Henry Threadgill

[Mark Stryker]

http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2011/05/three-hours-with-threadgill.html Edited May 28, 2011 by Mark Stryker

[JSngry]

Massively good. Thanks!

[StarThrower]

Yeah, thanks for the Threadgill piece!

[Larry Kart]

Much as I enjoyed the Threadgill interview, this passage from Part One threw me:

"Now, the entire experience of the slave was one of assimilation.  Assimilation of anything!  It didn’t matter: Chinese, French, Spanish, whatever it was.  It was the acquisition of all information in systems and knowledge and communication.  And that was without discrimination. It was just grab hold of something and learn how to do it in some kind of way and put your thing through it.  Look at Scott Joplin.  He wasn’t really emulating anything from Europe.  At all!  As a matter of fact, when he wrote Treemonisha, it was simultaneous with the advent of Schoenberg’s sprechstimme, and sprechstimme was present in Treemonisha.

"And Joplin had no contact with Europe in any kind of way.  This guy’s totally isolated and he’s just making music from an aesthetic. " (My emphases)

If "[A]assimilation of anything!" was the name of the game (and there I certainly agree) -- "Chinese, French, Spanish, whatever it was.  It was the acquisition of all information in systems and knowledge and communication.  And that was without discrimination. It was just grab hold of something and learn how to do it in some kind of way and put your thing through it."  -- then why would Joplin have been "totally isolated" and have had "no contact with Europe in any kind of way"?  Dismiss the notion of "emulatiing" if you wish, but if you have "assimilation of anything," why would European music not be part of that "anything"? It certainly was there to be assimilated.

[StarThrower]

Threadgill does seem to be contradicting himself there. There's no doubt all of the various cultures were influencing each other.

[Alexander Hawkins]

Just for anyone into Zooid...they played a truly phenomenal show at the London Jazz Festival a couple of weeks back...some of the most wonderful live music I've ever heard (the chemistry in that band is almost scary)...fwiw it was broadcast on the BBC this last week - available to listen again for a couple more days. I actually did a guest spot on this programme, talking a little about Threadgill's music...skip that if you will , but don't miss the concert, which was magnificent!!!

Edited December 3, 2011 by Alexander Hawkins

[PHILLYQ]

I saw him last night at Roulette in Brooklyn- the band was amazing and the telepathy was on full display last night.

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks for the link. I downloaded it and will listen later.

[AllenLowe]

Larry: though I think I understand what Threadgill is getting at, I think he's way off from any reality about history. It's almost too complicated to really just respond to his statement, which is not grounded in anything. A bit strange.

as a matter of fact, he's really out of date - the consensus, post Herskovitz/Szwed is that the slave was really doing, in many cultural instances, what amounted to the OPPOSITE of assimilation, but was rather pulling everything into his African past. Which is not to say that there are not some things going on which LOOK LIKE assimilation, but really it can be argued that the opposite is true.

but I'm slipping out of my intellectual comfort zone here - you've read Levine; also, John Szwed would be the guy to respond to this in more material ways.

Edited December 4, 2011 by AllenLowe

[David Ayers]

Just for anyone into Zooid...they played a truly phenomenal show at the London Jazz Festival a couple of weeks back...some of the most wonderful live music I've ever heard (the chemistry in that band is almost scary)...fwiw it was broadcast on the BBC this last week - available to listen again for a couple more days. I actually did a guest spot on this programme, talking a little about Threadgill's music...skip that if you will , but don't miss the concert, which was magnificent!!!

It's great that the BBC records and broadcasts so many gigs like this. Catch it while you can. Yet another one to chalk up to streaming technology?

[JohnS]

Just for anyone into Zooid...they played a truly phenomenal show at the London Jazz Festival a couple of weeks back...some of the most wonderful live music I've ever heard (the chemistry in that band is almost scary)...fwiw it was broadcast on the BBC this last week - available to listen again for a couple more days. I actually did a guest spot on this programme, talking a little about Threadgill's music...skip that if you will , but don't miss the concert, which was magnificent!!!

It's great that the BBC records and broadcasts so many gigs like this. Catch it while you can. Yet another one to chalk up to streaming technology?

Very nice set. Well worth a listen. I didn't expect it to be so enjoyable.

Edited December 4, 2011 by JohnS