| In for a Penny, In for a Pound | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Henry Threadgill | ||||
| Released | 2015 | |||
| Recorded | December 8–9, 2014 | |||
| Studio | Systems Two, Brooklyn | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 79:13 | |||
| Label | Pi | |||
| Producer | Liberty Ellman | |||
| Henry Threadgill chronology | ||||
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In for a Penny, In for a Pound is an album composed by Henry Threadgill for his jazz quintet Zooid, featuring Jose Davila, Liberty Ellman, Christopher Hoffman, and Elliot Humberto Kavee. It was released by Pi Recordings and was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
In for a Penny, In for a Pound was composed by Henry Threadgill and recorded by his band, Zooid. [1] The album, which is a two-disc suite, [2] is composed of six tracks. Threadgill composed a concerto-like piece for each of his band members. [3] However, the album includes improvisation. [4] Patrick Jarenwattananon of National Public Radio describes the style of performance as "contrapuntal improvisation within a specific intervallic framework". [5] Threadgill describes the album using the term "epic". [5]
Jose Davila plays trombone and tuba and is joined on the album by guitarist Liberty Ellman, cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee. [3] Davila is featured on "Tresepic", Kavee is featured on "Ceroepic", Hoffman is featured on "Dosepic", and Ellman is featured on "Unoepic". [5] Threadgill performs alto saxophone, flute and bass flute within each piece. [5]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Down Beat |   [6] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | A− [7] |
The album was released by Pi Recordings on May 26, 2015. [1] The Wall Street Journal critic Larry Blumenfeld describes the opening piece as "an old song joined in progress". [8] Nate Chinen of The New York Times described the album as brilliant. [2] John Fordham of The Guardian described the work as "welcomingly warm and melodious" despite the "sinewy slipperiness" of the rhythms and tunes. [9] In his review for Down Beat Peter Margasak states, "there are so many fast-moving details and epiphanies at work here that it takes some rigor to hear how it all fits together, even if isolated phrases and sallies are rich in delight." [6]
The album is the third by a jazz composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (following Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields in 1997 and Ornette Coleman's Sound Grammar in 2007). [3]
All compositions by Henry Threadgill.
Adapted from AllMusic. [10]
Pulitzer Prize for Music (2011–2020) | ||
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Henry Threadgill is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist. He came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles rooted in jazz but with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating other genres of music. He has performed and recorded with several ensembles: Air, Aggregation Orb, Make a Move, the seven-piece Henry Threadgill Sextett, the twenty-piece Society Situation Dance Band, Very Very Circus, X-75, and Zooid.
Pi Recordings is a jazz record label founded by Seth Rosner in 2001. He was soon joined as partner by Yulun Wang. Pi specializes in avant-garde jazz. Its first two albums were by Henry Threadgill.
Stomu Takeishi is a Japanese experimental and jazz bassist. He is known for playing fretless five-string electric bass guitar and a Klein five-string acoustic bass guitar, often using extended techniques and electronic manipulations such as looping.
Jason Moran is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator involved in multimedia art and theatrical installations.
Liberty Ellman is a jazz guitarist born in London and raised in the United States, beginning in New York City. In the early 1980s, Ellman's family moved to California. Before leaving New York, he attended City and Country School in Greenwich Village.
Up Popped the Two Lips is an album by Henry Threadgill featuring seven of Threadgill's compositions performed by Threadgill's Zooid. The album was the second album on the Pi Records label and was released simultaneously with Everybodys Mouth's a Book by Threadgill & Make a Move in 2001.
This Brings Us to Volume 1 is an album by Henry Threadgill featuring six of Threadgill's compositions performed by Threadgill's Zooid. The album, Threadgill's first in eight years besides the limited edition Pop Start the Tape, Stop (2005), was released on the Pi Recordings label in 2009.
Backatown is an album released by jazz musician Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Andrews. The album was released in 2010 by Verve Forecast Records and was produced by Galactic's Ben Ellman. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart and was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Damion Reid is an American drummer. Critics have praised his "controlled fury" and "microscopically complex beats."
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L-R-G / The Maze / S II Examples is an album by American jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, recorded in 1978 and released as a double LP on Nessa Records. It was reissued in 1989 as a single CD.
Memorophilia is the debut studio album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, which was recorded in 1995 and released on the Asian Improv label.
The Thompson Fields is an album by the Maria Schneider Orchestra that won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2017. Schneider was the composer, conductor, and co-producer of the autobiographical work. The title comes from the Minnesota farm where she was raised.
In for a Penny, In for a Pound is 2015 album composed by Henry Threadgill for his jazz quintet that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Old Locks and Irregular Verbs is an album by American jazz saxophonist Henry Threadgill, which was recorded in 2015 and released on Pi Recordings. It features an extended work that Threadgill composed as a tribute to cornetist and composer-conductor Lawrence D. Butch Morris, who died in 2013. Morris and Threadgill were old friends and colleagues on the New York City jazz scene; they both performed on Ming (1980) by David Murray. Threadgill formed a new band for the occasion named Ensemble Double Up, a septet where he doesn't play, but instead conducts.
Amarcord Nino Rota is an album by various artists, recorded as a tribute to composer Nino Rota.
Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, Spp is an album by American jazz saxophonist Henry Threadgill with his band Zooid, featuring Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Liberty Ellman on guitar, Stomu Takeishi on bass guitar, Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums, and new member Christopher Hoffman on cello, who joined the group making it a sextet. It was recorded in 2011 and released on Pi Recordings.
This Brings Us to Volume 2 is an album by American jazz saxophonist Henry Threadgill with his band Zooid, featuring Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Liberty Ellman on guitar, Stomu Takeishi on bass guitar, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums. It was recorded in 2008 and released on Pi Recordings.
Jon Irabagon is a Filipino-American saxophonist, composer, and founder of Irabbagast Records.
Christopher Hoffman is an American cellist, composer, sound technician and filmmaker. He leads the Christopher Hoffman Quartet, MULTIFARIAM and experimental rock band Company Of Selves. Hoffman plays with saxophonists James Brandon Lewis and Michael Blake and is a longtime member of Henry Threadgill's Zooid. In his review of Hoffman's 2021 album Asp Nimbus, New York Times jazz critic Giovanni Russenello wrote, "The cellist Christopher Hoffman's unruly, unorthodox quartet moves around with its limbs loose, but its body held together".