[TR24][OF] Nate Wooley - Argonautica - 2016 (Free Jazz, Modern Jazz, Experimental)

Nate Wooley: Trumpet
Ron Miles: Cornet
Cory Smythe: Piano
Jozef Dumoulin: Fender Rhodes and Electronics
Devin Gray: Drums
Rudy Royston: Drums

Argonautica is a new project that combines elements of aleatoric and minimalist compositional aesthetics and forces them the prism of early fusion (when jazz/rock was dirty). Designed as an homage to Wooley’s early trumpet hero, Ron Miles, Argonautica seeks to find a new way to tell a story begun on the latter’s “My Cruel Heart” from the early 90s. The group is a double trio with Wooley and Miles on trumpets, new music firebrand Cory Smythe on piano, avant-electro keyboard whiz Jozef Dumoulin, and Rudy Royston and Devin Gray on drums. The compositions, written especially for this concert, set up swirling asymmetrical hockets and soundspaces that give flexibility to the musical personalities of each member of the band. It is an organism, moving in part or in toto, sometimes in two directions at once, but always with purpose.

Argonautica is a sonic analog to the epic poem of the same name. Built in three parts, or chapters, the music makes oblique reference to dodecaphony, ambient tape music, and the driving minimalist rock of Terry Riley. It was conceived and written as a tribute to Wooley’s mentor Ron Miles, who plays the lyrical cornet role to the leader’s more caustic trumpet voice. The rhythm section is equally balanced with Grammy award winning new music pianist Cory Smythe in tandem with Belgian Fender-Rhodes legend Jozef Dumoulin and the brash upstart free jazz drumming of Devin Gray interlocking with the fiery precision of Rudy Royston. The group is compositionally set in different duos and trios, working together and separately throughout the fifty-plus minutes of music to slowly build to a shattering climax that raises the question of what jazz-rock can be in the twenty-first century.

Nate Wooley: Argonautica****
By KARL ACKERMANN
August 8, 2016
Trumpeter Nate Wooley is among the most exploratory and esoteric players/composers in creative improvisation along with fellow trumpeter/cornetists Rob Mazurek and Peter Evans. Wooley's catalog ranges from the wildly free The Nows (Clean Feed Records, 2011), a quartet that included Ken Vandermark and Paul Lyton, to the Bojan Vuleti composed chamber work, Atemwende (Ignoring Gravity Music, 2013) with the Mivos String Quartet). But Wooley's real eclecticism has shone in his works as a leader—particularly in recent years—with the minimalist solo experimentation of The Almond (Pogus Productions, 2011) and the nineteen-person ensemble on Seven Storey Mountain V (Pleasure Of Text Records, 2016). Somewhere in between, both stylistically and in terms of head-count, is Argonautica.
The solitary forty-three minute track that makes up the album is Wooley's tribute to trumpeter Ron Miles, an influential mentor to Wooley during his time as a student in Denver. Miles—a member of this group—has produced a markedly different body of work throughout his long career, in comparison to Wooley. The former has often applied his talents to a particularly Americana style of jazz as evidenced in his numerous projects with Bill Frisell but Miles is no less an innovator, just a different style of innovator.
The two trumpeters are part of a conjoint double trio with Wooley's group of pianist Cory Smythe and Devin Gray on drums and Miles trio with Jozef Dumoulin on Fender Rhodes and electronics and drummer Rudy Royston. Miles' contemplative style and Wooley's somewhat more forceful method mesh beautifully even through frequent alterations to the overall atmosphere.
The title track fades out and into three breaks beginning with Wooley's tentative-turned abstract solo. Piano, keyboards and drums join in as the piece takes a more lyrical—but edgy—turn and then begins to unleash its energy with more aggressive percussion and electronics. Smythe leads in the next section tranquilly but Wooley's high pitch sets the piano on edge as a torrent of notes intermingles with the trumpet and then both cool off to a near silence. Scratching, scraping electronics usher in the final part, punctuated by a more heavy-handed Smythe, eventually veering off to a bop oriented rhythm. Trumpet and cornet meet up as an almost eerie complement to each other, holding off a swirl of drums and electronics to the conclusion.
Argonautica is saturated in a variety of atmospheres, sometimes in a haze, other times with the intensity of a storm. Whether melodic or noisy, there is a coherent momentum that binds the freest improvisations to lyrical passages, eschewing prescribed limitations of composition and the conventional boundaries of instruments. Argonautica is yet another ambitious and beautifully realized work from Wooley, who just keeps moving the needle forward with every project.
Track Listing: Argonautica.
Personnel: Nate Wooley, trumpet; Ron Miles, cornet; Cory Smythe, piano; Jozef Dumoulin, Fender Rhodes and electronics; Rudy Royston, drums; Devin Gray, drums.
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Firehouse 12 Records | Style: Modern Jazz

