Paypal is natewooley@gmail.com

A couple of people have asked me about the "deal" (directly below)...yes it is still on, but please use the paypal address of natewooley@gmail.com...otherwise I won't know if you've paid, you won't receive your discs, you will hate me a lot, and my ego can't take that....not right now.

natewooley@gmail.com

if you ordered at nate@natewooley.com, I'm looking into how you can recover funds and reapply...drop me a line at ....ahem....natewooley@gmail.com

Three New Releases and Special Deal!

I just got my copies of the second installment of Seven Storey Mountain, this one featuring Chris Corsano on drums and C. Spencer Yeh on violin. It's beautifully frenetic and I'm very proud of it. On top of that, a great improv session from the bay area came out on Weasel Walter's UgExplode Label as well as the first recorded document of my duo with Peter Evans, High Society (on Carrier Records). It's kind of rare that so much comes out at the same time, but here I am with all these discs and I would rather people were hearing them, eh? So, here's what I propose, a tiered pricing system like the little capitalist pig I am.

Deal: One disc....10 dollars

Better Deal: Two discs....18 dollars

Say What?: Three discs....27 dollars

The whole motherfucking shebang (this includes all three discs mentioned above, plus the first version of 7 storey with David Grubbs and Paul Lytton)...45 dollars

Okay, so that seems fine and all and maybe you're even thinking "yeah, but I can already download all that stuff for free", but guess what, Captain Piratepants....I'm including shipping on those mugs...in the price! yup....bow to industry.

make paypal payments available to natewooley@gmail.com and please specify your address and which discs you would like.

Peter Evans/Nate Wooley Duo Record "High Society" Out Now on Carrier Records!

Buy it, I guarantee you will absolutely love every second of it.....I guarantee it...what more do you want?

http://carrierrecords.com/index.php?album=highsociety&category=all&artist=none

Catchin' up!

Well, well, well...it certainly has been awhile...Uh, huh..oh, yes, well it does sound like you've been busy. Right, right...oh, well that's too bad, please send our thoughts to your dog groomer. No, I guess it isn't that normal to be so attached to your pet aesthetic care professional...that's what they like to be called, eh? Well, I must take note of that. Anyway, who knew that shampoo could be so combustible? A whole city block, oh my! Well, I guess we can all be thankful that no one was hurt...oh, oh, really? Oh, I'm sorry, I just assumed....3 lizards and a spider? well, that certainly...what were they doing there...ah, really, you can cut a spider's hair?...the tarantula kind, oh...with the furriness, etc...well, yes, i guess they would want to look their best as well...I didn't really mean anything...what's that? No, I don't hate spiders per se...Yes, I'm sure they are very intelligent and caring animals...I didn't mean to imply...what's that? Your mother was a tarantula? Well that would explain.....Oh, your mother OWNED tarantulas, I see....Well, I certainly will rethink my position on....What's that? Change the subject? Yes, I suppose that's for the best isn't it? What's new with me? Oh nothing much, just ALL THIS MADNESS!!!!

(spiderlover)

Saturday, June 18th
Issue Project Room Artist-in-Residency Program presents
Bojan Vuletic's Atemwende for trumpet and string quartet
Nate Wooley trumpet with MIVOS string quartet
also, Nate Wooley and Peter Evans celebrate their debut duo disc, "High Society" on Carrier Records with a short but probably brutal, maybe relaxing duo set

8:30 pm
Issue Project Room
232 3rd Street
Brooklyn
FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

June 23
Harris Eisenstadt's Canada Day at Undead Fest
Kenny's Castaways
157 Bleeker Street
Manhattan
7:40 sharp

June 24
Nate Wooley Quintet Omega
Nate Wooley trumpet
Josh Sinton bari sax
Matt Moran vibes
Dan Peck tuba
Harris Eisenstadt drums
some of the old tunes, some new tunes and the new alternate reality line up for when we shed a tear because Eivind isn't around...should be a blast!
Sycamore
1118 Cortelyou Road
Brooklyn
Doors 9 pm
10 buckaroos

June 29
Duo with C. Spencer Yeh (manimal)
Douglass Street Collective
295 Douglass Street!
Brooklyn
8 pm
donations warmly expected

Also, as mentioned above, the new duo record with Peter is out now on Carrier Records. You can find it, buy it, and love it... here ....we'll also have copies at the June 18th show.

