The Seven Storey Mountain is trumpeter Nate Wooley’s improvisational enactment of spiritual catharsis. Taking its title from Thomas Merton’s biography of the same name, the record also features Paul Lytton on percussion and David Grubbs on harmonium. The three musicians commit themselves to the paradoxical (and perhaps impossible) task of implying a narrative of spiritual struggle with a minimalist or ‘lowercase’ improv that, strictly speaking, goes nowhere. Although the gestures are largely restrained and the performances subtle, The Seven Storey Mountain is able to evoke a pensive yet at times agonized experience of ecstasy, making explicit what in other performances tends to be a merely suggested spirituality.
Give credit to Wooley for assembling this less-than-obvious lineup. Grubbs is better known for the skewed avant-pop of Gastr Del Sol, and while Paul Lytton may be considered a legend in freely-improvised music, his work tends toward the noisy and manic. The contrasts between the approaches of these musicians are the story here: a group of lowercase all-stars would be less likely to generate the tensions, and therefore suggest the spiritual agonies, endemic to Seven Storey Mountain.
Commissioned for Dave Douglas’ FONT festival in New York, the record consists of one 38-minute piece, performed without pause (and subsequently given the four subtitles “Your Lips,” “Tip,” “Sleep,” and “Turned to Sand”). While the music focuses on the minute gesture, it simultaneously suggests a broader movement. According to Wooley this is a journey through the “dark night of the soul” toward ecstatic knowing, not so much moving as being moved, like existing on a planet that spins underneath you and carries you with it. The sonic field is occupied by a series of drones, consisting variously of Wooley’s electronics, a recording of his A/C unit, Grubbs’ harmonium or a combination of the three. These drones alternate in texture and volume, generating moods of anguish and calm as they do so. The harmonium plays a diminished chord, but these pitches enter the piece as a present fact only, suggesting no movement toward resolution. This is a music of large forces, but Lytton’s junkyard percussion is able to pierce the drones and suggest that they occur in a real (rather than ideal) space. Even though Seven Storey Mountain tells a story of spiritual and mental anguish, this anguish occurs to someone living somewhere, whether that be Merton in Rome or Wooley, Lytton, and Grubbs in New York. Lytton’s percussion also serves as a link between the mechanical drones and the human voice, which serves more as an instrument for producing sound than for articulating words. This muted, but often insistent, voice intones throughout the piece, occasionally becoming a kind of drone itself, but also punctuating the moments of stasis with urgent (if incomprehensible) declarations.
The music on Seven Storey Mountain alternates between moments of charged calm and moments of sturm und drang, the latter serving as instances of crisis largely established through the scattershot pulses of the percussion and voice. Although it’s a cliche to say it, the album demands a close listening (preferably through a decent pair of headphones) in order to focus on the subtle changes that initiate a change in the piece’s mood. The attention that wanders will fail to pick up on the force of the piece, and for good reason: Seven Storey Mountain is the story of intense self-examination, and in such meditation, wandering recovers its etymological relation with sin. Wooley, Lytton, and Grubbs have exemplarily created a space for the reflective and attentive listener, but they make no concessions. Seven Storey Mountain is the greater for their efforts.
Brent Mix
December 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Holiday Greetings
So, here is a little holiday reading for you, was going to go with something between Miracle on 34th street and the Peanuts Christmas special, but just had this conversation and it seemed like I needed to write it down....oh, and there is some shameless plugging at the bottom, as always.
Keep in mind that this is a bit long and ranty, so please feel free to delete or skip to the bottom (not that you have to have my permission)
The Players:
Toby (a twenty something idealist in a big puffy down jacket conveniently zipped up to "almost" cover his Greenpeace t-shirt, and hiding his clipboard behind his back, standing right in front of my office building)
Nate (a thirty something pessimist in a big puffy amy surplus jacket zipped up to the top of his nose and thinking nasty, nasty thoughts, trying to go into my office building)
Toby: Hi! My name is Toby! What's yours?
Nate: What?
Toby: My name is Toby (extends hand for warm and meaningful shake). What's your name?Nate: Don't do that, man.
