Anthony Braxton (*1945) is an American composer and jazz musician. He studied at Chicago Musical College and Roosevelt University and was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Starting in 1968, he formed his own band projects and began releasing records. He is considered a progressive and innovative musician, and early on explored atypical instruments and the use of computers and electronic instruments. He is considered an important protagonist of creative jazz, was intensively involved with the musical avant-garde and wrote complex pieces for jazz as well as orchestral works and operas.
Braxton taught at Mills College in Oakland and at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, wrote music theory texts and performed internationally with great success. He has been awarded the Mac Arthur Foundation Genius Grant and the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Liege.
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