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
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

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