“An alto saxophonist and flutist of distinctive fluency, Threadgill is also one of the era’s most inventive—and influential—jazz composers.” —Stereophile
In Pulitzer Prize–winner Henry Threadgill’s compositions, notation and improvisation mesh in sonic expressions of American life. He calls his unique polyphonic language “creative music,” which others revere as a musical masterwork beyond category. On Friday, 24 Minnesota musicians (curated by cellist Michelle Kinney) perform Threadgill pieces from the past 40-plus years, including songs from Air Show No.1 as New Air (1986), Spirit of Nuff…Nuff (1991) and Too Much Sugar for a Dime (1993). As potent and prolific as ever, Threadgill closes the festival on Saturday with his acclaimed quintet Zooid.
New York power-jazz trio Harriet Tubman, listed in The New York Times’ 2018 best of jazz, and made up of former-Threadgill star players Melvin Gibbs (bass), Brandon Ross (guitar), and JT Lewis (drums), will open Saturday’s concert.
Friday’s participating musicians include Tarek Abdelqader (drums), Noah Ophoven-Baldwin (cornet), George Cartwright (alto saxophone), Anthony Cox (bass, cello, acoustic bass guitar), Chris Cunningham (guitar), Ivan Cunningham (alto saxophone), Douglas Ewart (winds and percussion), Milo Fine (piano), Nathan Hanson (soprano saxophone), Laura Harada (violin), Eric Jensen (piano, keyboards), Babatunde Lea (congas), Charlie Lincoln (bass), Mankwe Ndosi (vocals), Pat O’Keefe (bass clarinet/clarinet), Carley Olson Kokal (clarinet), Cole Pulice (tenor saxophone), Davu Seru (drums), Joseph Strachan (piano), Dameun Strange (keyboards, soprano saxophone, digital aerophone), Donald Washington (tenor saxophone), Faye Washington (flute), Michelle Kinney (cello) and Adam Zahller (guitar).
Celebrating Henry: A Threadgill Festival
Friday, February 15 at 8pm and Saturday, February 16 at 8pm
McGuire Theater
ABOUT HENRY THREADGILL
Henry Threadgill (b. Chicago, 1944) is one of three jazz artists to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. Playing a myriad of instruments in his childhood from percussion to clarinet to saxophone, by his late teens he joined the Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band, which later expanded into the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
In 1970, Threadgill moved to New York City, exploring approaches to jazz music with various group acts over the next 40 years.
AIR (Artists In Residence), his 1970s trio, reimagined ragtime without the piano—like dropping the electric guitar from rock. His 1980s Sextett, paired complex compositions and dynamic soloists. In the 1990s, Very Circus stepped deeper into unorthodoxy, with two electric guitars, two tubas, a trombone/French horn, drums, Henry’s alto sax and flute, and frequent add-ons. With Make A Move, a fluid lineup mixing French horn, tubas, electric and acoustic guitars, and cello, he began exploring the approaches to composing and improvising that led to Zooid.
Threadgill was the recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in music for Zooid’s album In for a Penny, In for a Pound (2015). He was also the recipient of the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award, 2008 United States Artist Fellowship, and 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tarek Abdelqader is a Minnesota-born musician performing with Twin Cities bands including Purple Funk Metropolis, Dr. Goon and the Daily Tribune, and Wry Samurai. Abdelqader obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2016 from the University of Minnesota, where he played drums in jazz ensembles under the tutelage of Dean Sorenson and Phil Hey. He is greatly influenced by his studies with Hey, who imparted wisdom from the prolific drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins. Most recently, Abdelqader debuted original compositions entitled Authenticity and Identity at the Cedar Cultural Center as a 2019 Cedar Commissions artist.
George Cartwright “Incandescent saxophone playing “- The New York Times. George Cartwright is a Minnesota-based composer, performer, band leader, producer and musical collaborator., His most recent inspirational quote is by Barry Hannah: “The point is to strip down, get protestant, then even more naked. Walk over scorched bricks to find your own soul. Your heart a searching dog in the rubble.”
