Quartet (Coventry) 1985

A companion release to Quartet (London) 1985 and the other double-disc sets recorded during a November 1985 U.K. tour, Coventry (1985) documents two sets recorded on November 26, 1985 at Warwick University's Arts Center Studio by composer/saxophonist Braxton and the rest of his Forces of Motion quartet: Marilyn Crispell on piano, Mark Dresser on bass, and Gerry Hemingway on drums. The two sets are in the same style as the recordings on Quartet (London) 1985, with the four musicians switching from one composition to another one player at a time, from scores where all four players' parts were written to be interchangeable. What makes this two-disc set stand out above the others in the series of live reissues from this tour is that each disc includes a half-hour interview between Braxton and Graham Lock (who also wrote the album's liner notes), an enlightening, free-ranging discussion that covers Braxton's influences, concepts, and techniques. One particularly fascinating passage features Braxton's heated response to critics who feel that his cerebral, at times difficult music owes too little to jazz traditions and too much to European art music.