{"id":2025,"date":"2016-04-18T18:26:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T22:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=2025"},"modified":"2019-09-12T14:01:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T18:01:32","slug":"threadgill-wins-pulitzer-for-zooid-and-cheers-for-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2016\/04\/threadgill-wins-pulitzer-for-zooid-and-cheers-for-his-career.html","title":{"rendered":"Threadgill wins Pulitzer for Zooid and cheers for his career"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pulitzer Prize for Music\u00c2\u00a0has been earned<\/a> by Henry Threadgill, composer, bandleader and reedist, for his expansive and in-depth explorations of polyphonic improvisation with his quintet Zooid, the suite stretching over\u00c2\u00a0two cds\u00c2\u00a0In for a Penny, In for a Pound<\/a>. <\/em>Big time congratulations! And encouragement listening to all and any of Henry’s works, as he is a visionary, exciting American composer.<\/p>\n

For instance, Threadgill’s even newer Ensemble Double Up has recently issued its premier\u00c2\u00a0recording,\u00c2\u00a0Old Locks and Irregular Verb<\/em>s<\/a>, \u00c2\u00a0a triumphant dedication to his great friend, the late Butch Morris. I reported on that music\u00c2\u00a0upon its first performance in January 2014 <\/a>and a performance in Oakland, and find it a marvel. I am not alone.<\/p>\n

Here’s my \u00c2\u00a0brief report with photos on Zooid from 2010, <\/a>when I wrote a longer article about Threadgill’s new intervallic concepts for composition for DownBeat. Hmmm, that DownBeat piece is not online — I will post it,\u00c2\u00a0complete, elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"ornette<\/a>

One Pulitzer Prize winner to another: Henry Threadgill, l., with Ornette Coleman (at Coleman’s birthday party, 2012)<\/p><\/div>\n

Followers of Threadgill’s\u00c2\u00a050+ year career (yeah, I) will attest\u00c2\u00a0he deserves this honor for a lifetime of original music, starting even before and apart from his Chicago-born trio Air<\/a> (RIP, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall), including extraordinary collaborations with AACM composer-performers including especially Muhal Richard Abrams<\/a> and Roscoe Mitchell<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0alliances and\/or allegiances with all the colorful, gutsy, bluesy, rootsy, thinking-peoples’ adventurers including\u00c2\u00a0Ornette Coleman, David Murray, Diedre Murray, Olu Dara, Craig Harris, Pheeroan ak Laff, Reggie Nicholson, Andrew Cyrille, Asha Puthli, Brandon Ross, Bob Stewart, Curtis Fowlkes, Myra Melford, Bill Laswell, Sly and Robbie, John Hicks, Cassandra Wilson . . .<\/p>\n

. . the list goes on and on as does Threadgill’s music, always identifiably his, always spirited though he can\u00c2\u00a0be (in his writing writings for ensemble as well as his personal playing\u00c2\u00a0of alto flute and flute, alto and less often tenor or baritone sax)\u00c2\u00a0aridly chilling, terse, sardonic, thorny, prophetic, demanding and demonic as well as engaging, seductive, hilariously celebratory, heart-pure, wildly imaginative, philosophical and unbound.<\/p>\n

One may reasonably\u00c2\u00a0question the fundamental premise of\u00c2\u00a0arts prizes and awards — the innate elitism and patronage implied by conferring esteem from on high, and such initiatives are indeed complicated, arguably\u00c2\u00a0even\u00c2\u00a0compromised, from the start (I say this while presiding for 20 years over the Jazz Journalists Association’s annual Awards<\/a> for music and media, currently in process). However,\u00c2\u00a0when a creative artist such as Henry Threadgill, a restless force unto himself for decades presenting unique expression in every conceivable, daring\u00c2\u00a0musical form, gains acclaim from a panel of judges (in this case, composers Julia Wolf, of Bang on a Can, and William Banfield, Berklee; Dallas Morning News classical critic Scott Cantrell, Wesleyan U Center for the Arts director Pamela Tatge and jazz violinist Regina Carter) authorized by their own musical accomplishments as well as by the Pulitzer powers that be), no wag of a finger is as appropriate as a tip of the hat. Hear, hear, Henry, hear, hear. Here:\u00c2\u00a0Very Very Circus<\/a>;<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0here:\u00c2\u00a0You Know The Number<\/i>.<\/a><\/p>\n