Anthony Cox is known for his work with several leading musicians including Geri Allen, Dewey Redman, Dave Douglas, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Gary Thomas, Marty Ehrlich, Ed Blackwell, Joe Lovano, and Dave King. Cox currently is located in the Twin Cities. He plays mainly in the post-bop, avant-garde, and traditional styles, though he is “versatile enough to work in any style effectively.” Cox grew up in Minneapolis and attended college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Peter Madsen (pianist) wrote that Cox is “open to all kinds of great music from around the world” and that “his bass sound is full of beauty and warmth and his ability to accompany and still add very creative ideas into whatever music he is playing is remarkable. He is equally comfortable playing chord changes with a Stan Getz or Kenny Wheeler or playing open music with a Dewey Redman or Geri Allen.
Chris Cunningham (guitar, arranger) has collaborated on stages and in studios with Marianne Faithfull, The Lounge Lizards, James Chance and the Contortions, Jeff Buckley, The Golden Paliminos, John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, Marshall Crenshaw, Joan Osborne, John Medeski, Richie Havens, Haiti’s Boukman Eksperyans, Turkey’s Omar Farouk, Ireland’s Katell Keineg, Susan McKeown, and Gavin Friday, and many others. He has released two critically acclaimed solo albums, Stories to Play and Neverwas, and his Twin Cities groups include Mississippi Peace, Fall of the House of Usher, Coloring Time, Cherry Spoon Collective, and Improvestra. His main repository of recorded musical content can be found at fothou.com.
Ivan Cunningham is currently completing his BA in music from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, where he is studying saxophone performance and composition. Ivan performs regularly in the Twin cities. His current main project Shark Bath has played at various venues such as Jazz Central Studios and Acadia. Ivan’s work was featured in the 2017 Hear Here Music and Movement Festival at the Cedar Cultural Center and was awarded a 2016 performance by Zeitgeist in the Eric Stokes Composition contest. Ivan has been listening to Henry Threadgill’s music for many years and is a true devotee.
The polymathic Douglas R. Ewart has been honored for his work as a composer, improvising multi-instrumentalist, conceptual artist, sculptor and mask- and instrument designer. Also an educator, Ewart bridges his kaleidoscopic activities with a vision that opposes today’s divided world. His culture-fusing works aims to restore the wholeness of communities and of the individuals within them, and to emphasize the reality that the world is an interdependent entity. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Ewart immigrated to Chicago, Illinois in 1963. Ewart is a former chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), former president of Jamaica Minnesota Organization, co-chair of the American Bell Association Minnesota Chapter, is the founder of Aarawak Recording Company, leader of ensembles such as the Nyhbingi Drum Choir, Quasar and Douglas R. Ewart & Inventions, and a designer and creator of instruments, costumes, mask, sculptures and paintings that have been exhibited in venues such as: The Ordway, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Wellness Center, Minneapolis MN, Hyde Park Art Center, DuSable Museum of African American History Chicago, Smart Museum Chicago, Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, “Crepuscule,” his vast periodic conceptual work, is collectively composed by scores of musicians, artists, dancers, and activists. Ewart’s honors include a U.S. Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, two Bush Artists Fellowships, and an Outstanding Artist Award granted by a former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. He is a Professor Emeritus at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Milo Fine, 2019 marks his 50th year working exclusively in the field of free jazz/improvised music. More to the point (and co-opting bassist/composer Kent Carter’s autobiographical liner note to the 1966 LP JAZZ REALITIES), he states: “I was born January 22, 1952 (Minneapolis, Minnesota), and am not yet dead.”
Composer and saxophonist Nathan Hanson has performed in concert halls, clubs, prisons, churches, debutante balls, squats and former Soviet fallout shelters in places ranging from St. Paul to Slovenia; Paris to Pittsburgh; Milano to Milwaukee; and Rome (both Italy and Georgia). Hailed as an “extraordinary performer with a beautiful tone and concept” (Cadence Magazine), his playing has been called “seductively pithy” (Signal to Noise), “lithe and soaring” (New York City Jazz Record), “unexpectedly tasteful and dignified” (Improjazz), and “engaging in judicious honk and splatter” (New York City Jazz Record). He makes his home in St. Paul, MN.
Violinist Laura Harada enjoys a diverse musical life, currently performing with a wide variety of groups including classical Arab ensembles Amwaaj and the National Arab Orchestra in Detroit, local Brazilian band Samba Meu, and Modern Spark Trio. Her experience spans western classical to eastern microtonal music, free jazz, Brazilian forró and choro, and much more of the not so easily categorized. She has worked with multiple theater and dance companies, including In the Heart of the Beast, Jawaahir Dance Company, and Black Label Movement. As a member of improvising composers group Cherry Spoon Collective, MST, and Michelle Kinney’s What We Have Here, she has enjoyed exploring new compositional ideas with numerous local composers.
