If there’s one thing we can count on with Henry Threadgill, it’s that he’s predictably unpredictable. Though undeniably a genius (with the Pulitzer Prize to prove it), the composer/conductor/woodwinds master would rather pivot just as he hits a new high than ride that wave to further acclaim.
Case in point: after 2023’s superb The Other One with his eponymous Ensemble, Threadgill easily slips back into composer mode for Listen Ship. Eschewing his horn, Threadgill assembles a nonet consisting of four guitarists, two bass guitarists, and two pianists, all of whom stick to acoustic and unamplified instruments. Though the guitar corps includes giants like Bill Frisell and Brandon Ross and rising stars like Miles Okazaki and Gregg Belisle-Chi, they – alongside bassists Jerome Harris and Stomu Takeishi and pianists Maya Keren and Rahul Carlberg – subsume all their egos in service of Threadgill’s vision. And what a vision it is: melodies that don’t conform to modern Western notation, dischords that blend together to form harmony, rhythms that barely exist. As anyone who’s ever seen Threadgill’s groups in performance can report, his work sounds like free jazz even as each musician reads from a score.
That reads as unappealing, even daunting, but Threadgill isn’t trying to provoke here. Each movement offers virtues for those that keep their ears open, and once you enter into Threadgill’s world and acclimate to his specific perspective, every seemingly wrong note or fractured scale becomes a logical extension of its reality. Don’t try to make sense of this music with terms like “jazz” or “chamber music” or even “avant-garde.” Just engage Listen Ship on its own terms, and let the distinctive insight of a master musicmaker caress your heart and rewire your brain.
