Gwen Ansell: CD of the week
Reedman and composer Henry Threadgill is a graduate of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music, and his work with the bands Air and Very Very Circus married open arrangements and dense textures in a way which often subverted expectations – all-brass ensembles, no-bass ensembles, Jelly Roll Morton-meets-Ornette Coleman structures.
On Henry Threadgill and Make a Move’s Where’s Your Cup? (Columbia) he works with Make a Move, a smaller group with a different texture, making generous use of both longtime partner Brandon Ross’s guitar and South African Tony Cedras’s accordion and harmonium. Threadgill’s compositions still favour the minor key, but the effect isn’t always doleful – sometimes it stirs an elegant irony reminiscent of Hannes Eisler and 1930s Berlin. And sometimes it’s downright joyous, as Cedras’s playing underlines world-music flavours from Argentinian bandoneon music to Sotho jive.
Cedras’s playing here is a revelation to anyone who didn’t know him as a solo pianist in South Africa and Botswana in the early 1980s. Since then, he’s toured with Paul Simon, recorded with Cassandra Wilson, but worked live with a wide range of artists including, most recently, Pharoah Sanders.
Also fond of minor-key improvisations, Cedras is a perfect partner for Threadgill. The reedman’s bluesy asceticism perfectly balancing the sentiment and swing of the squeeze-box keys. Wonderfully complex music which rewards careful listening, Where’s Your Cup? is a great introduction to 1990s Threadgill – and reminds us that the South African jazz tradition can offer more than just dance tunes.