Eric Jensen is a musician and painter living and working in the Twin cities. He has composed and performed scores for Theater de la Jeune Lune, Open Eye Figure Theater, The Guthrie Theater, The Arden Theater, and Berkeley Repertory Theater. He is a dance musician for TU Dance, the University of Minnesota, and other dance programs.
Cellist/Composer Michelle Kinney is inspired by artistically investigative contexts. She co-leads the improvising orchestra Cherry Spoon Collective, and Jelloslave, 2-cellos/tablas/drums, and performs with the Veena-led, cello, clarinet and percussion ensemble Maithree, among others. Recognition of her work includes support from a McKnight Composer Fellowship, Bush Artists Fellowship, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Jerome Foundation, MN State Arts Board, NEA, Harvestworks & American Composers Forum. During 13 years in NYC, Michelle was lucky enough to work with some of music’s most respected innovators, including Henry Threadgill and a few close colleagues: Brandon Ross, Jason Hwang, Stomu Takeishi, and the unforgettable Butch Morris.
Babatunde Lea’s vast experience of nearly forty years as a master percussionist, as well as the spiritual depth and resonance he brings to everything he does, has made him one of the most esteemed musicians of the past half century. The way that music connects with audiences and with the rhythms of our everyday lives is essential to his musical philosophy: “I draw a lot from African culture, and one of the main things I’ve come to understand is that music is functional; in African culture, music accompanies everything… from birth ceremonies to funerals. The music is there to open people up to the deepest experiences of life. Music is a resource like oil or water; it does the bidding of who controls it. For my part, I know exactly what I want done with the energy I create with my music. It is my wish that my music will empower people to look within and become agents of peace and change in their hearts, in their families and in the world at large.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Charlie Lincoln is an in-demand bassist in the Twin Cities, performing with artists including Eric Kamau Grávátt and Dave King. Charlie has toured in China, Thailand, and Taiwan and has appeared at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, the Iowa City Jazz Festival, and the Hua Hin International Jazz Festival. In 2016, he co-founded the collective quartet Hoaxer which released its debut album Crash Test in 2017 on Illicit Productions. He is currently studying at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute under the direction of Danilo Perez.
Mankwe Ndosi is celebrated for a sound and practice weaving creative improvisation, African legacies, Hip Hop and Soul, performance art, theater, and public art. She using texture, utterance and harmony to make music with artists of all genres, and living beings –human, animal and elemental. She performs nationally and internationally and has appeared with Nicole Mitchell, The Give Get Sistet, Mike Ladd, Dana Hall, Sylvain Kassap, Sharon Bridgforth, Laurie Carlos, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Medium Zach, Tomeka Reid, Ananya Dance Theater, Atmosphere, and Douglas Ewart. Ms. Ndosi is a current member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music.
Carley Olson Kokal performs regularly in the Twin Cities’ experimental and improvised music scene, as well as in classical orchestral and chamber music settings. A multi-instrumentalist, Carley plays clarinet and bass clarinet in Realtree and various woodwinds in local ensemble, Lip Gym. She holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Clarinet Performance from Augsburg University and the University of Minnesota respectively. Carley directs a youth clarinet ensemble and teaches privately.
Pat O’Keefe is active in a variety of musical genres. He has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras, wailed away for belly dancers, and rocked samba in the streets. He is the woodwind player for the ensemble Zeitgeist, and also performs with Batucada do Norte, Choro Borealis, No Territories, and The Maithree Ensemble. Pat holds a BM from Indiana University, an MM from New England Conservatory, and a DMA from the University of California, San Diego. In 2015 he was awarded a Performing Musician Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls.
Noah Ophoven-Baldwin is an American composer and cornetist.
Cole Pulice is a saxophonist and improvisor based in the Twin Cities. He’s been fortunate to work, collaborate, and learn from a beautiful and diverse array of musicians and artists from across disciplinary boundaries. Cole co-runs the brass and woodwind horn choir ‘drone band,’ writes and performs solo compositions for saxophone and electronics as ‘Cole,’ and has worked with groups like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Bon Iver.
