In my City Arts column: a new album and Roulette concert with commissioned work from a worldly-wise 65 yr-old NYC/East Village-based composer-bandleader who keeps looking at music — Varese’s and Wagner’s, Scott Joplin’s and Ornette Coleman’s — to find something new. I call Henry Threadgill a prophet in the wilderness, urgently trying to shake us from complacency. At De Roberti’s classic Italian pastry shop for coffee yesterday, Threadgill claimed he’s just helping American music born in the urban late 20th century to develop its full potential, and it’s got a long ways to go.