Nate Wooley - Argonautica (Firehouse 12 Records, 2016) ****
Monday, July 18, 2016
By Lee Rice Epstein
Argonautica is yet another fascinating Nate Wooley project that’s been around for years but is only just now being recorded. As described by Firehouse 12: “Argonautica is a sonic analog to the epic poem of the same name. Built in three parts, or chapters, the music makes oblique reference to dodecaphony, ambient tape music, and the driving minimalist rock of Terry Riley.” Argonautica is dedicated to Ron Miles, though it owes a huge debt to Miles Davis and early-to-mid-’70s fusion, with its thick drums, double piano-keyboard middle, and piercing trumpet and cornet.
Wooley’s described the group as a double trio. One trio is Wooley on trumpet, Cory Smythe (a staple of Tyshawn Sorey’s trio and double trio) on piano, and Devin Gray on drums. The second trio is Miles on cornet, with Jozef Dumoulin (who also plays in Bureau of Atomic Tourism) on Fender Rhodes and various electronics, and Rudy Royston on drums. Royston’s presence is also a call back to his playing on Miles’s My Cruel Heart, which Wooley cites as a reference point (and which is criminally out of print, being a Gramavision title). On record, the trios sounds more fluid and cohesive than the description implies, with each player seeming to slide effortlessly from trio to trio.
A single, unbroken track, “Argonautica” opens on Miles unaccompanied, with the band members gradually filling in from the bottom up. Dumoulin brings a hefty dose of funk, and the drummers lock in a classic fusion-y jazz/rock groove. The whole first third is fairly straight, with Miles, Dumoulin, and Wooley alternately soloing and playing the melody. It’s the second third that gets truly expansive, with muted brass improvising, as snippets of the melody bubble up and fade away before they can coalesce. During a piano solo, there’s almost an inner call-and-response, with Smythe’s right and left hand playing off each other dramatically. The doubling motif returns when Wooley and Miles play a long, barely-accompanied duet improvisation. In the last part, Wooley and Miles play a gorgeous unison, Davis-inspired melody, while Dumoulin and Smythe loop a unison counter melody. Twinning the brass line is particularly effective, and Wooley really shows his respect for Miles here, with a melody that blends warmth and atonality, in a way Miles perfected during his career. Gray and Royston lay down fierce, driving beats, ultimately pulling the band apart, leading to a slow denouement of long tones and fading keyboard runs.
Argonautica is a heavy slab and shows yet another side to Wooley. Outside of BOAT, I don’t recall him going quite as deep into jazz/rock territory, but it so comfortably fits his compositional mode. The small duos and trios tucked into a larger piece, the way threads of melody come together and pull apart, all these emerging hallmarks of his style and interests really benefit from the boost of energy injected by Gray, Royston, and especially Dumoulin. Unsurprisingly, this would make a killer BOAT album, and I would love to hear that group also tackle “Argonautica.” It’s a composition that’s definitely ripe for multiple interpretations.

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