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Nate Wooley

July 27, 2015

Meet FONT Music 2015 Curator: NATE WOOLEY

nate wooley
Nate Wooley

On September 28, the FONT Music Festival will be hosting one of two nights featuring three trumpet “Visionaries” on the jazz scene today including Joe Moffett, Jaimie Branch and Leo Hardman-Hill (more on them in coming blog posts) at Downtown Music Gallery (Purchase tickets here).  Curating the evening is another leading voice in creative trumpet world, Nate Wooley.  We wanted to give a quick spotlight on this unique voice in the trumpet world and hear his thoughts on his curatorial picks and his idea of “Visionary”:

A Note from Nate:

“The term “visionary” comes with a lot of baggage. Who is to say which ways of thinking will prove to be visionary and which will be well intentioned ideas that never quite make it. For that very reason there are many that don’t take the opportunity to find their own musical and aesthetic limits, whether it is with the idea of staking a claim as a “visionary” or not. The three trumpet players I chose for this series are the ones that are taking the chance and are heavily engaged in an attempt to push beyond the already possible systems of playing to form a new one that is best suited to who they are and what they think.”

More about Nate:

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. He 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”.

To find out more about Nate, visit: http://natewooley.com/

Check out a video on Nate’s project with Ron Miles “Argonautica” here:

Be sure to check out the full schedule of 2015 FONT Music Festival Here!

 

August 24, 2011

CELEBRATE KENNY WHEELER AT THE JAZZ STANDARD

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THE 9TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NEW TRUMPET MUSIC
CELEBRATES TRUMPETER/COMPOSER KENNY WHEELER AT THE JAZZ STANDARD

 (New York City, NY) – JAZZ STANDARD, one of the nation’s premier jazz clubs, presents the 9th Annual Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) series, “Kenny Wheeler Celebration,” from Thursday, October 20, through Sunday, October 23, 2011. Program schedule and artist bios are outlined below.

The FONT series celebrates Kenny Wheeler, one of the most creative and iconic of progressive trumpeters. Wheeler, a Canadian residing in the UK since 1952, celebrated his 81st birthday this year. He will make a rare New York appearance in this series devoted to his music and vision.

The Festival also presents a cadre of progressive New York trumpeters, among them Ingrid Jensen, Shane Endsley, Nate Wooley, Jonathan Finlayson, Tony Kadleck, and Jon Owens. As part of this celebration, Kenny Wheeler will be featured with Ingrid Jensen + Brass, will play his music alongside John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, and will also convene a New York Quintet, featuring Jon Irabagon, Craig Taborn, Matt Brewer, and Rudy Royston.

Kenny Wheeler commented on being honored by FONT Music and returning to NYC:  I first came to New York in the late 40′s. I was with a big band attached to the American forces and I had joined with the sole purpose of getting to New York. I just wanted to find and maybe talk to Miles. I couldn’t find him but in the process I had a really short (even for me) conversation with Charlie Parker. I was so disappointed I had missed Miles that it wasn’t until hours later I realized I had actually spoken to Bird! By that time though New York had gone from being in my head to being in my blood, heart and soul. It’s where most of the Jazz I listened to before and after that trip was born.

Although I have played in New York a few times over the years every time I come back I still feel the same excitement I felt that first time I visited all those years ago. For me New York is the place to play. The fact that I am being honored with a New York week and that so many fantastic trumpet players are involved is overwhelming. I am so proud and, before my nerves get the better of me, I would just like to say thank you to all of the people who have put this event together and thank you to New York for giving me the opportunity to come back and play here again.

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