This may be one of the best things anyone’s ever spent Clive Davis’s money on. In the mid ’70s, Braxton was signed to Arista Records, and he got funding for this astonishing album featuring 22 brilliant avant-gardists ranging from Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, and Muhal Richard Abrams to modern classical composer Frederic Rzewski (who plays piano and bass drum) and synth wizard Richard Teitelbaum. Smith and Abrams conduct many of the pieces, in addition to performing. The music includes hard-swinging big band romps, abstract soundscapes, and the hilarious “22-M (Opus 58),” Braxton’s version of a John Philip Sousa march.