HENRY THREADGILL
(b. February 15, 1944)
(b. February 15, 1944)
AIR:
Henry Threadgill: Tenor and alto saxophones, flute, Chinese Musette, Hubkaphone; Fred Hopkins: Bass
Steve McCall: Drums
AIR RAID (Recorded in 1984 on India Navigation Records)
"Air Raid" (Composition by Henry Threadgill)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-ATm2JZMxA
Henry Threadgill: Tenor and alto saxophones, flute, Chinese Musette, Hubkaphone; Fred Hopkins: Bass
Steve McCall: Drums
AIR RAID (Recorded in 1984 on India Navigation Records)
"Air Raid" (Composition by Henry Threadgill)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-ATm2JZMxA
From the classic album AIRMAIL recorded on December 28-29, 1980; Black Saint Records (Italy), 1981
Air (Fred Hopkins, Steve McCall, Henry Threadgill):
"B.K." (Composition by Steve McCall)
AIR:
HENRY THREADGILL: Alto and tenor saxophones, flute, bass flute, and hubkaphone
FRED HOPKINS: Bass
STEVE MCCALL: Drums and percussion
Henry Threadgill and the Society Situation Dance Band at the 1988 Fabrik Jazz Festival in Hamburg, Germany:
Henry Threadgill - conductor, fl, sax John Stubblefield - ts Booker T. Williams - ts Ted Daniels - tp James Zollar - tp Craig Harris - tp Frank Lacy - tb Bob Stewart - tu Deidre Murray - cello Abdul Wadud - cello Akbar Ali - vln Charles Burnham - vln Leroy Jenkins - vln Brandon Ross - g Jean-Paul Bourelly - g Jerome Harris - b Pheroan AkLaff - dr unidentified - perc Drew Richards - voc Sherry Scott - voc
PART 1 of 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhpKRJYZPUE
PART 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8UIa-wzXYM
PART 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDBylgPa2YI
http://vimeo.com/10933418
Roulette TV:
HENRY THREADGILL & ZOOID
from Roulette Intermedium PLUS
2011
Henry Threadgill's Zooid performs “All The Way Light Touch” - commissioned by Roulette with funds by the Baisley Powell Elebash Trust.
Henry Threadgill is one of the great musical masterminds of the past quarter century - a composer, arranger, and innovator who transcends genres in contemporary music. A multi instrumentalist whose principle axes include alto sax and flute, Threadgill emerged from Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Tonight He presents "All the Way Light Tough" with his band Zooid commissioned by Roulette with funds by the Baisley Powell Elebash Trust and is a special shooting for the next edition of Roulette TV.
“It would be difficult to overestimate Henry Threagill’s role in perpetually altering the meaning of jazz..…He has changed our underlying assumptions of what jazz can and should be.”
Henry Threadgill, is both a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He co-majored in piano and flute, along with composition. He has had a music career for over forty years as both a leader and as a composer.
Threadgill’s music has been performed by many of his long lasting instrumental ensembles, including the trio Air, the seven-piece Sextett, Very Very Circus, twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, X-75, Make a Move, Aggregation Orb, and his current group Zooid. He has recorded many albums as a leader of various ensembles.
Henry Threadgill’s works for large orchestras, such as ˜Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Loud, Run High” (conducted by Hale Smith), and “Mix for Orchestra” (conducted by Dennis Russell Davies) were both premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1987 and 1993 respectively.
Pi Recordings is excited to announce the release of an important new recording, This Brings Us To, from Henry Threadgill with his band Zooid. Threadgill is one of the most highly respected composers / conceptualists in music today: He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a United States Artist Fellowship in 2008. An early member of the influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Threadgill continues to hold fast to that august organization’s tenets: keeping an open mind to all creative possibilities and continuing to seek new challenges. He has intensively studied the music of everyone from Igor Stravinsky, Edgard Varèse, Luciano Berio to Mario Bauzá, along with the music of Bali, India, the West Indies and Japan and filters all of these and other influences through jazz, R&B and the blues to come up with compositions that are distinctly his own.
This Brings Us To is the first release from Threadgill since 2001’s Everybodys Mouth’s a Book (Pi01) and Up Popped the Two Lips (Pi02). He has spent those eight years, the longest time between releases in his career, creating and perfecting a new system of improvisation in a group setting. A zooid is a cell that is able to move independently of the larger organism to which it belongs, an apt description of the musical language that Threadgill has developed for this band. The compositions are organized along a series of interval blocks comprised of three notes, each of which is assigned to a musician, who is free to move around within these intervals, improvising melodies and creating counterpoint to one another. The system provides the framework for open dialogue within the group while encouraging the musicians to seek new ways to improvise, away from a reliance on chord changes, scales or any of the clichés of certain “free” jazz. The music is coupled with complex rhythms, another distinctive aspect of all of Threadgill’s music. He was among the first in jazz to use constantly shifting meters, which creates a layered rhythmic effect, while maintaining a steady pulse. Despite its rhythmic intricacy, his music maintains a grooving, funky vibe, even though there is rarely a “1” to be found anywhere. This quality, later co-opted by Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Cassandra Wilson and the M-Base Collective, has had a profound effect on much of the music and the drumming styles that one hears in jazz today.
Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2bLXnbDnNY
http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinformation:
Talk to Henry Threadgill about the influences in his music, and he is drawn to talk about food. Or patterns of light in the sky. Or a building across the street from a rehearsal studio. Talking about an instrument's role in a composition, he is likely to mention not the rhythm of the drums, but the tuning, and a discussion about harmony becomes a question of how much white and red to add to the painting. He is not trying to be pretentious or profound. He is telling you how his mind works to create the things he hears.
