Jazz Archives

Now into its twelfth consecutive year, Zooid can finally lay claim as Henry Threadgill's longest running ensemble, having superseded the tenures of the venerable composer's most celebrated lineups, including Air, Sextett and Very Very Circus. Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp is the idiosyncratic chamber group's fourth release for Pi Recordings, which was founded in 2001 to simultaneously release a pair of albums by the esteemed AACM multi-instrumentalist: Everybody's Mouth's a Book, by the electric Make a Move quintet; and Zooid's debut, Up Popped the Two Lips. This Brings Us To, Volume I and II were subsequently issued in 2009 and 2010, after an eight year recording hiatus by the acoustic unit.

As testament to Threadgill's leadership capabilities, Zooid has enjoyed fairly consistent personnel since its inception. Acoustic guitarist Liberty Ellman, trombonist/tubaist Jose Davila and drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee are all original members, with only acoustic bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi not part of the very first incarnation. The most notable difference between this record and the previous two is the addition of cellist Christopher Hoffman, whose inclusion restores Zooid to the sextet configuration documented on its first outing.

For the uninitiated, Zooid is named after "a cell capable of independent motion within a living organism." Threadgill has adapted this concept into a systematic series of rules to govern collective improvisation. Each musician is assigned a separate range of intervals, which facilitates melodic, harmonic and rhythmic independence from the core group, while contributing to the music's overall communal structure. The cumulative effect is a contrapuntal latticework of polyphonic harmonies, kaleidoscopic textures and modulating cross-rhythms.

Sequenced in a series of dramatic arcs, the session vacillates between myriad moods, veering from the simmering fervor of "A Day Off," to the subdued pointillism of "Put On Keep / Frontispiece, Spp." Functioning as a unified cooperative, the individual members' contributions coalesce into a shimmering mosaic, their prismatic statements ebbing and flowing from foreground to background. Some of the most expansive variations come from Hoffman, whose multihued fretwork ranges from sinewy funk on "Tomorrow Sunny" to understated lyricism on "See the Blackbird Now," which also includes dulcet trombone work from Davila and Threadgill's haunting bass flute. The leader's acerbic alto leads the brief avant-blues tone poem "So Pleased, No Clue," his trenchant testimonials setting the stage for the roiling "Ambient Pressure Thereby," which presents the band at its most vivacious, hemmed by strikingly melodic extrapolations from Threadgill and Ellman.

Bolstered by the unswerving dedication of his longstanding sidemen,Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp continues the ongoing documentation of Threadgill's Zooid, a consistently fascinating endeavor from one of the most compelling composers of our time.

:::Review by Troy Collins:::

Henry Threadgill - Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp (2012)

1. A Day Off (5:50)

2. Tomorrow Sunny (6:30)

3. So Pleased, No Clue (3:34)

4. See the Blackbird Now (9:27)

5. Ambient Pressure Thereby (10:34)

6. Put On Keep/Frontispiece, Spp (6:25)

Credits

Henry Threadgill - Flute, bass flute, and alto saxophone

Liberty Ellman - Guitar

Jose Davila - Trombone and tuba

Christopher Hoffman - Cello

Stomu Takeishi - Bass guitar

Elliot Humberto Kavee - Drums

You Know the Number is another outstanding record from the Henry Threadgill Sextet. Over the course of six originals, Threadgill and the band fuse complex and spirited arrangements with incisive solo work. The material includes the calypso-inspired numbers "To Be Announced" and "Bermuda Blues" (one of Threadgill's most straightforward compositions), as well as the bittersweet ballad "Silver and Gold Baby, Silver and Gold." Other songs, like "Theme From Thomas Cole" and "Those Who Eat Cookies," feature the kind of buoyant, march-like rhythms and spastic, cartoon soundtrack horn arrangements Threadgill favored. Throughout the set, the band revels in some lively New Orleans-style unison playing and contributes excellent solos (special mention should go to trumpeter Rasul Saddik for his adept and blazing solos, and also to drummers Pheeroan Aklaff and Reggie Nicholson for their propulsive and tight rhythmic support). As usual, Threadgill's solos include an intriguing mix of dark pathos and intensity, while bassist Fred Hopkins and trombonist Frank Lacy follow suit with intriguing contributions of their own. This title is a must for Threadgill fans and also worthwhile for those interested in the experimental side of jazz.

:::Review by Stephen Cook:::

Henry Threadgill - You Know The Number (1986)

1. Bermuda Blues 9:26
2. Silver And Gold Baby, Silver And Gold 5:45
3. Theme From Thomas Cole 6:39
4. Good Times 6:33
5. To Be Announced 6:27
6. Paille Street 4:26
7. Those Who Eat Cookies 6:16

Credits
Bass - Fred Hopkins
Cello - Diedre Murray
Percussion [Left] - Pheeroan Aklaff
Percussion [Right] - Reggie Nicholson
Saxophone [Alto, Tenor], Flute [Bass] - Henry Threadgill
Trombone - Frank Lacy
Trumpet - Rasul Sadik

Notes
Recorded directly to two-track digital tape at Uptown Chelsea Sound, NYC, October 12 and 13, 1986.
Note that track 6 does not appear on the LP.

Imagine writing for an instrumentation of two electric guitars, two tubas, French horn, drums and Henry Threadgill's alto. Threadgill was up to the challenge and his four avant-garde originals utilize the odd combination of tones to great advantage. Two additional songs feature Threadgill, just one tuba, drums, a

few exotic instruments and three strings to create some particularly unusual music. It's for the open-eared listener only.

