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Nate Wooley: Columbia Icefield
Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield begins with a dueling repetition of chords by bandmates Mary Halvorson and Susan Alcorn on “Lionel Trilling." The ambiguity generated by this back and forth is the perfect start to his album's shape-shifting music. Wooley's trumpet is both poetic and piercing. There's a sense of longing in his tone and it is amplified by his use of odd electronics which add texture and distortions to his lines or simply populate the background. Halvorson's twangs ...
read moreNate Wooley: The Complete Syllables Music
The late Kenneth Gaburo was a noted academic, writer, jazz pianist, electronic music innovator and more. In the 1980s, he headed the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Iowa where he taught that the individual is free to create their own language in terms of their approach to music composition. Gaburo is the inspiration for trumpeter Nate Wooley's latest experimental collection, The Complete Syllables Music.This ambitious four-disc collection adds to Wooley's revolutionary solo repertoire, which includes Trumpet/Amplifier ...
read moreKarl Ackermann's Best Releases of 2016
2016 has proven that jazz and creative music in general, are healthier than ever. Artists like Steve Lehman, Nate Wooley and Vijay Iyer continue to push the envelope while those like Bob Gluck find ways to make the old, very new. This list is--for the most part--outside the mainstream because that is where artists risk the most to tell their stories; it is where many listeners go to be challenged. Nate Wooley Seven Storey Mountain V ...
read moreNate Wooley: Argonautica
Argonautica reveals a subtle new facet in Nate Wooley's eclectic discography. A celebrated leader of the new trumpet scene, Wooley has expanded the instrument's language by incorporating innovative extended techniques into his bold improvisations. Most of his work has fallen under the banner of lower-case improv, noise or advanced post-bop, but little of his prior output has found commonality within the realm of fusion--until now.Comprised of a single 43-minute composition, “Argonautica" is realized by a somewhat unconventional ensemble. ...
read moreNate Wooley/Hugo Antunes/Jorge Queijo/Mário Costa/Chris Corsano: Purple Patio
From the perspective of release dates Purple Patio can be seen as a follow up to Malus (NoBusiness Records, 2014) by the core trio of trumpeter Nate Wooley, Belgium-based Portuguese bassist Hugo Antunes and celebrated drummer Chris Corsano. But in actual fact the limited edition LP was recorded two weeks previously, presumably during the same tour. Where it differs is through the inclusion of two of the bassist's fellow countrymen in drummers in Jorge Queijo and Mario Costa. Unsurprisingly a ...
read moreNate Wooley/Hugo Antunes/Jorge Queijo/Mário Costa/Chris Corsano: Purple Patio
If I had to do it all over again, I would not have judged Purple Patio as soon as I dropped the needle onto the LP. Yes, this is a vinyl-only release, and yes, it is only an edition of 300 copies. Instead, I should have listened to both sides all the way through. But that would have required getting up to turn over the disc. So, I just luxuriated in the first track of the first side. ...
read moreNate Wooley: Argonautica
Trumpeter Nate Wooley is among the most exploratory and esoteric players/composers in creative improvisation along with fellow trumpeter/cornetists Rob Mazurek and Peter Evans. Wooley's catalog ranges from the wildly free The Nows (Clean Feed Records, 2011), a quartet that included Ken Vandermark and Paul Lyton, to the Bojan Vuleti composed chamber work, Atemwende (Ignoring Gravity Music, 2013) with the Mivos String Quartet). But Wooley's real eclecticism has shone in his works as a leader--particularly in recent years--with the minimalist solo ...
read moreNate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain V
Nate Wooley has a fairly traditional early background having played trumpet in his father's big band as a teenager. His departure from convention was quite radical as he went on to work with the likes of John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Ken Vandermark and Evan Parker. Wooley is one of an innovative strain of trumpeters who view composing for their instrument as something more holistic to a given environment and period. Wooley's trumpet becomes the vessel of time, shape-shifting, mutating and ...
read moreNate Wooley Makes America Great Again
In his excellent book of literary and cultural criticism, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, Kevin Young describes the term Jazz as both a noun and a verb. He further explains that jazz from the time of its origins through, let's say the 1980s, was a word used to describe action. Such as the actions and creations of Armstrong, Ellington, Davis, and Coltrane. But when it ceased its movement it became a noun, or a word to identify ...
read moreNate Wooley: Battle Pieces
Someday trumpeter Nate Wooley is going to sell-out, abandon his principles, and make a smooth jazz record. He will give in to the pull of commercial success and create a disc of elevator music which can be played, but taken no heed of. I jest, because everything he creates necessitates the ear and mind's consideration. Wooley is a member of the new generation of trumpet players, like Peter Evans, Taylor Ho Bynum, and cornetist Kirk Knuffke who move ...
read moreNate Wooley/Hugo Antunes/Chris Corsano: Malus
Named musician of the year in the El Intruso 2013 critics poll, trumpeter Nate Wooley looks to be on a roll. That's in spite, or perhaps that should be because, of being so hard to pin down. His output stretches from experimental solo works such as Trumpet/Amplifier (Smeraldina-Rima 2011) and The Almond (Pogus Productions, 2011), to his more tradition-orientated quintet on (Put Your) Hands Together (Clean Feed, 2011) and (Sit In) The Throne of Friendship (Clean Feed, 2013). Malus pitches ...
read moreNate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain III And IV
Parts III and IV of a seven part cycle, trumpeter Nate Wooley's long form electro-acoustic work Seven Storey Mountain gains additional players and momentum with these two live performances. The music was originally commissioned for the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which has seen a shuffle in its performers, but the concept of muscle rapture endures in these sounds. Wooley, a central figure in the world of modern improvisation, has been heard in bands led by Anthony Braxton, ...
read moreWaltz for my Childhood
The last single of Jazzy Sky, a sweet Jazz song, about childhood memories...
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By Connie Lansberg
Member since: 2010
As a songwriter and vocalist, I love jazz for the experience of being in the center of intense creativity. It is the most potent form of music for keeping the artist and the audience in the 'now”
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