TOMORROW SUNNY & THE REVELRY

THIS BRINGS US TO 1

THIS BRINGS US TO 2

UP POPPED THE 2 LIPS

To celebrate saxophonist/flutist Henry Threadgill's career retrospective at the 2024 Big Ears Festival, Pi Recordings is proud to release both Volumes I & II of This Brings Us To together in a limited-edition double vinyl set. Featuring his long-running band, Zooid, the two volumes were originally released in 2009 and 2010 even though the music was all recorded at a single session. They were his first releases in eight years, longer than any hiatus in his career, a time that allowed for the gestation of what was to become Threadgill's signature intervallic system of composition and group improvisation that ultimately won him a Pulitzer Prize for his work In for a Penny, In for a Pound. The original albums were voted the #2 and #5 best releases of the year by The Village Voice Jazz Critics' Poll, about which NPR said "The jazz world is coming to realize that Threadgill is a true idiosyncratic great... This Brings Us To staggers and lurches and creates dissonances, and it still brings the mad-scientist funk." Remastered for vinyl by Threadgill's long-time guitarist and producer Liberty Ellman and housed in a gatefold sleeve with archival photos of the band, the release focuses attention on an important turning point in the career of one of music's great iconoclastic masters.

IN FOR A PENNY IN FOR A POUND

Old Locks and Irregular Verbs (CD) Henry Threadgill - With his recent Pulitzer prize for composition still hot in his pocket, Threadgill comes up with another album with his compositions, a tribute to his longtime friend and colleague, musical pioneer Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris. Threadgill doesn't play a note here, but his presence is felt in the way that Ensemble Double Up, a band with two pianos (Jason Moran and David Virelles), two alto saxophones (Roman Filliu and Curtis McDonald), cello (Christopher Hoffman), tuba 8Jose Davila), and drums (Craig Weinrib), coalesces and comes apart. Despite the fact it doesn't contain a single note of his own searing saxophone playing, Old Locks and Irregular Verbs remains pure Threadgill and a highlight in career stocked with more than a few classics.

2018 release. Double Up, Plays Double Up Plus is Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill's highly anticipated follow-up to Old Locks and Irregular Verbs, which was voted the best jazz album of 2016 in the NPR and Jazz Times Critics Polls. Like on that release, which NPR called "a masterpiece," this album also features Ensemble Double Up, this time with the remarkable inclusion of three concert grand pianos, in addition to saxophones, flute, cello, tuba, and drums. Alive with the multi-layered counterpoint, and odd-angled swing that is Threadgill's hallmark, the work is rich with intricate detail and grand gestures.