Thursday 4 October 2018, 7.30pm
Comprising three improvisers with backgrounds in jazz, modern classical music, and rock, HTrio breathes new life into the classic tenor Sax / Bass / Drums format. Nate Wooley joins the group for a UK tour.
Nate Wooley is one of the rising stars of the American experimental scene, a trumpet virtuoso whose musical explorations have taken him through ecstatic jazz, free improvisation, drone composition, and noise into a place very much his own, characterised by intense dynamics, an acute awareness of space, and a complex and organic sense of structure. Recent collaborators include John Zorn, Chris Corsano, Akron/Family, Peter Evans, Wolf Eyes, Joe Morris, and Evan Parker.
“A word or two is in order about Wooley’s approach to his instrument. While the spatial innovations of Bill Dixon and Wadada Leo Smith are certainly referenced, the humor of Lester Bowie is also in evidence, and I even hear the chronologically disparate but equally luscious tones of Tony Friscella and Arve Henrikson on occasion. An extraordinary listen.” - Marc Medwin, Dusted Magazine
Tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip emerged in the mid-2000s as a key player on the London jazz scene, gigging nationally and internationally with groups including Outhouse, Nostalgia 77, Jonathan Bratoeff Quartet and Twelves, and has appeared on over 30 recordings on labels including Babel, F-iRE, Tru Thoughts, FMR and Tombed Visions. Now based in the north, he co-leads organ trio The Revival Room with keyboardist Adam Fairhall, plays in trio with laptop wizard Federico Reuben and drum legend Paul Hession, and is touring with his improvising group HTrio plus guest US trumpeter Nate Wooley. He is also engaged in doctoral practice-led research into generative systems for improvised music at York University.
Otto Willberg plays various bass instruments and lives in London. Live, Otto performs unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. Strangely abstracted funk and fusion, a blend of the abstruse and immediate. silky smooth, luxurious, odd and compelling, "like listening to Eberhard Weber through a drainpipe”.
Otto is often heard on acoustic and electric bass with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete//This Heat), as well as the fractured No Wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort.
He has a solo record called ’The Leisure Principle’ out on Oren Ambarchi's the Black Truffle label. 6 unashamedly melodic & profoundly strange workouts for heavily filtered bass harmonica & electric bass!
Drummer from Standish, Lancashire based in Manchester since 2004 with a special interest in improvisation. Appeared on numerous releases with free rock group Desmadrados Soldados de Ventura and offshoot duo Yerba Mansa. Plays and tours regularly with Irma Vep and has performed one-off gigs with Rhys Chatham, Damo Suzuki and others. Toured the UK with Nate Wooley (& H Trio) in 2018 and Alan Wilkinson (as a duo) in 2017. Had tours funded by Arts Council England, Jazz Services & Jazz North’s Northern Line scheme. In 2019 will be touring in a new quartet with Julie Kjaer/David Birchall/Hannah Marshall & in duo with Eugene Chadbourne. Co-organises the monthly gig series Curious Ear in Manchester with David Birchall.
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