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

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

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

15th Floor

The 15th floor of my office building has only three inhabitants that I have ever seen.

Two very tall, and from what I can gather from my limited German, very very sexually liberated young German women, and a small troll of a man who always is muttering at the elevator control panel. I am fairly certain this man will kill me using only a pocket knife and coffee stirrer if I am left alone in the elevator with him.

The 15th floor of my office building also smells strongly of donuts.

That's all.....no quips, no insights, no flowery language, I just want to know what the fuck they are doing down there.

Oh, and I have a gig tonight:

MUSIC FOR AN IMAGINARY BAND

Tuesday, September 22, 8:30pm

Roulette, 20 Greene Street (btwn Canal and Grand), NYC

Reservations/Tickets: 212.219.8242
Admission: $15
Harvestworks & DTW members, Students, Under 30s & Seniors: $10
Roulette members : FREE

Music for an IMAGINARY BAND, led by composer-pianist Gordon Beeferman, is a (real) 7-piece group comprised of some of New York's most uniquely creative musicians. The band explores the territory where classical 'new-music,' jazz and free improvisation intersect. Beeferman's compositions range from the gnarly to the operatic, and are both incredibly detailed and very free; the band's intensive improvisational explorations are tethered to highly structured frameworks. The music spans varieties of melody, rhythm, and sound.

"[A] commanding avant-jazz ensemble..." Time Out New York

Gordon Beeferman - piano & compositions

Nate Wooley - trumpet

Evan Rapport - alto sax

Matt Bauder - tenor sax

Josh Sinton - baritone sax, bass clarinet

James Ilgenfritz - bass

Michael Evans - drums

http://gordon.inkbox.org/imagband.html

Crackleknob Review from Massimo Ricci!!!!!

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

MARY HALVORSON / REUBEN RADDING / NATE WOOLEY – Crackleknob

hatOLOGY

Can impavid fighters against remunerative compromise sound so intelligibly sweet while improvising, to the point of having us wondering where the score is? Does artistic significance automatically imply inhospitable counterpoint? Is procedural sharpness a necessary negation of the magnification of conterminous instrumental details?

Crackleknob is a fully grown, moderately aerated recording combining brilliantly unique representatives of the modern jazz/free music scene gathered under the umbrella of respect, both reciprocal and for the audience. Mary Halvorson’s rational approach to the fingerboard is nirvana for those, like yours truly, who are tired of listening to trite versions of standards and/or incoherent finger-babbling aptly described as “spontaneous abandonment of technique” to hunt hypothetical liberties, a smart translation for “absence of ideas”. Reuben Radding is a lyrically composite bassist, his timbre a balanced mixture of demulcent harmonics, visionary abstractions and immediate mutability, cogent insertions permanently at the service of a pre-established cooperative cleverness. Nate Wooley is still able to extract drops of vital juice from the ghosts of famous men with the horn to transform those essences in invigorating fumes of timbral disintegration and not-exactly-diplomatic excrescences, halfway through a caustically refined helpmate and a coroner analyzing the corpse of a hermaphrodite variety of jazz.

“Quavering Voices Of The Mutilated” is the ultimate explanation of what these people do together: as Halvorson seams obstinately angular patterns and logically articulated spikes of anti-melodic percussiveness tinged by her strings’ nudity, at times deciding to dish up the companions with solitary chordal shards and Fripp-ish dissonant arpeggios, Radding punctuates the interplay with a considerable degree of ascendancy on the trio’s essential sonority, appearing as a man who has finally decided to settle for a somewhat regular way of life after having tasted the assorted facets of sonic intemperance, Wooley observing, taking notes and – often unexpectedly – coming out with cloudy lines that might occasionally manifest anomalously, yet maintain that quid of prosperousness guaranteeing auditory fulfilment even to the less expert recipient. “Caldwell, 1925” is a remarkable pictogram of how delicately acoustic this collaboration reveals itself to be, Wooley placing stripes of lament adjacent to Halvorson's clean-sounding whirlwinds, Radding choosing the right strokes to collate the parts in a total unity, potential breakup tendencies absorbed by a wonderfully emotional, only apparent fragility that - on the contrary - defines once and for all the genuine soul of this human combination, which indeed inhabits a superior responsiveness.

