by Henry Threadgill (Music 781.65 Thr)
Henry Threadgill is an esteemed saxophonist and composer who grew up in the same Chicago scene that launched the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). While Threadgill’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally — he’s one of only three jazz artists to win a Pulitzer, for example — there hasn’t been much written about his life and work. Fortunately for all of us, he’s taken the time to write down his life story himself, and his book Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music was published this year, with writing assistance from Columbia University English professor Brent Hayes Edwards. You can now find his book at the Polley Music Library.
Threadgill starts with some of his earliest memories, and anecdotes about his family. Even in these reminiscences, music almost immediately plays a role, even before he’s playing music himself. By the second page, he reminds us of his deep connection to music: “I live in sound. I go back in my memory and I don’t see: I hear.” He recalls streetcar bells, the radio programming of his youth, singing preachers, street musicians, and his own first attempts at music on the family piano. Sadly, racism was a part of his upbringing, too: he recalls memories of running from police, who actively shot at young black children, of running from white neighbors for crossing a street into an all-white neighborhood, and he went to the same barbershop as young Emmett Till.
Threadgill went through brief periods of being a troublemaker, but shortly after starting to play saxophone, he decided that he wanted to be a professional musician, and quickly got himself on a disciplined path. He still struggled academically, but this was because he was out many nights watching jazz combos, and occasionally sitting in. This proved to be an incredible education as a musician, which he combined with formal training at Wilson Junior College and The American Conservatory. There, he also met many of the artists who went on to form the AACM. College exposed him to the classical music tradition, too, and he found the work of modern-era composers like Edgard Varese and Claude Debussy inspirational as models for how to find an individual path forward in music. One can see how Threadgill’s distinctive style, which is as much about thoughtful composition and arranging as it is rich with improvisation, is ultimately a product of combining the worlds of jazz and classical music in his own unique way.
Like many of his generation, Threadgill’s life was interrupted by the Vietnam War. As a musician in training, he volunteered for the draft when his number was about to come up, which helped to insure a chance to work in your professional field while in the military. He ended up as the lead arranger for the Post Band at Fort Riley. Incredibly, a Catholic archbishop present at a performance that included a medley of patriotic songs Threadgill had arranged expressed outrage at the arrangement, and the Army responded by deploying him to Vietnam. Several chapters of the book then transition to front line stories of the Vietnam War, where he endured several near-death experiences and witnessed the horrors of war firsthand. Incredibly, even during this terrifying period of his life, he continued to make musical connections with his fellow soldiers and band members, and was inspired by the music of the Montagnard people of Vietnam, whose gong-dominated performances inspired him to create his own instrument, the “hubkaphone,” several years later. At the end of this section, he reflects on how war changes your sense of hearing permanently, too: “Your body learns to hear things with great precision even while you’re asleep…for any artist, such a profound transformation of your understanding and perception can’t help finding its way into what you’re doing.”
Upon his return to Chicago, Threadgill reconnected with his peers in the AACM, who had been evolving in leaps and bounds during his absence, releasing some of their first records and already developing a reputation. Henry played in the AACM big band and taught at the AACM school (and at Columbia College), as well as participating in the theater scene in the city. He played in lots of other ensembles, too, including Latin bands, polka bands, and parade bands. After some time in Amsterdam and finishing his degree at the American Conservatory, his group Air with Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins began to take off. Air went on to be an important jazz ensemble from the mid-70s through the mid-80s, and also served as a proving ground for Threadgill’s trio composing, teasing the maximum range of sounds out of the small group. He points out in the book that most of the material played by the band was written (and he was the primary composer), though it’s often referred to as a “free jazz” project.
Air moved from Chicago to New York, and was part of the “loft jazz” scene there. All of its members played with other ensembles happening in New York as well, and Threadgill even did shows with some of the no wave bands of the era, like James White and the Blacks. He also started his Sextett in 1979, which went on to become one of his main projects in the 80s. He writes fondly of tours with the Sextett, and of the many talented musicians that came through the group, changing its sound over time. In subsequent decades, Threadgill has maintained a similar pattern, running several groups but having one that seems to be the dominant group for some time. In the 90s, this became Very Very Circus; in the Oughts to the present, this is Zooid.
Overall, Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music is a very engaging book that runs the full gamut of emotions. After the occasional hard times of his youth and the terror of Vietnam, you’ll be dazzled with his experiences finding places to play while traveling in South America, or the surreal time he and the Sextett had in Sicily while performing a series of shows at the behest of a Mafia godfather. His brief moments with legends like John Coltrane and Duke Ellington make for fantastic stories, too. Throughout the book, Threadgill shares his insights on a variety of musical issues, including perspectives on music education, performance versus recording, and the nature of writing music that doesn’t fit neatly into any particular genre. And his voice throughout comes off as humble, thoughtful, friendly, and perpetually curious, listening for new directions to “Slip Into Another World.” Recommended not just as a jazz book, but as a book about one of the smartest musical thinkers of our times.
(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM by Paul Steinbeck or Arcana X: Musicians on Music edited by John Zorn.)
( official Henry Threadgill web site )
Recommended
by Scott S.
Polley Music Library
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