1. Little Pocket Size Demons 10:48

2. In Touch 8:48

3. Paper Toilet 5:38

4. Better Wrapped, Better Unwrapped 13:04

5. Too Much Sugar 2:59

6. Try Some Ammonia 12:22

Composed By - Henry Threadgill

Drums - Gene Lake (tracks: 1 to 4, 6) , Larry Bright (tracks: 2, 4)

French Horn - Mark Taylor 

Guitar - Brandon Ross , Masujaa

Oud - Simon Shaheen (tracks: 2, 4)

Percussion [Fulia, Culo'e Puya] - Johnny Rudas (tracks: 2, 4) , Miguel Urvina (tracks: 2, 4, 5)

Producer - Bill Laswell , Henry Threadgill

Saxophone [Alto] - Henry Threadgill

Tuba - Dorian L. Parreott II (tracks: 2, 4, 6) , Edwin Rodriguez , Marcus Rojas

Violin - Jason Hwang (tracks: 2, 4) , Leroy Jenkins (tracks: 2, 4) , Simon Shaheen (tracks: 2, 4)

First among many ensembles in different genres that have chosen the name Air, this trio specializing in collective improvisation grew directly from the membership of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Throughout 11 albums that appeared over a span of one dozen years this group operated in modes comparable to that of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and at times some of Albert Ayler's early trio realizations. Its inception occurred in 1971, when saxophonist Henry Threadgill agreed to fulfill a request from the theater department at Chicago's Columbia College to devise modern arrangements based upon ragtime compositions of Scott Joplin (a concept borne to fruition by Anthony Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams in 1976). Threadgill joined forces with bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Steve McCall, and named the trio Reflection.
Although they parted ways the following year, the cooperative unit reassembled in New York in 1975 and chose the elemental name Air.

:::www.allmusic.com.com:::

:::Review by Scott Yanow@allmusic.com:::

Air - Air Time (1977)

1. I'll Be Right Here Waiting (2:37)
2. No. 2 (2:00)
3. G.v.E. (7:00)
4. Subtraction (13:34)
5. Keep Right On Playing Through The Mirror Over The Water (9:17)

Credits
Bass - Fred Hopkins
Percussion - Steve McCall
Saxophone (alto, Tenor), Flute (bass), Hubkaphone - Henry Threadgill

This CD from altoist Henry Threadgill is a perfect mixture of improvisation and composition, hanging onto devices of the past while creating new music. Some of the ensembles (which match Threadgill with trumpeter Ted Daniels, bass trombonist Bill Lowe, cellist Diedre Murray, bassist Fred Hopkins, and both Newman Baker and Reggie Nicholson on drums) recall Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz with the cello-bass interplay inspired by the one-time team of Scott LaFaro and Charlie Haden. The organized horn parts and the riffs behind the lead voices are quite original and sometimes more interesting than the solos themselves. Of the four songs, "Off the Rag" at first dispenses with the melody quickly but the theme constantly pops up in surprising places. "The Devil" is highlighted by Murray's double-time cello runs behind Threadgill's alto while "Gift" contrasts colorful percussion with solemn long tones from the ensemble. "Sweet Holy Rag" has several sections including a pretty classical-like melody, a danceable rumba, a drum feature, and a fairly violent trumpet solo. However, the more one describes this music, the more seems to be left out. Highly recommended to open-eared listeners.

:::Review by Scott Yanow:::

Henry Threadgill - Rag Bush And All (1989)

1. Off The Rag (12:40)
2. The Devil Is On The Loose And Dancin' With A Monkey (6:44)
3. Gift (5:44)
4. Sweet Holy Rag (13:20)

Credits
Bass - Fred Hopkins
Cello, Co-producer - Diedre Murray
Drums, Percussion - Newman Baker , Reggie Nicholson
Producer - David Stone
Saxophone [Alto], Flute [Bass] - Henry Threadgill
Trombone [Bass] - Bill Lowe
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Ted Daniels

Recorded for RCA in 1979, the vanguard trio Air set out to explore its jazz roots. In fact, not only the trio's jazz roots, but everybody's right back to Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton as they were inventing a music that would tear up the streets of New Orleans and later change the world. Interestingly, since most of the music here -- all written by the aforementioned except for one tune -- was composed by pianists and is widely regarded as piano music, Air's exploration entirely struck the piano from the conversation. Reedman Henry Threadgill, bassist Fred Hopkins, and drummer Steve McCall turned the ragtime music of the fathers inside out and created an exploratory reinsertion of it into the avant-garde of the late '70s. Jelly Roll's "Buddy Bolden's Blues" becomes a blues from another century in the melodic universe of Threadgill, who doesn't give a damn about changes as much as he does stretching the harmonics of the blues idiom into other musics entirely. And in the familiar "King Porter Stomp," also by Morton, Threadgill challenges McCall, who quadruples the time so Henry and Fred can stop up the middle eight with some weird angular intervals where arpeggiated harmony and modal striation become one and the same thing. Finally, on Joplin's "Weeping Willow Rag," the band moves through the changes and then undermines them, turning them inside out as if this were really a party tune from somewhere that willow trees didn't exist or had already disappeared into some toxic twilight. Here are the joyous blues, the raucous blues, the rip 'em up and then send 'em home blues trapped in a color palette so rich and so varied it's difficult to find only one or two textures to fit them inside. Through it all, this remains the album most Air fans love most, precisely because of all the joy and irreverence in the proceedings, which didn't update the old music, but brought it into focus for the revolutionary improvisational template that it is.

:::Review by Thom Jurek:::

Air - Air Lore (1979)

1. The Ragtime Dance (9:20)
2. Buddy Bolden's Blues (9:30)
3. King Porter Stomp (3:52)
4. Paille Street (2:20)
5. Weeping Willow Rag (11:31)

Credits
Bass - Fred Hopkins
Drums, Percussion - Steve McCall
Producer - Michael Cuscuna
Saxophone [Tenor, Alto], Flute - Henry Threadgill