Listen Ship

The ever-exploratory composer Henry Threadgill is more restless than ever at 81 and, thank goodness, shows no signs of slowing down. Listen Ship is his latest long-form composition and, like some of his more recent recordings, features him as a conductor and composer, not as a soloist. This 16-part suite was composed for four acoustic guitarists, two bassists, and two pianists. The lineup includes guitarists Bill Frisell, Brandon Ross, Miles Okazaki, and Gregg Belisle-Chi, with bassists Jerome Harris and Stomu Takeishi, and pianists Maya Keren and Rahul Carlberg. Ross has been working with the composer since the early 1990s, and Takeishi and Harris have worked with him sporadically for decades. Listen Ship is linked to 1994s Song out of My Trees, with its thorny, intervallic explorations, though here theyre a bit more lyrical, expressionistic, and contrapuntal. The works 16 parts are signified by letters; all but five are less than two minutes in length. Threadgill showcases his trademark weaving of contrapuntal harmonies and rhythms that, while not always dissonant, are bracingly unanticipated. As both composer and conductor, he applies classical discipline in scoring pieces that enable improvisational freedom among group and individual players. He reveals this in "A," a minute-long, tenuous piano composition. While "B"s dazzling guitars and basses provide a bridge between "A" and its mirror image in "C," it also reveals the extent of Threadgills ability to stack single string tones in dazzling interplay. "D" showcases the guitars, playing a lithe, dissonant groove as basses offer rhythmic support. The startling "E" offers a gorgeous dialog between pianists; they challenge and exhort one another through carefully crafted accents and expansive chord voicings. "F" begins as a bass solo, but guitars are inserted one by one, constructing an intense, arpeggiatic dialog. "H" commences as a speculative piano solo, but halfway through, guitars and piano enter as a second bassist delivers a solo above a Latin-ized rhythmic pulse under a mutant tango melody articulated by guitar, all before the ensemble flows in underneath. "L" is introduced by spacious guitar harmonics before a bass engages the dialog, then frames a complex guitar solo in contrast with the lyric harmonic ideas in "D" and "H." "N" displays a complex yet lyric piano, guitar, and bass interlude, while the 49-second "O" offers harmonic, pointed exchanges between guitars and basses. Closer "R" for the group wanders across layers of melody while touching avant swing. Its dark and light, lyrical and dissonant, with subtle, wandering guitar and bass conversations through tango, chamber jazz, classical harmony, rock, and blues: its a tonal fantasia. With collaborators old and new, the irrepressible Threadgill continues his remarkable, decades-long run of recordings. ~ Thom Jurek