Air was a free jazz trio founded in 1971 by saxophone player, Henry Threadgill, double bassist, Fred Hopkins, and drummer, Steve McCall.[1] They combined radical free improvisation with a strong sense of tune and equal emphasis on each instrument in the group.[2] They began when Threadgill was asked by Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, to arrange a number of Scott Joplin songs. Joplin was so strongly associated with piano that the musicians enjoyed the challenge of performing his trademark songs without piano. They opted to play them as rags and as a basis for jazz improvisation.