Henry Threadgill's Zooid Up Popped The Two Lips (CD)

Up Popped The Two Lips is a CD by Henry Threadgill’s Zooid, a chamber-like ensemble that merges the exploratory spirit of jazz with the structural rigor and timbral sensitivity associated with classical music, specifically contemporary classical music. Released in 2001, it presents Threadgill’s highly individual approach to composition, built on interval-based harmony and asymmetrical rhythmic relationships that give the music a distinctive, elastic sense of motion and space. The album’s sound world is both intricate and surprisingly lyrical, with shifting textures and conversational interplay that reward close listening. The performers on this recording are Henry Threadgill on alto saxophone and flute, Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Stomu Takeishi on acoustic bass guitar, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums. Threadgill is also the composer of all the music, crafting pieces that function like living systems in which each instrument maintains its own line yet remains tightly integrated into the whole. The result is a vivid portrait of Zooid as a working band: a flexible, acoustically rich ensemble that blurs the boundaries between jazz improvisation and the nuanced, through-composed qualities of modern classical practice.