Wally Shoup’s music is just not for everyone, to place it evenly. However for many who have linked with it, the late Seattle saxophonist’s free-flowing sound is pure, beneficent power, and the person behind it was a robust inspiration to younger, adventurous musicians.
In improv-music circles, Shoup—who handed away on March 5—was a colossus of sound, visible artwork, and philosophical essays on music. On file and onstage, he labored with among the underground’s greatest and most creative stars: Thurston Moore, Chris Corsano, Nels Cline, Invoice Nace, Davey Williams, and others. Alongside these estimable collabs, Shoup’s actions with fellow Seattle experimental musicians was prolific and profound.
To rejoice Shoup’s prodigious accomplishments, his comrades have organized three tribute live shows this weekend: August 23 on the Royal Room; August 24 at Kenyon Corridor; and August 25 at Gallery 1412.
Born in North Carolina in 1944, Shoup carried out in a number of teams (together with Ghidra, Spider Trio, and SYCH) and led his personal combos in a recording profession that spanned from 1981 to 2024. His catalog encompasses practically three dozen releases, a lot of them now out of print and tough to seek out. Streaming companies do include a fraction of them, together with two of my favorites: 2005’s Immolation/Immersion with guitarist Cline and drummer Corsano and 2007’s Suite: Bittersweet with Cline and drummer Greg Campbell. These albums seize the total vary of Shoup’s enjoying, from melancholy mellowness to apocalyptic wailing. One other spotlight is the 2011 SYCH album, Lunar Roulette, about which I wrote in The Stranger: “Someplace within the interstices of free jazz, noise rock, and minimalist composition, Lunar Roulette harnesses a cyclonic power that is inspirational.”
Inducted into the Seattle Jazz Corridor of Fame in 2018, Shoup performed a key function in founding the Seattle Improvised Music Pageant, which grew to become the world’s longest-running occasion centered on improv music. (It is at the moment on hiatus after a 35-year run.) He additionally organized the Different Sounds live performance sequence and was a tireless activist for unconventional music within the area.
Slog is becoming a member of within the Wally love fest by compiling reward from the good man’s bandmates and buddies. He was lovingly referred to as “a fire-breathing alto saxophonist” and “the type of man who would carry you a pimiento cheese sandwich after which inform you about his current fascination with Townes Van Zandt.” I implore you not to skip the epic, perceptive, and loving paean on the finish of this publish by guitarist Invoice Horist, the artist who maybe knew Shoup greatest, exterior of Wally’s devoted companion, Shirley Wong.
Stuart Dempster (Deep Listening Band)
Wally Shoup was a one-off. I first met him when he had helped begin a freeform band in Pioneer Sq. within the mid Nineteen Eighties. I used to be not solely listening, it turned out he wished me to affix in with the bigger group. As I bear in mind, that was the beginning of one thing that caught on. Wally, and the late Paul Hoskin (contrabass clarinet), later organized common performances of the yearly Seattle Improvised Music Festivals.
In a while I noticed a few of his artwork and was intrigued, particularly as a result of my spouse Renko was an artist, and we each appreciated his work. Wally performed usually in plenty of small teams, a lot of which he was the instigator. One in all my favorites was the Campbell Shoup band—Greg Campbell and Wally Shoup—that included others. He additionally had a few of his work on the wall at Seattle’s Gallery 1412.
Once I might, I preferred the chance to affix in with a number of of Wally Shoup’s “pickup” live shows or as a part of bigger teams that included him. Certainly, as a one-off, I appreciated his musicianship, humor, and his connection to many threads of improvisers. I preferred his spirited enjoying and the encouragement he confirmed to new musicians. Godspeed, Wally. I miss you; all of us miss you…
Jeffery Taylor (Climax Golden Twins, Spider Trio, Hound Canine Taylor’s Hand, Wall of Sound co-owner)
Wally was the type of man who would carry you a pimiento cheese sandwich after which inform you about his current fascination with Townes Van Zandt. He’d cease by [Wall of Sound] each few weeks and lots of discussions concerning the vagaries of music would ensue. As with all music fan with various listening habits, these discussions had been wide-ranging. Apart from improvising collectively, these are the fondest moments I loved with Wally.