Hey, it sure has been great seeing you..say hello to your mother for me.

European Tour Dates May 2011!!!!Lytton, Parker, Russell, Antunes, and Solo

I'll be heading to Europe for a strange and whirlwind trip, incorporating some duo and solo shows in with groupings of old and new friends. Here's the information I have so far.

May 15th
Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley duo
The Cube
Dove Street South
Bristol, Bs2 8JD
8 pm

May 16th
Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley duo
Folly Bridge Inn
38 Abingdon Road
Oxford, OX1 4PD
8 pm

May 17th
Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley Cafe Oto Residency
featuring Okkyung Lee and Philip Wachsmann
18-22 Ashwin Street
London
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/wooley-lytton.shtm

May 18th
Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley Cafe Oto Residency
featuring Evan Parker and John Russell
18-22 Ashwin Street
London
8 pm
6 pm will be a lecture for Brunel University on a new series of solo pieces I've been commissioned to do for my Issue Project Room residency this year...It will be free!
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/wooley-lytton.shtm

May 22nd
Solo
Les Atelier Claus
passage charles rogier (gare du nord place rogier)
Brussels
4 pm
also featuring the great band MOUNTAINS!!!!

Trio with Hugo Antunes of Roll Call Quintet!
soulbar parazzar
torhoutsesteenweg 10
Bruges, Belgium
8 pm

May 24
with Paul Hubweber and Paul Lytton
Raststaette
Aachen, Germany
8 pm

Hope to see you there!!!!

New Curatorship for Free Music Archive!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I'm currently curating some music for the great Free Music Archive!

http://freemusicarchive.org/member/natewooley

This is made possible through and for my work, DRAM (the Database of Recorded American Music), where I work on labels and archival collections.

The first entries are up and feature music from Edition Wandelweiser, one of my favorite labels, the undersung composer Ben Johnston, and an exclusive interview with the iconic Eliane Radigue. More to come soon.

If you go to the page, please click through to DRAM as much as you can. We are working on making it available for individual subscription (right now it's only available on college campuses) and if the powers that be see that there is an interest, I'll be able to continue my work on FMA and maybe you can get access to an insane collection of music (Edition Wandelweiser, Mode, Lovely, Firehouse 12, Porter, XI, Pogus, and more)

thanks!

a sort of non-call to action

The following is just a bit of personal reflection.

After a month on the road, and finally getting over that little bit of euphoria of being home and enjoying that certain something of New York, I felt that too familiar feeling of annoyance as I rode the train to work today. For some reason it dawned on me (finally) that my misanthropy doesn't come from the travelers or the city or it's smell or dirtiness or anything like that. I actually really love New York and (for the most part) New Yorkers, but what tends to rankle me is the general lack of empathy of people on the street and on subways. It's not a person cutting me off on the street, or taking two seats on the train that makes me angry, it's the feeling of being invisible, that the other person couldn't even waste the microsecond to acknowledge my existence and the fact that I am also trying to get to work.

This got me thinking a lot about how my own ability to put myself in someone else's place has diminished over the years, and especially my relationship to, not only New York, but specifically the organizations and people here who make my existence (musically speaking) possible. I've gotten a lot of emails and had a lot of conversations over the years about musicians banding together and making sure we get what's owed to us and to not fight amongst ourselves, but to unite against a common enemy (either the public or clubs or both). I have no problem with this idea in theory. I think people should be paid better for the amount of work and time they put into developing a craft like playing music, not to mention the amount of ourselves that we put into developing something unique to present to the public. However, I do find, for myself, that this creates the classic us versus them scenario. Sometimes that necessary, but most of the time it creates tension and drama between musicians and audience/promoters out of the ether.

