Book Review: Henry Threadgill- Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Prior to devouring Henry Threadgill’s new autobiography Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music, I considered the innovator to be more of a magician than a musician. The book co-written with Brent Hayes Edwards documents precisely how Threadgill became one of the leading artistic figures of our time.

Threadgill recalls witnessing performances by blues giants including Howlin’ Wolf in Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market, a seventh grade teacher repeatedly exposing him to the compositions of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and attending rehearsals of Sun Ra’s Arkestra as a teen.

Combined with the support of his proud family, how could he have become anything other than a groundbreaking artist? Well, he might have been killed in Vietnam. The capricious reaction of a Catholic archbishop to Threadgill’s army band arrangement of a medley of patriotic songs performed in Kansas City resulted in his redeployment to the war zone.

Threadgill’s literal war stories are jaw-dropping. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the autobiography becomes less riveting as it details the ascension of Threadgill’s career. The increasingly heavy emphasis on music theory is invariably dry. Even so, Easily Slip Into Another World is the best music-oriented book I’ve read in the past year.

Album Review: Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra- Space Is the Place (Music From the Original Soundtrack)

Last night I told the leader of a gypsy jazz band that I sometimes wonder why I listen to anything but Django Reinhardt.  Twelve hours later, I’m considering dedicating the remainder of my life to the music of Sun Ra.  Basking in a new expanded reissue of the soundtrack to the 1974 film about “the other worlds they have not told you of” further enhances my appreciation of the iconoclast.  Heavy and hilarious, Space Is the Place is a touchstone for much of my favorite contemporary music made by the likes of Alter Destiny, Moor Mother and Kassa Overall.

Take What You Want: The Top Albums, EPs and Reissues of 2021

The Top 50 Albums of 2021

1. Kanye West- Donda

My review.

2. Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates

My review.

3. Mathias Eick- When We Leave

My review.

4. Molly Herron- Through Lines

My review.

5. Pino Palladino and Blake Mills- Notes with Attachments

My review.

6. Tyler, The Creator- Call Me If You Get Lost

7. The Metropolitan Opera- Philip Glass’ Akhnaten

8. Nala Sinephro- Space 1.8

My review.

9. Lana Del Rey- Chemtrails Over the Country Club

My podcast analysis.

10. Lise Davidsen- Beethoven Wagner Verdi

My review.

11. Sleaford Mods- Spare Ribs

My review.

12. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future

13. St. Vincent- Daddy's Home

14. Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion- Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part

15. Evan Parker Quartet- All Knavery & Collusion

16. Turnstile- Glow On

My podcast analysis.

17. Marianne Faithful and Warren Ellis- She Walks in Beauty

18. Fire-Toolz- Eternal Home

My podcast analysis.

19. Benoît Delbecq- The Weight of Light

My review.

20. Summer Walker- Still Over It

21. Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble- Now

22. Brockhampton- Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine 

23. Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson- Searching for the Disappeared Hour

24. Behzod Abduraimov- Debussy Chopin Mussorgsky 

My review.

25. Artifacts- …And Then There’s This

26. Max Richter- Exiles

27. Chris Thile- Laysongs

28. Danish String Quartet- Prism III

29. Alan Jackson- Where Have You Gone

30. Migos- Culture III

31. Les Filles de Illighadad- At Pioneer Works

32. Angel Bat Dawid- Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology

33. Morgan Wallen- Dangerous: The Double Album

34. Borderlands Trio- Wandersphere

My review.

35. Pat Metheny- Road to the Sun

My review.

36. Patricia Brennan- Maquishti

37. Yola- Stand For Myself

38. Roscoe Mitchell- Dots: Pieces for Percussion and Woodwinds

39. Karol G- KG01516

My podcast analysis.

40. Craig Taborn- Shadow Plays

41. Moor Mother- Black Encyclopedia of the Air

My podcast analysis.

42. Georgia Anne Muldrow- Vweto III

43. Dopolarians- The Bond

My review.

44. Sara Serpa- Intimate Strangers

45. Abstract Mindstate- Dreams Still Inspire

My review.

46. Chynna- Drug Opera

47. La Arrolladora Banda el Limón- En Contra De Mi Voluntad

48. Lana Del Rey- Blue Banisters

49. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra- Promises

My review.