Explains the trumpeter: “In general, we work at making the cleanest, most elegantly simple piece of music that we can”. But it’s not stylishness or minimalism we’re dealing with. Crackleknob is one of those albums where skilled ears notice the presence of something much deeper, the sense of almost supernatural intuition that distinguishes a masterpiece from a mere “good job”. A record that hopefully won’t remain covered by the soil of ignorance, shining bright amidst the diverse intriguing challenges that these musicians have tackled in their respective careers to date. Let’s use the word: a classic.

Posted by MASSIMO RICCI at 11:25

Hello New York,

have a seat
can I get anyone something to drink?
no, huh....none of you?
okay, well, let's get started then. First of all thanks for coming on short notice. I appreciate that all 8 million of you could get the morning off of work.

The reason I asked you all here to my office is...oh, excuse me, young man, can you give up your chair to that pregnant lady? yes, you....thanks, I appreciate it. Anyway, as I was saying, the reason I brought you all here is because it is that time of year again, summer....deeeeeeeep summer and I thought maybe you could use a pep talk.

Listen, I'm right there with you, summer sucks, it's hot and humid and everything smells like pine forest urine and no one looks good because they are all sweaty and grimy and it is so muggy that your new skort doesn't fit right and you can't find a mr. softee when you want one and you start wondering where the guy pees in there and now there is no way you could ever eat that ice cream......okay, so yes, I get it.

But, I've been noticing that a lot of your frustration is being taken out on some very innocent bystanders, tourists. Yes, it's easy, and yes, they can be annoying, but there is something I thought it might be good to bring to your attention.....with very few exceptions none of you are from New York!!!!! All I'm proposing is that once a day until the first day of coat wearing (probably about Sept. 15th or so) you make a concerted effort to show just a little bit of empathy. Maybe take a moment to remember that you are from Oregon or Nebraska or California or Japan or wherever and well, if you were just here for a week and saw the Wall Street bull for the first time, yes...you would want a picture of yourself next to his giant brass testicles too....and then you would want a pic of your grandma next to the giant testes and then your sister and her kids.....New York is full of family wonder like this and we have an obligation to let the people of this great Earth take advantage of it. You would want the same if you were taking a stroll through Ellis, Kansas for the first time, wouldn't you? Yes, you would. You would want to take it all in without a bunch of douchy, sweaty locals rolling their eyes at you or throwing their hands up in disgust. I know it is hard, but I am asking just for one time a day, the rest of the time, douche away to your hearts content, it's part of what makes NY so great (?). I think the change would be palpable. Oh, and if you are actually FROM New York, once every other day, you deserve it.

And just to show you that I"m not a tyrant, I've prepared a magical festival of brother and sisterhood for your listening pleasure. It stretches through next week, so please pay attention.

Starting Thursday!!!!!

Douglass Street Music Collective

8/20/2009 8:00 PM at Two is the Loneliest Number
295 Douglass, Brooklyn, 11217
Cost: $10 suggested donation

An Evening of Duos curated by Jacob Wick. Featuring: -- holus-Bolus the duo: Jon Irabagon + Josh Sinton (woodwind reeds) -- pianos: Denman Maroney and Carl Maguire -- mouthpieces: Nate Wooley + Jacob Wick (brass)


Now, on the weekend, I'll be out of town at my sister-in-law's wedding, so we are going to have to be on an honor system, can we do that....excuse me?...one more time and louder...thank you, I knew we could.

Tuesday
The Stone
Ave C and 2nd street
10 pm

In Medias Res

Tyshawn Sorey (drums, composition) Nate Wooley (trumpet) Steve Ruel (woodwinds) Terrence McManus (guitar) Christopher Tordini (bass)
A concert-length composition composed during the spring of 2009. This will be the first and only performance of this composition for the year.

Wednesday
Roulette
20 Greene Street
8 pm

Sparks Orchestra Slays Again!

