Henry Threadgill has had a singular life in music. At 79, the saxophonist, flautist, and celebrated composer is one of three jazz artists to have won a Pulitzer Prize. In Easily Slip Into Another World, Threadgill recalls his childhood and upbringing in Chicago, his family life and education, and his career.
Easily Slip Into Another World is so good a music memoir, in the serious and obstinate manner of those by Miles Davis and Gil Scott-Heron, that it belongs on a high shelf alongside them ... A lot of attention is paid to Threadgill’s own failures, large and small. This is among the reasons that this memoir is the kind of book I’d want to place in the hands of young musicians ... Threadgill writes ardently about the barriers Black composers and classical musicians have faced. He also refuses, most of the time, to ratify the borders between classical music and jazz.
Fascinating ... Threadgill’s life has been extraordinarily colorful ... Mr. Threadgill’s war stories, which comprise the book’s dramatic high point, are numerous and wild, never straining credulity even as they sometimes defy belief.
Well-researched and cleanly written ... An intimate view of the most important element of making music: the people ... Threadgill is intimate and transparent, which makes the narrative that much more engaging.