howardmandel.com<\/a>
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The Pulitzer Prize for Music\u00c2\u00a0has been earned by Henry Threadgill, composer, bandleader and reedist, for his expansive and in-depth explorations of polyphonic improvisation with his quintet Zooid, the suite stretching over\u00c2\u00a0two cds\u00c2\u00a0In for a Penny, In for a Pound. Big time congratulations! And encouragement listening to all and any of Henry’s works, as he is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-wF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":299,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/02\/threadgill_talks_zooid_photod.html","url_meta":{"origin":2025,"position":0},"title":"Threadgill talks, Zooid photo’d","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"February 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Composer-saxophonist Henry Threadgill performed his quicksilver music with quintet Zooid at the Jazz Gallery a few days back: here are the photos. He talked at Jazz at Lincoln Center, also: a brief synopsis. I was putting final touches on the article Down Beat commissioned about Threadgill, who I first heard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"4370862203_2617a3c6cc-1.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/4370862203_2617a3c6cc-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":312,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/04\/whats_in_a_jazz_award_1.html","url_meta":{"origin":2025,"position":1},"title":"What’s in a Jazz Award?","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Finalists for the 14th annual Jazz Awards presented by the Jazz Journalists Association are up at JJAJazzAwards.org. See and hear who critics like. These are our Pulitzer Prizes. There's a lot of excellence represented by 187 nominees in 41 categories of achievement in music-making and music documentation -- the JJA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":263,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/11\/henry_threadgill_seer_beyond_j.html","url_meta":{"origin":2025,"position":2},"title":"Henry Threadgill, seer beyond ‘jazz’","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":386,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/03\/unsafe_concert_threadgill_la_b.html","url_meta":{"origin":2025,"position":3},"title":"UNsafe concert: Threadgill, La Barbara, ACO dare to fail","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Playing It UNsafe\" is how the American Composers Orchestra characterizes tonight's concert of works by Henry Threadgill, Joan La Barbara,\u00a0Sean Friar and\u00a0Laura Schwendinger\u00a0at Zankel Hall, NYC. Afraid of classical musicians improvising? Multi-layered \"sound paintings\" of multi-tracked voice, electronic ambiance and instrumentalists sitting in the audience? Symphonic and light collaborations? Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2037,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2016\/04\/pulitzer-winner-threadgill-what-is-harmony.html","url_meta":{"origin":2025,"position":4},"title":"Pulitzer winner Threadgill: “What is harmony?”","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My\u00c2\u00a0profile of Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Threadgill, commissioned by and\u00c2\u00a0published in DownBeat in 2010: Henry Threadgill exuded confidence and impatience when facing four video cameras and a standing-room-only gallery of serious listeners at the Manhattan new music performance space Roulette last October. With his flute, bass flute, alto saxophone and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"41iy0G53C6L._SX425_","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/41iy0G53C6L._SX425_-300x267.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1504,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2014\/01\/henry-threadgills-tribute-to-butch-morris-winterjazz-fest-10.html","url_meta":{"origin":2025,"position":5},"title":"Henry Threadgill’s tribute to Butch Morris @ WinterJazz Fest 10","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"January 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Composer-reedist Henry Threadgill created a stunning tribute at WinterJazz Fest 10 in New York City last night to honor his great friend Lawrence Douglas \"Butch\" Morris, who died just short of his 66th birthday on January 29, 2013. The nearly hour-long piece had two movements -- a long, complex, multi-layered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"butch and henry","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/butch-and-henry.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}