Photo by John Rogers
In for a Penny, In for a Pound is the latest installment in saxophonist/ flutist/composer Henry Threadgill’s
ongoing exploration of his singular system for integrating composition
with group improvisation. The music for his band Zooid – his main
music-making vehicle for the past fourteen years and the longest running
band of his illustrious forty plus-year career – is no less than his
attempt to completely deconstruct standard jazz form, steering the
improvisatory language towards an entirely new system based on
preconceived series of intervals. His compositions create a polyphonic
platform that encourages each musician to improvise with an ear for
counterpoint and, in the process, creating striking new harmonies.
Threadgill is widely considered to be among the most important artists
in jazz. The New York Times called him "one of the most thrillingly
elusive composers in and around the jazz idiom: a sly maestro of
unconventional timbres, bristling counterpoint and tough but slippery
rhythms" and NPR called him “a true idiosyncratic great.” He is a
founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM),
which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding this year,
and continues to adhere to one of that august organization’s basic
tenets: that of finding one’s individual path through original music.
Threadgill continues to challenge himself to create music that is
pushing the boundaries for what is possible.
The new work, which Threadgill calls an “epic,” includes four main
movements written specifically to feature each of the musicians in
Zooid: “Ceroepic” for Elliott Kavee on drums and percussion, “Dosepic” for Christopher Hoffman on cello, “Tresepic” for Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, and “Unoepic” for Liberty Ellman on guitar. They are introduced by an opening shorter piece and sandwich an exordium (“In for a Penny, In for a Pound” and “Off The Prompt Box,” respectively.) Threadgill’s own alto saxophone, flute and bass flute is woven throughout each section. In for a Penny, In for a Pound
utilizes, as with all of his music for Zooid, a strategy of Threadgill’s
own device: a set of three note intervals assigned to each player that
serves as the starting point for improvisation. While this may seem
simple on the surface, the juxtaposition of the notes played on each
instruments alternately meld and clash, creating surprising chords and
harmonies on-the-spot. Not held together by any chordal preconceptions,
the result is true, improvised four-part polyphony. Of this music,
Liberty Ellman, who will release Radiate, his first new album as a leader since 2006’s Ophiuchus Butterfly
later this year, says: “Henry is extending the forms and
writing more varied thematic material. There is even more dynamic and
timbral contrast with ensemble vignettes turning to sparse monologues or
group improvisation on the turn of a dime.” Zooid is certainly the only
group able to perform these compositions since they involve a wholly
different way of engaging in group improvisation. Thoroughly attuned
with each other, the band continues to provide Threadgill with the
foundation to expand on his ever evolving musical inspirations.
In all the discussion about the complex terrain of his compositions, it
is sometimes easy to lose sight of Threadgill’s power as a player. In
his review of Zooid’s performance at the Village Vanguard in 2014 – the
first time Threadgill had played at that iconic venue as a leader in
almost 25 years – critic Ben Ratliff of the New York Times, who chose it
as one of his top ten top concerts of the year, wrote: “The
intensifying strokes… were his alto saxophone solos. They were built of
epigrammatic phrases, aligned with the moving intervals but pivoting off
from them. They were out in front, gestural, actorly, elegant, noisy
and tragic. Dealt in short segments, their essence could be absorbed
piece by piece, as if he were feeding you with crumbs. They’d often end
without traditional resolution, but with a sense of something serious
hanging in the air.” A
great Threadgill solo sets you on edge: you know that it’s going to be a
jab, an uppercut or a body blow, but you never know how or when it’s
going to hit you. It’s the same way with his compositions on In for a Penny, In for a Pound:
it comes at you from every angle, at different speeds, in infinite
combinations. That’s the beauty of Threadgill’s music for Zooid: that
sense of constant surprise.
Alto Saxophone, Flute: Henry Threadgill
Guitar: Liberty Ellman
Trombone, Tuba: Jose Davilla
Cello: Christopher Hoffman
Drums: Elliot Humberto Kavee
Track Listing:
In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Opening) - 4:35
Ceroepic (Drums/Percussion) - 19:35
Dosepic (Cello) - 16:00
Off The Prompt Box (Exordium) - 3:35
Tricepic (Trombone/Tuba) - 17:26
Unoepic (Guitar) - 17:57
