28 Quotes by Anthony Braxton

I have learned through time that not everyone is interested in the kinds of things that fascinate me.

Is jazz a rhythm, or is it a vibration?

The word music is a convenient way to talk about what I’m interested in, but actually, in some ways, it’s a limitation.

I’m a post-Abner Jay kind of guy mixed with Roger Corman and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.

Growing up in the ’50s and being in the ’60s, in that revolutionary time space, I thought freedom was what I was looking for. Slowly but surely, it became clear that the last thing I was interested in was freedom. Because if you’re going to be free, you have to be free from something.

I would find myself backing away from all of the ‘isms,’ all of the communities. I have always been able to be misused by every community But that is OK. I would rather be misused than neglected.

I had never thought that I would be involved in narrative structures. As a young guy, I was more interested in abstract modeling. But as I got older, I began to see that there was no reason to limit myself to any intellectual or conceptual postulate, when in fact I’m a professional student of music.

For the most basic assumption that dictated my early attempts to respond to creative music commentary was the mistaken belief that western journalists had some fundamental understanding of black creativity – or even western creativity – but this assumption was seriously in error.

I would find myself backing away from all of the 'isms', all of the communities. I have always been able to be misused by every community But that is OK. I would rather be misused than neglected.