Album Review: ‘Fifteen'

Editor’s Note: Although Wednesday posts at Media Room are usually exclusive to paid subscribers, this review of Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer, and Dafnis Prieto’s Fifteen is free.

Please joins me at Media Room Live! Thursday, August 28 when Vijay Iyer will be my guest.

As I listened to Fifteen I recalled Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws, the third being “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It occurred to me that the same apparent equivalence might apply to sufficiently advanced skill.

For example, I can throw a spiral to my son but I cannot fathom how — in fewer than six seconds — Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen takes the snap, sprints away from some of the best athletes in the world, and throws a football 50 m.p.h. into his receiver’s hands, inches from a defender’s fingertip.

Like Josh Allen’s gridiron magic the music on Fifteen may seem routine because the musicians have been doing it for years, but such consistency makes it no less remarkable.

I will not recite the trio’s litany of accolades. If you are curious, just enter one of their names into a search engine and your screen will be filled with news of MacArthur Fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes, and Grammy Awards.

Fifteen refers to the decade and a half the trio has been performing. The liner notes credit three compositions by Threadgill and Iyer and two by Prieto, but I confess I can’t tell what parts of Fifteen’s eight tracks are composed and which (if any) are improvised.

Threadgill said: “each time we come together to perform, it seems brand new. We’ve got three composers here. Every time the music changes, it holds up a different world, because it’s coming from a different place—because of each one of us, [and] our different approaches to composition.”

Fifteen opens with Iyer’s piano and Threadgill’s flute trading fugal melodies behind Prieto’s irregular rhythms in “Trio Piece.” “Last Night” brings the funk, with Prieto making his hi-hat stank while Iyer’s left hand channels Larry Graham and Threadgill’s sax howls at the top of its register.

“I Wanted A Map” (above) begins with a drum roll and pedal point bass, bringing to mind a condemned man being led to the scaffold. Threadgill’s saxophone takes up the melody, developed by the piano and brought to a crescendo by the drums.

“Where Coconuts Fall” begins with a meditative solo piano and the falling rain of cymbals. Threadgill’s insistent, reedy saxophone takes over a conversation that sounds like it ended only because everyone got tired of talking.

Dafnis Prieto’s “Gently Trapped” (above) feels like a chapter from the American Songbook circa 1957, with Threadgill’s flute as the singer. “Fire City” conjures an image of three people in a room, each engaged in frantic but unrelated phone conversations.

“Perfect Victims” features Threadgill’s dissonant saxophone over arpeggiated piano chords and cymbal accents. The tone is ominous and not just a little unsettling. Fifteen concludes with the Latin-inflected “On The Way,” a sunny drive to the beach among chattering old friends.

Fifteen weaves classical, blues, and modal jazz in ways that are deep, textured, and indistinguishable from magic.

Tracklist: 1. Trio Piece. 2. Last Night. 3. I Wanted A Map 4. Where Coconuts Fall. 5. Gently Trapped. 6. Fire City. 7. Perfect Victims. 8. On The Way..

Performed by Vijay Iyer (piano), Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone, flute), and Dafnis Prieto (drums).

“Trio Piece,” “Last Night,” and “Where Coconuts Fall” were composed by Henry Threadgill. “I Wanted a Map,” “Fire City,” and “Perfect Victims” were composed by Vijay Iyer. “Gently Trapped” and “On the Way” were composed by Dafnis Prieto.

Fifteen was recorded at Oktaven Audio, Mt. Vernon, New York, November 15 and 16, 2025. It was produced by Vijay Iyer, mixed by Ryan Streber and engineered by Mike Fossenkemper.

Cover image: L-R Dafnis Prieto, Henry Threadgill, and Vijay Iyer. Photo by Michael Wilson. © Nonesuch.