Jazz Articles about Nate Wooley

About Nate Wooley

Album Review

Even though pianist Sylvie Courvoisier has bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen on hand for Chimaera, the six-piece band is a long way from being merely the storied threesome, which made Double Windsor (Tzadik, 2014), D'Agala (Intakt, 2018) and Free Hoops (Intakt, 2020), plus added guests. As she explains in the liners, the music was originally commissioned for the 2021 Sons d'Hiver festival in Paris and was inspired by the surreal works of French Symbolist artist ...

Album Review

Ches Smith: Laugh Ash

Read "Laugh Ash" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 19, 2024

Ches Smith's Laugh Ash is not your garden-variety jazz concoction. Instead, it is a genre-defying, shape-twisting auditory escapade that does not just push the envelope--it sends it soaring into the stratosphere. It is both bewildering and bedazzling. These compositions stand as a towering testament to Smith's impressive acumen as a drummer, percussionist, and composer, a veritable Houdini of the music world who escapes the shackles of convention to chart a mesmerizing course through uncharted musical terrains.Right from the ...

Album Review

Ches Smith: Laugh Ash

by Vic Albani
January 29, 2024

Dopo lo straordinario lavoro dedicato al Vudù haitiano del 2021 (Path of Seven Colors) anch'esso uscito per la straordinaria Pyroclastic Records di Kris Davis, il batterista, percussionista e compositore Ches Smith, acclamato dal New York Times come “uno dei batteristi più dinamici della scena sperimentale del pianeta," colpisce ancora con un nuovo sorprendente lavoro immensamente variegato, sorprendente (bisognerebbe scriverlo almeno due volte una dopo l'altra) ed imprevedibile sotto ogni punto di vista. La singolare visione musicale del musicista ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman, Nate Wooley, Mat Maneri, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Joe Morris, Matt Moran: Seven Skies Orchestra

Read "Seven Skies Orchestra" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 14, 2024

Ever the intrepid innovator, saxophonist Ivo Perelman takes his music in a new direction on the double-disc set, Seven Skies Orchestra. After a long series, primarily of duets, Perelman returns to a larger ensemble setting, a sextet in this case. That is not the only difference between this release and his previous output; the music here, although still entirely improvised and easily recognizable as Perelman's, moves in a more spacious, contemplative direction, less introspective and more outgoing. Vibraphonist ...

Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera

Read "Chimaera" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
December 5, 2023

It says something about pianist Sylvie Courvoisier's current profile in creative jazz that she could assemble such a distinguished ensemble for her latest release, Chimaera. Augmenting her usual trio of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen are trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Nate Wooley, and with the always interesting Christian Fennesz completing the group on guitar and electronics, one would expect extraordinary results. And so they are--worthy of a lengthy, two-CD treatment, in fact. Courvoisier's work with ...

Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Seven Skies Orchestra

Read "Seven Skies Orchestra" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 26, 2023

In another reality, where the love one makes is what gets the headlines, the big money, the streaming specials, ceaselessly inquisitive saxophonist and downtown legend Ivo Perelman might just top the list of good guys. The guy who pushes for the better mind, the better heart, and confesses it all to tape or lacquer or binary code; chronicling one man's pursuit of the day. while hopefully inspiring others to cut the course the same. Even before the most ...

Album Review

Transatlantic Five: Transitions

Read "Transitions" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 20, 2023

There is an expression in meditation for when an individual is concentrating on their breath, “it's a simple practice, but not easy." A similar statement might be made about Transitions by the Transatlantic Five. The music is not simple, but it is easy. Easy, at least for this quintet. The American duo of Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone, clarinet) and trumpeter Nate Wooley crossed an ocean (thus the name) to perform and record with the German trio of vibraphonist ...