The Squid's Ear Magazine


Wooley, Nate: Seven Storey Mountain VI (Pyroclastic Records)

Composer & trumpeter Nate Wooley presents the 6th composition of his SSM series exploring music's ability to bring catharsis and ecstatic release to the performers and listeners, in a large ensemble of 11 musicians and voice, in a stunningly sophisticated large work of modern orchestration through acoustic and electronic/amplified instruments; a masterwork.
 

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Personnel:



Nate Wooley-trumpet, amplifier, composer

Samara Lubelski-violin

C. Spencer Yeh-violin

Chris Corsano-drums

Ben Hall-drums

Ryan Sawyer-drums

Susan Alcorn-pedal steel guitar

Julien Desprez-electric guitars

Ava Mendoza-electric guitars

Isabelle O'Connell-keyboards

Emily Manzo-keyboards

Yoon Sun Choi-voices

Mellissa Hughes-voices

Megan Schubert-voices


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 020286232704

Label: Pyroclastic Records
Catalog ID: PR 11
Squidco Product Code: 29738

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels w/ booklet
Recorded at Oktaven Audio, in Mount Vernon, New York , on November 24th, 2019, by Ron Saint Germain and Ryan Streber, assisted by Edwin Huet.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The composition of Seven Storey Mountain VI came into focus when I first heard Peggy Seeger's recording of "Reclaim the Night" from her album Different Therefore Equal. I listened to it over and over again, concentrating on the power of her words and the clarity of her voice.

SSM6 uses the first few lines of "Reclaim the Night" as a kind of mantra. The hope was that those leaving the performance — or coming to the end of this recording — would not just remember the melody but also, through its repetition, be able to retain some of Peggy's words.

The phrase "You can't scare me" that dovetails with the last repetitions of Seeger's lyrics was inspired by Bobbie McGee's "Union Maid." I initially tried to combine the lyrics and melodies of both songs but the result felt too 'clever' and drained the power of both songs. Instead, I just set the words, "You can't scare me" — not an elemental feature of McGee's original song — to my own melody and let them act as the piece's final affirmation; the words that I hope the listener takes with them into their daily life. "-Nate Wooley



"ECSTATICISM

"It's a term coined by Nate Wooley for the hoped achievements of his seven part song cycle for large ensemble, Seven Storey Mountain. Although named after Thomas Merton's self-referential religious tract, the project, now approaching its ten year anniversary has only an oblique connection to any sense of religious or mystical ephemera. Instead, the SSM compositions work to create a sense of ecstatic joy and emotional release that is purely human; made by people for people.

Now finishing its fifth iteration, the Seven Storey Mountain family consists of almost thirty different musicians from the jazz, new music, noise, and rock communities including Colin Stetson, C. Spencer Yeh, Chris Corsano, David Grubbs, Ben Vida, TILT Brass Ensemble and others. The current version, SSMV is performed by 18 people and has been referred to by reviewers as a modern form of Bruckner or Mahler's imposing grandeur.

SSM began as a commission by Dave Douglas's FONT organization. The first piece was performed by a trio of Paul Lytton, David Grubbs, and Nate Wooley along with tape accompaniment. Each successive version of the piece has been transformative; both with the tape and the orchestration. As mentioned above, SSMV consists of 18 members and the projected forces for SSMVI (which will premiere in 2018) counts almost at 40.

Originally meant only to be performed once per version, the demand has been high enough that secondary performances have been made on the occasion of Phillip Glass's birthday in Brooklyn, Winter Jazz Fest in NYC, FIMAV in Quebec, and the first European version at A'larme Festival in Berlin.

Exclaim Magazine in Canada said this about the ensemble's recent performance at the Victoriaville Festival in Quebec:

The first two versions of "Seven Storey Mountain" by Brooklyn-based trumpeter, Nate Wooley, (which retains the

same basic structure, but gets larger every year,) were trio works. The third and fourth featured a nine-piece band, plus the TILT Brass Octet. The latest version, which Wooley presented last night (May 20), upped the band to 11 pieces, kept TILT on hand and added a narrator.I'm uncertain where the narrator's text originated (perhaps in the Thomas Merton book after which the piece is named?), but it set a reflective mood into which TILT began playing figures that kept making me think of Mingus's late '50s

arrangements. From there, the piece took its traditional path -Wooley's breath attacks led into vibraphone notes, and the instruments slowly piled on from there until there was a fevered blare of improvisational ecstasy tearing through the auditorium. It was just a great massive pile of squall -totally exhilarating.

There's a logic to the piece, and a very specific order to when and how each instrument enters and leaves the fray. This particular ensemble -twinned drums and vibraphones, cello, electronics, contrabass clarinet, baritone sax, tuba and trumpet -was large

enough to get the job done. But one can't help but wonder how big Wooley's next ensemble to tackle the piece will be. I can't wait to find out."-Nate Wooley website



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Nate Wooley was born in 1974 in Clatskanie, Oregon, a town of 2,000 people in the timber country of the Pacific Northwestern corner of the U.S. He began playing trumpet professionally with his father, a big band saxophonist, at the age of 13. His time in Oregon, a place of relative quiet and slow time reference, instilled in Nate a musical aesthetic that has informed all of his music making for the past 20 years, but in no situation more than his solo trumpet performances.

