Move The Westerlies

• Nico Muhly (b. 1981): Move:
• 1 Muhly: Move 03:04
• Caroline Shaw (b. 1982): Entr'acte:
• 2 Shaw: Entr'acte 11:56
• Mason Bynes (b. 1997): For Rosa:
• 3 Bynes: For Rosa 11:24
• Andy Clausen: This Is Water I:
• 4 Clausen: This Is Water I: Carmel 06:10
• This Is Water II:
• 5 Clausen: This Is Water II: Lopez 07:05
• This Is Water III:
• 6 Clausen: This Is Water III: Harlem River 06:35
• Total Runtime 46:14

Info for Move

This album is something we never thought possible when we played our first notes together a decade ago. It pushed us to the brink of our abilities, and forced us to find sounds and extended techniques we didn’t know existed. It challenged us emotionally, forcing us to confront our purpose as an ensemble after spending over a year apart in lockdown. More than anything, it revealed to us – in small, sacred moments — a world of possibility for the next decade and more.

At the heart of this album is Caroline Shaw’s string quartet Entr’acte. We immediately fell in love with the piece upon hearing it performed by Attacca Quartet on a snowy night in Brooklyn in 2016, and with Caroline’s blessing, we spent years translating every pizzicato and ponticello through our four horns. The result is something that captures everything we love about the original piece, and at the same time feels completely our own.

The album takes its name from Nico Muhly’s 2017 work for solo piano, celebrating one of our heroes, Bob Hurwitz. We have long been a fan of Nico’s writing, but had never tried adapting his music until now. We divided it in hockets: each Westerly acting with the independence of a single finger on a piano key, but with the greater cohesion of one hand.

For Rosa, by Mason Bynes, was co-commissioned by the Festival of New Trumpet Music and The Westerlies in 2020, and premiered in-person at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama on the 66th Anniversary of her historic protest. Mason describes the piece as a “musically expressed love letter to Mrs. Rosa Parks,” and we are so proud to present it here as our first commission.

Original music has been a core part of our identity since our early days as a band, and Andy Clausen raises the bar with his three-movement work This is Water. Originally commissioned for full orchestra as a companion piece to Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Andy adapted it for The Westerlies to showcase the ensemble's full range of expression from ten years of exploration.

The Westerlies:
Riley Mulherkar, trumpet
Chloe Rowlands, trumpet
Andy Clausen, trombone
Willem de Koch, trombone

The Westerlies
are a New York based brass quartet comprised of four friends from Seattle, Washington. Avid explorers of cross-genre territory, The Westerlies are a collectively run ensemble dedicated to the cultivation of a new brass quartet repertoire that exists in the ever-narrowing gap between American folk music, jazz, classical, and indie rock. The Westerlies have premiered over 40 original works for brass quartet since their inception in 2011, and crafted an approach that Dave Douglas had described as “Swinging, grooving, clean and tricky playing. This is the group that, once you’ve heard them, you’ll realize they always needed to exist. Unique, original, exciting. And simply killing in the best sense.” The Westerlies music exudes the warmth of their longstanding friendships, and reflects the broad interests of its members.

Their 2012 - 13 Season included engagements at The Festival of New Trumpet Music, Juilliard in Aiken Festival, The Juilliard School, Shapeshifter Lab, and The Earshot Jazz Festival, and collaborations with Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell and Juilliard Dance. In addition, The Westerlies were invited to perform the music of Wayne Horvitz at The Stone in May 2013. The project was later recorded during the The Westerlies annual residency on Lopez Island, WA and will be released on Songlines Recordings May 13th, 2014.

Riley Mulherkar has been recognized by the New Yorker as a “brilliant teen-aged trumpeter,” and in 2011 was named as a “rising jazz artist” by Wynton Marsalis in JET Magazine. Born and raised in Seattle, Riley is in his 4th year of study at The Juilliard School.

Zubin Hensler is a Brooklyn-based trumpeter, composer and chief electronic music producer for Mason Jar Music. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music, he has performed with The New York Composers Orchestra, Wayne Horvitz, Abigail Washburn, the Wood Brothers, and Adam Larson.

Andy Clausen is a NYC-based trombonist, composer and current Juilliard student. An active bandleader since 14, Clausen has released two albums of original music, and performed alongside Wynton Marsalis, Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Andrew D’angelo and Kurt Elling.

Willem de Koch is a trombonist, composer, and current student at the Manhattan School of Music. Willem has shared the stage with Seattle Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, Wayne Horvitz, Miguel Zenon, and George Duke, and played under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Masur, George Manahan, and Gerard Schwarz.

This album contains no booklet.