It’s been a while since the prolific saxophonist, flautist, and composer Henry Threadgill assembled his Pulitzer Prize-winning band Zooid for an album. But the five year wait seems to have affected the quintet – which, as always, includes guitarist/producer Liberty Ellman, cellist Christopher Hoffman, tubist Jose Davila, and drummer *Elliot Humbert Kavee – not at all. The band’s eighth album, Cut You Where You Was consists of a mere thirty-five minutes of music, with at least half of the songs coming in at less than two minutes. But that doesn’t mean that they’re mere trifles. Threadgill has never accepted the rules and limitations of what a jazz tune should be, so if the rambling “Off and On What Happened” and the breathy “Snow Bones” don’t need to be longwinded, they won’t be. Besides, Threadgill hits the other extreme as well, with the bristling three-part “Bingo” and the wildly expansive, passionately performed, twelve-minute “Red Admiral Red Moon Rising.” Throughout, the airy arrangements give the musicians room to move through their leader’s challenging music (the sight of this band reading a score while playing music that sounds completely improvised is really something) with all of the skill and grace of which they’re capable – and that includes Threadgill himself. Welcome back, Zooid – we’ve missed you.
On a major label for the first time in many a moon (though as a one-off), Threadgill reunites with original Zooid drummer Dafnis Prieto, alongside pianist Vijay Iyer, for Fifteen, the number of years this trio has been playing together. As might be expected from a long-running ad hoc group, there’s a playful spirit running through these songs, no matter who wrote them. Threadgill’s “Last Night,” for example, rides a propulsively straightforward groove, driven by Iyer’s piano and adorned with a squealing alto solo, while Prieto’s “On the Way” gets downright danceable due to swinging drums and rolling piano. Iyer’s “I Wanted a Map” puts his keyboard up front to fill the space Threadgill usually leaves open in his other bands, forcing the saxist to cut through the arrangement. He gets a less frenetic foundation, however, from the pianist’s eerie, enigmatic “Perfect Victims.” “Gently Trapped,” composed by Prieto, gently floats on a tuneful pond, showcasing his former boss’s lush flute and Iyer’s plangent piano solo. Similarly, Threadgill’s “Where Coconuts Fall” is as straightforward a ballad as the master is likely to compose, kept buoyant by Prieto’s busy kit, Iyer’s heavy comping, and his own soaring sax. Iyer’s wandering “Fire City” sounds more like a Threadgill tune than “Coconuts,” which may be why the saxophonist plays so comfortably. A rare example of what Threadgill can do when he’s on equal footing with his collaborators, Fifteen showcases three buddies on the same musical wavelength, even though they come from different aesthetic visions.