Nate moved to New York in 2001, and has since become one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the burgeoning Brooklyn jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes. He has performed regularly with such icons as John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Eliane Radigue, Ken Vandermark, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, and Yoshi Wada, as well as being a collaborator with some of the brightest lights of his generation like Chris Corsano, C. Spencer Yeh, Peter Evans, and Mary Halvorson.

Wooley's solo playing has often been cited as being a part of an international revolution in improvised trumpet. Along with Peter Evans and Greg Kelley, Wooley is considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn, as well as demolishing the way trumpet is perceived in a historical context still overshadowed by Louis Armstrong. A combination of vocalization, extreme extended technique, noise and drone aesthetics, amplification and feedback, and compositional rigor has led one reviewer to call his solo recordings "exquisitely hostile".

In the past three years, Wooley has been gathering international acclaim for his idiosyncratic trumpet language. Time Out New York has called him "an iconoclastic trumpeter", and Downbeat's Jazz Musician of the Year, Dave Douglas has said, "Nate Wooley is one of the most interesting and unusual trumpet players living today, and that is without hyperbole". His work has been featured at the SWR JazzNow stage at Donaueschingen, the WRO Media Arts Biennial in Poland, Kongsberg, North Sea, Music Unlimited, and Copenhagen Jazz Festivals, and the New York New Darmstadt Festivals. In 2011 he was an artist in residence at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY and Cafe Oto in London, England. In 2013 he performed at the Walker Art Center as a featured solo artist.

Nate is the curator of the Database of Recorded American Music (www.dramonline.org) and the editor-in-chief of their online quarterly journal Sound American (www.soundamerican.org) both of which are dedicated to broadening the definition of American music through their online presence and the physical distribution of music through Sound American Records. He also runs Pleasure of the Text which releases music by composers of experimental music at the beginnings of their careers in rough and ready mediums."

-Nate Wooley Website (http://natewooley.com/about)
3/13/2024

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"Samara Lubelski is an American singer, violinist, guitarist and bassist. She has been a member of numerous bands, including Of a Mesh, Metabolismus, Salmon Skin, the Sonora Pine, Hall of Fame, the Tower Recordings, MV & EE and the Bummer Road, and Chelsea Light Moving. Since 2003, she has released eight solo studio albums.

Lubelski is a prolific guest musician, performing (predominantly on violin and occasionally on bass) on dozens of recordings by artists such as the Fiery Furnaces, White Magic, Thurston Moore, God Is My Co-Pilot, Jackie-O Motherfucker and Sightings.

As a recording engineer, she has also worked with Double Leopards on Halve Maen (2003, Eclipse Records) and Out of One, Through One and to One (2005, Eclipse); Ted Leo and the Pharmacists on Hearts of Oak (2003, Lookout! Records); Magik Markers on Untitled (2003, self-released), Blues for Randy Sutherland (2004, Arbitrary Signs) and I Trust My Guitar, Etc. (2004, Ecstatic Peace!); the Fiery Furnaces on Blueberry Boat (2004, Rough Trade Records); Sightings on Arrived in Gold (2004, Load Records); Black Dice on Creature Comforts and Miles of Smiles (both 2004, DFA Records); Oneida on Secret Wars (2004, Jagjaguwar) and The Wedding (2005, Jagjaguwar); Mouthus on Saw a Halo (2007, Load Records); and Religious Knives on It's After Dark (2008, Troubleman Unlimited Records)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samara_Lubelski)
3/13/2024

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"C. Spencer Yeh was born in Taipei, Taiwan 1975, moved to the US in 1980; studied radio/television/film at Northwestern University, and is now based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Yeh is active both as a solo and collaborative artist, as well as with his primary project, Burning Star Core. As an improviser, Yeh is focused on developing a personal vocabulary using violin, voice, and electronics. As a sound artist/composer, Yeh works with all aspects available surrounding a work, aurally and physically, as elements key to the cumulative experience. He is concerned not only with the sensual aspects of 'sound organization,' but the gestural qualities as well. Yeh has collaborated with a deep and ever-growing list of artists and groups, including Tony Conrad, New Humans with Vito Acconci, Evan Parker, Thurston Moore, Amy Granat with Jutta Koether, Justin Lieberman, Don Dietrich and Ben Hall (as The New Monuments), Prurient, and Jandek. He has performed at festivals and venues such as Sonar, FIMAV at Victoriaville, Frieze Arts Fair, No Fun Fest, High Zero, the 24 Hour Drone People at Fylkingen, The Kitchen, ZKM Karlsruhe, and has also exhibited visual art, sound, and video works internationally."

