Music Monday: Henry Threadgill’s Air

I had a long and relatively lazy week recovering from an annoying mid-winter cold. Since I struggled to get much done, I found myself with a good bit of time to listen to music.

For various reasons, I was drawn to Henry Threadgill’s early work with his trio Air (with Fred Hopkins on bass and Steve McCall on drums). It’s some fine mid-1970s small ensemble jazz with plenty of space for Threadgill to work and for McCall and Hopkins to show their stuff as well. 

The inaugural album feels the most edgy to me: Air Song (1975). Threadgill and company push a good bit throughout. 

In contrast, Air’s 1976 recording Air Raid, feels a bit more composed (but still very much improvised).

Air’s Open Air Suite (1978) is more structured than Air Raid and Air Songs, but also less raw and more sophisticated.  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention 1979’s Air Lore. On this album the Air trio revisits the roots of jazz with ragtime of Scott Joplin and New Orleans jazz of Jelly Roll Morton. It’s good music and this album follows the trajectory of the previous four, but what it gains interpretative daring, it loses in spontaneity:

While I mostly hung out listening to Air this week, I know that I have a bunch of Threadgill to explore including his 21st century stuff.