Henry Threadgill
December 2001

Up Popped The Two Lips
Everybody's Mouth's A Book
PI Recordings
2001

Reviewed By
Glenn Astarita

Concert Reviews
At The Knitting Factory
At Aaron Davis Hall

Henry Threadgill is one of those artists whose work is a landscape. But, this is terrain viewed from the high ground. One sees the hills, valleys, mountains and streams. It is a panorama, with detail so rich that the music continuously unfolds. It is its own world and in it one discovers sights and sounds that are familiar but have never been encountered in these settings. If Threadgill walked through the desert he would emerge with water cupped in one hand and sand in the other, neither having run through his fin-gers. Such is Henry’s control of the elements of form.

Born in Chicago and associated with the AACM from its origins, Henry Threadgill has always been a composer and led bands. The trio Air was followed by the septet (called The Sextet) and the septet Very Very Circus which expanded to include up to ten members as Very Very Circus Plus. The orches-tration was pared back to a quintet for Make A Move and now a sextet (literally this time) for Zooid. The formation of his bands reflects Henry’s experiments with harmony, texture, and composition. Bass was paired with cello to form a high and low rhythm section that worked alongside two drummers in The Sextet. In X-75, four basses were grouped with four wind instruments and voice. Two tubas worked with two guitars and alto and French horn in Very Very Circus. The combinations seem limitless, because Henry has gleaned from history not muscle memory but inspiration.

Henry’s music has always received the highest critical acclaim. In 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991, Henry won Best Composer honors in Downbeat's International Jazz Critics’ Poll . The critics are not alone in their recognition. Henry also received the Composer Award in 1988, 1989 and 1991 from Downbeat's readers.

Henry’s music reflects and incorporates many different kinds of music. Jazz wasn’t on the curricu-lum at the American Conservatory of Music. He studied classical form and composition with Stella Roberts, who had studied with Nadia Boulanger, mentor to Aaron Copland and Philip Glass. Then there were marching bands, blues bands, army bands, wedding and funeral bands, and, of course, jazz bands that Henry performed with. With this breadth he has been able to compose for and perform with the American Jazz Orchestra, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Peter Kotick’s SEM Ensemble. That he has composed music for so many contexts reflects the fact that Henry works from the inside out, not from the category in. If he were asked the question where to place his music he would probably say in the world.

After a creative gestation of five years Henry has formed a new band, Zooid and recorded two albums. The first release, "Everybodys Mouth’s A Book", recorded with Make A Move on Pi Recordings, is again revolutionary with a new harmonic palette and a new method of improvisation. The harmonies reveal detail to the microscopic level. Henry has found new land and he is mining it to its core. It is the experience of the order in chaos. What seems random resolves perfectly. The vocabulary of the band is also new. The pairing of artists in the rhythm section is unlike any playing today with Stomu Takeshi and Dafnis Prieto. The harmonic platform is interpreted by two of the most sensitive performers, Brandon Ross and Bryan Carrott, and of course, Henry, the consummate story teller. Henry, Make A Move, and Zooid will be touring Europe this summer and playing gigs in the United States in the fall. This is Henry Threadgill’s work seen from a new perspective. In a constant state of growth and change he remains an original.