8: Anthony Braxton & Wolf Eyes - Black Vomit

Free jazz and white noise have been good pals ever since Kaoru Abe and Masayuki Takayanagi teamed up together in the early seventies. And this is another me(l)(e)ting of minds that seem to have been born for one another, although something tells me you had to be at the Victoria festival to fully understand the weight of what actually was going on.

Because the ultimate moment of this historical gig is in fact not featured on this shortened impression. You can download the entire concert somewhere and then you will notice the moment where one of the Wolf Eyes guys asks Braxton which track he wants to play for an encore. Whereon this giant of free music obliquely answers: "Black Vomit!" It is one of those defining moments when you understand that true greatness is not dependent on age, style or anything else. No, true greatness strives ever forward. And just like Wolf Eyes have given the world of underground noise its ultimate push in 2006, by releasing more records than humanly possible, Anthony Braxton pushes the limits of jazz by allying himself with a trio that has nothing at all to do with jazz.

Maybe it is the single defining characteristic of all greatness: continuing to do your thing outside of your regular surroundings. If you take that into consideration, then this is one of the most important records of the new millennium.