Toby: Don't do what?
Nate: Don't be disingenuous to sell me a bunch of shit.
Toby: Excuse me?
Nate: Don't pretend that you are interested in me, just to get me to buy whatever you're selling. It's dishonest. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Toby: I'm not selling anything
Nate: Oh, really? I'm sorry, my mistake. So, you're just standing out here in front of this building in the asscold to make friends?
Toby: Yup! (extends hand again)
Nate: Cool, so we're friends now?
Toby: As soon as you tell me your name
Nate: Awesome, my name is Nate. Hey, since we are friends now, would you mind if my wife and I came over for Christmas eve? Our family isn't in New York and it would be nice to spend it with some good friends.
Toby: Oh, I don't think we're quite that close (winks)
Nate: Oh, really. I thought we were friends, maybe we are more of friendly acquaintances?Toby: Yeah, that's it.
Nate: Cool, hey what do you say we shoot the shit about girls, huh? That girl is hot, eh?
Toby: That isn't really appropriate
Nate: You're right. You're absolutely right. I guess I got carried away with some locker room talk because I was just hanging here with my friendly acquaintance Toby
Toby: Yeah, well...
Nate: So, maybe we are just acquaintances.
Toby: Yeah, it seems that way.
Nate: Right, hey, what is your last name, where do you live?
Toby: Excuse me?
Nate: Well, I know the last name and general neighborhood of most acquaintances, that's usually the first things you make small talk about
Toby: I don't really want to tell you that
Nate: Oh, I see, so you know what it sounds like to me, Toby? It sounds to me like we are strangers. Would you agree? This is fine, but you see, I don't like strangers forcing their way into my personal space in front of my place of work and trying to sell me shit. I also don't like when they try and be sly and cover up their Greenpeace t-shirt and hide their clipboard. You have to admit that that is pretty disingenuous behavior. Don't you? Don't you think that maybe all the people on this street are sick of people with fake good will trying to sell us shit, like some kind of psycho-economic bait and switch? "Here, I want to be your friend, will you sign this sheet to keep whales alive?" I love whales, but I don't want to be coerced or guilted or otherwise bamboozled into anything with the promise of human warmth. Does your grandmother know you are doing this? I bet she would tan your ass. This is not the way that people interact. I have no problem with your job, I know you probably need the bread, but don't bullshit us. Just stand up with your whale flag flying and ask if I want to give money to Greenpeace, you chickenshit.
Toby: Okay, do you want to give money to Greenpeace?
Nate: Not to you
Toby: Fuck you Nate
Nate: Fuck you too Toby.
Ahhhhh, I love Christmas. Admittedly, I may be becoming a curmudgeon. My deep apologies to Toby wherever he is.
Now, I'm going to take my own advice and say this:You should listen to Scott McDowell's Long Rally. He'll soon be posting the complete live sessions that I did with Chris Corsano and C. Spencer Yeh, including a live version of the second installment of Seven Storey Mountain. You can find him at wfmu.org
I love you guys,
Nate
Keep in mind that this is a bit long and ranty, so please feel free to delete or skip to the bottom (not that you have to have my permission)
The Players:
Toby (a twenty something idealist in a big puffy down jacket conveniently zipped up to "almost" cover his Greenpeace t-shirt, and hiding his clipboard behind his back, standing right in front of my office building)
Nate (a thirty something pessimist in a big puffy amy surplus jacket zipped up to the top of his nose and thinking nasty, nasty thoughts, trying to go into my office building)
Toby: Hi! My name is Toby! What's yours?
Nate: What?
Toby: My name is Toby (extends hand for warm and meaningful shake). What's your name?Nate: Don't do that, man.
Toby: Don't do what?
Nate: Don't be disingenuous to sell me a bunch of shit.
Toby: Excuse me?
Nate: Don't pretend that you are interested in me, just to get me to buy whatever you're selling. It's dishonest. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Toby: I'm not selling anything
Nate: Oh, really? I'm sorry, my mistake. So, you're just standing out here in front of this building in the asscold to make friends?
