In 2019, trumpet genius Nate Wooley put forth an album that opened up a new phase in an already-fruitful career. Columbia Icefield introduced an electrified band that defied expectations of how a group of jazz musicians playing electrified instruments is supposed to be configured and sound.
Seven years later, his Columbia Icefield quartet bows with its last album that bravely makes its final statement with heavy hearts but absolutely nothing left on the table.
This swan song, A Silence Opens (Out Of Your Head Records), packs a double emotional punch. The first vector is a tribute to Wooley’s mentor and friend, the late, great cornetist Ron Miles. But the second gut punch came quite unexpectedly when — as Columbia Icefield was completing recording this album — the band’s legend pedal steel player Susan Alcorn suddenly passed away.
Before she left us, Alcorn combined with Wooley (trumpet and amplifier), Ava Mendoza (electric guitar) and Ryan Sawyer (drums and shakers) to put their unique stamp on highly improvised jazz that puts passion above technical prowess, despite having plenty of the latter. Being among Alcorn’s very last recordings adds poignancy when hearing her pedal steel. As she’s done throughout her impactful career, she gave it her all, which makes the loss all the more devastating.
Three of the songs performed on A Silence Opens are Miles’ compositions, in accordance of the intent to commemorate him. Wooley opens “Howard Beach” with a moving, solemn trumpet invocation, accompanied by Mendoza’s lightly strummed chords as the melody moves into another moment of solitude. Mendoza then turns on the fuzztone, signaling the transition into the meat of the composition with the guitarist and Sawyer throwing off rock vibes as Wooley and Alcorn form an opposing, ruminative force. Eventually though, Wooley lets go as the song tumbles into free-form, dissolving into an electronically-enhancing sonic mist.
Like “Howard Beach,” “Darken My Door” goes through distinct phases. Sawyer’s shakers alone quietly kicks this off with Mendoza guitar briefly interjecting. When Sawyer moves to the drums, the whole band enters, soon making way for Alcorn’s feature. Here, she shows why she was unparalleled on the pedal steel, winding her way down twisting pathways, up and down sharp inclines and landing at the perfect arrival points that you couldn’t have possibly anticipated. Mendoza had a tough act to follow but she proves to be equally fearless, casting the dark, menacing pall the song calls for until Woooley takes it out on a more hopeful modality.
Mendoza gets the honors to launch “You Taste,” showing off a her unique style of combining caustic tone with exposed beauty. She rocks hard when the remaining three join in, Wooley’s extended lines adding a lonesome element apart from the unbridled energy swirling around. Alcorn, surprising us right up to the end, uncorks a heavy metal-type pedal steel solo that writes the first, middle and last chapters of the book on how to use this instrument in a raw, heavily amplified setting.
“We Say Goodbye Twice” is the only composition offered by Wooley for this record, commencing with Alcorn’s pitch-bending pedal steel, prowling like a lion and then softly glowing like the dying embers of a fire.
It segues into a classic American folk tune “Wildwood Flower,” and it’s here where Wooley does some of his most amazing trumpet work, starting with the faithful tracing of the lyric lines portraying just the right affection, but he deftly uses that as a springboard to go off into some bop-based free improv with Sawyer that retains all the lyricism.
It was decided by the surviving members of the band to honor their fallen bandmate in a way very individualistic to her. They knew of Alcorn’s fondness for the Chilean protest song “El Derecho,” and they play a short rendition of the song in five different arrangements. Mendoza sings alone on one version (her earnest delivery of the lyrics left the biggest impact on me), while a choir of friends Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock, Wendy Eisenberg, gabby fluke-mogul, Laura Ortman and Patrick Holmes sing on another. Wooley layers gobs of lush trumpets for one interpretation and two other renditions involve Wooley using feet while humming.
A Silence Opens teaches us twice over that the soul of an artist never dies, it’s simply transferred to the art they make. And how that art is interpreted by others speak to the personal connection between the artists still on Earth and those who have gone beyond Earth.
Get A Silence Opens today from Bandcamp.
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