Wally Shoup
Encyclopedia
Wally Shoup is an American
jazz
alto saxophonist
and painter. Based in Seattle, Washington since 1985, Shoup is a mainstay of that city's improvised music scene. Seattle Metropolitan
named him one of the 50 most influential musicians in that city's history.
Born in North Carolina
, and raised in Charlotte
, Initially working as a schoolteacher, Shoup moved Atlanta, Georgia
in the late 1960s, then to Colorado
in 1970. There, he first lived in Manitou Springs
and later in Colorado Springs
.
By his own account, Shoup "grew up listening to black music in the South, the blues
and jazz and R&B
," was "introduced to free jazz in the late '60s… in Atlanta". Although his "voice is definitely influenced by African-American music" he "kind of felt like free jazz was the domain of black musicians." Hearing Britain's Music Improvisation Company, "he simultaneously discovered free improvisation
and his calling as a musician."
"It wasn't jazz-based," he would say in 2003." They were trying to find some new ways of improvising. I realized that was the kind of music I wanted to know about, and the only way I could know more about it was by playing it."
While in Colorado, Shoup had a three-hour weekly show on KRCC, the Colorado College
radio station, where by Jason Heller's account (2003) he played jazz and experimental music from his own extensive collection, and "began using the studio itself as an instrument, manipulating multiple turntables and mixing in guest musicians who would improvise over the records…" Describing a band he organized during this period, the Creative Music Ensemble (active circa 1973–74), Shoup later said, "I was still developing some chops on the sax, so I wasn't a player yet; I was just the instigator. I had them play a number of gigs, and it just outraged and pissed people off. … People didn't know what to make of it. It was kind of like Mahavishnu meets Merzbow
or something."
In 1975 he became an active organizer, deejay, and player of music merging free jazz
, free improvisation and noise
. After deciding he was ready to play the saxophone as a performer, he formed his first trio, in Colorado, with Ross Rabin and Keith Gardner, incorporating contact microphone
s on metal objects to create "noisescapes." He released his first album, Scree-Run Waltz in 1981.
In 1983 he moved to Birmingham, Alabama
where he performed with Trans Duo (Davey Williams
and LaDonna Smith
), wrote for the Improvisor magazine and worked with dancer Mary Horn, with whom he toured European in 1985, after which he moved to Seattle.
Shortly after arriving in Seattle, Shoup became an early organizer of that city's Improvised Music Festival, which began that year, and which is now the United States' longest-running improvised music festival. Among the groups he performed with there were the New Art Orchestra and Catabatics. In 2010 he will participate in and help organize the 25th anniversary Seattle Improvised Music Festival.
In 1994 he and cellist
Brent Arnold formed Project W, who would eventually open for Sonic Youth
in Seattle in 1998. Writing in 1999, Andrew Bartlett described this as "Shoup's most vaunted ensemble… whose debut CD of the same name on the Apraxia label has become the stuff of legend." Bartlett singled out their emphasis on relatively short pieces as unusual for free improvisors.
Shoup has done two CDs
with Thurston Moore
of Sonic Youth Hurricane Floyd (Subliminal, 2000) and Live at Tonic (Leo Records, 2003) with Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano
. He has also made two recordings with Nels Cline
of Wilco
: Immolation/Immersion (CD, 2005) and Suite: Bittersweet (LP, 2007), both on Strange Attractors Audio House.
Shoup formed the Wally Shoup Trio in 2001 with bassist Reuben Radding and drummer Bob Rees. Speaking of his work in 2003, Shoup said, "I'm not quite as abstract as I used to be. On my new stuff, I'll play motifs and melodies and occasionally even a tune … I see noise as just another element to play with, just another texture or color or detail." More recent projects include Spider Trio (with Jeffery Taylor and Dave Abramson) and the Wally Shoup Quartet (with Gust Burns, Bob Rees and Paul Kikuchi).
