Review: Listen Ship by Henry Threadgill
Originally published in Downbeat Magazine, November 2025 issue. Download the digital issue here.
Six guitars and two pianos is an unusual orchestra, but for the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/saxophonist Henry Threadgill, it’s a concept that he has been exploring since his 1994 album Song Out Of My Trees. On his latest record, Listen Ship, he leads an all-star string octet through a rich soundscape of cerebral melodies and rhythmic asymmetries that transcend the homogenous instrumentation and highlight the individual voices of the ensemble.
Brandon Ross (acoustic soprano guitar) and Jerome Harris (acoustic bass guitar), who were on the 1994 record, are joined here by Bill Frisell, Greg Belisle-Chi and Miles Okazaki on acoustic guitar and Stomu Takeishi on acoustic bass guitar. In a series of brief, fleeting vignettes, they oscillate between jangly round-robin melodies, frenetic angular timbres and sparse, punctuated phrases. Pianists Maya Keren and Rahul Carlberg use Threadgill’s signature intervallic syntax to mark tonal shifts and introduce new aural motifs.
A compositional system that Threadgill has been honing since the ’90s with his ensemble Zooid, his serial intervallic language provides the framework for intricate, multidimensional harmonies and freewheeling improvisation. On each track, a rotating set of strings explore different intervals, forcing the octet into uncharted territory while moving through ever-shifting harmonies and counterpoint.
There are moments when the music feels a bit rigid and unfocused, but when the octet finds its groove, it feels like they’re creating alchemy.
Listen Ship: A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; IJ; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R. (44:17)
Personnel: Henry Threadgill, compositions and conductor; Brandon Ross, acoustic soprano guitar; Bill Frisell, Gregg Belisle-Chi, Miles Okazaki, acoustic guitar; Jerome Harris, Stomu Takeishi, acoustic bass guitar; Maya Keren, piano; Rahul Carlberg, piano.
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