Henry Threadgill was a founding member of the now legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) of Chicago, but before and since he has been a founding member of the Henry Threadgill college of making music that matters. And to Threadgill, all music matters - Charlie Parker and street marching bands and Poulenc and Balinese dance. Now, this first big collection of his music provides an opportunity to hear how those ideas collided, entwined, and rainbowed across an almost uninterrupted span of nearly 20 years.
The Illustrated
Henry Threadgill
Discography
A work in progress by Lars Backström
UPDATE November 28, 2013
Session-by-session listing:
69.07.02 - 69.08.20 / Muhal Richard Abrams: Young at Heart, Wise in Time / Delmark
75.09.10 / AIR: AIR Song / Why Not
76.05.22 / Various Artists (AIR): Wildflowers 1 / Douglas
76.07.01 - 77.10.28 / AIR: Live AIR / Black Saint
76.07.15 / AIR: AIR Raid / Why Not
76.09.08 / Chico Freeman: Morning Prayer / Why Not
77.01.22 / Roscoe Mitchell: Nonaah / Nessa
77.09.22 / Anthony Braxton: For Trio / Arista
77.11.17 / AIR: AIR Time / Nessa
77.11.18 / [AIR: AIR Time / Nessa]
77.11.01 - 77.12.31 / Muhal Richard Abrams: 1-OQA+19 / Black Saint
78.02.21 / AIR: Open Air Suit / Arista/Novus
78.02.22 / [AIR: Open Air Suit / Arista/Novus]
78.03.27 - 78.04.27 / Frank Walton: Reality / Delmark
78.07.22 / AIR: Montreux Suisse Air / Arista/Novus
78.07.27 / Roscoe Mitchell: L-R-G/The Maze/S II Examples / Nessa
79.01.13 / Henry Threadgill: X-75 / Arista/Novus
79.05.11 / AIR: AIR Lore / Arista/Novus
79.05.12 / [AIR: AIR Lore / Arista/Novus]
80.07.25 / David Murray Octet: Ming / Black Saint
80.07.28 / [David Murray Octet: Ming / Black Saint]
80.12.28 / AIR: AIR Mail / Black Saint
81.00.00 / Material: Memory Serves / Celluloid
81.00.00 / Various Artists (Muhal Richard Abrams): Amarcord Nino Rota / Hannibal
81.09.30 / The Henry Threadgill Sextet: When Was That? / About Time
81.10.01 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: When Was That? / About Time]
81.10.31 / David Murray Octet: Home / Black Saint
81.11.01 / [David Murray Octet: Home / Black Saint]
82.01.23 / AIR: 80 Degrees Below '82 / Antilles
82.07.14 / David Murray Octet: Murray's Steps / Black Saint
82.07.15 / [David Murray Octet: Murray's Steps / Black Saint]
82.07.19 / [David Murray Octet: Murray's Steps / Black Saint]
83.03.22 / The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Just The Facts And Pass The Bucket / About Time
83.03.23 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Just The Facts And Pass The Bucket / About Time]
83.07.00 / NEW AIR: Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival / Black Saint
84.12.07 / The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Subject to Change / About Time
84.12.08 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Subject to Change / About Time]
84.12.09 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Subject to Change / About Time]
85.00.00 / Various Artists: Lost In The Stars; The Music of Kurt Weill / A&M
86.06.02 / NEW AIR: Air Show No. 1 / Black Saint
86.06.03 / [NEW AIR: Air Show No. 1 / Black Saint]
86.10.12 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: You Know the Number / RCA/Novus
87.00.00 / Sly & Robbie: Rhythm Killers / Island
87.05.00 / Cassandra Wilson: Days Aweigh / Winter & Winter
87.09.20 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: Easily Slip Into Another World / RCA/Novus
88.12.00 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: Rag, Bush and All / RCA/Novus
90.06.26 / Flute Force Four: Flutistry / Black Saint
90.11.19 / Very Very Circus: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff / Black Saint
90.11.20 / [Very Very Circus: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff / Black Saint]
90.11.21 / [Very Very Circus: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff / Black Saint]
91.00.00 / Bahia Black: Ritual Beating System / Axiom
91.00.00 / Material: The Third Power / Axiom
91.05.04 / Very Very Circus: Live at Koncepts / Taylor Made
92.04.09 / Leroy Jenkins: Themes & Improvisations on the Blues / CRI
92.05.00 / Kip Hanrahan/Paul Haines: Darn It! / American Clave
92.11.12 / Various Artists: Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus / Columbia
93.00.00 / Very Very Circus: Too Much Sugar for a Dime / Axiom
93.00.01 / Julian Schnabel: Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud / Axiom
93.01.23 / Billy Bang/Craig Harris/Henry Threadgill: Hip Hop Be Bop / ITM
93.01.24 / [Billy Bang/Craig Harris/Henry Threadgill: Hip Hop Be Bop]
93.01.25 / [Billy Bang/Craig Harris/Henry Threadgill: Hip Hop Be Bop]
93.08.17 / Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees / Black Saint
93.08.18 / Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees / Black Saint]
93.08.19 / Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees / Black Saint]
94.00.00 / Sola: Blues in the East / Axiom
94.07.00 - 96.06.00 / Kip Hanrahan: A Thousand Nights and a Night (Shadow Night - 1) / american clavé
95.00.00 / Very Very Circus Plus: Carry the Day / Columbia
95.06.00 / Henry Threadgill: Makin' a Move / Columbia
96.02.27 / Abiodun Oyewole: 25 Years / Rykodisc
96.08.00 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Where's Your Cup? / Columbia
97.00.00 - 01.00.00 / Jean-Paul Bourelly: Trance Atlantic - Boom Bop II / Challenge
98.00.00 / Douglas Ewart and Inventions Clarinet Choir: Angles Of Entrance / Arawak
