Henry Threadgill: Rag, Bush and All

The great Henry Threadgill has just been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for music for his recent album In for a Penny, In for a Pound.  Because this blogger doesn't yet have that album, recognition of Threadgill's achievement is commemorated with the remarkable early 1989 release, Rag, Bush and All.  This album was purchased on cassette not long after the masterful Too Much Sugar for a Dime came out four years later.

The record is filled with Threadgill's typically complex, multi-layered harmonic sense, shifting time and compelling melodies. It also features combinations of instruments that are fascinating contrasts in their sonic pallettes, including the leader's alto in contrast with the trumpet and fluegelhorn of Ted Daniels and then the leader's bass flute played off of Bill Lowe's bass trombone.  Bassist Fred Hopkins, a longtime member with Threadgill in the amazing trio AIR, has a cellist counterpart in Deidre Murray.   Finally, there are two drummers, Newman Baker and Reggie Nicholson.

"Off the Rag" is a wild ride, with its theme stated at the beginning, as expected, but then restated in various ways with differing groupings of instrumentation throughout the nearly 13-minute piece.  The cello and bass combination, the various horns, and the dual percussion always provides interesting excursions into sound.  This track is definitely one of the more notable in Threadgill's long career.

"The Devil is on the Loose and Dancin' With a Monkey" has a fine solo by Hopkins, as well as a short and bright one by Daniels on trumpet.  The rhythm is kept moving by the two drummers and Hopkins and Murray.  Threadgill's playful melody is nicely accented by the other horns.

"Gift" starts off quietly with cymbals played as if windchimes softly moved by a breeze.  The horns come in with a mounful and contemplative theme with Daniels taking a lead role in generating high-pitched and plaintive sounds above the others with a minimal percussive accompaniment.  Threadgill's ghostly bass flute then takes over for a time before the ensemble quietly takes the tune to a conclusion.

"Sweet Holy Rag" has another playful opening melodic statement, almost like something from early 20th century popular music, led by Murray's cello and the horns accompanying.  Hopkins plays a catchy bass figure with the drummers rumbling along in sync.  Then, the horns generate a separate theme, swirling and climbing until Threadgill's flute is developed with a kind of lumbering rhythm.  Again, complexity in time, offbeat instrumental linkages and characteristically unusual melodic themes mark this tune.  Threadgill's solo from about three minutes is the centerpiece of the song and is very soulful with his bandmates in counterpoint.  Daniels takes an excellent solo about eight minutes or so in and is followed brilliantly by Hopkins and Baker.

Rag, Bush and All is a stunning recording among many in the long, fruitful career of one of jazz's great composers and bandleaders, who always surprises with his use of unusual instrumental combinations, eclectic harmonic devices, and melodies and themes that are simply Threadgillian.  His receiving the Pulitzer Prize this year is recognition of Threadgill's singular talent.

Henry Threadgill: You Know the Number

This 1986 release on RCA's Novus imprint displays some impressive composing by the great Henry Threadgill, excellent playing by his diverse sextet, and fine production making for a beautifully-sounding record.

"Bermuda Blues" features great bass and cello work by Fred Hopkins and Deidre Murray, respectively, and a nice blend of brass with the leader, trumpeter Rasul Sadik and trombonist Frank Lacy performing with a highly-developed sense of interplay as well as solid soloing.

Hopkins starts off with a contemplative bass solo on "Silver and Gold Baby, Silver and Gold," before the others join in on this complex ballad.  Also notable throughout the album is how the percussion is recorded with Pheeroan Aklaff on the left channel and Reggie Nicholson on the right.  On this tune, Threadgill's piercing, keening solo stands out--very much in his style of playing and always affecting.

The opening of "Theme for Thomas Cole" has that peculiar attribute of Threadgill's arrangement of instrumentation, with the trombone, muted trumpet and alto marking out a complex and unusual theme statement, before Lacy solos with a cymbal and bass accompaniment.  Then, the ensemble comes back in with a striking way of various brass soloing.

"Good Times" is as catchy and accessible a tune as can be found in Threadgill's discography, a truly uplifting tune with all of that remarkable harmonic interplay that is endemic to the work.  The leader's gritty alto work stands out once again amidst all of the sonic expression that is also characteristic of his music.  There is also some good drum soloing and a crazy trombone solo from the remarkable Lacy, giving some spotlight to an instrument not heard much in modern jazz.

"To Be Announced" has a cool percussive opening, bass line, and a captivating brass harmony to open the piece.  Complex, yet highly listenable as that rhythm keeps things hopping while Lacy bursts into another fine solo--he proves to be the biggest surprise on this album, though Sadik's playing is also of note.

