RECORD REVIEWS

At 79, Pulitzer Prize winner and NEA Jazz Master Henry Threadgill is one of the last men standing among the founding fathers of the jazz avant-garde. Because his output of recordings is not voluminous, every new Threadgill release is an event. The Other One is more of an event than most because of its ambition (it is an album-length suite) and its scale: It introduces a new 12-piece ensemble.

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Threadgill is one of the true originals in American art. His music is its own universe, with proprietary organizational principles and unique aesthetic assumptions. Over the years, he has assembled a coterie of undaunted artists who have learned to play his music. Several are in the new band: tuba player Jose Davila, cellist Christopher Hoffman, drummer Craig Weinrib, pianist David Virelles. He has also built an adventurous audience and taught them how to listen to Henry Threadgill.

His new suite, titled Of Valence, is a multimedia work. When it debuted with two performances at the Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn in May 2022, it included video, projected paintings and photographs, a prerecorded choir and prose recitations. This CD is a recording of the second performance with the multimedia elements edited out, leaving only the music. The audience's applause is also edited out (until the end). Yet the recording feels alive. You feel the air around you, in a 240-seat space. All 12 instruments are vivid and clear.

Threadgill came on the scene in the 1970s as a saxophone revolutionary, but he does not play on The Other One. He conducts his cacophonous, arcane, astonishing orchestra. The suite is a rare example of Threadgill's writing for large ensemble and for strings. There is a string section at the heart of this band (violin/viola/two cellos) and also three saxophones (two altos/ one tenor), two bassoons, a piano, drums, and a tuba. With this array of instruments, Threadgill has at his disposal a huge diversity of colors and textures.