99.07.00 / Jean-Paul Bourelly: Boom Bop / Jazz Magnet
01.02.25 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybodys Mouth's A Book / Pi
01.02.26 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybodys Mouth's A Book / Pi
01.02.27 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybodys Mouth's A Book / Pi
01.04.28 / Zooid: Up Popped The Two Lips / Pi
01.04.29 / Zooid: Up Popped The Two Lips / Pi
01.04.30 / Zooid: Up Popped The Two Lips / Pi
01.07.10 / Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw: Gigi / Palm Pictures
02.03.00 / Lucky Peterson: Black Midnight Sun / Dreyfus Records (France)
03.09.12 / Zooid: Pop Start the Tape, StoP / Hardedge
04.05.18 / Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections / Justin Time
04.05.19 / Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections / Justin Time
06.05.08 / Dafnis Prieto: Absolute Quintet / Zoho Music
08.11.00 / Zooid: this brings us to, volume 1 / Pi
08.11.01 / Zooid: this brings us to, volume 2 / Pi
10.03.12 / Henry Threadgill: Complete Remastered Black Saint Recordings / CAM Jazz
10.10.00 / Henry Threadgill: Complete Novus/Columbia Recordings (#247) / Mosaic
11.12.03 / Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp / Pi
11.12.04 / Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp / Pi
Broadcasts and private recordings:
78.00.00 / Muhal Richard Abrams: In Laren / Radio Broadcast
79.06.17 / AIR in Lovere / Concert recording
79.06.27 / AIR Live in Pisa '79 / Concert recording
80.11.00 / Julius Hemphill Big Band, The Public Theatre, NYC/ Private recording
81.07.04 / Henry Threadgill Sextet, Jazzmania, NYC/ Private recording
82.03.20 / AIR & Amiri Baraka / WDR Radio Broadcast
82.04.02 / AIR in Salzburg / Concert recording
82.06.29 / Henry Threadgill Sextet at Kool Jazz festival, NYC/ Radio Broadcast
85.02.02 / Windstring Ensemble: "Imaginary Film & Radio Show" / Private recording
85.09.27 / Henry Threadgill Sextet in Amsterdam/ Radio Broadcast
86.03.14 / NEW AIR in Hofheim/ Private recording
86.03.19 / NEW AIR in Rankweil/ Private recording
87.12.12 / Henry Threadgill and Orchestra: at the Brooklyn Academy of Music/ VHS recording
89.07.11 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: Sweet Holy Rag / Radio Broadcast
90.00.00 / Very Very Circus in Nürnberg / Radio Broadcast
93.03.00 / Very Very Circus in Lund / Radio Broadcast
96.07.08 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move at Copenhagen Jazz Festival / Radio Broadcast
99.07.09 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move at North Sea Jazz Festival / Radio Broadcast
01.08.24 / Zooid in Saalfelden / Radio Broadcast
07.08.26 / Zooid & Strings of the Salzburg Young Philharmonic Orchestra / Radio Broadcast
08.10.25 / Zooid in Umeå / Radio Broadcast
12.08.25 / Muhal Richard Abrams' Experimental Band: Live in Saalfelden / Radio Broadcast
Society Situation Dance Band
Finally:
Henry Threadgill Compositions
Bibliography
Interviews
Henry Threadgill
Discography
A work in progress by Lars Backström
UPDATE November 28, 2013
Session-by-session listing:
69.07.02 - 69.08.20 / Muhal Richard Abrams: Young at Heart, Wise in Time / Delmark
75.09.10 / AIR: AIR Song / Why Not
76.05.22 / Various Artists (AIR): Wildflowers 1 / Douglas
76.07.01 - 77.10.28 / AIR: Live AIR / Black Saint
76.07.15 / AIR: AIR Raid / Why Not
76.09.08 / Chico Freeman: Morning Prayer / Why Not
77.01.22 / Roscoe Mitchell: Nonaah / Nessa
77.09.22 / Anthony Braxton: For Trio / Arista
77.11.17 / AIR: AIR Time / Nessa
77.11.18 / [AIR: AIR Time / Nessa]
77.11.01 - 77.12.31 / Muhal Richard Abrams: 1-OQA+19 / Black Saint
78.02.21 / AIR: Open Air Suit / Arista/Novus
78.02.22 / [AIR: Open Air Suit / Arista/Novus]
78.03.27 - 78.04.27 / Frank Walton: Reality / Delmark
78.07.22 / AIR: Montreux Suisse Air / Arista/Novus
78.07.27 / Roscoe Mitchell: L-R-G/The Maze/S II Examples / Nessa
79.01.13 / Henry Threadgill: X-75 / Arista/Novus
79.05.11 / AIR: AIR Lore / Arista/Novus
79.05.12 / [AIR: AIR Lore / Arista/Novus]
80.07.25 / David Murray Octet: Ming / Black Saint
80.07.28 / [David Murray Octet: Ming / Black Saint]
80.12.28 / AIR: AIR Mail / Black Saint
81.00.00 / Material: Memory Serves / Celluloid
81.00.00 / Various Artists (Muhal Richard Abrams): Amarcord Nino Rota / Hannibal
81.09.30 / The Henry Threadgill Sextet: When Was That? / About Time
81.10.01 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: When Was That? / About Time]
81.10.31 / David Murray Octet: Home / Black Saint
81.11.01 / [David Murray Octet: Home / Black Saint]
82.01.23 / AIR: 80 Degrees Below '82 / Antilles
82.07.14 / David Murray Octet: Murray's Steps / Black Saint
82.07.15 / [David Murray Octet: Murray's Steps / Black Saint]
82.07.19 / [David Murray Octet: Murray's Steps / Black Saint]
83.03.22 / The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Just The Facts And Pass The Bucket / About Time
83.03.23 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Just The Facts And Pass The Bucket / About Time]
83.07.00 / NEW AIR: Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival / Black Saint
84.12.07 / The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Subject to Change / About Time
84.12.08 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Subject to Change / About Time]
84.12.09 / [The Henry Threadgill Sextet: Subject to Change / About Time]
85.00.00 / Various Artists: Lost In The Stars; The Music of Kurt Weill / A&M
