Anthony Braxton Quotes

“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.”

— Anthony Braxton

“My work has been marginalized as far as the jazz-business complex is concerned, or the contemporary-music complex.”

— Anthony Braxton

Everybody in America is angry about something.

— Anthony Braxton

“So, yes, I am in the underground, but actually, it feels like home.”

— Anthony Braxton

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.

— Anthony Braxton

“I thank the Creator of the universe to have discovered the discipline of music was the greatest gift that I could have been given, the possibility to be a student working in the world.”

— Anthony Braxton

“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.”

— Anthony Braxton

“I am viewed as the Negro who has gone outside of the categories assigned to me.”

— Anthony Braxton

I'm seeking to have an art that is engaged as a way for saying, 'Hurray for unity.'

— Anthony Braxton

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

— Anthony Braxton

“I am interested in the study of music and the discipline of music and the experience of music and music as a esoteric mechanism to continue my real intentions.”

— Anthony Braxton

Most African Americans, especially the men and women from my generation, would accept the nationalist gambit that says only European Americans can be racists, which is an interesting gambit.

— Anthony Braxton

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

— Anthony Braxton

“Is jazz a rhythm, or is it a vibration?”

— Anthony Braxton

“Evolution is the phenomenon of change and the challenge of the next time cycle will involve the creation of constructs that will provide the kind of dynamic knowledge base that can assist the challenges of tomorrow (involving both fundamental and extended information).”

— Anthony Braxton

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

— Anthony Braxton

“There is more to creative mastership than the surface of satisfaction and political certainty. The music of Joe Fonda is part of a living tradition of belief and dedication. Future historians will be surprised at the breadth of Mr. Fonda's offerings. This is a real virtuoso and composer of the highest order.”

— Anthony Braxton

“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.”

— Anthony Braxton

I know I'm an African-American, and I know I play the saxophone, but I'm not a jazz musician. I'm not a classical musician, either. My music is like my life: It's in between these areas.

— Anthony Braxton

“I have great hopes for the possibility of a dynamic universalism that respects all our people.”

— Anthony Braxton