By Lori Wood, Lucas Artists Residency Manager
Artists Monica Sok, Danez Smith, Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, David Benoit, Dario Robleto, Kio Griffith, and Yasuhiro Usui in Henry Threadgill’s studio.
After dinner this week, the LAP artists visited jazz great Henry Threadgill’s studio, where Threadgill spoke in his musical cadences about his creative process.
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Holding a sheet of arcane notations of notes and intervals, Threadgill explained his exploration of five-part rhythm. Poets, visual artists, and other musicians leaned in. He demonstrated with dance steps: Two long steps, two short, one long, and invited poet Monica Sok to try it next. The poets nodded to themselves. This made sense in poetic terms, too. Shoptalk across disciplines can be a critical part of an artist’s experience at the Lucas Artists Program.
Brief quotes tonight from Henry Threadgill:
My whole life is about zero. Always back to zero. Then you can see something you didn’t see before.
You have to train your perceptions, to go back and look .
Two times is just a coincidence. Three times establishes a pattern .
The notes start developing behavior . They start doing things they want to do. It’s like developing characters in a novel.
I’m staying away from the piano. The piano is seductive .
We are interested in the human capacity .
Everything that is discovered is already there. But you have to find it. I go back to “I know nothing.” Then I can find something.
It’s vague. It’s almost like a mystery train we’re on.
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