-Ubu Web (http://www.ubu.com/sound/yeh.html)
3/13/2024

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"First spellbound by freely improvised music in the mid-1990s after witnessing performances by TEST, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, and others, Chris Corsano began a long-standing, high-energy partnership with Paul Flaherty in 1998. A move from western Massachusetts to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop an expanded solo music of his own, incorporating sax reeds, violin strings and bows, pot lids, and other everyday household items into his drum kit. In February 2006 he released his first solo recording, The Young Cricketer, and toured extensively throughout Europe, USA, and Japan. He spent 2007 and '08 as the drummer on Björk's Volta world tour, all the while weaving in shows and recordings on his days off with the likes of Evan Parker, Virginia Genta, and C. Spencer Yeh. Moving back to the U.S. in 2009, Corsano returned focus to his own projects, most notably a duo with Michael Flower, Rangda (with Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny) and solo work, now revamped to include synthesizers and contact microphones in addition to his drum set and home-made acoustic instruments.

In addition to the those mentioned above, he's also worked with, among others: John Edwards (released by: Clean Feed/Dancing Wayang), Jim O'Rourke & Akira Sakata (Drag City/Family Vineyard), Paul Dunmall (ESP-Disk), Nels Cline (Strange Attractors), Jessica Rylan (Load Records), Jandek (Corwood), Sunburned Hand Of Man (Manhand), MV&EE (Eclipse/Time-Lag), Vampire Belt (Open Mouth), Joe McPhee (Roaratorio), and Wally Shoup (Leo/Columbia Japan)."

-Chris Corsano Website (http://www.cor-sano.com/bio.html)
3/13/2024

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Detroit-based percussionist Ben Hall is a member of groups Burning Graveyard Lights, Cass Chamber, Death Knell, Graveyards, Hell And Bunny, Jack Wright Nonet, KillDevilHills, Machine Yardz, Mêlée, Psalm Alarm, The New Monuments, Traum, and Trauma, and leads his own Ben Hall's Racehorse Names.

-Discogs 3/13/2024

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"Ryan Sawyer is a drummer and percussionist from the USA. He has played with several artists and bands like, Tv On The Radio, At The Drive-In, Scarlet Johanson, Massive Attack, Boredoms (77 & 88 Boadrum), The Mekons, Thurston Moore, among others.He currently is playing with, Stars Like Fleas, Tall Firs, and Eye Contact."

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/300910-Ryan-Sawyer)
3/13/2024

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"Susan Alcorn (born 1953) is an American composer, improvisor, and pedal steel guitarist. Having started out playing guitar at the age of twelve, she quickly immersed herself in folk music, blues, and the pop music of the 1960s. A chance encounter with blues musician Muddy Waters steered her towards playing slide guitar. By the time she was twenty-one, she had immersed herself in the pedal steel guitar, playing in country and western swing bands in Texas.

Soon, she began to combine the techniques of country-western pedal steel with her own extended techniques to form a personal style influenced by free jazz, avant-garde classical music, Indian ragas, Indigenous traditions, and various folk musics of the world. By the early 1990s her music began to show an influence of the holistic and feminist "deep listening" philosophies of Pauline Oliveros.

Though mostly a solo performer, Alcorn has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Peter Kowald, Chris Cutler, Joe Giardullo, Caroline Kraabel, Earl Howard, Le Quan Ninh, Sean Meehan, Joe McPhee, LaDonna Smith, Mike Cooper, Walter Daniels, Ellen Fullman, Jandek, George Burt, Janel Leppin, Michael Formanek, Ellery Eskelin, Fred Frith, Maggie Nicols, Evan Parker, Johanna Varner, Zane Campbell and Mary Halvorson."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Alcorn)
3/13/2024

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"Julien Desprez is a musician and performer based in Paris. Jazz and rock were his early musical loves, but they evolved rapidly to free forms where body and space find their places through sound. As his practice progressed as well as his conception and approach to his instrument, the music and space changed. He is now considering the guitar more like a battery, an organ, a modifiable instrument deployable at will. Through a mix of actions on the instrument and a play of foot on effect pedals, taking inspiration from the technique of Tap Dance, it completely opened the possibilities, sound and physical environment of the instrument. This results in a practice where body is engaged to its fullest.

Now evolving between sound art, performance and contemporary improvisational music, his work today is centred around all the questions that exist within a stage space, through body, space, sight and light, but where the sound remains the central pillar. Julien is also a co-founder of the Collectif Coax, a music cooperative based in Paris and created in 2008, which was recently labelled "Compagnie Nationale" by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. He's also played with Charlie Haden, Mats Gustafson, Jeanne Added, Edward Perraud, Thomas Depourquery, François Jeanneau, Louis Sclavis, Stephane Payen, Guillaume Orti, Benoit Delbecq, Tortoise, Han Bennink, Hubert Dupont, Rob Mazurek, Jef Parker, Frank Vaillant, Gilles Coronado, Beniat Achary, Noël Ackchoté, David Grubbs, Doug Wamble, Marc Ducret, Sylvain Darrifourcq, Eve Risser, Mederic Collignon, Magic Malik, Emmanuel Bex et Hasse Poulsen."

