Anthony Braxton › Similar Artists

Cecil Taylor - 100% match to Anthony Braxton

15 March 1929, New York City, New York, USA. A towering figure in post-war avant garde jazz, Taylor has been hailed as the greatest piano virtuoso of the twentieth century because of the phenomenal power, speed and intensity of his playing. ‘We in black music think of the piano as a percussive instrument, ’ he told writer John Litweiler, ‘we beat the keyboard, Read more

Sam Rivers - 77% match to Anthony Braxton

25 September 1930, El Reno, Oklahoma, USA. Alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, flute and piano player and composer. After extensive studies, Rivers began playing in and around Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 40s. (His first professional engagement had been with Jimmy Witherspoon during his military service.) During the next few years he played mostly in the Boston area wit Read more

Art Ensemble Of Chicago - 67% match to Anthony Braxton

Founded in 1968 by trumpeter Lester Bowie (11 October 1941, Frederick, Maryland, USA, d. 9 November 1999, New York, USA), saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell (b. 3 August 1940, Chicago, Illinois, USA) and Joseph Jarman (b. 14 September 1937, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA) and bass player Malachi Favors (b. 22 August 1927, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 30 January 2004, Chicago, Illinois, U Read more

Steve Lacy - 66% match to Anthony Braxton

Roscoe Mitchell - 64% match to Anthony Braxton

3 August 1940, Chicago, Illinois, USA. As a child Mitchell enjoyed listening to Nat ‘King’ Cole, Lester Young and Charlie Parker. He studied clarinet and baritone saxophone in high school, taking up alto saxophone in his senior year and continuing with it while in the army. He went to Europe with an army band, where he heard Albert Ayler, who was also playing in a Read more

The Vandermark 5 - 56% match to Anthony Braxton

David S. Ware - 54% match to Anthony Braxton

David Spencer Ware, 7 November 1949, Plainfield, New Jersey, USA. Before studying at the Berklee College Of Music in the late 60s, Ware had already begun playing several members of the saxophone family. He formed his own band, Apogee, and played in the USA and Europe with both Cecil Taylor and Andrew Cyrille, recording 1978’s Metamusicians’ Stomp with the latter. Read more

Don Cherry - 54% match to Anthony Braxton

18 November 1936, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, d. 19 October 1995, Alhaurín El Grande, Málaga, Spain. Cherry began playing trumpet while still attending high school in Los Angeles, where he was raised. He also played piano and some of his first public performances were on this instrument when he worked in R&B bands. An early musical associate was Billy Hig Read more

Eric Dolphy - 50% match to Anthony Braxton

20 June 1928, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 29 June 1964, Berlin, Germany. A fluent performer on several reed instruments, Dolphy began to play clarinet while still at school. On the west coast of America in the second half of the 40s he worked with Roy Porter’s band, before spending a couple of years in the US army. After his discharge, he played with several leadin Read more

Charles Gayle - 48% match to Anthony Braxton

28 February 1939, Buffalo, New York, USA. While working in industry, Gayle studied piano in his spare time. Eventually taking up the tenor saxophone, he became involved in the New York avant garde movement of the 60s. At the end of the decade he was back in his home town but returned to New York where for the next decade he often scuffled for work, sometimes playing in obscu Read more

Andrew Hill - 47% match to Anthony Braxton

30 June 1931, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 20 April 2007, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Port Au Prince, Haiti, is usually given as Hill’s birthplace, but he actually hailed from Chicago. He studied composition privately with Paul Hindemith and Bill Russo, and played accordion and tap-danced on the streets where Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines heard him. In his teens he was i Read more

Albert Ayler - 46% match to Anthony Braxton

13 July 1936, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, d. 25 November 1970, New York City, New York, USA. In common with many of the radical figures of the 60s avant garde, tenor and alto saxophonist Ayler paid his dues in R&B bands. He started his musical education on alto, and played in the church attended by his family. At the age of 10 he began studying at the local academy of music, c Read more

Ornette Coleman - 45% match to Anthony Braxton

9 March 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. The evolution of any art form is a complex process and it is always an over-simplification to attribute a development to a single person. If there is anyone apart from Louis Armstrong for whom that claim could be made, however, Ornette Coleman would be a tenable candidate. Charlie Parker and John Coltrane were great forces for progress, Read more

Archie Shepp - 43% match to Anthony Braxton

24 May 1937, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Shepp was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While studying dramatic literature at college he began playing on various instruments including the alto saxophone. His first professional engagement was on clarinet and he later played tenor saxophone with R&B bands. Settling in New York he tried to find work as an actor but was Read more

Muhal Richard Abrams - 43% match to Anthony Braxton

19 September 1930, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Abrams began studying piano at Chicago Music College at the age of 17 and started working professionally a year later. In 1955 he formed Modern Jazz Two + 3 with tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris. After this group folded, he kept a low profile until 1961, when he organized the Experimental Band, a contrast to his earlier hard bop ventu Read more