Among the festivals where Shoup has performed are the Vancouver Jazz Festival (Vancouver, B.C.), Earshot Jazz Festival
(Seattle), Le Weekend (Scotland), Birmingham Improvised Music Festival (Birmingham, Alabama
), Seattle Improvised Music Festival and Open-Circuit Interact (Belgium). In 2007 he received a City of Seattle Arts grant in to work on improvised music, and in 2009 Seattle Metropolitan Magazine named him one of the 50 most influential musicians in that city's history.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
alto saxophonist
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and painter. Based in Seattle, Washington since 1985, Shoup is a mainstay of that city's improvised music scene. Seattle Metropolitan
Seattle Metropolitan
Seattle Metropolitan, or Seattle Met, is a monthly, local magazine for Seattle, Washington. Its first issue was published in March 2006 and features reporting and feature articles on Seattle events, people, dining and restaurants, popular places and attractions.-Staff:Editor-in-chief Katherine...
named him one of the 50 most influential musicians in that city's history.
Born in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, and raised in Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, Initially working as a schoolteacher, Shoup moved Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
in the late 1960s, then to Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
in 1970. There, he first lived in Manitou Springs
Manitou Springs, Colorado
The city of Manitou Springs is a Home Rule Municipality located in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,980 at the 2000 census.Students are served by Manitou Springs School District 14 and Manitou Springs High School....
and later in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
.
By his own account, Shoup "grew up listening to black music in the South, the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
," was "introduced to free jazz in the late '60s… in Atlanta". Although his "voice is definitely influenced by African-American music" he "kind of felt like free jazz was the domain of black musicians." Hearing Britain's Music Improvisation Company, "he simultaneously discovered free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
and his calling as a musician."
"It wasn't jazz-based," he would say in 2003." They were trying to find some new ways of improvising. I realized that was the kind of music I wanted to know about, and the only way I could know more about it was by playing it."
While in Colorado, Shoup had a three-hour weekly show on KRCC, the Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...
radio station, where by Jason Heller's account (2003) he played jazz and experimental music from his own extensive collection, and "began using the studio itself as an instrument, manipulating multiple turntables and mixing in guest musicians who would improvise over the records…" Describing a band he organized during this period, the Creative Music Ensemble (active circa 1973–74), Shoup later said, "I was still developing some chops on the sax, so I wasn't a player yet; I was just the instigator. I had them play a number of gigs, and it just outraged and pissed people off. … People didn't know what to make of it. It was kind of like Mahavishnu meets Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...
or something."
In 1975 he became an active organizer, deejay, and player of music merging free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, free improvisation and noise
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
. After deciding he was ready to play the saxophone as a performer, he formed his first trio, in Colorado, with Ross Rabin and Keith Gardner, incorporating contact microphone
Contact microphone
A contact microphone, otherwise known as a pickup or a piezo, is a form of microphone designed to sense audio vibrations through solid objects. Unlike normal air microphones, contact mics act as transducers which pick up vibrations and convert them into a voltage which can then be made audible...
s on metal objects to create "noisescapes." He released his first album, Scree-Run Waltz in 1981.
In 1983 he moved to Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
where he performed with Trans Duo (Davey Williams
Davey Williams (musician)
Davey Williams is an American free improvisation and avant-garde music guitarist. In addition to his solo work, he has been noted for his membership in Curlew and his collaborations with LaDonna Smith.-Biography:...
and LaDonna Smith
LaDonna Smith
LaDonna Smith is an American avant garde musician from Alabama . She is a violinist, violist, and pianist. Since 1974 she has been performing free improvisational music with musicians such as Davey Williams, Gunther Christmann, Anne Lebaron, Derek Bailey, Eugene Chadbourne, Misha Feigin, Michael...
), wrote for the Improvisor magazine and worked with dancer Mary Horn, with whom he toured European in 1985, after which he moved to Seattle.
Shortly after arriving in Seattle, Shoup became an early organizer of that city's Improvised Music Festival, which began that year, and which is now the United States' longest-running improvised music festival. Among the groups he performed with there were the New Art Orchestra and Catabatics. In 2010 he will participate in and help organize the 25th anniversary Seattle Improvised Music Festival.