I spend more time thinking about where my food comes from and how I can support local organic farmers than how I can help local arts organizations, musicians, record stores, performance venues, and other musicians. That makes me sad. I have never said thank you to Michael Attias for his years of making Barbes a special place for jazz, not a real, sincere thank you....same thing with all the work Josh Sinton has done for DSMC, or David Leibowitz for somehow putting together a full season of New York Repertory Orchestra concerts for me to enjoy using all volunteer effort. I've never dropped a line to Bruce and Manny at Downtown, or Chris McIntyre of TILT, or all the volunteers at the Stone or Issue Project Room who not only let me put on whatever insane stunt I am thinking of at the moment, but continually present challenging music....what about Joce at Zebulon....I've had my ups and downs at that place, but have I ever really thought about the amount of work he must go through to put on that much music every night? Yeah, okay, they make money from it too, but I guess I don't really feel like I've ever been exploited by it. I'm not being paraded around in a cage like a trained monkey so that someone else can reap the financial benefits. If anything, those places probably lose money when I'm there, and yet they still give me gigs.

There are so many ways that I think someone can deal with this, if they choose to, (and I'm not advocating anything here, just thinking out loud). I'm an introvert, I don't go out. So be it. That's me. But, I can not have that second beer at dinner and give some money to NYRO or Issue Project Room at their next show, or take time to sincerely thank Kevin Reilly for all the work he does volunteering for the Stone and just generally being in the audience as much as he is....or how about Scott Friedlander and Peter Gannushkin....or Patricia Parker....or....or....God forbid, if I love a friend's (or non-friend's) new recording, telling them....I feel like it is a chance to build a community in a way that doesn't have to be about us versus them, doesn't have to be war, war, war, but about dialogue and being honest with the folks around you....taking the time to think about what amount of work a promoter in a small town must have had to go through to get your band there and being polite and open to a hang afterward, or coming out of the dressing room after the show to talk to that guy that drove up from DC to see you....these are things I haven't done in the past and I truly regret it....time and energy wasted on nothing.

In the meantime, here's some shows....

Friday April 1
Chuck Bettis/Jeremiah Cymerman/Nate Wooley
interpreting Chuck's graphic scores
Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass Street
Brooklyn, NY
8 pm

Saturday April 2
TILT Brass record release and benefit!
a whole mess of people (including Russ Johnson, Curtis Hasselbring, John King....I told you it was a whole mess of people!)
Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, NY
7-10 pm
I'll be performing a set as a double duo (on top of my duties as a TILTster)
Peter Evans/Nate Wooley duo meets Phantom Orchard (Zeena Parkins/Ikue Mori)
Also, there will be copies of the TILT Vol. 1 CD with a work of mine for brass and tape which TILT killed

Sunday April 3
Lawrence Casserley/Adam Linson/Hans Tammen/Dafna Naphtali/Nate Wooley
Harvestworks
7 pm
596 Broadway #602
FREE
I have to stop here and say this is a really rare chance to see one of the best live processing electronicists around in Lawrence Casserley, who doesn't get over from England very often, and in such good company with Hans, Adam, and Dafna...should be great

(Put Your) Hands Together...Why I Did It

Because of a fluke, the liner notes to the Clean Feed Release (Put Your) Hands Together didn't get printed in the jacket of the record. I revisited them recently and thought maybe they would mean something to someone and would possible explain why I made this record and what it is about for me. I'm a firm believer in letting people in when you can and so here are the notes. I hope they find a place in the way that you listen to the record.

The easiest thing to do, and maybe the most self-satisfying, would be to somehow think that your creative self came out of a vacuum. That, given the sheer weight of your genius, there was no other human possibility besides the creation of a musical language or artistic aesthetic. However, I think it's very clear what the reality of that is. Whether we choose to embrace or confront our formative past is completely up to the individual. As a musician, and especially as a composer, I've done both to greater or lesser degrees of success, but this record is about embracing and giving thanks, and it's in that spirit that I present it to you now.