"Paille Street" sounds like it could have come from a classic movie soundtrack when it opens, perhaps because of Murray's beautiful cello playing and the muted brass accompaniment behind her.  Hopkins also plays a beautiful, rich bass to hold down the bottom, while the percussion mainly utilizes brush for a light touch.  This piece is really pretty--one of the nicer ballads in Threadgill's catalog.

Threadgill is known for peculiar titling, perhaps because naming instrumental pieces is an exercise in futility, especially when the music is this complex, dense and striking.  So, "For Those Who Eat Cookies" may not signify much, but check out that amazing interplay among the brass while the rhythm section lays it down nicely behind them.  Threadgill, who gave a lot of space to his fellow musicians to create uniformly excellent solos, staggers again with his amazing alto work, while that interplay continues to be essential to the quality of this piece and the record as a whole.

The follow-up to this record, 1989's Rag, Bush and All and the 1993 album, Too Much Sugar for a Dime may be Threadgill's high-water marks in his long, estimable discography, but You Know the Number is right up there and, if the number was 3 in ranking of his many superb recordings, that's fine company to be in.  This is a great album.

Charles Ives: An American Journey

Charles Ives was the head of a successful insurance agency in Connecticut who happened to also be a masterful composer, though this was largely unknown until the 1930s and afterward.  He produced a body of work through 1926 that was a striking combination of modern experimentalism and eclecticism with a timely concern for older American music traditions that were disappearing as American modernized, industrialized and urbanized.

It was not until he was in his early seventies that real recognition came, thanks for the tireless work of his admirer, the California composer Lou Harrison, who conducted a performance of Ives' Third Symphony, which was then given a Pulitzer Prize in 1947.  Ives gave Harrison half the money that came with the honor and waved off the attention.  Slowly, however, Ives' work began to be performed more often, mainly in Europe, although Michael Tilson Thomas, who has been the music director at the San Francisco Symphony since 1995, has been a champion of the composer.

Hence this interesting compilation that gives some idea of the vast range of types of music created by Ives from the 1890s to the mid-1920s.  Much of these have march-like qualities, not surprising since Ives' father was a band master and, during the Civil War, led a Union Army band.  A number of these are songs with vocals by baritone Thomas Hampson and they are redolent of Ives' fascination with everyday people and their lives.  One piece, "Charlie Rutlage: is about a cowboy; another evokes popular music played in what appears to be a small-town opera house; there is one about a circus band; a couple deal with the horrors of the First World War; and so on. 

The opening piece, "From the Steeples and the Mountains," has the soaring quality the title implies, but there are interesting contrasts between tolling bells and wild and wonderful brass playing.  The Things Our Fathers Loved," with its brief lyrics referencing small town bands, religion and patriotism, is a subtle and beautiful work.

The staggering "Three Places in New England" include a dreamy, atmospheric first section dedicated to a monument that commemorated a segregated black military unit in the Union Army during the Civil War; a wildly diverging second movement with dramatic shifts that almost seems like a travelogue through the bracing combination of traditional and new forms of music that Ives championed and which took its theme from the Revolutionary War.  The third returns to a quieter, stately mood with a chorus beautifully singing "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," which was inspired by a walk by the composer on his honeymoon along the titular river in Massachusetts.  This movement was initially instrumental, but Tilson Thomas recorded the choral element in the spirit of what Ives had done elsewhere by adding choral performance to instrumental works.

Other works include lyrics directly from Ives' childhood or are religious expositions with one of these based on the poet John Greenleaf Whittier or pay tribute, via the poem of Vachel Lindsay, to the founder of The Salvation Army (General William Booth.)  These are the kinds of themes that animated so much of Ives' work as he surveyed the landscape of American society through new, evocative forms of music fused with earlier styles.

The liners are very helpful in understanding the amazing breadth and depth of what Ives did in his three or so decades of active composition, with one written by Tilson Thomas and the other Jan Swafford.  To a novice like YHB, they were exceedingly helpful in identifying what motivated Ives in his fascinating work and this album is a remarkable survey of the long and diverse career of one of America's great musical masters.

Charles Ives:  An American Journey (RCA, 2002)

1.  From the Steeples and the Mountains  4:15
2.  The Things Our Fathers Loved  1:47
3.  The Pond (Remembrance)  1:42
4.  Memories  2:30
5.  Charles Rutlage  2:38
6.  The Circus Band  3:02
7-9.  Three Places in New England  18:19
10.  In Flanders Fields  2:41
11.  They Are There!  2:52
12.  Tom Sails Away  2:48
13.  Symphony No. 4—III: Fugue  6:38
14.  Psalm 100  1:35
15.  Serenity  2:00
16.  General William Booth Enters Into Heaven  5:42
17.  The Unanswered Question  6:19