Recently, I scored a box set by the World Saxophone Quartet that rekindled my attraction to their music. Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, David Murray, and Hamiet Bluiett opened up a whole new vista of music simply by combining four saxophones a capella to create a commanding sonority using saucy arrangements that left room for their spontaneity.
The Westerlies is also a group of four horns with no backing, hailing from Seattle and forming in 2011. They made an album that released in 2014 (Wish the Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz) and a second one in 2016 (The Westerlies ) with a collaboration with Dave Douglas appearing the following year (Little Giant Still Life). But the Westerlies have charted a different course than the one taken by the World Saxophone Quartet; for one, they play brass, not reeds. Further, they are more willing to step completely out of the jazz idiom and into folk forms, classical, pop music and even old spirituals. And that approach has opened up yet another vista of music that’s just as alluring as WSQ’s.
Now comes the impending arrival of the Westerlies’ third album Wherein Lies the Good. As before, Riley Mulherkar plays trumpet, while Andy Clausen and Willem De Koch handle the trombones. But now Chloe Rowlands replaces Zubin Hensler on the other trumpet.
“Weeping Mary” — the video of which is premiering above — is one of those old spirituals that’s performed on the new album. Composed in the middle of the 19th century, it’s been sung by countless gospel choirs but it was Sam Amidon’s interpretation that caught the ear of Clausen, who brought it to the band. Even hearing the more traditional arrangements, it’s not hard to figure how easily the thick harmonies can translate to a quartet of brass. Nevertheless, the Westerlies take it further by opening the melody further by layering it with rich harmonic counterpoints.
Wherein Lies the Good is coming out on January 31, 2020. Stream “Weeping Mary” here. Pre-order the album from here.
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