86.06.02 / NEW AIR: Air Show No. 1 / Black Saint
86.06.03 / [NEW AIR: Air Show No. 1 / Black Saint]
86.10.12 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: You Know the Number / RCA/Novus
87.00.00 / Sly & Robbie: Rhythm Killers / Island
87.05.00 / Cassandra Wilson: Days Aweigh / Winter & Winter
87.09.20 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: Easily Slip Into Another World / RCA/Novus
88.12.00 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: Rag, Bush and All / RCA/Novus
90.06.26 / Flute Force Four: Flutistry / Black Saint
90.11.19 / Very Very Circus: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff / Black Saint
90.11.20 / [Very Very Circus: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff / Black Saint]
90.11.21 / [Very Very Circus: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff / Black Saint]
91.00.00 / Bahia Black: Ritual Beating System / Axiom
91.00.00 / Material: The Third Power / Axiom
91.05.04 / Very Very Circus: Live at Koncepts / Taylor Made
92.04.09 / Leroy Jenkins: Themes & Improvisations on the Blues / CRI
92.05.00 / Kip Hanrahan/Paul Haines: Darn It! / American Clave
92.11.12 / Various Artists: Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus / Columbia
93.00.00 / Very Very Circus: Too Much Sugar for a Dime / Axiom
93.00.01 / Julian Schnabel: Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud / Axiom
93.01.23 / Billy Bang/Craig Harris/Henry Threadgill: Hip Hop Be Bop / ITM
93.01.24 / [Billy Bang/Craig Harris/Henry Threadgill: Hip Hop Be Bop]
93.01.25 / [Billy Bang/Craig Harris/Henry Threadgill: Hip Hop Be Bop]
93.08.17 / Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees / Black Saint
93.08.18 / Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees / Black Saint]
93.08.19 / Henry Threadgill: Song Out of My Trees / Black Saint]
94.00.00 / Sola: Blues in the East / Axiom
94.07.00 - 96.06.00 / Kip Hanrahan: A Thousand Nights and a Night (Shadow Night - 1) / american clavé
95.00.00 / Very Very Circus Plus: Carry the Day / Columbia
95.06.00 / Henry Threadgill: Makin' a Move / Columbia
96.02.27 / Abiodun Oyewole: 25 Years / Rykodisc
96.08.00 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Where's Your Cup? / Columbia
97.00.00 - 01.00.00 / Jean-Paul Bourelly: Trance Atlantic - Boom Bop II / Challenge
98.00.00 / Douglas Ewart and Inventions Clarinet Choir: Angles Of Entrance / Arawak
99.07.00 / Jean-Paul Bourelly: Boom Bop / Jazz Magnet
01.02.25 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybodys Mouth's A Book / Pi
01.02.26 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybodys Mouth's A Book / Pi
01.02.27 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move: Everybodys Mouth's A Book / Pi
01.04.28 / Zooid: Up Popped The Two Lips / Pi
01.04.29 / Zooid: Up Popped The Two Lips / Pi
01.04.30 / Zooid: Up Popped The Two Lips / Pi
01.07.10 / Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw: Gigi / Palm Pictures
02.03.00 / Lucky Peterson: Black Midnight Sun / Dreyfus Records (France)
03.09.12 / Zooid: Pop Start the Tape, StoP / Hardedge
04.05.18 / Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections / Justin Time
04.05.19 / Billy Bang: Vietnam: Reflections / Justin Time
06.05.08 / Dafnis Prieto: Absolute Quintet / Zoho Music
08.11.00 / Zooid: this brings us to, volume 1 / Pi
08.11.01 / Zooid: this brings us to, volume 2 / Pi
10.03.12 / Henry Threadgill: Complete Remastered Black Saint Recordings / CAM Jazz
10.10.00 / Henry Threadgill: Complete Novus/Columbia Recordings (#247) / Mosaic
11.12.03 / Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp / Pi
11.12.04 / Henry Threadgill Zooid: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp / Pi
Broadcasts and private recordings:
78.00.00 / Muhal Richard Abrams: In Laren / Radio Broadcast
79.06.17 / AIR in Lovere / Concert recording
79.06.27 / AIR Live in Pisa '79 / Concert recording
80.11.00 / Julius Hemphill Big Band, The Public Theatre, NYC/ Private recording
81.07.04 / Henry Threadgill Sextet, Jazzmania, NYC/ Private recording
82.03.20 / AIR & Amiri Baraka / WDR Radio Broadcast
82.04.02 / AIR in Salzburg / Concert recording
82.06.29 / Henry Threadgill Sextet at Kool Jazz festival, NYC/ Radio Broadcast
85.02.02 / Windstring Ensemble: "Imaginary Film & Radio Show" / Private recording
85.09.27 / Henry Threadgill Sextet in Amsterdam/ Radio Broadcast
86.03.14 / NEW AIR in Hofheim/ Private recording
86.03.19 / NEW AIR in Rankweil/ Private recording
87.12.12 / Henry Threadgill and Orchestra: at the Brooklyn Academy of Music/ VHS recording
89.07.11 / Henry Threadgill Sextett: Sweet Holy Rag / Radio Broadcast
90.00.00 / Very Very Circus in Nürnberg / Radio Broadcast
93.03.00 / Very Very Circus in Lund / Radio Broadcast
96.07.08 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move at Copenhagen Jazz Festival / Radio Broadcast
99.07.09 / Henry Threadgill & Make a Move at North Sea Jazz Festival / Radio Broadcast
01.08.24 / Zooid in Saalfelden / Radio Broadcast
07.08.26 / Zooid & Strings of the Salzburg Young Philharmonic Orchestra / Radio Broadcast
08.10.25 / Zooid in Umeå / Radio Broadcast
12.08.25 / Muhal Richard Abrams' Experimental Band: Live in Saalfelden / Radio Broadcast
Society Situation Dance Band
Finally:
Henry Threadgill Compositions
Bibliography
Interviews
HENRY THREADGILL
Henry Threadgill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Henry Luther Threadgill
Born February 15, 1944 (age 70)
Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genres Jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Occupations Musician
Bandleader
Composer
Sideman
Instruments Alto saxophone, flute
Years active 1960s–present
Labels Arista/Novus, About Time, Black Saint, Columbia, Pi Recordings
Associated acts Air, AACM, Muhal Richard Abrams, Billy Bang, Anthony Braxton, Craig Harris, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell
Notable instruments
Alto Saxophone
Henry Threadgill (born February 15, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist,[1] who came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating a range of non-jazz genres. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago co-majoring in piano and flute, along with composition. He studied piano with Gail Quillman and composition with Stella Roberts. He has had a music career for over forty years as both a leader and as a composer.
Threadgill’s music has been performed by many of his long-lasting instrumental ensembles, including the trio Air with Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall, the seven-piece Sextet, Very Very Circus, the twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, X-75, Make a Move, Aggregation Orb, and his current group Zooid. He has recorded many critically acclaimed albums as a leader of these ensembles with various record labels namely Arista/Novus, About Time, Axiom, Black Saint, Columbia and Pi Recordings.
Threadgill has had numerous commissions and awards throughout. He has composed music for theatre, orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber ensembles. His works for large orchestras, such as "Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Loud, Run High" (conducted by Hale Smith) and "Mix for Orchestra" (conducted by Dennis Russell Davies), were both premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1987 and 1993 respectively. He has had commissions from Mordine & Company in 1971 and 1989, from Carnegie Hall for "Quintet for Strings and Woodwinds" in 1983 and 1985, the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1985, Bang on a Can All-Stars in 1995, "Peroxide" commissioned by the Miller Theatre Columbia University in 2003 for "Aggregation Orb", a commission from the Talujon Percussion Ensemble in 2008, a piece "Fly Fliegen Volar" commissioned and premiered at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival with the Junge Philharmonie Salzburg Orchestra in 2007, a premier of the piece "Mc Guffins" with Zooid at the Biennale Festival in Italy in 2004 to name some.
Threadgill, aside from being a remarkable alto saxophone player, is one of the most imaginative of jazz composers today. “He seems to be deliberately challenging the audience: My lyricism and mastery come complete with thorns and spikes, and I promise to yank the props out from under you,” quoted John Litweiler, longtime Down Beat jazz critic, in an article he wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. Threadgill was one of the founding members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a Chicago group that was free-form, you might say, in its philosophy and approach. Peter Watrous of the New York Times described Threadgill as “perhaps the most important jazz composer of his generation.” Recent concerts in Chicago have led the local critics to speak of him as a revolutionary figure, altering the manner in which jazz itself is going. Said Howard Reich, jazz critic of the Chicago Tribune, “It would be difficult to overestimate Henry Threagill’s role in perpetually altering the meaning of jazz..…He has changed our underlying assumptions of what jazz can and should be.” – An excerpt from a chapter on Henry Threadgill in And They All Sang (2005) by Pulitzer-winning author and disc jockey Studs Terkel, a book about “forty of the greatest and most deeply human musical figures of our time”.
Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Early life and career
1.2 The Sextet/Sextett
1.3 Very Very Circus and beyond
2 Discography
2.1 As leader
2.2 With Air
2.3 As sideman
3 References
4 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life and career
Threadgill first performed as a percussionist in his high-school marching band before taking up the baritone saxophone and later a large portion of the woodwind instrument family. He soon settled upon the alto saxophone and the flute as his main instruments.
He was an original member of the legendary AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) in his hometown of Chicago and worked under the guidance of Muhal Richard Abrams before leaving to tour with a gospel band. In 1967, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, playing with a rock band in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. He was discharged in 1969.
Upon his return to Chicago he rejoined fellow AACM members bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall, forming a trio which would eventually become the group Air, one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed avant-garde jazz groups of the 1970s and 1980s. In the meantime, Threadgill had moved to New York City to begin pursuing his own musical visions, which explored musical genres in innovative ways thanks to his daringly unique group collaborations. His first group, X-75, was a nonet consisting of four reed players, four bass players and a vocalist.
