Henry Threadgill Zooid: Cut You Where You Was

In 2001, Seth Rosner resurrected reed man Henry Threadgill's career by establishing Pi Recordings, initially for the sole purpose of releasing Threadgill recordings. Threadgill wanted to put out two albums simultaneously. Rosner said he would have agreed to four if that was what the artist requested. But two it was: Up Popped Two Lips by Henry Threadgill's Zooid and Everybody's Mouth's a Book, by Henry Threadgill & Make A Move. This was a move of genius on Rosner's part. Since recording his debut in 1979, Open Air Suite (Artista/Novis), Threadgill had appeared on mostly small labels. But Columbia Records picked him up in 1994, releasing his album Carry The Day. Two More albums followed, and then he was shown the door. Rosner came along in 2001 to open that perennial other door. Threadgill stepped across the threshold, and he has thrived for 25 Years at Pi.

Fast Forward to 2026. Threadgill boasts 12 albums on the Pi label. Cut You Where You Was makes it 13. It is his fifth with the  Zooid group. The instrumental is unconventional. With Threadgill's saxophone, flute and bass flute, teamed with Liberty Ellman's acoustic guitar, Jose Davila's tuba and trombone, Christopher Hoffman's cello and Elliot Humberto Kavee's drums, the sound is spacious and fractured. The inclusion of the 'oompah' of the tuba injects an element of whimsy into the sound, like the soundtrack of a dreamscape circus set up in a fallow field on the outskirts of town. Everyone playing at once is a rarity. Theadgill's flute gives the sound a sense of serenity beside Ellman's prickly guitar.

Composition-wise, Theadgill is in his own league. This is what Pulitzer Prizes are for—the reedman/composer won the 2016 Pulitzer for his album In For Penny, In for A Pound (Pi Recordings, 2015). There are no extended melodic lines in Cut Where You Was or in any of his albums. Everything is broken down into succinct, snappy statements. This is not just an aspect of the individual composition, but for the entire album, making the work a cohesive whole—a Threadgill trademark; every album seems like a suite.

Columbia Records made a mistake all those years ago when it dropped Threadgill from its roster. The subsequent 25 years of work on Pi Recordings prove that, in both his large and small-group work offerings, especially with Cut You Where You Was, Threadgill is an American treasure, a sure genius.