Hands Together is a project I started in 2008 to write music for jazz quintet, something I hadn't been a part of for several years. My grandmother had just passed away, which left a hole in my life that I was trying to figure out how to deal with. The first piece I put together for the group was the piece that comes near the end of the record called Hazel. It was after finishing that arrangement that I started thinking about how much I owed to not only her, but to a number of women in my life. Although I'm disappointed by how misused this phrase has become, I was truly a child that was raised by a village of women....canasta playing, ice cream making, hardcore Dakota depression-era girls, proud Swedes, and Montana wildwomen. The amount of love, support and knowledge I've gotten over the years from the people behind the names on the back of this disc is only poorly paid back through tribute on a recording, but it is a start.

Erna, Ethyl, Cecilia, Pearl, and Hazel are all sisters. The infamous “Albertson Girls”. I spent a great part of my youth with them in one way or another, mostly staying with my grandmother and Cecilia who lived together in Northeast Portland for many years, trips to Ethyl's farm in Hillsboro, family get togethers for birthdays and Christmas at Pearl's in Vancouver, Washington, and to visit Erna and Bill (a great uncle) who lived only blocks away. From the wild Albertson girls I learned the values of being polite, never failing to practice empathy, to always be a sneaky card player, and the love of work for work's sake. All the Albertson Girls are gone now, but their memory has imbued certain parts of the Pacific Northwest with a special kind of mysticism for me.....a sense of place that provides me with a desire to develop my strength of character and a stronger connection to the people around me. Through them, I knew wthat magic sense of American transcendentalism long before discovering Emerson or Thoreau.

Elsa is my mother. She claims to not be musical but no one is fooled. She has given me the strength to keep working on what I believe in, regardless of any current success or failure. She is one of the hardest working people I've ever met, but she taught me physical and spiritual self-preservation as well. She taught me to be proud of my heritage, of my family, of the place where I am from...Clatskanie, Oregon....and of myself.

Shanda Lea is my wife. She taught me to have the confidence to do things that had a 90% chance of failing because I really believed in the other 10%. She has shown me what it is to make a happy life for yourself before and above all else. She has straightened my priorities and keeps me healthy. I have never been so goofy nor have I laughed so much about stupid things with another human being in my life and I can't imagine a second of true joy without her being a part of it.

All of these things just scratch the surface of what these women mean to me. They are the sort of things that you can say on the inside of a record cover and maintain that all important sense of machismo jazz musician. There is so much more, of course, but they know what I'm driving at, probably better than I do.

Two final words and then you are free to (finally) enjoy this disc:

First, this record is dedicated as much to my father, Dee Wooley, as it is to the women whose names grace the back cover. I would not be a musician if were not for him, which means I would be an absolutely miserable human being, and I don't think we need any more of those roaming about.

Secondly, the four gentlemen on this recording that have consistently put up with my madness and played these tunes over and over until it made them crazy have to be recognized. I work with all of them in different situations and not only do I think they number among the best improvisers in the world, I consider all of them very close friends. Not everyone knows what it is like to work with people you deeply love. I feel very lucky.

Nate Wooley-December 2010

Doug Detrick Interview!

Feeling very lucky to have been able to be one of the interview subjects for trumpeter and composer Douglas Detrick's series about contemporary trumpet.

http://douglasdetrick.com/Douglas_Detrick/Blog/Entries/2011/3/4_Interview_with_Nate_Wooley.html

His past interviewees include two of my favorites: Jeff Kaiser and the great Brian McWhorter.

Daniel Levin Quartet in Portugal and France!

Daniel Levin Quartet Tour Dates!

Tuesday, 22 February, 9:00 pm

Espace Vauban
17 avenue Georges Clémenceau 29200 Brest, France
penn-ar-jazz.com

Thursday, 24 February

Casa da Musica
Av. da Boavista 4149 4150 Porto, Portugal
casadamusica.com

Friday, 25 February

Portalegre Jazz Fest
Praça da República, 7300 Portalegre, Portugal
cm-portalegre.pt

Sunday, 27 February and Monday, 28 February

Culturgest
R. do Arco do Cego, 1000 Lisboa, Portugal
culturgest.pt

Debut Recording of Nate Wooley Quintet in March!