Toby: Yup! (extends hand again)
Nate: Cool, so we're friends now?
Toby: As soon as you tell me your name
Nate: Awesome, my name is Nate. Hey, since we are friends now, would you mind if my wife and I came over for Christmas eve? Our family isn't in New York and it would be nice to spend it with some good friends.
Toby: Oh, I don't think we're quite that close (winks)
Nate: Oh, really. I thought we were friends, maybe we are more of friendly acquaintances?Toby: Yeah, that's it.
Nate: Cool, hey what do you say we shoot the shit about girls, huh? That girl is hot, eh?
Toby: That isn't really appropriate
Nate: You're right. You're absolutely right. I guess I got carried away with some locker room talk because I was just hanging here with my friendly acquaintance Toby
Toby: Yeah, well...
Nate: So, maybe we are just acquaintances.
Toby: Yeah, it seems that way.
Nate: Right, hey, what is your last name, where do you live?
Toby: Excuse me?
Nate: Well, I know the last name and general neighborhood of most acquaintances, that's usually the first things you make small talk about
Toby: I don't really want to tell you that
Nate: Oh, I see, so you know what it sounds like to me, Toby? It sounds to me like we are strangers. Would you agree? This is fine, but you see, I don't like strangers forcing their way into my personal space in front of my place of work and trying to sell me shit. I also don't like when they try and be sly and cover up their Greenpeace t-shirt and hide their clipboard. You have to admit that that is pretty disingenuous behavior. Don't you? Don't you think that maybe all the people on this street are sick of people with fake good will trying to sell us shit, like some kind of psycho-economic bait and switch? "Here, I want to be your friend, will you sign this sheet to keep whales alive?" I love whales, but I don't want to be coerced or guilted or otherwise bamboozled into anything with the promise of human warmth. Does your grandmother know you are doing this? I bet she would tan your ass. This is not the way that people interact. I have no problem with your job, I know you probably need the bread, but don't bullshit us. Just stand up with your whale flag flying and ask if I want to give money to Greenpeace, you chickenshit.
Toby: Okay, do you want to give money to Greenpeace?
Nate: Not to you
Toby: Fuck you Nate
Nate: Fuck you too Toby.
Ahhhhh, I love Christmas. Admittedly, I may be becoming a curmudgeon. My deep apologies to Toby wherever he is.
Now, I'm going to take my own advice and say this:You should listen to Scott McDowell's Long Rally. He'll soon be posting the complete live sessions that I did with Chris Corsano and C. Spencer Yeh, including a live version of the second installment of Seven Storey Mountain. You can find him at wfmu.org
I love you guys,
Nate
Monday, November 9, 2009
Reviews of Transit/Seven Storey Mountain!
The work of trumpeter Nate Wooley falls into a number of camps: free improvisation, experimental noise or restructuralist postbop. It would be easy to lump him in with a young trumpeters/ extended techniques setting but Wooley is decidedly an individual. And while brass players tend to elicit an expected bravura, Wooley is very much at home in collective exploratory endeavors as one color in a very broad palette.
Transit is one of the first outfits that Wooley began working in when he arrived in New York from Denver and Quadrologues is the quartet's second disc. Here, Wooley is joined by drummer Jeff Arnal, bassist Reuben Radding and altoist Seth Misterka on ten collective improvisations. While the group structurally hints at a piano-less quartet and attachments to post-Ornette non-chordal bop, such a model couldn't be further from what Transit actualizes. A piece like "Time isn't what you think" explores the cycles of breath, anguished whispers and near shrieks peeling away spatial layers as Misterka's mournful, wide vibrato keen rises out of hums and sighs. Plodding pizzicato and rattling percussion mark intervals and like many of the improvisations here, there's an airy pause that signals the end of the experience, giving one the feeling that a window on activity has shut while the foursome continue onward. That's not to say that there aren't moments of infectious, swinging rhythm—Arnal has a penchant for funky, flitting cross-rhythms that echo John Stevens' Ed Blackwell-ian moments. "Speaking in Tongues" features a soulful, throaty Radding solo interwoven into a light polyrhythm and piercing golden unison.