-Julien Desprez Website (http://shapeplatform.eu/artist/julien-desprez/)
3/13/2024

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"My name is Ava Mendoza. I play guitars and stompboxes and write music. Currently I'm based out of Brooklyn, NY. I have played guitar for most of my life and been active for the last decade playing my own music and in many different groups. In any context I try to bring expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music I play. I've toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and recorded or performed with a broad spectrum of musicians including singer Carla Bozulich (The Geraldine Fibbers, Evangelista), Fred Frith (Massacre, Henry Cow, Art Bears), Nels Cline, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Weasel Walter, Tune-Yards, and more. I've played on recordings released by labels Weird Forest, Tzadik, Clean Feed, NotTwo, ugEXPLODE, Resipiscent, New Atlantis, and others.

Friendly critics have called me "Oakland's avant-jazz virtuoso" (Brad Cohan, Village Voice), "a versatile and virtuosic guitarist" (The San Francisco Film Society), "a wizard on a semi-circle of effects pedals, butÉ equally adept with FX-less technique," (Lars Gotrich, A Blog Supreme/NPR Jazz). I was recently named one of Guitar WorldÔs Ò10 Female Guitarists You Should KnowÓ.

My main project these days is UNNATURAL WAYS .

PERFORMED/RECORDED WITH:

Scott Amendola (Nels Cline Singers, Charlie Hunter Quartet), Liz Allbee, Vijay Anderson, Bran(...)pos, Carla Bozulich (The Geraldine Fibbers, Evangelista), Sheldon Brown, Tony Buck (The Necks), members of Caroliner, Nels Cline (Wilco), George Cremaschi, Tim Dahl (Child Abuse, Lydia Lunch), J.A. Deane, Marco Di Gasbarro (Squartet), John Dikeman (Cactus Truck), Thomas Dimuzio, Shayna Dunkleman, Marco Eneidi, Luc Ex, Ben Goldberg, Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Art Bears, Massacre), Vinny Golia, Phillip Greenlief, Franz Hautzinger, Jacob Felix Heule, Devin Hoff (Good for Cows), Gerri Jager (Knaalpot), Darren Johnston, Henry Kaiser (Crazy Backwards Alphabet), Annette Krebs, Thollem McDonas, Lisa Mezzacappa, Butch Morris, Matt Nelson, Hexlove aka Zac Nelson, Kanoko Nishi, Nick Podgurski (Extra Life), Porest aka Mark Gergis, Gino Robair, Aram Shelton, John Shiurba, SF Sound, Damon Smith, Moe! Staiano, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Raphael Vanoli (Knaalpot), Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers), Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE), Wobbly (Negativland), Tune-yards, William Winant (Mr. Bungle), Kenny Wollesen (Sex Mob), Theater of Yugen, dancers Leyya Mona Tawil, Yuko Kaseki, and Manuela Tessi."

-Ava Mendoza Website (http://avamendozamusic.com/bio.html)
3/13/2024

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"Since her New York debut recital at Carnegie's Weill Hall in 2002, Dublin-born pianist Isabelle O'Connell has developed an international career that has taken her across four continents. As soloist and chamber musician she has performed around the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, U.K. and Ireland, to venues such as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of art, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Belfast Festival, St David's Hall, Cardiff and the National Concert Hall, Ireland.

Now based in New York, Isabelle is co-founder of GrandBand, New York's new music piano sextet, described by the New York Times as: "six of the finest, busiest pianists active in New York's contemporary-classical scene". Making their debut at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York in 2012, they have since performed around the United States and U.K. at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, the Gilmore Piano Festival, Le Poisson Rouge, New York, the Rite of Summer Music Festival, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Sheffield University and Cornerstone Festival, Liverpool.

Receiving a standing ovation at her New York Debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in January 2002, the New York Concert Review wrote: "She has the technical prowess... and a spirit and intelligence to bring it all together." Isabelle has a reputation for being a dynamic interpreter and energetic advocate of music by 20th and 21st century composers, regularly commissioning and premiering new works. She has worked with John Adams, John Luther Adams, Meredith Monk, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Morton Subotnick, Kevin Volans, Bunita Marcus, Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Trueman, amongst many others. In 2007, Isabelle was co-Artistic Director of "New Music, New Ireland, New York", a concert that showcased contemporary Irish composers at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. Her debut solo album RESERVOIR featuring solo piano music by contemporary Irish composers was released to critical acclaim in 2010 and the New Yorker called her "the young Irish piano phenom".

As concerto soloist Isabelle has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under conductors William Eddins, Gerhard Markson and Gavin Maloney. Her recording of Kevin Volans' Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Winds with the NSO was released on the Lyric FM label in 2014.