The debut recording of my quintet, (Put Your) Hands Together, is going to be out in March from Clean Feed Records. This is a series of compositions for jazz quintet that we've been working on and were dedicated to the women who have raised me into the fine upstanding gent I am today.

I was listening to the masters the other night and, yeah, it's kind of the over the top Grammy acceptance speech way of saying it, but I am honored and humbled by the guys in the band. They took some tunes that vacillated somewhere between a rock solid concept that was really hard to pull off to kind of a half baked idea that needed some musical love and stuck it out while I got it together to make a jazz album (my first real "jazz" album as a leader) that I think is a pretty personal statement. That's a big deal for me. It's scary and wonderful and I'm in that phase where "my baby's the cutest" with it, so don't burst my bubble. Drop me a line if you want to reserve a copy. I really think it is going to be a fun one.....

Nate Wooley Quintet....featuring Josh Sinton, Harris Eisenstadt, Matt Moran, and Eivind Opsvik....pic by Peter Gannushkin!

Lytton/Wooley and Lytton/Wooley/Vandermark Dates

For the first time since their recent release, Creak Above 33 on Evan Parker's Psi imprint, the duo of British percussionist Paul Lytton and American trumpeter Nate Wooley hits the U.S.

There's lots and lots of special guests on these shows, including a great trio with Joe Morris that I've wanted to do for a long time, two trio shows with the great Ikue Mori, a couple of hits with a new quartet with C. Spencer Yeh and Okkyung Lee, the new recording of Seven Storey Mountain (with the monster Corsano/Lytton drum double team), tons of fun in Chicago and a tour with the inimitable Ken Vandermark! Try and make it out if you can. If you can't find info about times and addresses, drop me a line at natewooley@gmail.com and I'll make it happen!

March 2nd
The Stone
New York, NY
...8 pm Lytton/Wooley
10 pm Lytton/Wooley/Ikue Mori

March 4th
Sonic Circuits
Washington, DC
Sam Pluta/Peter Evans/Jim Altieri
Lytton/Wooley

March 5th
Ars Nova
Vox Populi Gallery
Philadelphia
Lytton/Wooley/C. Spencer Yeh/Okkyung Lee

March 6th
Hallwalls
Buffalo, NY
Lytton/Wooley

March 7th
Cornell University
Time and Place TBA
Lytton/Wooley

March 8th
Bard College
Time and Place TBA
Lytton/Wooley/Ikue Mori

March 9th
NEC masterclass
6 pm
Lytton/Wooley

Lily Pad
9 pm
Lytton/Wooley/Joe Morris

March 11
Seven Storey Mountain
Issue Project Room
Brooklyn, NY
Lytton/Wooley/Chris Corsano/C. Spencer Yeh/David Grubbs/Matt Moran/Chris Dingman
Live Recording!

March 12
Roulette
New York, NY
Lytton/Wooley/C. Spencer Yeh/Okkyung Lee
Also Christine Bard/Jim Pugliese and Vincent Chancey

March 15
Sugar Maple
Milwaukee, WI
Lytton/Vandermark/Wooley

March 16
The Hideout
Chicago, IL
Lytton/Vandermark
Lytton/Wooley
Lytton/Vandermark Wooley

March 17
Elastic
Chicago, IL
Lytton/Wooley/Dave Rempis/Michael Zerang/Jim Baker/Jason Roebke/Jeb Bishop/Kent Kessler

March 18
The Stone
NY, NY
8 pm Ken Vandermark/Joe McPhee
10 pm Lytton/Vandermark/Wooley

and just for kicks

March 19
The Stone
NY, NY
10 pm Vandermark/Morris/Wooley

When you're #3 You Try Harder

Proud to say...the Argentinean music mag El Intruso held their annual critics poll and I was voted #3 in the trumpet category. Okay, why not #1? I hear you, I could be trying harder. I'll get on that, but think that Peter Evans and Taylor Ho Bynum are pretty inspiring choices for #s 1 and 2.

Some nice votes for Creak Above 33, Tooth and Nail, and Trumpet/Amplifier in the annual musicians polls as well.

You can see the whole thing here:

www.elintruso.com