Anthony Braxton played four straight nights at Iridium in New York last week. I didn’t get there, alas, but Steve Smith did, and reports on it here, here and here. There are even more comments tucked in amongst other topics elsewhere on his weblog. Thanks to Herb Levy for pointing me in Steve’s direction. I did review Braxton’s November 4 gig at Philadelphia’s I-House here. The New York gigs expanded the sextet he played with in Philly to a full “12(+1)tet.”

Barrett Watten is giving a talk on Saturday at NYU entitled “Transposing the Limits of Open Form: Language Writing and Anthony Braxton.” 12:15, Room 207, the Silver Building on Waverly Place. This is part of a day devoted to Current Free Practices in Music and Poetry. In addition to Watten, Alvin Curran, George Lewis, George Hartley on Nate Mackey, Dana Reason on women & improvisation, will be among those contemplating the relations between these two genres.

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As for yours truly, I’ll be in Chapel Hill on Saturday, reading with Selah Saterstrom at Internationalist Books at 8:30 pm. Next week, I’ll be in Boston on business through Thursday. If this blog goes dark, it’s just the contingencies of laptops & hotels & travel.