American composer, saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill won the Pulitzer Prize for music for the album In for a Penny, In for a Pound.
The winning album of six compositions was recorded by Threadgill’s quintet Zooid consisting of the Pulitzer winner’s longtime collaborators: guitarist Liberty Ellman, trombonist Jose Davila, drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee and cellist Christopher Hoffman and released last year on two CDs Pi Recordings.
The jury described this album as a “highly original work, in which notated music and improvisation mesh in a sonic tapestry that seems the very expression of modern American life”.
Henry Threadgill is a composer and improviser with a unique style, he is one of the founding members of AACM, the Asscociation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians from Chicago. In the past 40 years he has released more than 60 albums, as a sideman or leader of ensembles Very Very Circus, the trio Air, twenty-piece band Society Situation Dance Bandom, X-75, Make a Move, Aggregation Orb and Zooid.
Before Threadgill, this prestigious prize was awarded to Wynton Marsalis in 1997 for the album Blood on the Fields and Ornette Coleman in 2007 for the album Sound Grammar. Among posthumous recipients are Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington i John Coltrane.
The other two candidates for this year’s Pulitzer Prize for music, which is being given since 1947, were composers Timo Anders and Carter Pann. Among previous Pulitzer candidates was the twice nominated composer John Zorn whom we will hear at 20th Jazz Fest, first time in 2000 for the album contes de fees and in 2015 for The Artistos.