Peter Evans, Tom Blancarte, Okkyung Lee, Brandon Seabrook, Dan Blake, Sylvie Courvoisier, Dan Peck, Nate Wooley create buckets of delicious blood.


Thursday
Tea Lounge
9 pm
too lazy to look up the address for the millionth time...you know where it is.

Scram

Stephen Gauci, Isabel Pupo-Walker, Tom Armstrong, Tim Lefebvre, Nate Wooley Latin experimental magic carpet ride?

take Friday off, see your family, then let's finish it up with a nice picnic!

Saturday, August 29, 2009, 4pm

Music for an IMAGINARY BAND
on Roosevelt Island www.rooseveltlive.com
Presented by Generate Records, celebrating its 10th anniversary with an afternoon of performances, and new recording release!

Music for an IMAGINARY BAND is a (real) 7-piece group led by Gordon Beeferman and comprised of some of New York's most uniquely creative musicians. The band straddles the fertile and still not-totally-charted territory where classical 'new-music,' jazz and free improvisation intersect. Beeferman's compositions range from the gnarly to the operatic, and are both incredibly detailed and very free; the band's intensive improvisational explorations are tethered to highly structured frameworks.

Gordon Beeferman - piano & compositions
Nate Wooley - trumpet; Matt Bauder, Evan Rapport, Josh Sinton - saxophones; Brad Kemp - bass; Alex Lambert- drums

Hey everyone, thanks a lot for hanging in there for the whole talk. I"ll let you guys go now, but I've told all your bosses that you wouldn't be back until noon, so take an hour and have a nice lunch. Oh, and there are cookies on the way out.....

Specialization

I've been on a kick lately regarding "general knowledge". After years and years of being honed in on one or two subjects, trumpet, vegan food, Proust and/or Melville (depending on what was lightest to carry), the Muppets, I had realized that a good, round, broad set of skills could be very rewarding. I don't know anything about geology, physics, expressionist art, or agriculture for example. I was jumping head deep into a ton of topics willy nilly, hoping to glean enough to become some sort of second coming renaissance man. I would be lying if I said that I had not fantasized about being a experimental music James Bond that walked around quoting Rilke and could fix HVAC units with a well placed smirk all while fixing the world's psychological problems with superhugs and a damsel in distresses broken heel with a compound made of crushed waterbug and wheat gluten. When you fantasize, fantasize big. I had a little bit of an epiphany today when I went to the doctor. I have only made it through the blood-letting process twice in my entire life without passing out like a giant, hairy rag doll. I wake up every time hearing the most beautiful nurse in the room say "It's always the big ones that pass out". Beyond this not being very physically comfortable it is quite a blow to my all too fragile ego. Needless to say, I put off the doctor whenever I can. Shanda was behind this visit, so I knew there would be no chance to back out. A new woman took my blood, a 50 year old Jamaican woman named Darliss with bright red hair. Her husband and her were born on the same date as me and she was very sad about his recent passing. I don't know why I found all of this out, as I just sat there passively with the tourniquet turning my right arm into a sweaty pulsing sausage, but before I knew it....PLUNK....right into the vein, blood everywhere, UNPLUNK....out again and she had a bandaid on me and was ready to pat my little white butt out the door. As I walked out the door onto Union Square, I thought how beautiful it is when someone can do something really well, something that they have done a million times, and have raised to an art form. I'm still interested in finding out what birds live in my neighborhood or the history of the Oregon Territory, but I kind of like where I am, with my few specialties, and I hope that some day I can bring someone as much comfort as Darliss brought to me today. Speaking of specialization, Clifford Allen, has used his specific talents to a horrible end, and has decided to interview me for bagatellen.com. The interview went up today and is much different from the PT kicks of a couple of weeks ago. I consider my 15 minutes up at this point. http://www.bagatellen.com/?p=2421 And, to follow the thread further, I will be performing a series of new compositions with two fine specialists this weekend: Johannes Lauer (trombone, piano, composition)Tyshawn Sorey (drums, trombone, piano, composition)Nate (I just play the trumpet)maybe someone else doing something else? Saturday August 1st8 pmThe Stone2nd street and Ave C 10.00 mugs.