With its smart contemporary touches and comic book source
material, Wing Walker Orchestra's nifty debut album, Hazel, likely won't draw
comparisons to The Far East Suite. But it's no stretch to say that
writer-arranger Drew Williams' spirited East Coast ensemble owes more than a
little to the Duke Ellington masterpiece.
Williams, a native of Kansas City, was early into his
studies as a classical saxophone major at Missouri's Truman State University
when one of his professors kept after him to join the jazz improvisers on
campus.
When the professor, well-regarded saxophonist Tim AuBuchon,
succeeded in getting his promising student to participate, the results weren't
pretty. "I was terrible," Williams said. "I had never even used
a jazz mouthpiece. I couldn't play in tune."
But he kept at it, schooling himself on albums by
contemporary players his instructor told him to listen to. With its
unforgettable tones and melodies, The Far East Suite opened Williams up not
only to the glowing possibilities of playing as well as composing jazz music.
The rub was that Truman State didn't offer a jazz degree. By
time Williams decided he wanted to pursue jazz, two years into his studies, it
was too late to leave. But, he said, "It turned out to be an incredible
experience." Free of the codified approach of many jazz schools, he was
able to find his own voice at his own pace. (He also found himself with a bass
clarinet when AuBuchon, a onetime regular on the Chicago scene with two
well-received albums to his credit, sold him his vintage model for cheap.)
Now here is Williams at 30, leading an innovative 11-person
ensemble featuring some of the best young players in the country. Playing bass
clarinet exclusively on Hazel, he fulfills a dream in combining his love of
film music and his love of graphic novels by adapting Saga, the popular Star
Wars-inspired space opera of which he is enamored, as a seven-part suite.
The album, produced by Alan Ferber and released on the
ears&eyes label, also boasts intoxicating versions of Tune-Yards'
"Look Around" (from the album Nikki Nack) and as a bonus track,
Michael Attias' "Marina," one in a series of lo-fi electronic pieces
by that first-rate saxophonist.
"When I cover stuff, I'd rather blow it up and try it
from a different angle," said Williams. "On 'Look Around' the
melodies are so incredible and difficult to notate, they're hard to mimic, but
we locked into the groove and kept the groove dirty and loose. It builds to a
kind of Mingus free for all."
"Marina," regarded by its composer as too
difficult to play, did indeed prove to be a challenge for Williams and company.
But after playing it live over the course of two years, the orchestra adopted
it as one of their favorites.
Williams, who is picky about saxophonists, drafted a pair of
terrific ones to animate the music and attain the right harmonic warmth:
altoist (and clarinetist) Brad Mulholland and tenorist Eric Trudel. The band
also features trumpeters John Blevins and Danny Gouker, trombonists Karl Lyden
and Nick Grinder, guitarist Jeff McLaughlin, bassist Adam Hopkins and drummer
Nathan Ellman-Bell. Everyone leaves their mark.
Williams was born on June 29, 1988 in Lee's Summit,
Missouri. At 15, he knew he wanted to pursue music as a career. Albums
including Ben Allison's Little Things Run the World, featuring tenor
saxophonist Michael Blake, helped win him over to jazz. "It sounded more
like the rock music I was playing in high school than jazz," he said.
The deeper Williams got into playing jazz, and the more he
was exposed to other rock-influenced jazz composers including Guillermo Klein,
the more he became interested in writing it. Here, too, he struggled in the
early going. "Nothing was happening with my early pieces," he said.
"Some of what I wrote kinda worked, then it didn't, then it did, then one
day I wrote two chords and said, can we play this? Baby steps."
He experienced a breakthrough with a set of music he wrote
for a college recital. He used those pieces when he auditioned, successfully,
for New York University's Master's program in jazz composition. During his time
there, he had the great good fortune of studying with faculty heavies Ralph
Alessi, Alan Ferber and Rich Perry.
Wing Walker Orchestra, drawn partly from his NYU confreres,
came together gradually. The first song Williams composed for the band, the
edgy, ethereal "Forest Boats," was inspired by the films of Michel
Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). "I wanted to capture the
melancholy, folksy and quirky feeling of the music in these films, for which
Jon Brion did most of the scoring," he said.
With its recurring characters, layered themes and interlaced
motifs, "Forest Boats" pointed the way to Hazel. Among the
distinctive touches on the "Hazel Suite" are drum overdubs and hand
claps that boost the energy and intensity of the music.
The orchestra has provided a platform and arrangements for
the compositions of such formidable guest players as Michael Attias, Shane
Endsley, Jonathan Finlayson and Jason Palmer. The ensemble also has
collaborated with the Festival of New Trumpet Music to present two nights of
expansive sounds. And Williams has promoted Wind Walker Orchestra and the scene
it is part of (he also plays with and composes for Mister Mozart, Bolo and
Matterhorn) by hosting a podcast and compiling ear-opening mixtapes.
"I'd like to think that my music reflects all the
musical experiences I've had in my life," he said. "I played rock
music in high school, got an undergraduate degree in classical music and
acquired a Master's in jazz composition. I'm creating music that fits between
the lines."
Website: http://www.williamsdrew.com/
