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Henry Threadgill's New CDs (February 2002)

Everybody's Mouth's A Book by Henry Threadgill and Make a Move, and Up Popped The Two Lips by Henry Threadgill and Zooid

by Harry S. Pariser


The music of saxophonist, flautist, and composer Henry Threadgill is always unique and quite unforgettable. Ever changing, unpredictable, flowing, it is frequently surprises. It incorporates a wide range of elements and influences which range from classical to Indian, from Sam Rivers to Ornette Coleman, and from marching band to blues. Fascinating and often enthralling, Threadgill’s music is a waterfall of sound, which continually changes shape and form, shifting from rivulet to raging torrent and back again. Threadgill‘s especially assembled coterie of instruments is constantly changing, continually gelling into new agglutinative forms. You never know what to expect from Henry, except to expect the unusual.


Threadgill and his colleagues stretch the limits of contemporary music, molding a new form. Threadgill himself explains it best. "In traditional improvisation, you manipulate pre-existing chord changes or harmony in order to make a statement. With Make a Move, I have reversed that entire process. The musicians play against a series of intervals, like a code, that goes from one place to the next. The harmony that is created fits what the musicians are playing, but in fact the harmony is an illusion that does not really exist....My new approach passes very naturally before you, and it makes the listener assume that nothing radical has taken place, when in fact they are listening to something unlike anything they have ever heard before."


Henry Threadgill has been an important figure in contemporary instrumental music since the early-70's. Threadgill has won “Best Composer” several times from Down Beat's International Jazz Critics Poll and from Down Beat's Readers as well.


Born in Chicago in 1944, his aunt, who was a classical pianist and singer, enrouraged him to start playing music at five. He started playing the piano at nine, the saxophone when he entered high school. He later attended Wilson Junior College, where he received a degree in flute and composition from the American Conservatory of Music. He enlisted in the service in 1967 and served in Vietnam as a musician. After this discharge in 1969, Threadgill returned to Chicago and formed the trio Air with bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall in 1972 . Air disbanded in 1985, and he has been on his own ever since.


Henry has now left CBS to join Seth Rosner's new label Pi. Seth had wanted to start his own label for some time, and he realized that Henry's new work was undocumented and deserved to be introduced to a wider public. So he has released two discs of Henry's music: Everybody's Mouth's A Book by Henry Threadgill and Make a Move, and Up Popped The Two Lips by Henry Threadgill and Zooid.


Make a Move, Henry's standard band these days, is a creative combination of vibes and marimba, electric guitar (Brandon Ross, who has his own band, Harriet Tubman), bass (Stomu Takeishi, a long-time associate who also plays with Leo Wadada Smith), and drums. Everybody's Mouth's A Book is the ensemble's first recording since 1996's Where's Your Cup? (Columbia).


Zooid came about when members of Make a Move were not available for a gig. It is an all-acoustic ensemble, employing Henry's flute and sax plus guitar, tuba, cello, oud, and drums. This is a combination only Henry could dream up, and the resulting sound is pure Threadgill. The disc has a more blended sound than Everybody's Mouth's A Book, but it sounds far from acoustic at times. No New Age schlock this!

Useful for residents and visitors alike, Barbados Travel Companion, our new travel app to Barbados, supplies comprehensive information along with pictures, maps and links to hundreds of videos and relevant websites.

There is an Android version and an iTunes version.

St. John Visitors:

Please check out Explore St. John, our new travel app to St. John, which supplies comprehensive information (useful for residents and visitors alike) along with pictures, maps and links to hundreds of videos and relevant websites.

iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch version

Android version


Google
  Web www.savethemanatee.com

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