The Sextet/Sextett
In the early 1980s, Threadgill created his first critically acclaimed ensemble as a leader, Henry Threadgill Sextet (actually a septet; he counted the two drummers as a single percussion unit),[2] which released three LPs on About Time Records. After a hiatus, during which Threadgill formed New Air with Pheeroan akLaff replacing Steve McCall on drums, Threadgill re-formed the Henry Threadgill Sextett (with two t's at the end). The six albums the group recorded feature some of his most accessible work, notably on the album You Know the Number.
The group's unorthodox instrumentation included two drummers, bass, cello, trumpet and trombone, in addition to Threadgill's alto and flute. Among the players who filled these roles were drummers akLaff, John Betsch, Reggie Nicholson and Newman Baker; bassist Fred Hopkins; cellist Diedre Murray; trumpeters Rasul Siddik and Ted Daniels; cornetist Olu Dara; and trombonists Ray Anderson, Frank Lacy, Bill Lowe and Craig Harris.
Very Very Circus and beyond
The CD Live at Koncepts captured the Very Very Circus group live during its earliest days, in 1991
During the 1990s, Threadgill pushed the musical boundaries even further with his ensemble Very Very Circus. In addition to Threadgill, the group's core consisted of two tubas, two electric guitars, a trombone or french horn, and drums. With this group he explored more complex and highly structured forms of composition, augmenting the group with everything from latin percussion to French horn to violin to accordion and an array of exotic instruments and vocalists.
Threadgill composed and recorded with other unusual instrumentations, such as a flute quartet (Flute Force Four, a one-time project from 1990); and combinations of four cellos and four acoustic guitars (on Makin' a Move).
By this time Threadgill's place in the upper echelon of the avant-garde was secured, and he was signed by Columbia Records for three albums (a rarity for musicians of his kind). Since the dissolution of Very Very Circus, Threadgill has continued in his iconoclastic ways with ensembles such as Make a Move and Zooid. Zooid, currently a sextet with tuba (Jose Davila), acoustic guitar (Liberty Ellman), cello (Christopher Hoffman), drums (Elliot Kavee) and bass guitar (Stomu Takeishi), has been the primary vehicle for Threadgill's most current compositions throughout the 2000s (decade).
Discography[
As leader[edit]
1979: X-75 Volume 1 (Arista/Novus)
1982: When Was That? (Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time)
1983: Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket (Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time)
1984: Subject to Change (Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time)
1987: You Know the Number (Henry Threadgill Sextett, Arista/Novus)
1988: Easily Slip Into Another World (Henry Threadgill Sextett, Arista/Novus)
1989: Rag, Bush and All (Henry Threadgill Sextett, Arista/Novus)
1990: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff (Very Very Circus, Black Saint)
1991: Live at Koncepts (Very Very Circus, Taylor Made)
1993: Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Very Very Circus, Axiom)
1993: Song Out of My Trees (Threadgill compositions and arrangements, although he doesn't play on all the tracks himself; Black Saint)
1994: Carry the Day (Very Very Circus, Columbia)
1995: Makin' a Move (half Very Very Circus, the other half performed by small ensembles of cellos, guitars and piano; Columbia)
1996: Where's Your Cup? (Make a Move, Columbia)
2001: Everybodys Mouth's a Book (Make a Move, Pi Recordings)
2001: Up Popped the Two Lips (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
2005: Pop Start the Tape, StoP (Zooid, Hardedge, LP only)
2009: This Brings Us To Volume 1 (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
2010: This Brings Us To Volume 2 (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
2012: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
With Air[edit]
1975: Air Song (Why Not)
1976: Air Raid (Why Not)
1977: Live Air (Black Saint)
1977: Air Time (Nessa)
1978: Open Air Suit (Arista/Novus)
1978: Montreux Suisse (Arista/Novus)
1979: Air Lore (Arista/Novus)
1980: Air Mail (Black Saint)
1982: 80° Below '82 (Antilles)
1983: Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival (as New Air, Black Saint)
1986: Air Show No. 1 (as New Air with Cassandra Wilson; Black Saint)
As sideman[edit]
With Muhal Richard Abrams
Young at Heart/Wise in Time (1969)
1-OQA+19 (1977)
With Chico Freeman
Morning Prayer (1976)
With Roscoe Mitchell
Nonaah (1977)
L-R-G/The Maze/S II Examples (1978)
With Frank Walton
Reality (1978)
With David Murray
Ming (1980)
Home (1981)
Murray's Steps (1982)
With Material / Bill Laswell
Memory Serves (1981)
The Third Power (1991)
With Sly & Robbie / Bill Laswell
Rhythm Killers (1987)
With Carlinhos Brown / Bill Laswell
Bahia Black: Ritual Beating System (1991)
With Leroy Jenkins
Themes & Improvisations on the Blues (1992)
With Kip Hanrahan
Darn It! (1992) with Paul Haines
A Thousand Nights and a Night (Shadow Night - 1) (1996)
With Billy Bang
Hip Hop Be Bop (1993) with Craig Harris
Vietnam: Reflections (2004)
With Sola
Blues in the East (1994)
With Abiodun Oyewole
25 Years (1996)
With Flute Force Four
Flutistry (1990, released 1997)
With Douglas Ewart
Angles of Entrance (1998)
With Jean-Paul Bourelly
Boom Bop (2000)
Trance Atlantic - Boom Bop II (2001)
With Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw
Gigi (2001)
With Lucky Peterson
Black Midnight Sun (2002)
with Dafnis Prieto
Absolute Quintet (2006)
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Allmusic
Jump up ^ Giddins, Gary, and Scott DeVeaux (2009), New York: W.W. Norton & Co, ISBN 978-0-393-06861-0
External links[edit]
Extensive interview from 1996 with Ted Panken, host of jazz and new music programs on the Columbia University radio station WKCR.FM
Greg Sandow: Fried Grapefruit: The Life of Henry Threadgill Biography written in 1995 for Columbia Records, as part of the press kit for Threadgill's first Columbia album, Carry the Day.
