{"id":4433,"date":"2014-09-24T16:38:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T16:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=4433"},"modified":"2014-09-24T16:38:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T16:38:47","slug":"harlem-stage-gets-very-very-threadgill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/24\/harlem-stage-gets-very-very-threadgill\/","title":{"rendered":"Harlem Stage Gets Very Very Threadgill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Photo: Nhumi Threadgill<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nI can\u2019t imagine a better way to experience the promise of creative music rooted in jazz than to spend much of this coming weekend at Harlem Stage<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0which opens its season with \u201cVery Very Threadgill<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d\u00a0a two-day festival featuring more than 30 musicians performing the music of composer, saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill<\/strong>, as curated by pianist Jason Moran<\/strong>.
\nThe series is named for Very Very Circus, a 1990s band of Threadgill\u2019s that, like nearly all of his ensembles, featured unusual instrumentation (that one blended tuba, electric guitar and, at times, French horn). This two-day festival spans Threadgill\u2019s career. Saturday night’s lineup features music from his landmark 1970s-80s trio Air (as revisited by Moran and is trio, The Bandwagon), his 1980s Sextett (featuring an original member, drummer Pheeroan akLaff), and the powerhouse trio, Harriet Tubman, which includes longtime Threadgill associate, guitarist Brandon Ross, and singer Cassandra Wilson. Sunday night’s offerings move from solo, duo and chamber group to a culminating set by Threadgill\u2019s star-studded Society Situation Dance Band.
\nI consider Threadgill the most fascinating and original composer of my lifetime. His singular musical language challenges listeners through layered rhythmic tensions and surprising sonic textures and yet soothes, too: Like sunrises and snowflakes, each Threadgill piece brings the sorts of glorious shifts of color and form that help make life rewarding and embody its flow\u2014never the same yet part of some grander design, some continuum, we can live within but never fully grasp.
\nThreadgill was among the earliest members of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in the 1960s and remains among New York City\u2019s creative lodestars, which has been his home since the 1970s.
\nI interviewed him in January for a Wall Street Journal piece<\/a>,\u00a0just before he mounted “Old Locks and Irregular Verbs,” in tribute to the late composer and conductor Butch Morris, with a group that included two pianists, one of which was Moran. Threadgill and I met at DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe<\/a>, not far from where Threadgill and Morris made their homes and established their artistic presences in Manhattan\u2019s East Village decades ago. DeRobertis is the sort of place that exudes the humble dignity that results from clarity of focus\u2014to sip espresso and eat\u00a0sfogliatella <\/em>there is to grasp what that means\u2014and that for a century maintained its place on a street and within a neighborhood where gentrification has wiped away most of what once was. Unfortunately, it appears that the caf\u00e9, whose property is listed for sale, may soon be gone<\/a>.\u00a0And, sadly, Morris is no longer with us<\/a> (\u201cOld Locks\u201d was Threadgill\u2019s tip of the hat to his dear departed friend.)
\nThreadgill is still going strong, pouring and new music even as his past work assumes new relevance and influence.\u00a0During our conversation, he told me he\u2019d been admiring Moran\u2019s music\u2014\u201cand the way he approaches his music\u201d\u2014for some time.
\nSoon after, I called up Moran, who was then looking forward to his first direct experience his Threadgill. Moran, whose acclaim includes a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, expresses himself in many way these days: through his Bandwagon band; as pianist in saxophonist Charles Lloyd\u2019s quartet; via ambitious projects like \u201cAll Rise,\u201d his new CD (an elegy for Fats Waller in collaboration with, among others, singer and bassist MeShell Ndegeocello); and through his programming for the Kennedy Center, SFJazz and Harlem Stage.
\nHere\u2019s what he told me about Threadgill:<\/p>\n

We have never worked together. But he and I have always had a relationship, and I often ask him about composition. My father showed me his music when I was in high school, and I have always regarded Threadgill the best living composer, hands down. <\/strong> He has such a rich catalog that I thought it would be good to have a lot of that music played again by various ensembles made up of Threadgill devotees.
\nHenry has a very different way of writing music. \u00a0Once you see it, you understand why his bands sound like nothing else. He has found a multitude of systems and tools to help visualize the sounds he requires. \u00a0Learning the system is a major hurdle. He’s such an amazing teacher, so the process is actually that, a process of learning the system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That process, those systems, and how they flow from one musical moment to the next as well as across generations (Threadgill is 70, Moran is 39) will spill from Saturday night into Sunday evening, punctuated by a Sunday afternoon public discussion.
\nAnd, oh yes, come Sunday night, there\u2019ll be dancing.
\nHARLEM STAGE PAYS TRIBUTE TO LEGENDARY <\/strong>
\nCOMPOSER HENRY THREADGILL<\/strong>
\nwww.HarlemStage.org<\/a>
\n <\/strong>
\nSaturday, September 27<\/span><\/strong>
\n7pm-11pm<\/strong>
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AIR<\/strong> (with Jason Moran and The Bandwagon<\/strong>)
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 SEXTETT <\/strong>(with cornetist Graham Haynes<\/strong>, trombonist Craig Harris<\/strong>, Pheeroan Aklaff<\/strong> and others)
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 HARRIET TUBMAN Featuring CASSANDRA WILSON<\/strong>
\nSunday September 28<\/span><\/strong>
\n3pm-7pm (music begins at 4)<\/strong>
\nDIG DEEPER<\/em><\/strong> DISCUSSION<\/strong>
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pre-performance discussion with Henry Threadgill and Jason Moran, moderated by Brent Edwards
\n <\/strong>
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CHAMBER<\/strong>
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 IMANI WINDS – with Jason Moran
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Duo: Greg Osby (alto sax) & Jason Moran (piano)
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Duo: Pyeng Threadgill (vocals) & Jason Moran (piano)
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 David Virelles (piano)
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 VERY VERY CIRCUS<\/strong>
\n\uf0b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DANCE PARTY WITH SOCIETY SITUATION DANCE<\/strong> BAND <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t imagine a better way to experience the promise of creative music rooted in jazz than to spend much of this coming weekend at Harlem Stage,\u00a0which opens its season with \u201cVery Very Threadgill,\u201d\u00a0a two-day festival featuring more than 30 musicians performing the music of composer, saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill, as curated by pianist … <\/p>\n

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