Jun 10, 2025 4:13 PM
Theo Croker’s Dream … Manifested!
Partway through his early set at Smoke Jazz Club, Theo Croker blinks the room back into focus. He leans over the piano.…
The Westerlies, from left: Addison Maye-Saxon, Riley Mulherkar, Andy Clausen and Chloe Rowlands.
(Photo: Ebru Yildiz)“Have you ever gotten together with 40 strangers and belted out songs for three hours?” Andy Clausen asks. “It’s a healing thing. It’s what we’re meant to do as humans, commune around beautiful experiences and feel free.”
No stranger to communal musical experiences, Brooklyn-based trombonist Clausen has spent the past 15 years with his brass quartet The Westerlies writing and performing intricate musical repertoire with the aim of bringing audiences together. From 2014’s debut album Wish The Children Would Come On Home, which reworked the repertoire of American composer Wayne Horvitz, to the gospel, jazz and Americana stylings of 2020’s Wherein Lies The Good and 2023’s Move, which paid homage to composer Nico Muhly, The Westerlies have developed a unique reputation for exploring the emotional textures of American music. On the group’s latest album, Paradise, Clausen and his bandmates are now delving into their most historic American musical tradition yet: Sacred Harp music.
Originating as hymnal music in 18th-century England, by the early 19th century these songs took root in New England and the American South thanks to their shape-note arrangements, where sheet music was arranged with different shapes to signify vocal sounds and meanings that those without any musical training could join in and learn to sing along. The 1844 publication of The Sacred Harp tunebook went on to popularize and secularize this choral music, transforming the practice of shape-note singing into an American choral folk tradition that continues today.
“I first came across shape-note singing through [singer-songwriter] Sam Amidon, since his parents are avid shape-note singers, and they recorded a definitive collection of the music in the 1970s for Nonesuch,” Clausen says over a video call from his home studio. “Sam introduced this music into his repertoire, and then we began covering those songs also. By 2020, I was heading to these shape-note sings in Brooklyn, and it was amazing to see people of all walks of life and creeds come together to produce such raw and janky music. People sing at the top of their lungs and the harmonies are so fascinating — it made me realize that this is a singular American tradition that would be perfect for The Westerlies to explore.”
Along with fellow bandmembers Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet and trombonist Addison Maye-Saxon, the group began going through the Sacred Harp hymnals to see which repertoire they could adapt and rerecord, as well as finding inspiration to write new music that could add to the tradition. The result is the 10 journeying and fascinatingly complex tracks of Paradise. Opener “Fight On” sets the tone, transforming a 19th-century Sacred Harp hymnal into a barrage of 16th-note ostinatos that bubble atop the bassy punctuation of trombone phrases, showcasing the group’s tight interplay and appetite for technical virtuosity, while other historical renditions like 1835 tune “Louisiana” produces a more lively fanfare and the haunting ballad “Parting Friends” takes on a whispering, intimate intonation.
Seamlessly interwoven with these historical interpretations are collaborations with Sam Amidon and singer Aoife O’Donovan, as well as a series of new compositions such as Clausen’s rollicking, polyrhythmic “The 5:10 To Ronkonkoma” and Rowlands’ deep-swinging, soulful melodies on “Kerhonkson.” The cumulative effect produces a record that feels both historical, yet strikingly modern; full of muscular technicality and also the type of full-throated melodies that could easily get a crowd singing along instantly.
“The way we approach any music from contemporary works by Nico Muhly to 200-year-old compositions like ‘Parting Friends’ is to simply get at the emotional core of the material,” Clausen explains. “Sometimes we have to go through radical changes to get at that core, but other times we play it as written, which is exactly what we did with the 1848 tune ‘Paradise For Petra’ on the album.”
With Amidon being the “gateway drug into shape-note singing,” as Clausen describes him, his inclusion on the album felt like a no-brainer, although it proved challenging to find a Sacred Harp song that he hadn’t already played or recorded. “One day I was sitting at my piano, and I came across this song ‘Paradise,’ which opens on the IV chord, not the I, which is something Sam does a lot of in his music, and I knew it would be perfect for him,” Clausen says. “We recorded ‘Weeping Mary’ with Aoife O’Donovan since that was a song we were already playing on tour with her a couple years ago as an encore. When we got into the studio, her first take was absolutely perfect. It’s so rare for that to happen, especially since most of her part is improvised.”
Already performing the record live across a handful of dates in 2025, Clausen has found audiences to be especially responsive, reflecting the communal nature of the shape-note songs themselves. “We’re always looking for just one person to come up to us after the show and say that the music resonated with them, and with this repertoire more and more people are doing that,” he says with a smile. “The album asks the question of what paradise means, and to us it’s gathering around art and fostering empathy, which is something music instinctually does. With the state of division especially in the U.S. today, that feels more important than ever.”
Following the release of Paradise, Clausen says the group has “at least 20 records in the pipeline” waiting to be developed and recorded. Most immediately, they will be producing a double album of unreleased material written by one of their heroes, guitarist Bill Frisell.
“Growing up, Bill Frisell’s ethos of openness in improvisation was so inspiring,” Clausen says. “He gave us a collection of material he wrote during the pandemic and said we could do whatever we wanted to it. He’s so humble, he said he wasn’t sure there would be anything good in there, but of course there’s golden nuggets in everything.”
With that project scheduled to record early next year, it seems there will be ample opportunity for audiences to continue gathering with The Westerlies, to listen, feel and ultimately heal. DB
To record Dream Manifest (Dom Recs), Croker convened artists from his current and recent past ensembles, plus special guests.
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