Henry Threadgill 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg: Dirt... And More Dirt
Pi Recordings

Keeping track of Henry Threadgill's group names and configurations is a challenge for even the most dedicated devotee, yet despite the changes that differentiate one project from another, his music always remains identifiable as exclusively his. Further to that, his latest large-scale outfit, 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg, often sounds like an amalgamation of bands Threadgill's led throughout the years, among them Very Very Circus, Make A Move, and the Sextett.

Those trademark Threadgill signatures are very much in place on the new release, which as its title implies, features two suites, the six-part “Dirt” and four-part “And More Dirt”: shifting counterpoint; stepwise modulations; multi-layered arrangements; polyphony writing; spiraling rhythmic combustion; and so on. It's remarkable enough that after forty years of forward-thinking work, the American composer continues to pursue new ideas, with 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg, among other things, broached as an attempt to integrate composition and group improvisation, the latter guided using a preconceived series of intervals.

Many of the participants are elite musicians who've established themselves as go-to players as well as band leaders in their own right. Augmenting Threadgill's alto saxophone and flutes are fellow woodwinds players Curtis Robert Macdonald (alto sax) and Roman Filiu (alto sax, alto flute), trombonists Jacob Garchik and Ben Gerstein, trumpeters Jonathan Finlayson and Stephanie Richards, pianists David Bryant and David Virelles, drummers Elliott Humberto Kavee and Craig Weinrib, tubaist Jose Davila, cellist Christopher Hoffman, guitarist Liberty Ellman, and Thomas Morgan on bass.

In another's hands a band of such size might prove unwieldy, but Threadgill's long managed large ensembles, which makes directing the new one pretty much business as usual for this ever-intrepid recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Music (for his earlier Pi Recordings release In for a Penny, In for a Pound). It bears worth mentioning, too, that the music's been arranged with space in mind, such that smaller combinations of instruments are often featured and only rarely is the band heard playing together in full. As a result, Threadgill often assumes the role of director in place of soloist and bandleader, someone shaping the music and guiding his cast through the labyrinthine twists and turns of his material. As explorative as Dirt... And More Dirt is, it also includes moments of muscular ensemble playing, as shown by the opening part to “And More Dirt.”

Though Threadgill's very much the one in charge, he isn't afraid to share the spotlight. By way of illustration, the album's first soloist is Hoffman, whose lengthy turn is followed by one by Ellman, the leader's sax not even audible until the opening suite's well under way. Other albums and bands in Threadgill's discography are sometimes evoked by the new release. Virelles' harmonium, for example, calls to mind the accordion playing of Tony Cedrus on 1994's Song Out of My Trees, whereas Davila's tuba can't help but revive fond memories of Very Very Circus. Interestingly, as much as he's his own man, the horns-woodwinds fanfare that introduces part four of “Dirt” could be Threadgill paying homage to Ronald Shannon Jackson, so reminiscent is its sinuous melodic line of a typical Decoding Society theme.

June 2018