Easily Slip into Another World

“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. . . . This memoir is the kind of book I’d want to place in the hands of young musicians.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review

“[A] fascinating memoir not only of a life devoted to music, but of music shaped by life. . . . Threadgill’s book reveals him to be not only a musician, composer and innovator, but a musical intellectual, one for whom all of life translates into art.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Vividly told, alternately uproarious and devastating, Easily Slip into Another World serves up astonishing tales of Threadgill’s life in Chicago, Vietnam, New York, and on the road, punctuated by deep revelations about the Black experience, American empire, an artist’s life, and the entire history of music. Threadgill and Edwards have crafted an invaluable literary experience: a real-life Bildungsroman, plainspoken, erudite, and searingly honest. This book will be savored and cherished for generations.”—Vijay Iyer, Composer and Pianist; Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts, Harvard University

“The personal, the political, the musical, the spiritual: all merge in this brilliant, beguiling memoir by one of the major musical minds of our time. Easily Slip into Another World not only documents a radically inventive individual talent but also celebrates a singularly vital collaborative community — that of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. It shows the indivisibility of what comes from within and what comes from without: making music as a way of being in the world.”—Alex Ross, music critic, The New Yorker, and author of The Rest Is Noise:  Listening to the Twentieth Century

“Easily Slip into Another World is the vibrant autobiography of Henry Threadgill, a fearless explorer whose music and performance transcends categories and genres. His encompassing vision and adventurous spirit of inquiry have influenced generations of composers and musicians. This book is an affirmation of the power of creativity to change our world and discover new ones.” –Meredith Monk, Composer, Singer, Director/Choreographer

“The same passion and joy that Henry Threadgill brings to his life is manifested in his perpetual quest for the right sound, the right composition, the right combination and collaboration. Anybody with a spark of creativity in any part of their lives should take inspiration in his unrelenting commitment to experimentation as the spirit that drives us to revelation. After reading this book, full of insight and humor and even a tiger passing in the night, I suggest you turn on some of Threadgill’s music and do as he says: listen.”—Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Sympathizer

“”I frequently call Henry Threadgill my favorite living composer not only because of the webs of sound he spins, but also because he is the best storyteller I know. This book is a profound gift: it reminds us that composition is not just making music, but also shaping a life.”—Jason Moran, Composer and Pianist, Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kennedy Center

“Without question Easily Slip into Another World will be one of those books we talk about, read, and re-read for years to come – a new classic autobiography, building upon and upending the tradition of the genre at the same time.  It is breathtaking.”—Farah Jasmine Griffin, Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies, Columbia University