, played by the bass and percussion; sometimes by the piano and percussion; and, uniquely (on this tour), by woodwind and piano at the close of the Southampton concert, while the bass and percussion freely improvised.
There were also designated solo spots, which could either be open or drawn from the stash of other Braxton compositions which each player took onstage. The set lists were compiled by Braxton just before the beginning of each concert. So the chief sources of the material played on the tour were: the 6, 23, 40 and 69 series of compositions for quartet; Compositions 85-88, a series of duos for woodwind and bass, though sometimes deployed differently in the quartet context (for example, 86 was played at Southampton as three consecutive duos—piano/percussion, clarinet/bass, clarinet/percussion); Compositions 108A-D, a set of independent pulse tracks usually played with another composition (though some compositions, such as 105A and 115, have their own internal pulse tracks); Piano Piece 1 and Compositions 30-33, works for solo piano, extracts from which could be played during designated piano solos; and Composition 96, originally for orchestra and four slide projectors, parts of which could be played in designated bass and percussion solos.
If this all sounds dauntingly complex, remember what Braxton told the audience at his pre-concert talk at Leicester: “Let me just say this: human beings are all alike, our spectrum of feelings, tensions, dreams are the same and these things are in the music like they’re in our lives.”
– GL
photo Nick White
BONUS TRACKS
Soundcheck Standards. Time 23:58
1. All the Things You Are (Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II) – 3:19 (Birmingham)
2. On Green Dolphin Street (Bronislaw Kaper & Ned Washington) – 8:23 (Birmingham)
3. Four (Miles Davis) – 5:50 (Bristol)
4. After the Rain (John Coltrane) – 3:40 (Huddersfield)
5. All the Things You Are (Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II) – 2:46 (Coventry)
A Special Bonus: the Soundcheck Standards
” The quartet mostly spent their soundchecks running through the compositions Braxton planned to include in that evening’s concert, especially if, as was often the case, the group had not played a particular composition in a while—or, occasionally, ever before. (You’ll have noticed that no primary territory is repeated in any of the concerts included here; the quartet played 26 different compositions over four consecutive nights.) However, to loosen up, to check out the acoustic and perhaps to have a little fun, they’d also include a standard or two at times. These were nearly always called by Braxton on the spur of the moment (though I think Marilyn Crispell suggested ‘After the Rain’), and I was repeatedly amazed at how adept and fluent in the (post-bebop) tradition the quartet proved to be, especially given their reputation as formidable avant-gardists. So here are the handful of standards I managed to record (a few missing their opening moments). Never before heard except by myself, Chris Trent and a few distracted in-house audio technicians, this is the sound of the Anthony Braxton Quartet at play.”
– GL
photo Nick White
Anthony Braxton would love to hear any recordings of the remaining concerts from the tour—i.e. the Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Huddersfield concerts. If you have such a tape, and would be willing to share it, please contact Burning Ambulance Music at burningambulance@gmail.com
Special thanks to Chris Trent, whose dedication, patience and expertise made this project possible; to Nick White for permission to feature his photographs, many of which are previously unpublished (they were taken at Stonehenge as well as at various soundchecks and backstage at the Southampton, Huddersfield and Coventry concerts); and to Jack Collier for his constant support, input and friendship.
We are grateful beyond words to Philip Freeman and I.A. Freeman at Burning Ambulance Music for enabling our virtual pipe dream to become a virtual reality.
Thanks also for advice, guidance and help to Martin Archer, Marilyn Crispell, Steve Feigenbaum, Jeff Golick, Andy Isham, Zac Jaffe, Henry Kaiser, Rupert M. Loydell, Keith Martin, Stephen C. Middleton, CJ Mitchell, Chris Parker, Kevin Reilly and Simon Reynell.
Happy 80th birthday, Anthony, from all of the above!
For more on the quartet’s 1985 tour, see Graham Lock’s book Forces in Motion: Anthony Braxton and the Meta-reality of Creative Music (30th Anniversary Edition – Dover Books, 2018).
For more on Anthony Braxton’s music, see his Composition Notes, Volumes A-E (Synthesis Music,1988). A new edition is scheduled for publication by the Tri-Centric Foundation.
Sheffield • Leicester • Bristol • Southampton, All compositions (except ‘Soundcheck Standards’) © Anthony Braxton, Synthesis Music/ BMI
Original cassette recordings by Graham Lock © 1985
Digital transfers by Christopher Trent © 2020
Digital mixes by Christopher Trent and Graham Lock © 2025
All photographs by Nick White © 1985, 2025
Booklet texts and design by Graham Lock © 2025
The drawing on the preceding page is the graphic title for Anthony Braxton’s Composition #124, which he composed during the first days of the tour.
A Love, Friendship and Respect Publication