Henry Threadgill Zooid at the Chicago Jazz Festival, 9/5/2010

Henry Threadgill Zooid played last night at the Chicago Jazz Festival. Full disclosure requires I mention that I was on the programming committee for this year's festival and that bringing in Threadgill was a major goal of mine after I heard his stunning Pi Recordings release "This Brings Us To, Vol 1."

Having never had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Threadgill live, it was an anxiously anticipated event for me. To say it lived up to expectations would be an understatement since it far surpassed any preconceived notions I had going in.

Watching and listening as the hour-long set unfolded, you got the sense that Threadgill has managed to create his own ideal setting for music, both in terms of composition and improvisation. As the set started, I had a few moments of nervousness as he took a back-seat to the ensemble, stepping up to the microphone only occasionally to add a flourish of flute. But I began to realize that he was salting the stew, injecting his voice only where necessary to bring things up to a simmer.

By the time he strapped on his alto saxophone, the band had hit the stride that makes them both singular and extraordinary. Their fractured off-kilter funk shone as Threadgill wove his own voice into the tapestry, a palpable sense of momentum emerging.

As the set came to a close, I felt that they could have played twice as long without breaking a sweat, that there was some kind of self-perpetuating aspect to their musical language that built upon itself. Never has a band name been so fitting, I suppose.

I do know that after seeing this performance, I have to make a point to catch them in a club setting. Their energy in a festival setting was great but I can't imagine what it would be like to see them indoors.