As chamber musician, Isabelle has performed with John Adams at Carnegie's Zankel Hall, with Meredith Monk at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival and with the New Zealand String Quartet at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Isabelle often performs with CRASH ensemble, joining them on tours of Australia and the United States, performing at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, Sydney Conservatoire, Kennedy Center, Princeton University, Peak Performances Montclair, Virginia Tech, Le Poisson Rouge in New York and the Galway International Arts Festival, Reich Effect Festival and Sounds of a Safe Harbor Festival, Ireland. She is also a member of the Friends of MATA ensemble and the Curiosity Cabinet in New York. In addition, she has performed with Alarm Will Sound, the Da Capo Chamber Players, American Symphony Orchestra, Ergodos ensemble, the New Zealand and ConTempo String Quartets.

Isabelle has also worked with Grammy award-winning vocalist Susan McKeown, featuring on her album Singing in the Dark and composer Jenny Olivia Johnson's album Don't Look Back on Innova Records.

In addition to winning an award from Artists International in 2001, Isabelle was the recipient of the Tibor Paul Medal, the 1998 Mabel Swainson Pianoforte Award at the Feis Ceoil (which led to her debut recital at the John Field Room in Dublin) and the Ulster Bank Music Foundation Piano Award (making a television appearance on the "Late Late Show"). Some of her other awards have included a Fulbright scholarship, Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholarship, John F. Kennedy scholarship, Music Network Touring awards and multiple awards from the Irish Arts Council and Culture Ireland.

Isabelle has recorded for the Diatribe, Innova and Lyric fm labels. She has appeared on television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic, with performances broadcast on WNYC, WQXR, WFMT Chicago, BBC3, RTE, TV3 and Lyric FM radio.

Isabelle is currently on the piano faculties at Bard College and the Diller-Quaile School of Music, New York. She is a former faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music and the Kaufman Center's Lucy Moses School, NY. Isabelle has a particular interest in music involving extended piano techniques and is often invited to give workshops on the topic, in addition to giving masterclasses for pianists and composers. Isabelle received her Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music. She subsequently studied with Zitta Zohar in New York. Her earlier studies took place at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin (Réamonn Keary, Therese Fahy) where she received her B.A. in Music Performance."

-Isabelle O'Connell Website (https://www.isabelleoconnell.com/biography)
3/13/2024

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"Emily Manzo is a pianist, songwriter and vocalist that Time Out New York considers "a uniquely protean artist who makes several scenes move." The New York Times has described her "attention to detail exceptional." Emily has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe in concerts and festivals of chamber music, experimental music and rock music. As a vocalist and pianist she has premiered the works of many American composers. Her degrees were earned at the New England Conservatory, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Columbia University where her teachers included Stephen Drury and Lydia Frumkin. Emily currently resides in New York where she performs regularly as a classical solo and chamber musician, as well as with her pop group, Christy & Emily. She can be heard as vocalist and pianist on Tzadik, SHSK'H, The Social Registry, Big Print (UK), Klangbad (DE), Merge, and Jagjaguar. With funding from the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation, Emily completed her recording of the complete Chopin Preludes at Merkin Concert Hall in November 2012."

-Emily Manzo Website (http://emilymanzo.com/)
3/13/2024

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"Yoon Sun Choi has spent more than two decades capturing listeners with her uncompromising, freewheeling and beautiful style and the breadth of her musical vision.

A Korean-Canadian improvising vocalist and pianist, Choi has been based in New York City since 2000. Her main musical projects are with her longtime collaborative duo with pianist Jacob Sacks, her solo voice/piano work.

Choi has performed and collaborated with renown artists such as Jane Ira Bloom, Samir Chatterjee, Steve Coleman, Mark Dresser, Mark Elias, Gerry Hemmingway, Darius Jones, D.D. Jackson, Oliver Lake, Mat Maneri, Ben Monder, the Tri-Centric Orchestra, Sarah Weaver, Kenny Werner and Kenny Wheeler. She has performed in some of the finest concert houses and music venues including The Blue Note, Birdland, The Stone, Roulette, The River Theater, Roy Thompson Hall and Carnegie Hall.Choi received a BMus in classical piano and composition at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and a BMus in voice and jazz performance at the University of Toronto. She studied voice with Thomas Schilling and piano with the late Sofia Rosoff."

-Yoon Sun Choi Website (http://yoonsunchoi.com/?page_id=978)
3/13/2024

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"Mellissa Hughes enjoys a busy career in both contemporary and early music. a versatile, charismatic soprano endowed with brilliant technique and superlative stage instincts...indispensable to New York's new-music ecosystem" A dedicated interpreter of living composers, Hughes has worked closely with Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Steve Reich, Neil Rolnick, and has premiered works by David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Ted Hearne, Caleb Burhans, Christopher Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, and Frederick Rzewski, among others. In the classical concert hall she has performed Mozart's Vespers and Requiem under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner, Handel's Dixit Dominus with Sir David Willcocks, and the role of Dido under the direction of Andrew Lawrence King. Equally at home in front of a rock band, Hughes has received widespread acclaim in her role as lead vocalist of Newspeak, an amplified alt-classical band, and for her work with Missy Mazzoli's Victoire. In the 2013/14 season, Hughes continues touring with John Zorn for Zorn@60 celebrations, singing his "Madrigals" and "Earthspirit" in Jerusalem, Paris and at Alice Tully Hall in New York (having sung the works last season in Montreal, Ghent, Warsaw, at the Barbican in London, and at the Guggenheim New York.) She also stars in Jonathan Berger's double bill opera, Visitations, in a Beth Morrison Production/HERE production for Protoype 2014 at Roulette, led by Christopher Rountree. Other highlights include a recital with pianist Lisa Moore for Kettle Corn New Music, and Bach cantatas with Julian Wachner and Trinity Wall Street."

