The Westerlies: Move
The Westerlies Music

The Westerlies—trumpeters Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands and trombonists Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch—celebrates more than ten years of music-making with Move, as vital a statement as the New York-based brass quartet has made. Formed in 2011, the group's playing has never lacked for conviction, but re-convening after a year apart in lockdown would appear to have had an invigorating effect on the group. One detects in this recording the members' renewed appreciation for that special something that transpires when the four pool their energies. (For the record, the group was hardly dormant during the pandemic: among other releases, a live set appeared in late 2022, and two remotely recorded songbook volumes, one featuring originals and the other covers, were also issued.)

In recent years, the group has collaborated with vocalist Theo Bleckmann (This Land) and pianist Conrad Tao (Bricolage), but no guests join The Westerlies on Move, recorded at New York's Lethe Lounge during fall of 2021. The self-produced release is therefore as pure an artistic ensemble expression as possible plus a stellar document of the group's signature mix of folk, chamber classical, and jazz. It's possible to see the outfit as the brass equivalent of a classical string quartet whose range of possibilities is enhanced by an improvisational skillset. It's also not unusual for the listener to be staggered by the group's virtuosity.

Acting as a ceremonial overture of sorts to the forty-six-minute release, Nico Muhly's 2017 title piece is a work for solo piano in its original form and appears here in an arrangement fashioned by the group. Fans of hocketing will cotton immediately to the treatment, which dazzles for how effectively parts are dispersed and for how seamlessly they conjoin. Even at this early juncture, the group's playing dazzles for its precision of execution and clarity of intonation. Described by Mason Bynes as a “musically expressed love letter to Mrs. Rosa Parks,” For Rosa received its premiere at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama on the sixty-sixth anniversary of her landmark protest. The group's lustrous horn textures deepen the gracefulness of the opening and set the tone for a tribute that's as affectionate as it is regal. During the work's central section, the music snaps to attention as it transitions from elegant homage to ecstatic celebration.

Originally commissioned by Anna Edwards for The Seattle Collaborative Orchestra as an in-concert companion to Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes (from Peter Grimes), This is Water shows the group is as capable of adding credible original material to its repertoire as pieces by others. Clausen's twenty-minute work, its title evoking the commencement address David Foster Wallace gave at Kenyon College in 2005, appears in an arrangement by the trombonist for the quartet. After easing the work in gently, “Carmel” grows in urgency and briefly takes on an almost matador-like character; the oft-hushed central movement “Lopez” engages for the folk-like character that's so much a part of The Westerlies' identity (don't be surprised if your thoughts gravitate to Ives and Barber in a few places); “Harlem River” concludes the work with an adventurous excursion buoyed by hope and joy.

April 2023