Congratulations Henry Threadgill

Composer, multiple woodwindist, and Unpopular Music favorite Henry Threadgill has won this year's Pulitzer Prize for music for In for a Penny, In for a Pound. It's a fantastic example of Threadgill's compositional style, a combination of what people call "jazz" and what people call "modern classical music." There is perhaps a larger amount than usual for jazz of written-out material plus a rather specific (yet still stimulating) course laid out for improvisation. Threadgill is one of those composers, like say Beethoven or Brahms on one hand, Charles Mingus or Tim Berne on the other who are able to take a few constant elements and consistently find new ways to combine and develop them over the years into something new.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the third time a "jazz musician" has won the Pulitzer. Wynton Marsalis won in 1997 for his (in my opinion) rather workman-like  Blood on the Fields, a retelling through music of the African-American experience, which pales in comparison to the similarly themed "Roots and Folklore" by John Carter, which I have praised in this space on several occasions.

Number One for January 21, 2015

 

To Miles, From Wayne on NPR's Jazz Night in America

From last year's Detroit Jazz Festival, Wallace Roney leads a jazz orchestra through some long languishing scores that Wayne Shorter wrote for Miles Davis. One was performed once, but none were recorded. A bit under-rehearsed, but still compelling. By the time the planned recording comes out it should be better, but what we have is still a great listen.