-Mellissa Hughes Website (https://mellissahughes.com/)
3/13/2024

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"Megan Schubert, vocalist and composer, has performed music by Stockhausen for an audience under umbrellas in a torrential downpour for Make Music New York; world premieres at Carnegie Hall; with robots while locked inside a Van de Graaff Generator at Boston's Museum of Science; on a bike flying by the audience in an installation piece at McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn; with Cambodian master of classical dance, Proeung Chhieng; in a giant potato sack while video was projected onto her frontside at Webster Hall; for inmates at a maximum security prison in Ossining, NY; with puppets at E 4th Street Fab! Fest; for Elliot Carter at a celebration of his 100th birthday; shared the stage on multiple occasions with such luminaries as Meredith Monk, Bang On a Can, and with many ensembles championing art music and experimental jazz of today.

In recent years, Schubert sang in the premieres of large works by Robert Ashley, Luigi Nono (with Ekmeles), Georges Aperghis, Bernard Rands, James Ilgenfritz, Sonia Megías, Jenny O. Johnson, Annea Lockwood, Nick Hallett, Kitty Brazelton, Sasha Zamler-Carhart, Inhyn Kim, Nate Wooley (Psalms from Hell, and for Anna Sperber's The Superseded Third, Seven Storey Mountain V--later version, Seven Storey Mountain VI--Belgium and New York versions), Jonathan Bepler (with Matthew Barney for opera film River of Fundament and newest film REDOUBT (2019), for John Jasperse's Within Between, for Wally Cardona & Jennifer Lacey's The Set Up, and Cardona's GIVEN IN THE BLACKBOX), Cally Spooner, Kristen Volness, Guy Barash, David Friend, Christian Frederickson, Tino Sehgal (Public Art Fund production of "This You"), Charlie Looker, Matt Fagen, Allen Shawn, Tina Davidson, Alison Nowak, Eve Beglarian, and in new productions of operas by Denman Maroney and Jason Cady. Schubert gave the Canadian premiere of David Lang's "death speaks" as part of the Honens Festival in Calgary, AB.

;Judd Greenstein, Tracy K. Smith, and Joshua Frankel's A Marvelous Order (as Jane Jacobs) received a pre-premiere/preview at Williams College, and the full premiere TBD 2021. QUARTET, a composer's lab was produced by Schubert, presented world premieres by and with Schubert, Gelsey Bell, Anaïs Maviel and joined by Yoon Sun Choi at Roulette and as part of Lady Fest at The Tank.

Schubert, longtime assistant to opera director Rhoda Levine, and the late Moog synthesizer pioneer, composer, conductor and pianist Gershon Kingsley, holds degrees from Bennington College and Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Lucy Shelton. She co-founded the Avant Music Festival and co-curated years 2010-2015. She studied opera with tenor/actor Anthony Laciura (Boardwalk Empire, MET opera). She is also a professional chorister and member of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church chamber choir."

-Megan Schubert Website (http://www.meganschubert.com/bio.html)
3/13/2024

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Track Listing:



1. Seven Storey Mountain VI 45:02

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Compositional Forms
Jazz
Free Improvisation
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Staff Picks & Recommended Items

