Number 52 October 4, 2010

The SF Jazz Fall season is starting, so I'll be writing a lot about music over the next weeks.  Last night the legendary Henry Threadgill played the Herbst theater with his group Zooid.  Very free and and beautiful music, not unlike Ornette Coleman in its polytonal and polyrhythmic textures.  Drums, acoustic bass guitar, tuba, cello, and Liberty Ellman on guitar.  A lot of lower register information, with the guitar on top, and Henry's alto sax, flute, and bass flute in the middle, commenting and leading.  Liberty used to live in the Bay Area, and we would play a lot of the same clubs.  He's been with Henry for 10 years or so.  For this gig he was playing an acoustic steel string guitar; it looked like an old Kay or Corina.  The last time I heard Liberty he was sounding like a modern George Benson.  This was much more "out".  Just as I play in many different formats and styles, I realize that even I tend to catagorize musicians and assume that what I hear on a given night is the way they always play.  The genius of musicians like Threadgill, Ornette, and Butch Morris is that they continually challenge and re-orient our expectations.