Album of the Week: Listen Ship by Henry Threadgill

Six acoustic guitars and two pianos composed and conducted by Pulitzer Prize laureate Henry Threadgill.

From the notes:

The new work is a suite for six acoustic guitars – including individual stylists such as Bill Frisell, Miles Okazaki and Brandon Ross – and two pianos that utilize Threadgill’s unique intervallic syntax to illuminate his idiosyncratic vision. The eight string instruments revel in the music’s painstaking detail with intricate gestures that miraculously entwine to form a grand statement. The meticulous orchestration highlights all of the usual characteristics of Threadgill’s music: unusual forms, unexpected timbres, and slippery counterpoint and rhythms, all shaped by the composer’s conducting into a singular experience.

Henry Threadgill – compositions and conductor
Brandon Ross – acoustic soprano guitar
Bill Frisell – acoustic guitar
Gregg Belisle-Chi – acoustic guitar
Miles Okazaki – acoustic guitar
Jerome Harris – acoustic bass guitar
Stomu Takeishi – acoustic bass guitar
Maya Keren – piano
Rahul Carlberg – piano

Slippery counterpoint indeed making music for the adventurous in mind and movement.