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Pyroclastic Records.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Perelman, Ivo / Nate Wooley / Mat Moran / Matt Maneri / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Joe Morris
Seven Skies Orchestra [2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
A rare setting for tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman in a larger ensemble: an exemplary sextet with trumpeter Nate Wooley and vibraphonist Matt Moran over a string section of Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, Joe Morris on bass and Mat Maneri on viola, recording a ten-part work sans drums or piano, allowing fascinating new orchestral possibilities performed with utmost creative mastery.
Amba, Zoh / Chris Corsano / Bill Orcutt
The Flower School
(Palilalia)
An enthusiastic and well-balanced studio recording in San Francisco from the trio of Zoh Amba on tenor saxophone, Chris Corsano on drums and Bill Orcutt on electric guitar, following Amba & Corsano's duo tour of the West Coast; this is a first meeting between Amba & Orcutt, who perform as a duo on two tracks, including a guitar duo with Amba on acoustic.
Stoffner, Florian / John Butcher / Chris Corsano
Braids
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
With incredible skill and nuance, using extended and stunning technique, and through intent listening of nearly telepathic communication, the trio of Florian Stoffner on guitar, John Butcher on tenor & soprano saxophones and Chris Corsano on drums & half clarinet, perform seven subtle and detailed improvisations live at Le Singe, in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland in 2022.
Alcorn, Susan / Jose Lencastre / Hernani Faustino
Manifest
(Clean Feed)
While on tour in Lisbon in 2002, pedal steel & lap steel improvising guitarist Susan Alcorn was invited by alto & tenor saxophonist José Lencastre (Nau Quartet) to record in the studio with double & electric bassist Hernani Faustino (Red Trio), recording these six refined trio improvisations of both contemplative and energetic conversations.
Amba, Zoh / Chris Corsano / Bill Orcutt
The Flower School [VINYL]
(Palilalia)
The day after their duo tour of the West Coast and a final fiery concert in San Francisco, tenor saxophonist Zoh Amba and drummer Chris Corsano joined guitarist Bill Orcutt in the studio to record this album, the two facets of Orcutt & Corsano's long-standing work together and the newer Amba/Corsano collaboration setting up this tightly linked set of collective improvisations.
Glass Triangle (Zeena Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer)
Blue and Sun-lights
(Relative Pitch)
Recorded after a three-day series of concerts at New York City's venue The Stone, the trio of Zeena Parkins on electric harp & objects, Mette Rasmussen on saxophone, objects & voice and Ryan Sawyer on drums & objects brought their dynamic and far-ranging approach to collective free improv into Brooklyn's Figure 8 studio to capture these 10 extraordinary recordings.
Cordero, Brent / Peter Kerlin
A Sublime Madness [VINYL]
(Astral Spirits)
A new collaboration between keyboardist Brent Cordero and bassist Peter Kerlin, a gorgeous blurring of jazz, rock and Terry Riley-esque composition in a swirling collection of original work and a cover of Eddie Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance", performed in a core trio with drummer Ryan Sawyer and prestigious guests including Daniel Carter, Jessica Pavone, James Brandon Lewis, &c.
Sharp, Elliott SysOrk
ReGenerate
(zOaR Records)
As part of NY composer, guitarist, bassist, saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Elliott Sharp's 70th birthday observation he performed a series of concerts under the moniker "E#@70", initiating the series with this remarkable concert at Roulette, premiering 4 new works performed by his SysOrk ensemble, dedicated to performing Sharp's algorithmic scores, graphic notation and conductions.
Lubelski, Samara
Partial Infinite Sequence
(Relative Pitch)
Promo copy with line thru bar code.
Amado, Rodrigo / This Is Our Language Quartet
Let The Free Be Men [VINYL]
(Trost Records)
Referencing Ornette Coleman in the group name, Portuguese tenor saxophonist engages three US free jazz players--legendary saxophonist and pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee, double bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Chris Corsano--for this 2017 concert at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark, capturing four exemplary, at times explosive, and always tightly interactive collective improvisations.
Alcorn, Susan Quintet
Pedernal
(Relative Pitch)
An innovator in integrating pedal steel guitar into modern improvised music, Cleveland-born, Baltimore-based pedal steel guitar player Susan Alcorn's quintet enlists a superb set of New York players--Mark Feldman on violin, Michael Formanek on double bass, Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Ryan Sawyer on drums--taking on a diverse set of Alcorn compositions.
Williams, Mars Presents
An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4: Chicago vs. NYC [VINYL]
(Astral Spirits / Soul What Records)
This year's An Ayler Xmas, the 4th in the series from saxophonist Mars Williams, expands to a double CD with recordings from two bands: Josh Berman, Jim Baker, Kent Kessler, Brian Sandstrom & Steve Hunt (Chicago); and Steve Swell, Hilliard Greene, Chris Corsano, Nels Cline & Fred Lonberg-Holm (NYC); in incredible free jazz mashups and bash-ups of Holiday favorites.
Lubelski, Samara
Partial Infinite Sequence
(Relative Pitch)
Performing solo on violin with surrounding effects that emphasize the dramatic tension in her extended sequences, Samara Lubelski presents two substantial journeys into the infinite, swirling in delays and reverb as her bow transitions from rapid up and down to long drawing and sustaining, pulling a variety of sounds that elate her listeners in spirals and eddies.
Musicworks
