London Jazz Festival : Anthony Braxton Quintet/Cecil Taylor, Royal Festival Hall, London (GB) - Nov 15, 2004

Braxton’s band were: Taylor Ho Bynum trumpet/flugelhorn/trombone/conch, Braxton sopranino sax/soprano sax/other reeds, Mary Halvorson guitar, Chris Dahlgren double bass, Satoshi Takeishi drums/percussion. They performed his Composition 343. Great soloing by Braxton, especially considering that his work is fundamentally so cerebral. Taylor, piano, played with Bill Dixon trumpet and Tony Oxley drums/percussion. Taylor always plays mesmerising stuff but Dixon was completely misplaced here – silly, squirting interjections. I know he has had some eminence in the field of contemporary jazz since the 60s and has developed an idiosyncratic trumpet approach but nothing he did here was less than annoying. Hence no five stars for this concert. A review of a live recording, dated 17 December 2005, is at allaboutjazz.com.