'In for a Penny, In for a Pound' is the next instalment in saxophonist/flutist/composer Henry Threadgill's ongoing exploration of his singular system for integrating composition with group improvisation.
The music for his band Zooid - Threadgill's main music-making vehicle for the past fourteen years and the longest running band of his illustrious forty plus-year career - is no less than his attempt to completely deconstruct standard jazz form, steering the improvisatory language towards an entirely new system based on preconceived series of intervals. His compositions create a polyphonic platform that encourages each musician to improvise with an ear for counterpoint and, in the process, creating striking new harmonies.
Threadgill is widely considered to be among the most important artists in jazz. The New York Times called him one of the most thrillingly elusive composers in and around the jazz idiom: a sly maestro of unconventional timbres, bristling counterpoint and tough but slippery rhythms, and NPR called him a true idiosyncratic great. He is a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding this year, and he continues to adhere to one of that august organization's basic tenets: that of finding one's individual path through original music. He continues to create music that is pushing the boundaries for what is possible.
The work, which Threadgill calls an epic, includes four main movements written specifically to feature each of the musicians in Zooid: Ceroepic for Elliott Kavee on drums and percussion, Dosepic for Christopher Hoffman on cello, Tresepic for Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, and Unoepic for Liberty Ellman on guitar.
