I spent a lot of yesterday catching up on recent CD purchases and on CDs I had been sent by aspiring bands.  As ever, there is a lot of excellent music being played and many many top bands.  But, interestingly, the CD that really appealed the most was a reissue: Air Song by Air, the trio with Henry Threadgill on saxophones and flute, Fred Hopkins on bass and Steve McCall on drums.  This was originally recorded on the shortlived American label, Candid, which was bought up a few years ago by UK record producer, Alan Bates.  Alan uses the label to bring out albums by a number of young UK artists – Jamie Cullum first recorded on it – but also to re-issue some of the classic albums from the 1960 and 70s recorded on the original Candid label.  Air Song is an album from 1975, but it hasn’t aged at all.  There is wonderful interaction between the three players and the solos maintain interest at all times.  It’s good to hear Threadgill stretch out as on many of his larger projects the focus is on the writing and his solos are very short.  He has a gentle floaty sound on the flute, but is much more assertive on alto and baritone saxophone.  On the alto he has quite an ascerbic tone and his playing brings to mind some of the rhythm and blue saxophonists of the 60s.  Of course he has his own voice and the playing is much richer than that of the blues players with tremendous interplay with the bass and drums.

After Air,  Threadgill focussed much more on composition and formed various fascinating groups.  A sextet of his, called the Henry Threadgill Sextett and with 7 players, came through Birmingham in the 80s and blew everyone away with the mix of great writing and great solos from players like Rasul Sadik, Frank Lacey.  Then he came through Birmingham again with the wonderfully named Very Very Circus, a band in which he moved away from the standard jazz instrumentation using French Horn, two guitarists, two tubas and drums fronted by himself on alto sax and flute.  The compositions were lengthy and included many changes of pace and mood and the solos were interwoven intricately with the writing.  It wasn’t easy music, but it combined a respect for the jazz tradition and the jazz spirit with a willingness to stretch out and experiment that I loved.  Threadgill formed various bands in subsequent years all with instrumentation that differed from the usual jazz lineup, Make a Move included an accordion and Zooid seemed to focus on a guitar driven, more groove based style.  But the music was always intriguing and the albums put together with invention and imagination.

Threadgill has been quiet for a number of years and rumour had it that he was spending half the year in Goa. Certainly he didn’t seem to be recording or touring.  So it is great news that a new album This Brings Us To, Vol 1 will be issued on Pi Recordings at the end of October.  The group is Zooid again with five members, the very interesting guitarist Liberty Ellman, Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Stomu Takeishi on bass guitar and Elliot Kavee on drums, and the album on Pi Recordings is promised for 27th October.

I look forward to hearing it and hope that the Zooid band will be on the road in 2010.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/artists/hthreadgill.htm

Tony       

Tags: Air, Alan Bates, Candid Records, Elliot Kavee, Fred Hopkins, Henry Threadgill, Jose Davila, Liberty Ellman, Pi Recordings This Brings Us To, Steve McCall, Stomu Takeishi, Very Very Circus, Vol 1, Zooid

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 7:08 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.