Seven Storey Mountain is an exploration of (and creation of) environment, which finds Wooley joined by semi-regular partner Paul Lytton on percussion and David Grubbs on harmonium, as well as the inclusion of field recordings made in Jersey City. The landscape as it is initially defined here is restive, ultra-low tones bubbling only slightly to the surface. The nature of their production is unclear, perhaps electronic or a low-tone gong. Metallic breaths and gravelly burble seem assigned to a trumpet or a contact mic, while crinkling footsteps and swaths of air might signal taped Jersey environs. Though extremely subtle, the play of low tones and breaths and the introduction of rattling percussion and Grubbs' droning harmonium enter and recede cyclically: Ten minutes in, electronic and breath palettes become dense as a clear, rolling patter of snare, cymbals and sticks generate an active blueprint toward present, immediate speed. Wooley notes, "My internal rhythm is really, really fast actually. Lytton and I have talked about this a little, because we have very similar at rest tempos, meaning the velocity that we tend to be most relaxed in." In other words, the pensive and subtle cycles at the piece's outset become almost closed-in, allowing environmental self-awareness to move from slow realizations to those of hyper-speed, fierce futurities.
Week of Magic
You know there are a lot of things going on this week and in the interest of saving bits and bytes and other suches, I'm jus' gonn' givittoya.
Wednesday 11/11
Roulette
20 Greene Street
Tilt Brass and Sixtet
8:30 pm
I'll be performing with the Sixtet, lovely music including a brand new one from Anthony Coleman.
The Brass Group will be performing my piece "There Was This Shadow This Double" which they premiered a couple of years ago. It is dedicated to a great friend of many of ours that we lost about that time, Take Toriyama.
Thursday 11/12
THE SCHOOLHOUSE
330 Ellery St. #3 Brooklyn, NY 11206
Directions:
JMZ to Flushing Avenue. Continue east on Broadway for several blocks. Take a left onto Ellery Street. The Schoolhouse is the second building on the right. Call 718 710 3095 to enter the building (buzzer does not work.)
Heave and Shudder (Audrey Chen/Nate Wooley)
show starts at 8:30 pm, we go on at 9:45
I haven't played with Audrey in a long time, so it should be a great time. Also on the evening is a great duo with Amsterdam badass Seamus Cater, also Andrew Lafkas and Bryan Eubanks which is always great. Should be a really nice night.
Friday 11/13
Flushnik Studios
698 Flushing Avenue #1B
An Evening of Solos
8 pm
I haven't played a solo set in about a year after working on a solo LP that has kind of sucked my soul dry. Well, it's time to get back on the horse, so this will be my first in a while. Adding to the pressure will be a solo set by Josh Sinton (all new stuff!) and the great unsung Oregon trumpet player/composer Doug Detrick. At the very least, 2/3 of this evening should be great, and let's hope for 3/3.
Sunday 11/15
Douglass Street Collective
295 Douglass Street
Crackleknob! (mit Mary Halvorson and Reuben Radding)
8 pm
Man, I love crackleknob, so I'm very excited to do this show. Also, that evening will be a duo of Tom Blancarte/Brian Osborne, and yet another chance to see Mr. Sinton.
good times, oh, and remember that 7 storey mountain with David Grubbs and Paul Lytton is out now. There was a nice review in the ol' AAJ this month, along with good times about the sleeper hit of the year, Transit "Quadrologues" on Clean Feed. Christmas is coming up!
love,
Nate
Wednesday 11/11
Roulette
20 Greene Street
Tilt Brass and Sixtet
8:30 pm
I'll be performing with the Sixtet, lovely music including a brand new one from Anthony Coleman.
The Brass Group will be performing my piece "There Was This Shadow This Double" which they premiered a couple of years ago. It is dedicated to a great friend of many of ours that we lost about that time, Take Toriyama.