50. Drake- Certified Lover Boy

The Top 25 EPs of 2021

1. Benny the Butcher- The Plugs I Met 2

My podcast analysis.

2. Caroline Shaw- Narrow Sea

3. Vince Staples- Vince Staples

4. Lyle Mays- Eberhard

5. The Alchemist- This Thing of Ours

6. Aida Cuevas- Antología de la Música Ranchera, Vol. 2

7. F*cked Up- Year of the Horse (four installments)

8. Rachika Nayar- Fragments

9. Wanda Jackson- Encore

10. Burial- Shock Power of Love

11. Los Dos Carnales- Corrido Pa’ la Historia

12. Benny the Butcher- Pyrex Picasso

13. Bummer- Dead Horse

14. Dare- Against All Odds

15. YoungBoy Never Broke Again- Sincerely, Kentrell

16. Benjamin Mørk and Arve Henriksen- The Valleys

17. Rudimentary Peni- Great War

18. Portrayal of Guilt- We Are Always Alone

19. María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir- Kom Vinur

20. Gatecreeper- An Unexpected Reality

21. Melvin Gibbs- 4 +1 Equals 5 for May 25

22. A Place to Bury Strangers- Hologram

23. Ryoji Ikeda- EP

24. Charlie Hunter- Kick, Snare, Baritone Guitar

25. Rosie Lowe and Duval Timothy- Son

The Top 25 Reissues, Reimaginings and Compilations of 2021

1. Hasaan Ibn Ali- Retrospect In Retirement Of Delay: The Solo Recordings

My review.

2. John Coltrane- A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle

3. Sun Ra- Lanquidity (Definitive Edition)

4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- B-Sides & Rarities, Part II

5. Bob Dylan- Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16, 1980-1985

6. Nubya Garcia- Source ⧺ We Move

7. Toumani Diabaté and the London Symphony Orchestra- Kôrôlén

8. Alice Coltrane- Kirtan: Turiya Sings

9. Various- The Boys From Nairobi: 80s Benga & Rumba

10. The Beatles- Let It Be (Super Deluxe)

11. Wild Up- Julius Eastman, Vol. 1: Femenine

12. Lee Morgan- The Complete Live at the Lighthouse

My review.

13. Julius Hemphill- The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony 1977-2007

14. The Beach Boys- Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf’s Up Sessions, 1969-1971

15. Johnny Cash- Bear’s Sonic Journals: Live at the Carousel Ballroom, April 24, 1968

16. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey- Winterwood Revealed: Live Vipers & Studio Doves

17. Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band- Tezeta

18. J Dilla- Welcome 2 Detroit: The 20th Anniversary Edition

19. Prince- Welcome 2 America

20. PJ Harvey- Is This Desire?: Demos

21. Dyke & The Blazers- I Got a Message Hollywood: 1968-1970

My review.

22. Hasaan Ibn Ali- Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album

23. Neil Young and Crazy Horse- Way Down in the Rust Bucket

24. The Weeknd- The Highlights

25. The Rolling Stones- Tattoo You: 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition

Links to 16 previous annual There Stands the Glass surveys begin here.

Roll in Peace

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Blaring my favorite music through open windows while driving a freshly washed car is enormously pleasurable.  After spending a good part of a recent trip sitting on the front porch of a home in Hamtramck, a densely populated Muslim-majority city adjacent to Detroit, Michigan, I decided to permanently curb the selfish impulse.

It’s not merely inconsiderate.  I now recognize the practice is a mild form of societal violence.  The imposition of one’s taste in music on others is part of the point, but I hadn’t previously considered that I might be insulting the cultural and religious sensibilities of blameless innocents.  Witnessing the little girls of Yemeni and Cameroonian descent who were my temporary neighbors being repeatedly subjected to lurid raps booming from passing vehicles was infuriating.

I’m hedging my bets even though I now feel terrible about each of the times I may have offended passersby with similarly intrusive behavior.  I listened to the invaluable reissue of my favorite Sun Ra album in a remote corner of a commercial parking lot yesterday.  The two puzzled shoppers who inexplicably parked near me were treated to my theme song.

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I reviewed Robert Castillo’s Music for Art Show at Plastic Sax.

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Howard Mandel’s remembrance of Bob Koester rings true. I had a few prickly interactions with the late Chicago legend in the 1990s.