Europe Jazz Network: Henry Threadgill Biography from 1991
AACM: Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill by Dave Kaufman (November '97)
Biography by Iridium Jazz Club
Lars Backstrom's Illustrated Discography page
Pi Recordings has released (some of) Threadgill's latest work
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Henry Luther Threadgill
Born February 15, 1944 (age 70)
Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genres Jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Occupations Musician
Bandleader
Composer
Sideman
Instruments Alto saxophone, flute
Years active 1960s–present
Labels Arista/Novus, About Time, Black Saint, Columbia, Pi Recordings
Associated acts Air, AACM, Muhal Richard Abrams, Billy Bang, Anthony Braxton, Craig Harris, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell
Notable instruments
Alto Saxophone
Henry Threadgill (born February 15, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist,[1] who came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating a range of non-jazz genres. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago co-majoring in piano and flute, along with composition. He studied piano with Gail Quillman and composition with Stella Roberts. He has had a music career for over forty years as both a leader and as a composer.
Threadgill’s music has been performed by many of his long-lasting instrumental ensembles, including the trio Air with Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall, the seven-piece Sextet, Very Very Circus, the twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, X-75, Make a Move, Aggregation Orb, and his current group Zooid. He has recorded many critically acclaimed albums as a leader of these ensembles with various record labels namely Arista/Novus, About Time, Axiom, Black Saint, Columbia and Pi Recordings.
Threadgill has had numerous commissions and awards throughout. He has composed music for theatre, orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber ensembles. His works for large orchestras, such as "Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Loud, Run High" (conducted by Hale Smith) and "Mix for Orchestra" (conducted by Dennis Russell Davies), were both premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1987 and 1993 respectively. He has had commissions from Mordine & Company in 1971 and 1989, from Carnegie Hall for "Quintet for Strings and Woodwinds" in 1983 and 1985, the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1985, Bang on a Can All-Stars in 1995, "Peroxide" commissioned by the Miller Theatre Columbia University in 2003 for "Aggregation Orb", a commission from the Talujon Percussion Ensemble in 2008, a piece "Fly Fliegen Volar" commissioned and premiered at the Saalfelden Jazz Festival with the Junge Philharmonie Salzburg Orchestra in 2007, a premier of the piece "Mc Guffins" with Zooid at the Biennale Festival in Italy in 2004 to name some.
Threadgill, aside from being a remarkable alto saxophone player, is one of the most imaginative of jazz composers today. “He seems to be deliberately challenging the audience: My lyricism and mastery come complete with thorns and spikes, and I promise to yank the props out from under you,” quoted John Litweiler, longtime Down Beat jazz critic, in an article he wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. Threadgill was one of the founding members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a Chicago group that was free-form, you might say, in its philosophy and approach. Peter Watrous of the New York Times described Threadgill as “perhaps the most important jazz composer of his generation.” Recent concerts in Chicago have led the local critics to speak of him as a revolutionary figure, altering the manner in which jazz itself is going. Said Howard Reich, jazz critic of the Chicago Tribune, “It would be difficult to overestimate Henry Threagill’s role in perpetually altering the meaning of jazz..…He has changed our underlying assumptions of what jazz can and should be.” – An excerpt from a chapter on Henry Threadgill in And They All Sang (2005) by Pulitzer-winning author and disc jockey Studs Terkel, a book about “forty of the greatest and most deeply human musical figures of our time”.
Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Early life and career
1.2 The Sextet/Sextett
1.3 Very Very Circus and beyond
2 Discography
2.1 As leader
2.2 With Air
2.3 As sideman
3 References
4 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life and career
Threadgill first performed as a percussionist in his high-school marching band before taking up the baritone saxophone and later a large portion of the woodwind instrument family. He soon settled upon the alto saxophone and the flute as his main instruments.
He was an original member of the legendary AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) in his hometown of Chicago and worked under the guidance of Muhal Richard Abrams before leaving to tour with a gospel band. In 1967, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, playing with a rock band in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. He was discharged in 1969.
Upon his return to Chicago he rejoined fellow AACM members bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall, forming a trio which would eventually become the group Air, one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed avant-garde jazz groups of the 1970s and 1980s. In the meantime, Threadgill had moved to New York City to begin pursuing his own musical visions, which explored musical genres in innovative ways thanks to his daringly unique group collaborations. His first group, X-75, was a nonet consisting of four reed players, four bass players and a vocalist.
The Sextet/Sextett
In the early 1980s, Threadgill created his first critically acclaimed ensemble as a leader, Henry Threadgill Sextet (actually a septet; he counted the two drummers as a single percussion unit),[2] which released three LPs on About Time Records. After a hiatus, during which Threadgill formed New Air with Pheeroan akLaff replacing Steve McCall on drums, Threadgill re-formed the Henry Threadgill Sextett (with two t's at the end). The six albums the group recorded feature some of his most accessible work, notably on the album You Know the Number.
The group's unorthodox instrumentation included two drummers, bass, cello, trumpet and trombone, in addition to Threadgill's alto and flute. Among the players who filled these roles were drummers akLaff, John Betsch, Reggie Nicholson and Newman Baker; bassist Fred Hopkins; cellist Diedre Murray; trumpeters Rasul Siddik and Ted Daniels; cornetist Olu Dara; and trombonists Ray Anderson, Frank Lacy, Bill Lowe and Craig Harris.
