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Henry Threadgill

Clunky

By Clunky
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charlesp Newbie

charlesp

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thanks Adrian! -

I just ordered Henry's new Zooid LP - I will report after I receive and listen, but caveat emptor - do not expect objectivity - I am a Henry Threadgill fan and prone to enthusiasm.

charles

Edited by charlesp
JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Yeah, I got a pre-release e-mail about this and was all set to order immediately until I saw the $40.00 (sic) price tag. Gulp...

I'm still a heavy Threadgill fan, so I'm not saying I'm not gonna buy it, but I'm gonna have to be feeling JUST right when I do.

Kreilly Newbie

Kreilly

Posted
Posted

Yeah, I got a pre-release e-mail about this and was all set to order immediately until I saw the $40.00 (sic) price tag. Gulp...

I'm still a heavy Threadgill fan, so I'm not saying I'm not gonna buy it, but I'm gonna have to be feeling JUST right when I do.

I bought a copy from Henry last night after his performance at the Jazz Gallery. Here is what it says on the back cover.

"Pop Start the Tape, Stop" was composed for a sound installation and also a live performance format. I recorded the hubkaphone live in the space (Engine 27). The live tape was used with the ensemble. The hubkaphone was recorded and played through sixteen different speakers throughout the space. So, the sound is traveling at a designed speed from speaker to speaker. At certain times the hubkaphone is being heard at the octave above or below."

I don't have a record player at the moment, so it will be a few weeks before I can listen to this and transfer it to cdr. Vinyl may sound better in many respects but I do most of my listening in the car or at a desk.

Kevin

By the way, Threadgill's Zooid were superb last night.

  • 2 weeks later...
charlesp Newbie

charlesp

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have listened to Pop Start the Tape, StoP four times now and a look forward to many, many more. As I said, please do not expect an objective review - there are some artists (different for each of us) who compel us to examine all of their recordings. For me, those artists include, but are not limited to, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Giuffre, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill, Steve Lacy (an impossible quest), Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins before 1970, Woody Shaw, Wayne Shorter, Sphere, ... and Henry Threadgill. Obliously, there are more "important" innovators in the jazz tradition, but I can listen to these artists frequently and for long stretches and continue to hear new things.

The only reasonable approach for a fan like me with limited skills to discuss Henry Threadgill's new Zooid release - Pop Start the Tape, StoP is to reference other Threadgill records -

Zooid is - Henry Threadgill on hubkaphone, flute and bass flute

Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar

Tarik Benbrahim on oud

Dana Leong on cello

Jose Davila on tuba

Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums

Despite the similar personnel, Pop Start the Tape, StoP is very different in feel than Up Popped the Two Lips - initially, there is no barreling alto like "Do the Needful" or "Dark Black" and Elliot Humberto Kavee is a very different drummer than Dafnis Prieto, but I also hear a more confident collective dynamic. It's as if Up Popped Two Lips is from early courtship where the lovers feel that they must display their "best stuff" at every solo and by Pop Start the Tape, StoP , the lovers have found their groove and have forgotten where one instument ends and another begins - its not about the soloist, Zooid is. As a result, I prefer the two more integrated performances on Pop Start the Tape, StoP to two of Mr. Threadgill's three flute pieces on Up Popped the Two Lips - "Look" and "Did You See That".

How does Pop Start the Tape, StoP compare with other Threadgill recordings? Of course, There are no rollicking rags like "The Ragtime Dance" or "Weeping Willow Rag" from Air Lore, no tangos ("Untitled Tango" from Air Song ) and no urban stomps like "I'll Be Right Here Waiting" from Air Lore or "Keep Right On Playing Thru the Mirror Over the Water" on Air Lore and Live Air . The immediate comparisons that come to mind are those in which Mr. Threadgill combines hubkaphone and flue - "Subtraction" and "G.v.E." from Chuck Nessa's Air Time and "Release" from Air Raid on Why Not and India Navigation. Air is one on the premier groups to have come out of the AACM and if you don't have Air Time on nessa and Air Lore on Arista/Novus, stop reading this post and go get them. If you already have those you can keep reading.

