Nate Wooley

Jan 28 2020

Best of 2019 #29: Nate Wooley – “Columbia Icefield”

 

The idea of being one with nature has an ubiquitous presence in society, ranging from philosophical reveries by sharp thinkers to superficial representations in pop culture.  But it is often expressed as some idealistic state of being, a plateau of achievement reflecting a rightness in the way of life.  It almost always overlooks the reality that nature is fearsome, and that it can kill, and it does so with a perspective entirely alien to collective society’s norms and systems.  Nature is as imposing and dangerous as it is majestic.  It is as alien as it is symbiotic.  On his February 2019 release, Nate Wooley captures these conflicting dimensions of our relationship with nature through his own contemplation on his relationship with the Columbia Icefield.  And with the help of guitarist Mary Halvorson, pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, and drummer Ryan Sawyer, the trumpeter has released one of the more compelling, epic works of 2019.

Your album personnel:  Nate Wooley (trumpet), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel), and Ryan Sawyer (drums).

Released on Northern Spy Records.

Music from Brooklyn, NY.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Mar 26 2018

The Round-up: It was Sunday night and warm light filled the room as darkness sat outside the window and watched

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Danny Fox Trio – The Great Nostalgist (Hot Cup Records)

Thoughtfulness at high speeds, of notes hanging in the air even when the space between them is ever so slight.  That’s the lingering impression made on this straight-ahead session from the trio of pianist Danny Fox, bassist Chris van Voorst and drummer Max Goldman.  The brisk pace never gets in the way of an articulate voicing of melody or its eventual development into an engrossing conversation.  This session is in the mold of a standard modern piano trio recording, but the little turns of phrase and keen modulations of pacing have the great impact of raising things up to something outside the accepted archetype.  Those nuanced differences are one way to make cerebral music extroverted and fun.

Artist site | Buy:  Amazon

 

Wooley/Dumoulin/Flaten/Verbruggen – kaPSalon (Ratrecords)

“This music,” Buster Keaton, reincarnated, would announce. “It will be the soundtrack for my next silent film.”  And why not?  This live performance recording by trumpeter Nate Wooley, pianist Jozef Dumoulin, double bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and percussionist Teun Verbruggen is all about emoting through motion.  Idiosyncratic and volatile as hell, the music signifies the personality quirks of characters and their physical manifestations… the relation of many things that defy the need for words.  And though wholly avant-garde in nature, the blues and jazz bubble up to the surface frequently and at just the right moments, making a resolute statement that this wild, untamed music willingly tethers itself loosely to music of the past.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Tamaya Honda – ICTUS Trio (Song X Jazz)

Much in that way Paul Motian could imply the whisper of a hurricane during the recitation of a lullaby, the trio of drummer Tamaya Honda, bassist Takashi Sugawa and pianist Koichi Sato establish an appealing balance between serenity and volatility.  This modern piano trio recording is perfect for a rainy day, and that means for when it’s a torrential downpour or when the comforting patter of raindrops soothes the soul.  The Motian comparison isn’t happenstance.  This album is dedicated to Masabumi Kikuchi, a pianist who thrived in exactly this kind of environment, and, logically, collaborated with Motian himself on a number of recordings.  Carla Bley compositions comprise nearly half of the album tracks, which adds an interesting quality, as does Sugawa switching over to cello.  Music from Tokyo.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

Ed Jones – For Your Ears Only (Impossible Ark)

There’s something particularly resonant about this straight-ahead release from Ed Jones.  Perhaps it’s the beautifully crafted melodies or perhaps it’s how the saxophonist’s quartet keeps referencing it as the pace and distance from its introduction increases, and maybe it’s the way a patient exhalation of the melody contrasts with a galloping tempo.  But whatever the reason, this is one of those albums that sparkles like stars with each volley of notes, each turn of phrase, each expression of melody.  Pianist Ross Stanley, bassist Riann Vosloo and drummer Tim Giles round out the quartet, plus a guest spot from vocalist Brigitte Beraha.  Music from London.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

The Housewarming Project – at_home/at_play (Self-Produced)