Very Very Circus and beyond
The CD Live at Koncepts captured the Very Very Circus group live during its earliest days, in 1991
During the 1990s, Threadgill pushed the musical boundaries even further with his ensemble Very Very Circus. In addition to Threadgill, the group's core consisted of two tubas, two electric guitars, a trombone or french horn, and drums. With this group he explored more complex and highly structured forms of composition, augmenting the group with everything from latin percussion to French horn to violin to accordion and an array of exotic instruments and vocalists.
Threadgill composed and recorded with other unusual instrumentations, such as a flute quartet (Flute Force Four, a one-time project from 1990); and combinations of four cellos and four acoustic guitars (on Makin' a Move).
By this time Threadgill's place in the upper echelon of the avant-garde was secured, and he was signed by Columbia Records for three albums (a rarity for musicians of his kind). Since the dissolution of Very Very Circus, Threadgill has continued in his iconoclastic ways with ensembles such as Make a Move and Zooid. Zooid, currently a sextet with tuba (Jose Davila), acoustic guitar (Liberty Ellman), cello (Christopher Hoffman), drums (Elliot Kavee) and bass guitar (Stomu Takeishi), has been the primary vehicle for Threadgill's most current compositions throughout the 2000s (decade).
Discography[
As leader[edit]
1979: X-75 Volume 1 (Arista/Novus)
1982: When Was That? (Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time)
1983: Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket (Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time)
1984: Subject to Change (Henry Threadgill Sextet, About Time)
1987: You Know the Number (Henry Threadgill Sextett, Arista/Novus)
1988: Easily Slip Into Another World (Henry Threadgill Sextett, Arista/Novus)
1989: Rag, Bush and All (Henry Threadgill Sextett, Arista/Novus)
1990: Spirit of Nuff...Nuff (Very Very Circus, Black Saint)
1991: Live at Koncepts (Very Very Circus, Taylor Made)
1993: Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Very Very Circus, Axiom)
1993: Song Out of My Trees (Threadgill compositions and arrangements, although he doesn't play on all the tracks himself; Black Saint)
1994: Carry the Day (Very Very Circus, Columbia)
1995: Makin' a Move (half Very Very Circus, the other half performed by small ensembles of cellos, guitars and piano; Columbia)
1996: Where's Your Cup? (Make a Move, Columbia)
2001: Everybodys Mouth's a Book (Make a Move, Pi Recordings)
2001: Up Popped the Two Lips (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
2005: Pop Start the Tape, StoP (Zooid, Hardedge, LP only)
2009: This Brings Us To Volume 1 (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
2010: This Brings Us To Volume 2 (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
2012: Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp (Zooid, Pi Recordings)
With Air[edit]
1975: Air Song (Why Not)
1976: Air Raid (Why Not)
1977: Live Air (Black Saint)
1977: Air Time (Nessa)
1978: Open Air Suit (Arista/Novus)
1978: Montreux Suisse (Arista/Novus)
1979: Air Lore (Arista/Novus)
1980: Air Mail (Black Saint)
1982: 80° Below '82 (Antilles)
1983: Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival (as New Air, Black Saint)
1986: Air Show No. 1 (as New Air with Cassandra Wilson; Black Saint)
As sideman[edit]
With Muhal Richard Abrams
Young at Heart/Wise in Time (1969)
1-OQA+19 (1977)
With Chico Freeman
Morning Prayer (1976)
With Roscoe Mitchell
Nonaah (1977)
L-R-G/The Maze/S II Examples (1978)
With Frank Walton
Reality (1978)
With David Murray
Ming (1980)
Home (1981)
Murray's Steps (1982)
With Material / Bill Laswell
Memory Serves (1981)
The Third Power (1991)
With Sly & Robbie / Bill Laswell
Rhythm Killers (1987)
With Carlinhos Brown / Bill Laswell
Bahia Black: Ritual Beating System (1991)
With Leroy Jenkins
Themes & Improvisations on the Blues (1992)
With Kip Hanrahan
Darn It! (1992) with Paul Haines
A Thousand Nights and a Night (Shadow Night - 1) (1996)
With Billy Bang
Hip Hop Be Bop (1993) with Craig Harris
Vietnam: Reflections (2004)
With Sola
Blues in the East (1994)
With Abiodun Oyewole
25 Years (1996)
With Flute Force Four
Flutistry (1990, released 1997)
With Douglas Ewart
Angles of Entrance (1998)
With Jean-Paul Bourelly
Boom Bop (2000)
Trance Atlantic - Boom Bop II (2001)
With Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw
Gigi (2001)
With Lucky Peterson
Black Midnight Sun (2002)
with Dafnis Prieto
Absolute Quintet (2006)
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Allmusic
Jump up ^ Giddins, Gary, and Scott DeVeaux (2009), New York: W.W. Norton & Co, ISBN 978-0-393-06861-0
External links[edit]
Extensive interview from 1996 with Ted Panken, host of jazz and new music programs on the Columbia University radio station WKCR.FM
Greg Sandow: Fried Grapefruit: The Life of Henry Threadgill Biography written in 1995 for Columbia Records, as part of the press kit for Threadgill's first Columbia album, Carry the Day.
Europe Jazz Network: Henry Threadgill Biography from 1991
AACM: Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill by Dave Kaufman (November '97)
Biography by Iridium Jazz Club
Lars Backstrom's Illustrated Discography page
Pi Recordings has released (some of) Threadgill's latest work