In 1994 he and cellist
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
Brent Arnold formed Project W, who would eventually open for Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
in Seattle in 1998. Writing in 1999, Andrew Bartlett described this as "Shoup's most vaunted ensemble… whose debut CD of the same name on the Apraxia label has become the stuff of legend." Bartlett singled out their emphasis on relatively short pieces as unusual for free improvisors.
Shoup has done two CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
with Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
of Sonic Youth Hurricane Floyd (Subliminal, 2000) and Live at Tonic (Leo Records, 2003) with Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano
Chris Corsano
Chris Corsano is a drummer from New England, USA. He often performs in an improvisation duo with saxophonist Paul Flaherty. He has also recorded material with artists such as Evan Parker, Dredd Foole, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Six Organs of Admittance, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Matt Valentine,...
. He has also made two recordings with Nels Cline
Nels Cline
Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...
of Wilco
Wilco
Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
: Immolation/Immersion (CD, 2005) and Suite: Bittersweet (LP, 2007), both on Strange Attractors Audio House.
Shoup formed the Wally Shoup Trio in 2001 with bassist Reuben Radding and drummer Bob Rees. Speaking of his work in 2003, Shoup said, "I'm not quite as abstract as I used to be. On my new stuff, I'll play motifs and melodies and occasionally even a tune … I see noise as just another element to play with, just another texture or color or detail." More recent projects include Spider Trio (with Jeffery Taylor and Dave Abramson) and the Wally Shoup Quartet (with Gust Burns, Bob Rees and Paul Kikuchi).
Among the festivals where Shoup has performed are the Vancouver Jazz Festival (Vancouver, B.C.), Earshot Jazz Festival
Earshot Jazz
Earshot Jazz is a regional jazz non-profit organization in Seattle Washington. The organization publishes a free monthly journal in the Seattle area and hosts numerous jazz related events annually. The most prominent annual event is the Earshot Jazz Festival in October and November which started in...
(Seattle), Le Weekend (Scotland), Birmingham Improvised Music Festival (Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
), Seattle Improvised Music Festival and Open-Circuit Interact (Belgium). In 2007 he received a City of Seattle Arts grant in to work on improvised music, and in 2009 Seattle Metropolitan Magazine named him one of the 50 most influential musicians in that city's history.
Partial discography
- The Levitation Shuffle (Clean Feed Records, 2007) - quartet with Reuben Radding, Greg Campbell, and Gust Burns
- Bounced Check (Tyyfus Records, LP, 2007) - trio with Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty
- Suite: Bittersweet (Strange Attractors Audio House, LP, 2007) - trio with Nels Cline and Greg Campbell
- Blue Purge (Leo Records, CD, 2004) - trio with Reuben Radding and Bob Rees
- Confluxus (Leo Records, CD, 2004) - trio with Toshi Makihara and Brent Arnold
- Live at Tonic (Leo Records, CD, 2003) - quartet with Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, andChris Corsano
- Fusillades and Lamentations (Leo Records, CD, 2003) - trio with Reuben Radding and Bob Rees
- Stackpole (First World, CD, 2001) - quartet led and recorded by Dennis Rea
- Hurricane Floyd (Sublingual, CD, 2000) - live recording with Thurston Moore and Toshi Makihara
- Project W (Apraxia, CD, 1994) - trio with Brent Arnold and Ed Pias
- Scree-Run Waltz (Too Sound, LP, 1981) - duo with Ross Rabin
Publications
- Music As Adventure: The Collected Writings of Wally Shoup (2011), Nine Muses Books, ISBN 1-878888-70-6
External links
- Seattle Improvised Music
- the Seattle Improvised Music Festival: A History, Seattle Improvised Music Festival, 2006.
- An hour-long set of free improvisation by Shoup, recorded live on KEXPKEXPKEXP-FM is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with Paul Allen's Experience Music Project...
's Sonarchy Radio.