#137 Fall 2020 [MAGAZINE + CD]
(Musicworks)
Fall 2020 issue of Canada's finest new music magazine, focusing on guitars--hollow, heavy, bowed, cracked, pedalled, flung, trusty companions & feedback demons; Plus articles on Casey Koyczan, Susan Alcorn, Amy Brandon, Aidan Baker, Eliza Kavtion, C. Diab, Markus Lake, Catherine Debard, Cloud Chamber, &c; and an 11-track CD with music from the aforementioned.
Icepick (Nate Wooley / Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten / Chris Corsano)
Hellraiser [VINYL]
(Astral Spirits)
The 3rd album from the improvising trio of Nate Wooley on trumpet, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, and Chris Corsano on drums, is a live recording at the 2018 Experimental Sound Studio's Option Series, a smoldering session of collective improvisation that builds tension through impressive rhythmic texture and releases it in cathartic and passionate passages.
Morris, Joe
Instantiation: Locale
(Glacial Erratic)
The 3rd release of improvising guitarist Joe Morris' "Instantiation" series, where each part is unique, composed with specific notated and operational components such that it impossible to perform any of them the same way twice; performed with Ben Hall on tympani & percussion, Andria Nicodemou on vibraphone, Dan O'Brien on tenor & baritone sax,and , Allison Burik on alto sax.
Lytton, Paul / Nate Wooley
Known / Unknown
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
Recalling their brokenresearch LP from 2007, trumpeter Nate Wooley and drummer/percussionist Paul Lytton focus on unusual techniques and approaches to their instruments, using amplifiers and electronics to investigate new frontiers in interactive improvisation, each creating inexplicably interesting, masterfully interwoven sonic material.
exclusiveOr (Peter Evans / Wooley / Muncy / Olencki / Karre / Cimini / Young / Snyder / Pluta)
Modules [VINYL]
(Carrier Records)
The NY electronics duo exclusiveOr (Sam Pluta and Jeff Synder) join forces with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Architeuthis Walks on Land (Katherine Young and Amy Cimini) for this tour-de-force ensemble work, combining composed forms, electro-acoustic improvisation, noise, and lush harmonies, in a fascinatingly detailed album of creative musicianship.
exclusiveOr (Peter Evans / Wooley / Muncy / Olencki / Karre / Cimini / Young / Snyder / Pluta)
Modules
(Carrier Records)
The NY electronics duo exclusiveOr (Sam Pluta and Jeff Synder) join forces with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Architeuthis Walks on Land (Katherine Young and Amy Cimini) for this tour-de-force ensemble work, combining composed forms, electro-acoustic improvisation, noise, and lush harmonies, in a fascinatingly detailed album of creative musicianship.
Wooley, Nate
Battle Pieces 4
(Relative Pitch)
"Battle Pieces" uses trumpeter Nate Wooley's "social music" system, where each piece is constructed for a soloist who improvises with no score while the remaining player choose at will from over 75 compositions over which the soloist must find their path; here at Roulette in NYC with Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier, Ingrid Laubrock, & Matt Moran.
Eisenstadt, Harris (w/ Wooley / Hawkins / Niggenkemper)
Canada Day Quartet Live
(Clean Feed)
While staying in the village Poschiavo in Switzerland at the Uncool Artist Residency program with his wife and son, drummer/composer Harris Eisenstadt composed more than 50 single-line, three-system unison compositions and multi-voice tunes, flexible to be arranged for any size group, as heard in this all-star quartet configuration of his Canada Day ensemble.
Alcorn, Susan / Joe McPhee / Ken Vandermark
Invitation To A Dream
(Astral Spirits)
An excellent album of informed free improvisation in the debut of this masterful trio of legendary musicians spread across the US--Joe McPhee on soprano sax & pocket trumpet [NY], Ken Vandermark on tenor sax & clarinet [Chicago], and Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar [Texas], a profound album from assertive to introspective playing in seven captivating collective improvisations.
Wooley, Nate / Torben Snekkestad
Of Echoing Bronze
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
Two trumpeters--Nate Wooley from New York City, and Torben Snekkestad from Norway, also performing on soprano sax--met in Copenhagen in 2015 for this live concert "KoncertKirken--Blagards Plads", a monumental meeting of exploratory and investigative improvisation, using unusual and unorthodox techniques on their instruments to present 3 unique and singular dialogs.
Abdelnour, Christine / Chris Corsano
Quand Fond La Neige, OU Va Le Blanc ?
(Relative Pitch)
Through extended approaches to their instruments, Lebanese saxophonist Christine Abdelnour and NY drummer and slide clarinetist Chris Corsano create anomalous and unorthodox sound environments, Abdelnour making acoustics sound electronic through growls, smears and odd harmonics, while Corsano abuses an impressive palette of sound from every inch of his drums.
Baczkowski / Lopez / Corsano
Old Smoke
(Relative Pitch)
This smoking album of free jazz leads the New York trio of Steve Baczkowski on saxophone, Brandon Lopez on bass, and Chris Corsano on drums to fiery playing as they burn up the stage at Hallwall, in Buffalo, New York in 2018, over seven concise collective conversations expressing both passion, restraint, and profoundly masterful skill.
Fictive Five, The (Ochs / Wooley / Filiano / Niggenkemper / Eisenstadt)
Anything Is Possible
(Clean Feed)
A tour-de-force of modern creative jazz from the quintet of Larry Ochs on tenor & sopranino saxophones, Nate Wooley on trumpet, Ken Filiano on bass & effects, Pascal Niggenkemper on bass & effects, and Harris Eisenstadt on drums, the familiar history of the musicians and the staggering skill of each bearing out the album's title, in 2 collective and 3 Ochs compositions.



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