The Pullitzer Prize-winning composer, flautist and saxophonist Henry Threadgill was born in Chicago in 1944. He attended the city's American Conservatory of Music before joining the US military in the 1960s where he served as a member of the US Army Concert Band and completed a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was discharged from the army in 1969 and came to prominence as a musician in the 1970s where he quickly garnered a reputation for being experimental in his approach to jazz, unafraid to use unusual instrumentation and willing to mix genres to create avant-garde jazz.
During his career Threadgill has constantly pushed the boundaries of music and has collaborated with some of the most adventurous jazz players of his generation including Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall (with whom he formed a trio in 1970 which later became the jazz band Air). Other notable musicians he has performed with include the cellist Diedre Murray, cornetist Olu Dara and trombonist Ray Anderson.
Threadgill's band Very Very Circus pushed his experimentation to new levels with its use of tubas, French horns and highly complex musical structures. Since the heady days of Very, Very, Circus Threadgill has continued along his non conformist path and his considerable contribution to avant-garde music was recognised with the Pullitzer Prize which was given to him in 2016 for the album 'In for a Penny, in for a Pound'.