Thursday 11/12
THE SCHOOLHOUSE
330 Ellery St. #3 Brooklyn, NY 11206
Directions:
JMZ to Flushing Avenue. Continue east on Broadway for several blocks. Take a left onto Ellery Street. The Schoolhouse is the second building on the right. Call 718 710 3095 to enter the building (buzzer does not work.)
Heave and Shudder (Audrey Chen/Nate Wooley)
show starts at 8:30 pm, we go on at 9:45
I haven't played with Audrey in a long time, so it should be a great time. Also on the evening is a great duo with Amsterdam badass Seamus Cater, also Andrew Lafkas and Bryan Eubanks which is always great. Should be a really nice night.
Friday 11/13
Flushnik Studios
698 Flushing Avenue #1B
An Evening of Solos
8 pm
I haven't played a solo set in about a year after working on a solo LP that has kind of sucked my soul dry. Well, it's time to get back on the horse, so this will be my first in a while. Adding to the pressure will be a solo set by Josh Sinton (all new stuff!) and the great unsung Oregon trumpet player/composer Doug Detrick. At the very least, 2/3 of this evening should be great, and let's hope for 3/3.
Sunday 11/15
Douglass Street Collective
295 Douglass Street
Crackleknob! (mit Mary Halvorson and Reuben Radding)
8 pm
Man, I love crackleknob, so I'm very excited to do this show. Also, that evening will be a duo of Tom Blancarte/Brian Osborne, and yet another chance to see Mr. Sinton.
good times, oh, and remember that 7 storey mountain with David Grubbs and Paul Lytton is out now. There was a nice review in the ol' AAJ this month, along with good times about the sleeper hit of the year, Transit "Quadrologues" on Clean Feed. Christmas is coming up!
love,
Nate
Monday, October 26, 2009
Seven Storey Mountain Dropped.......
Well, well, well......
Ain't nothing like a little capitalism to stir the warm glow of the heart.
Nate Wooley/David Grubbs/Paul Lytton
Seven Storey Mountain
on Important Records with artwork by the Wyvern!
out now.
grip a copy.....it will darn your socks......it will make you tea when you are sick......it is the perfect, most sensitive lover.......it listens.........it doesn't judge you......it will drive late at night when you are sleepy.....it picks up the tab.......
And, on top of it as usual, Massimo Ricci has written the first review:
Nate Wooley / David Grubbs / Paul Lytton
Ain't nothing like a little capitalism to stir the warm glow of the heart.
Nate Wooley/David Grubbs/Paul Lytton
Seven Storey Mountain
on Important Records with artwork by the Wyvern!
out now.
grip a copy.....it will darn your socks......it will make you tea when you are sick......it is the perfect, most sensitive lover.......it listens.........it doesn't judge you......it will drive late at night when you are sleepy.....it picks up the tab.......
And, on top of it as usual, Massimo Ricci has written the first review:
Nate Wooley / David Grubbs / Paul Lytton
SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN
Important
Originally commissioned for Dave Douglas' FONT Festival in New York and based on the namesake book by Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain is a record whose layers, superimposed and stretched, disclose an underworld of unexpected revelations while also fulfilling Nate Wooley's intention of making "a piece that had a certain feel of the ecstatic to it". This is the first of what Wooley has planned as a seven-part project using this instrumentation, namely a trio plus taped sources (on this occasion an air conditioner, a piano and mostly unintelligible voices); yet it's anybody's guess if it will reach completion, given these artists' exceedingly busy schedule. What's truly impressive here is how "composed" this 38-minute performance sounds, despite the virtual nonexistence of rehearsals prior to the trio's debut performance, except for the soundcheck. The musicians worked with a few sketchy directives concerning Lytton's percussive drive (when applicable) and Grubbs' droning harmonium, but basically the music is a simple arc structure. It begins in extreme calm, as low vibrating hums emerge from bushes of humid whispers; movement gradually increases in the central section, first with sparse notes, delirious mutterings and sinister noises, then with Lytton swinging furiously over Grubbs' static chords, while Wooley brings a touch of madness to the situation, roughening the textures with his gargling hoarseness and abraded clumsiness. The finale brings everything back to (still charged) peace, giving us a chance to cauterize any bleeding wound with a relatively balmy ending. What about the aforementioned ecstasy? Not sure that my immediate desire to repeat the listening experience to better focus on the murkiest particulars qualifies as such, but what I do know is that any release which raises more doubts than it offers certainties is music to my ears.–MR
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Worst Post Ever
I don't know. It's cold in my office and I'm tired.......
here are some gigs.
nuts.
