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Pyeng Threadgill

Pyeng Threadgill - vocalist

Pyeng Threadgill's musical roots run deep. Daughter of jazz composer Henry Threadgill and choreographer Christina Jones, Pyeng received her BA in music from the prestigious Oberlin College and was awarded the Mellon fellowship to study music in Brazil. Pyeng continued her education at the Institute for Audio Research and is currently working on certification in the Alexander Technique, a teaching method designed to help change habitual tension patterns and increase movement awareness.

Threadgill received widespread critical acclaim for her 2004 debut album, "Sweet Home: The Songs of Robert Johnson." On the heels of this impressive introduction, her sophomore effort “Of The Air,” faces up to a tall order. "SweetHome" was named one of the best debut albums of 2004 by the San Diego Union Tribune and C. Michael Bailey in his review for All About Jazz said, "this very well may be the best recording of 2004 to come my way."

Pyeng, however, is confident that her penchant for simultaneously reaching forward and back will once again achieve her goal to incorporate music of the past with contemporary music: African American traditional standards, spirituals, the avant-garde and her own modern alternative experience in punk, R&B and soul.

Ultimately, Pyeng's sound defies categorization. Her voice, perhaps best described as "a cross between Jill Scott and Cassandra Wilson by way of Nina Simone" (San Diego Union Tribune, 2004) coincidentally invokes her wish to tie together the old with the new. At times, listening feels like a Billie Holiday record, and the next moment you are transported into a smoky New York City hipster joint. Says Threadgill: "The famous Jazz singers that we listen to...Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, etc. were singing the Pop music of their day. There is something inspiring about that to me. So I study and perform that repertoire while creating for all generations using the influences of my favorite singers and songwriters from Stevie Wonder to Bjork to Bob Marley".

“Of The Air,” (the meaning of 'Pyeng', as assigned by her mother) delivers the same risk-taking, soulful, transcendent qualities of "Sweet Home". This album promises to satisfy the already converted and win over the rest. Add to this a surprise appearance from esteemed Jazz pianist/composer Myra Melford and the result is once again a daring collage of musical exploration. The entire album was recorded analog, in keeping with Pyeng's interest in maintaining a vintage approach to new material.

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Radio & Podcasts

Pyeng Threadgill's New Porch Music

Read "Pyeng Threadgill's New Porch Music" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Pyeng Threadgill sings “New Porch Music" crafting an intimate journey through folk and jazz with afro-electronic inflections. Her fourth solo album and multimedia project entitled Head Full of Hair, Heart Full of Song, shines a light on hair, adornment and ancestry, and the societal and political as well as spiritual conflicts therein. Since 2004, Pyeng has released three other albums journeying from blues to jazz, folk to soul and spoken word: Sweet Home: The Music of Robert Johnson (Random Chance), ...

Album Review

Pyeng Threadgill: Head Full of Hair, Heart Full of Song

Read "Head Full of Hair, Heart Full of Song" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Pyeng Threadgill ha debuttato nel 2004 con un originale reinterpretazione del repertorio di Robert Johnson (Sweet Home: Pyeng Threadgill Sings Robert Johnson --Random Chance Records) e ha proseguito con un paio di dischi confermando l'accattivante sintesi di blues rurale, R&B, neo soul e sprazzi di rock. Era quasi un decennio che non incideva a suo nome (ricordiamo la collaborazione col pianista Marc Cary nel tributo ad Abbey Lincoln) e da qualche settimana ha pubblicato questo concept album in cui canta ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Jazz Is in the (H)air!

Read "Jazz Is in the (H)air!" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Inspired by Head Full of Hair, Heart of Full of Song, Pyeng Threadgill's investigation in music about the role of hair in her life, family, community and throughout the African diaspora, this episode of Mondo Jazz builds a narrative about hair, because --whether it's a braided bun or flowing tendrils --hair has always mirrored the cultural (and musical) zeitgeist. An interview with Pyeng Threadgill and a preview of her recent album together with music ranging from the Lounge ...

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Album Review

Pyeng Threadgill: Of The Air

Read "Of The Air" reviewed by Francis Lo Kee


Of the Air, an album of original music that cuts a broad stylistic swath, is focused and honest, traveling through various contexts organically. There are several reasons for the honest coherence of this music. The CD is recorded in analog with a core group of musicians, a working band rather than a collection of heavy-hitters or hired guns. Lisa Mezzacapa (bass), Shelly Doty (guitar) and Micha Patri (drums) give it up to tunes that center around Threadgill's voice and imaginative ...

185
Album Review

Pyeng Threadgill: Sweet Home: the Music of Robert Johnson

Read "Sweet Home: the Music of Robert Johnson" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


About halfway through the nine-minute “Come on in My Kitchen," the listener will realize that Pyeng Threadgill's hommage to Robert Johnson, Sweet Home, is not simply a Cassandra Wilson knock off. In fact, it should come as quite an epiphany that this recording is something very rare and special. Johnson's tome of longing is transformed, in turn, from a '40s girls' ensemble piece into a funeral dirge dominated by Threadgill's elastic voice, Kevin Louis' trumpet and the mourning piano of ...

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Performance / Tour

Pyeng Threadgill and Brandon Terzic team for The Blues Sessions residency at Barbes

Pyeng Threadgill and Brandon Terzic team for The Blues Sessions residency at Barbes

Source: Matthew Paneth

If the American Blues tradition has been overly saturated by endless retellings of the same songs by the same artists, it is not so much a declaration of a lull in creativity and innovation as much as it is a sign of how powerful the roots are. It is the well spring from which all current popular styles of music hold allegiance to in one degree or another. Brandon Terzic along with Pyeng Threadgill has taken this to heart and ...

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Performance / Tour

Pyeng Threadgill to Perform at Blue Note Jazz Club Late Night Grooves Series

Pyeng Threadgill to Perform at Blue Note Jazz Club Late Night Grooves Series

Source: Inque Public Relations

New York Singer / Storyteller Pyeng Threadgill To Share Most Personal and Accomplished Music To Date From Her Forthcoming New CD During the Late Night Grooves Series at New Yorks Famed Blue Note Jazz Club On Saturday, January 10th Daughter of Jazz Great Henry Threadgill Will Also Share Bill for Progressive Black Female Showcase Voicing Between The Lines and a Coveted Hudson Opera House Appearance Critically acclaimed as one of the most inventive and visionary new voices in the progressive ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Head Full of Hair,...

New Porch Music
2018

buy

Of The Air

Random Chance Records
2006

buy

Sweet Home: the Music...

Random Chance Records
2004

buy

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