Two hours with Anthony Braxton
For its 40th anniversary, the Exploratorium – the finest science museum in the United States – has been gradually releasing some of Charles Amirkhanian’s “Speaking of Music” programs, jointly produced by the museum, Amirkhanian & KPFA radio. The latest one is a two-hour interview by Amirkhanian of Anthony Braxton conducted in 1985. The series thus far has included some wonderful musicians: Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno & more. But the interview with Braxton deserves to be listened to carefully, to get some sense of the specificity with which he approaches whatever he does as well as the degree to which he uses categories of his own design.
Braxton’s current project is Trillium E