Tonight
Vox Populi
319 N. 11th Street
(3rd Floor)
Philadelphia, PA
Phantom Limb and Wooley
(Jaime Fennelly, Chris Forsyth)
plus
Sharks With Wings
Sanguine Vessel
8 pm
Thursday
Monkeytown
58 N. 3rd Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Phantom Limb and Wooley
8 pm
(make a reservation.....make Monty happy)
Saturday and Sunday
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
Manhattan
Harris Eisenstadt's Canada Day
(Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman, Eivind Opsvik)
8:30 and 10 pm
(show up, make us all happy)
thanks
here are some gigs.
nuts.
Tonight
Vox Populi
319 N. 11th Street
(3rd Floor)
Philadelphia, PA
Phantom Limb and Wooley
(Jaime Fennelly, Chris Forsyth)
plus
Sharks With Wings
Sanguine Vessel
8 pm
Thursday
Monkeytown
58 N. 3rd Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Phantom Limb and Wooley
8 pm
(make a reservation.....make Monty happy)
Saturday and Sunday
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
Manhattan
Harris Eisenstadt's Canada Day
(Matt Bauder, Chris Dingman, Eivind Opsvik)
8:30 and 10 pm
(show up, make us all happy)
thanks
Monday, October 12, 2009
EVAN PARKER!!!!!!
I have anxiety dreams. Usually when I have to do a lot of travel, but we'll get to that in a second. The one I've been having lately consists of me playing a wedding. A nice quartet, playing Stella by Starlight and the Chicken Dance, but.....with Cecil Taylor.....playing piano......with me.......yeah. So, I get caught, trying to figure out how to negotiate the changes to April in Paris with one of the legends of jazz playing all these huge clusters behind me. I really want to go with him, but the caterer is giving me dirty looks. Why do I care about the caterer? I don't know. Protestant work ethic and the guilt surrounding that? Perhaps. Anyway, just as I turn around and see how disgusted Cecil is with me, I wake up.
Why have I been having this dream? It might be because I'm more than a little nervous (and ultimately super excited) about this:
TOMORROW!!!!
EVAN PARKER/CHRIS CORSANO/NATE WOOLEY
10 PM
THE STONE
2ND AND AVE C
10.00
Both Evan and Chris have spent a looooooooooot of time in my stereo over the past 5 years and have had a lot to do with my playing whether they know it or not, so I am really excited to be a part of this show. I mean, what can you say about them? I don't know. You tell me. Maybe after the show. That'd be great.
Also, I'll be travelling to Winnipeg this week for the send and receive festival. I'm closing out the festival this year with a nice set of solos/duos/trios with Canadian percussionist Jeffrey Allport and Japanese vocalist Ami Yoshida, so if you feel like a roadtrip.............
http://www.sendandreceive.org/
thanks!
Nate
Why have I been having this dream? It might be because I'm more than a little nervous (and ultimately super excited) about this:
TOMORROW!!!!
EVAN PARKER/CHRIS CORSANO/NATE WOOLEY
10 PM
THE STONE
2ND AND AVE C
10.00
Both Evan and Chris have spent a looooooooooot of time in my stereo over the past 5 years and have had a lot to do with my playing whether they know it or not, so I am really excited to be a part of this show. I mean, what can you say about them? I don't know. You tell me. Maybe after the show. That'd be great.
Also, I'll be travelling to Winnipeg this week for the send and receive festival. I'm closing out the festival this year with a nice set of solos/duos/trios with Canadian percussionist Jeffrey Allport and Japanese vocalist Ami Yoshida, so if you feel like a roadtrip.............
http://www.sendandreceive.org/
thanks!
Nate
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