June 12, 2023
Pulitzer-winning composer Threadgill delivers an endearing autobiography coauthored by Columbia University English professor Edwards (Epistrophies). “All my references go back to sound. I go back in my memory, and I don’t see: I hear,” says Threadgill, who recounts a Chicago childhood surrounded by music, including radio programs, church services with his grandparents, and concerts with his mother. He began composing casually in high school, and his expulsion after getting in trouble with a “crowd of dedicated miscreants” pushed him to pursue music as a career: “It was only in my music that I felt like I had a sure sense of direction and purpose.” In his early 20s, Threadgill, who is Black, volunteered for the Vietnam War draft, and though his time overseas provided a temporary respite from “the age-old American race problem,” wartime trauma haunted much of the rest of his life. The authors strike a masterful balance between warmhearted anecdotes, such as Threadgill’s recollection of learning about classical music from his seventh grade teacher, and darker ones, including an episode in which a group of white men nearly killed him for crossing to the wrong side of the street as a teenager in Englewood. The result is an exciting glimpse into a great musical mind and a moving account of lifelong perseverance.
