Henry Threadgill

Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill
	Henry Threadgill at Keystone Korner, San Francisco CA 4/5/79 w/AIR, including Fred Hopkins & Steve McCall
Background information
Birth name	Henry Luther Threadgill
Born	February 15, 1944(age 80); Chicago,Illinois,U.S.
Genres	Jazz,avant-garde jazz,free jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instrument(s)	Saxophone, flute
Years active	1960s–present
Labels	Arista/Novus,About Time,Black Saint,Columbia,Pi
Website	www.henrythreadgill

Henry Threadgill(born February 15, 1944)^[1]is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist.^[2]He came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles rooted injazzbut with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating other genres of music. He has performed and recorded with several ensembles:Air,Aggregation Orb, Make a Move, the seven-piece Henry Threadgill Sextett, the twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, Very Very Circus, X-75, and Zooid.

He was awarded the 2016Pulitzer Prize for Musicfor his albumIn for a Penny, In for a Pound,^[3]which premiered atRoulette Intermediumon December 4, 2014.^[4]

In 2023, he published his autobiography, written withBrent Hayes Edwards:Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music.^[5]The book was aNew York TimesNotable Book of the Year, along with being a Best Book of the Year:The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker.

Career

Threadgill performed as a percussionist in his high-school marching band before taking up baritone saxophone, alto saxophone, and flute. He studied at theAmerican Conservatory of Musicin Chicago, majoring in piano, flute, and composition. He studied piano with Gail Quillman and composition with Stella Roberts.^[3]He was an original member of the Experimental Band, a precursor to theAssociation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians(AACM) in his hometown of Chicago, and worked under the guidance ofMuhal Richard Abrams,before leaving to tour with agospelband.^[1]In 1967, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, playing with a rock band in Vietnam during theVietnam Warin 1967 and 1968. He was discharged in 1969.

After returning to Chicago, Threadgill joined AACM members bassistFred Hopkinsand drummerSteve McCallin a trio which would eventually become the groupAir.^[1]He moved to New York City, where he formed his first group, X-75, a nonet consisting of four reed players, four bass players, and a vocalist.^[1]

In the early 1980s, Threadgill created his first critically acclaimed ensemble as a leader, the Henry Threadgill Sextet (actually a septet; he counted the two drummers as a single percussion unit),^[6]which released three albums on About Time Records. After a hiatus, he formed New Air withPheeroan akLaff,replacing Steve McCall on drums, and reformed the Henry Threadgill Sextett (with two t's at the end). The six albums the group recorded feature some of his most accessible work, notably on the albumYou Know the Number.^[1]The group's unorthodox instrumentation included two drummers, double bass, cello, trumpet, and trombone, in addition to Threadgill's alto saxophone and flute.^[1]Among the players were drummers akLaff,John Betsch,Reggie Nicholson and Newman Baker; bassistFred Hopkins;cellistDiedre Murray;trumpeters Rasul Siddik and Ted Daniels;cornetist Olu Dara;and trombonistsRay Anderson,Frank Lacy,Bill Lowe, andCraig Harris.

During the 1990s, Threadgill pushed the musical boundaries even further with his ensemble Very Very Circus.^[1]The group consisted of two tubas, two electric guitars, a trombone or French horn, and drums. With this group he explored more complex and highly structured forms of composition, augmenting the group with Latin percussion, French horn, violin, accordion, vocalists, and exotic instruments. He composed and recorded with other unusual instruments, such as a flute quartet (Flute Force Four, a one-time project from 1990); and combinations of four cellos and four acoustic guitars (onMakin' a Move).

He was signed byColumbia Recordsfor three albums. Since the dissolution of Very Very Circus, Threadgill has continued in his iconoclastic ways with ensembles such as Make a Move and Zooid. Zooid, currently a sextet with tuba (Jose Davila), acoustic guitar (Liberty Ellman), cello (Christopher Hoffman), drums (Elliot Kavee) and bass guitar (Stomu Takeishi), has been the primary vehicle for Threadgill's compositions in the 2000s.

In 2018, Threadgill composed the string quartet "Sixfivetwo" for theKronos Quartet,which they recorded as part of their "Fifty for the Future" project.^[7]

Awards and honors

In 2016, Threadgill's compositionIn for a Penny, In for a Poundwas awarded thePulitzer Prize for Music.^[8]

In July 2016, he received the Vietnam Veterans of America Excellence in the Arts Award,^[9]at the VVA National Leadership Conference in Tucson.

"Run Silent, Run Deep, Run Loud, Run High" (conducted byHale Smith) and "Mix for Orchestra" (conducted byDennis Russell Davies), were both premiered at theBrooklyn Academy of Musicin 1987 and 1993 respectively. He has had commissions from Mordine & Company in 1971 and 1989, fromCarnegie Hallfor "Quintet for Strings and Woodwinds" in 1983 and 1985, theNew York Shakespeare Festivalin 1985,Bang on a Can All-Starsin 1995, "Peroxide" commissioned by theMiller Theatre Columbia Universityin 2003 for "Aggregation Orb", a commission from the Talujon Percussion Ensemble in 2008, a piece "Fly Fliegen Volar" commissioned and premiered at theSaalfeldenJazz Festival with the Junge PhilharmonieSalzburgOrchestra in 2007, a premier of the piece "Mc Guffins" with Zooid at the Biennale Festival in Italy in 2004.

In May 2020 he was presented with an honorary doctor of music by the University of Pennsylvania.

In October 2020, theNational Endowment for the Arts(NEA) announced Threadgill as one of four recipients of theNEA Jazz Masters Fellowships,celebrated in an online concert and show on April 22, 2021. Awarded in recognition of lifetime achievement, the honor is bestowed on individuals who have made significant contributions to the art form. The other 2021 recipients wereTerri Lyne Carrington,Albert "Tootie" Heath,andPhil Schaap.^[10]

In 2024 he received aPEN Oakland – Josephine Miles AwardforEasily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music,coauthored withBrent Hayes Edwards.

Personal life

Threadgill was born in Chicago.^[11]He studied piano, flute, and composition at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and Governors State University, in University Park, Illinois.^[12]He was a member of the US Army Concert Band, and served in Vietnam.^[13]He is married to recording artist and ethnomusicologist Senti Toy, also known as Sentienla Toy Threadgill.^[14]