There’s a special kind of chemistry to the trio of pianist Jeremy Siskind, vocalist Nancy Harms and multi-reedist Lucas Pino.  There’s a sense of musicians fated to come together because it was willed by elemental forces.  Their 2012 release Finger-Songwriter was one of the very best things to come out that year, and since that time, the trio has released another recording and been on a dedicated tour of living room shows.  Their new release compiles some of the moments from those shows, and it displays that the magic conjured up by the three is nowhere even close to waning.  Harms’s smoky delivery is a perfect match to Pino’s languid expressions of melody, especially when he switches over to bass clarinet.  On piano, Siskind’s accompaniment is almost reverential.  It all plays out like moonlight on a small patch of earth, where everything inside the beams seems more alive than anything else on the planet and nobody wants to move or speak for fear of breaking the spell of enchantment.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

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Dec 1 2013

Recommended: Nate Wooley 5tet – “(Sit In) The Throne of Friendship”

 

Nate Wooley is one of those musicians you should follow, whether you like his music or not.  The guy just has an ear for nifty projects, ones that typically stretch the bounds of music convention and lead to all types of inspiration.  His collaborations read like an avant-garde wing of a Jazz Hall of Fame.  His music comes on strong, but not from straight-ahead; he makes use of all the angles, and he uses his own geometry to form them.  Sometimes the music is formless clouds of electronic dust dispersed with trumpet blasts.  Sometimes the music is an alien form of folk music, generated from strange lands of honest root and soil.  Eventually the music is going to connect with you.  (Sit In) The Throne of Friendship just might be the tipping point.

The album opens with the sonorous melody of “Old Man on the Farm,” constituted of ingredients that might lead to something resembling an anthem were it not for the song’s gradual deconstruction into heavy elements and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the lightness of Moran’s glittering vibe work.

“Make Your Friend Feel Loved” is the clash between Peck’s tuba’s punchy attitude and the long sharp strides of Wooley’s trumpet.  The collision between these opposing forces doesn’t come to an end, but, endearingly, acts in concert to establish a noir-ish groove… eliciting qualities of a bad-ass disposition and an undeniable warmth.  “The Berries” maintains that punchy attitude, but intersperses it with beer hall celebratory statements thrown up to the rafters.

And, really, it’s the way the joyful celebratory facet of this music slips out from the cloud of dissonance that transforms this recording into something more amicable than what often may be perceived as the distant chill that many avant-garde pieces tend to emit.  There is a playfulness to this music that makes strange music comport itself with a personable attitude, rendering the lines of communication far easier for transmission, and allowing easier connections to challenging music.

“The Plow” is a parade march interspersed with brief naps in the middle of the road.  The overlapping call and response of trumpet and bass clarinet spur the procession on, and the bass and drums of Opsvik and Eisenstadt tick off the moments during the restful interludes until it’s time to set out yet again.

“Executive Suites” alternates between flurries of notes and swaying interludes.  Moran’s vibes drive the former and Sinton’s baritone the latter, with Wooley’s trumpet the bridge between the two.

The shifting of tempos from song to song fully reveal their pattern as the album comes to an end.  The ebb and flow becomes increasingly apparent, especially so when viewed through the album’s final songs.  “My Story, My Story” sounds like a moonlight serenade shouted up to an angry sky, an exchange that ends with a final gesture of sweetness.  On the other hand, “Sweet and Sad Consistency” glides with an odd grace, as if a spasmodic individual skating across ice, sometimes moving with an unblemished fluidity, while other times with a stop-and-go action more reminiscent of rush hour traffic than pastoral wintertime scenes of ice skating on frozen ponds.  And then, as if completing the circle of the third of three songs, “A Million Billion BTUs” has a driving tempo that won’t be denied its final crash landing.  Moran’s vibes tap out a dance atop Peck’s surging cadence on tuba while Sinton’s bass clarinet crashes through like a train on fire, for which Wooley is the fire and Eisenstadt the smoke that fills every crevice and warns of more to come.

I am perpetually fascinated with this album.  I’ve been trying to finalize a review of this recording for months and months, yet keep finding new, mesmerizing facets to the music that keep preventing me from making any type of definitive statement about this album, other than… this is the stuff that creativity is meant for.  This is music with vision, and provides imagery that never fully reveals itself, an incompleteness that inspires the listener’s imagination to cooperatively shape the music presented by the artists.  It’s that kind of thing that cements connections in place.

Your album personnel: Nate Wooley (trumpet), Eivind Opsvik (double bass), Matt Moran (vibes), Harris Eisenstadt (drums), Josh Sinton (bass clarinet, baritone sax) and Dan Peck (tuba).

Released on Clean Feed Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Brooklyn, New York.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases • 0 • Tags: ,

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