Davu Seru is composer and bandleader for the septet, No Territory Band. Like many jazz-rooted musicians influenced by “new music” experiments with extended technique, his approach to the drum set is as much nostalgic as it is technophilic. Consequently, his style is striking for its attending to sound, silence and melodic line as much it does rhythmic pattern—and as a skilled ensemble player he is known for his “big ears.” Those ears have afforded Davu the opportunity to perform and record with musicians such as Milo Fine, Anthony Cox, Evan Parker, George Cartwright, Dean Magraw, Jack Wright, Douglas R. Ewart, Nicole Mitchell and Rafael Toral. Davu was awarded the 2017-2018 Sound Artist-Composer Fellowship by Jerome Foundation and has also received awards from the American Composers Forum, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Joe Strachan is Twin-Cities based pianist, improvisor, and composer. A 2013 graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Music, Joe is a former student of Laura Caviani and Brian Nichols. In addition to writing and performing with his own trio, Joe performs regularly in the Twin Cities with Mina Moore, Graydon Peterson Quartet, Nelson Deveraux, Charanga Tropical, and Rogue Tango; along with having performed in festivals in Europe and Cuba. Joe also accompanies for several dance schools in the Twin Cities, and has created original music and arrangements for works by choreographers Penelope Freeh, Elayna Waxse, and Scott Rink.
Dameun Maurice Strange is a sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer whose conceptual chamber works and choral pieces are focused on stories of the African diaspora. He uses West African polyrhythms, classical music forms, contemporary jazz harmonic explorations, along with found sounds and historic recordings to create modern afrofuturist performances that disrupt the notion of genre and what Black music is and can be.
Faye Blakely Washington is a native Detroiter. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Wayne State University with a major in music education. She studied flute with Clement Barone of the Detroit symphony Orchestra and voice with Celeste Cole. Further vocal study includes Willis Patterson of the University of Michigan and Rosalyn Laskin of the University of Minnesota. She has performed as soprano soloist with the Michigan Opera Theater. The Windsor Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia, St. John’s University, The Julliard Orchestra, and the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Society in Novosibirsk, Russia. Washington also performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing arts. In addition to her classical background, she has performed in many jazz settings as a singer and a flutist, including the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival, the Flint Jazz Festival, President Bill Clinton, The Page Education Foundation, and the Twin Cities Jazz Society. She has been nominated for Outstanding Jazz Vocal and has received the Sam Favors Achievement Award from the Freedom Jazz Festival. She includes membership in the New Day Blues Band, Imp Ork, Northeast Orchestra, Fridley City Band, Senior Synod Band, Quicksilver Flute ensemble, and Director of the Capri Big Band. She has performed with such artists as Le Roy Jenkins, Reginald Buckner, Women of the Calabash, Don Cherry, Ernie Watts, Julie Hemphill, Marcus Belgrave, James Newton, Jon Jang, James Carter, Donald Washington, and David Murray. Recordings include “This Little Rose”; Open To The Public and “This Cat is Out” (New day Blues Band) and “Journey”.
Donald Washington is a saxophonist, music educator, and director of Bird Trane Sco Now! and New Day Blues Band. He received his Bachelors of Science degree from University of South Alabama in Music Education. As music educator, Washington has taught in Minneapolis and Detroit public schools for more than 18 years. He has performed in concerns including at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Eclipse Jazz Art Fair, Ferguson Hall with Malachi Favors Maghostus, Montreux Jazz Festival in Detroit, Imp Ork with Roscoe Mitchel, Don Cherry, Ernie Watts, Capri Jazz Band in Minneapolis, and Treignac Jazz Festival in France. His recordings include Donald Washington and the New Day Blues Band.
Adam Zahller (b. 1988) is an American composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist specializing in experimental and improvised musics. He holds an M.A. in composition from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he studied under James Dillon. His concert works have received premieres from Loadbang, Duo Gelland, TAK, and Zeitgeist. He performs with groups including 113 Collective, Sister Species, GUITARband, Realtree, Lip Gym, and What We Have Here. His community involvements include mentoring the ACF NextNotes Lab for high-school composers, and working with the Asamblea de Derechos Civiles on issues of civil rights and social justice.
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