KBCS

Flotation Device celebrates Henry Threadgill’s 80th birthday with a career retrospective for this acclaimed reed player, composer, Vietnam veteran and bandleader that emphasizes his fondness for unusual instrumentation. We sample combos with four basses, two tubas, and other oddball configurations, and we espy the influence of his approach to collective improvisation in Mahakala Music's new Miserere album, whose seven diverse participants also draw inspiration from a particular 11th century Gregorian hymn that we've enlisted as a music history refresher for those interested in the origins of do re mi. Meanwhile, Veli Kujala and James Moore compose for microtonal accordion and harp, Derek Bailey jams with Bill Evans’ drummer Paul Motian, and Evans himself is heard in a strange studio recording that mixes modal jazz, minimalism and 70s-style TV music—brought to us by our 50 years ago in the avant-garde feature, which also honors a boisterous landmark composition by Alfred Schnittke and a more modest work by Luciano Berio, both premiered on the same weekend in February 1974.