Zooid has a more countrified - dirt road vibe than Air and none of the 19th century brass band feel of the Sextett, and although "chamber" in instumentation, in its collective focus and in volume, Zooid, like Air and the Sextett, swings like a motherf***er on Pop Start the Tape, StoP - think "Tickled Pink" from Up Popped the Two Lips. Another very special pleasure (and there are many) is the "tuned" hubkaphone at the beginning of Side 2, like church bells calling worshippers to prayer and similar to the Art Ensemble of Chicago's use of little instruments at the beginning of their performances as an admonition to suspend disbelief and enter into a different place.

I would not be without Pop Start the Tape, StoP, but then, I am not objective.

charles

Edited by charlesp
charlesp Newbie

charlesp

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yes, Wolff - Pop Start the Tape, StoP is has good sonics, thick vinyl, and labels look like they came off a memeograph machine - my LP is autographed by Mr. Threadgill and is #39.

Of course, several of the Air LPs (although on 70's/80's thin vinyl) are very well engineered . Air Time sounds great on vinyl, as do Open Air Suit on Arista/Novus, which was engineered by David Baker, and both Japanese Why Nots - Air Raid and Air Song .

The only Sextett LPs that sound great on vinyl are When Was That? and Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket on About Time - the Sextett's Arista/Novus LPs have good music, but not great sound.

charles

edited to reflect the correct spelling of the 7-member "sextett"

Edited by charlesp
  • 7 months later...
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I followed the link to the new HT LP, but even if price is no object (though it always is), the LP itself seems to be a non-existing object, or at least a copy of which can't be found. Anyone have a line on where a person could actually order it?

  • 3 weeks later...
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

(...) the Sextett's Arista/Novus LPs have good music, but not great sound.

charles

edited to reflect the correct spelling of the 7-member "sextett"

Personally, I think Threadgill's RCA/Novus cds are some of the best music he made.

Think of Rag, Bush And All!

david weiss Contributor

david weiss

Posted
Posted

(...) the Sextett's Arista/Novus LPs have good music, but not great sound.

charles

edited to reflect the correct spelling of the 7-member "sextett"

Personally, I think Threadgill's RCA/Novus cds are some of the best music he made.

Think of Rag, Bush And All!

Threadgill's sextett was THE band around New York just as I was getting into jazz in my late high school years. I saw them quite often at various venues. The horns were Threadgill, Olu Dara and Joseph Bowie. I think Bowie was gone by the first recording. I also think the band was working around New York for at least two years before they made they're first record. My favorites are still the first two About Time records as I was already familiar with the material and chomping at the bit for their release, as the personel changed, I was slightly less enthusiastic but there was still a lot of great music on those records. I think I saw them at Caravan of Dreams while I was at North Texas, I can't remember who was in the band then but remember Dara being gone.

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

I also think the band was working around New York for at least two years before they made they're first record.

I saw what was announced as their first public performance, in Chicago, at the Underground Jazz Festival, summer of 1981. But since the first About Time side came out in 1982, it sounds like they had been together and performing before that gig?

david weiss Contributor

david weiss

Posted
Posted

I also think the band was working around New York for at least two years before they made they're first record.

I saw what was announced as their first public performance, in Chicago, at the Underground Jazz Festival, summer of 1981. But since the first About Time side came out in 1982, it sounds like they had been together and performing before that gig?

I might have seen them as early as the Fall of 1980 but am certain I started seeing them on a regular basis in late 1980 and early 1981. The venues varied but not your regular places, lofts, some small clubs etc...maybe Chicago was their first gig outside New York? Do you remember who played trombone?

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted (edited)

I also think the band was working around New York for at least two years before they made they're first record. I might have seen them as early as the Fall of 1980 but am certain I started seeing them on a regular basis in late 1980 and early 1981. The venues varied but not your regular places, lofts, some small clubs etc...maybe Chicago was their first gig outside New York? Do you remember who played trombone?

Not sure, but I think that Craig Harris was already aboard.

Would've loved to have heard that band w/Joseph Bowie!

Edited by JSngry

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