Additionally, we each dug Ben Webster. Music and Seattle’s burgeoning experimental scene was the connection, and our kinship developed via improvising with Dave Abramson in our group Spider Trio. These classes left an indelible imprint on my method to enjoying improvised music, and I’ve Wally to thank for the instigation.
Dennis Rea (Moraine, Stackpole)
I used to be launched to Wally by Doug Haire in 1987, after I’d moved again to Seattle from just a few years’ sojourn in New York to seek out {that a} vibrant improv scene had sprung up in my absence. Wally expressed a liking for my enjoying and recruited me for his early Seattle improv bands Particle Idea and Catabatics. The few gigs we performed at counterculture cafes like Free Mars and the Trigger Celebre had been truly my first experiences enjoying utterly unscripted in a stay state of affairs. I later returned the kindness by involving Wally in my exploded free-jazz band Stackpole, a uncommon exception to his standard insistence on main his personal bands or working in leaderless settings. (He didn’t final very lengthy.) We additionally restarted and co-organized the Seattle Improvised Music Pageant collectively for 10 years.
What struck me about Wally was that he eschewed the austere, reductive method that was then au courant in improv circles—what I check with as “hair-shirt improv”—in favor of a extra gutbucket, abstract-expressionist method. Whereas hewing faithfully to the pursuit of whole improvisation to the top, Wally was cautious of among the style’s sacred shibboleths, and was very a lot his personal musician. The emotional punch of his enjoying, uncommon sufficient within the skinny air of the free improvisation mythos, was his best energy.
Greg Kelley (nmperign)
I first met Wally Shoup in Seattle in 1998 on the primary cross-country tour by nmperign’s [Kelley’s group with soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey]. I used to be conscious of Wally as a fire-breathing alto saxophonist and as an affiliate of LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams and their journal, The Improviser. I knew I’d meet an acerbic, sardonic gentleman who might or might not view what nmperign was doing with some quantity of skepticism and maybe as a quiet, ascetic critique of the freewheeling aesthetic Wally was identified for. However it grew to become obvious in our discussions that these traces within the aesthetic sands had been drawn externally and that we had been each important seekers.
After that, I’d see Wally when he performed on the East Coast or on periodic visits to Seattle within the late ’90s/early ’00s. We did not play collectively till 2009 on the Seattle Improvised Music Pageant. On that journey, I spent a little bit extra time with Wally than our earlier fleeting meetups, which led to us enjoying some reveals collectively on the East Coast in 2011 and persevering with our in depth conversations concerning the state of the music domestically and internationally. Wally was all the time all for and protecting abreast of what was occurring within the improvised arts.
A month previous to shifting to Seattle for work in 2014, I met up with Wally and Invoice Horist on a pre-move exploratory go to and felt some sense of aid that I used to be not leaping right into a void by uprooting from the East Coast for the primary time in my life. Once I arrived, Wally was fast to fold me into his world and launched me to plenty of completely different improvisers, together with longtime associates and plenty of youthful, newer associates.
Although Wally had robust aesthetic convictions, his scope of musical pursuits was broad and he often sought out new voices to collaborate with. One of many final occasions we performed collectively was a January 2020 recording session with guitarist Tom Scully and drummer Casey Adams, two youthful musicians Wally knew would push him into new territory.
Wally had invited me to play a present in April 2020, however everyone knows what occurred to that. The final time I noticed him was on the finish of Might 2020, the day earlier than I moved again to the East Coast. He’d simply heard some mixes of the quartet with Tom and Casey and was excited concerning the outcomes. We talked about the potential of me flying again out for a record-release celebration, however that by no means did manifest. However these and lots of different recordings did and can manifest, so the music continues—as do Wally’s many, many work. And the youthful improvisers Wally collaborated with will proceed their very own collaborations, and the traditions and bucking in opposition to them will proceed.
Jack Gold-Molina (Flame Tree, Fraktal Phantom)
Though I had identified of Wally and his adventurous musical method for years, I first met him at Stackpole’s Earshot efficiency in 2001. I used to be blown away. Then Gregg Keplinger invited me to a gig that he and Wally had been doing on the Sundown Tavern with Reuben Radding on bass. The trio was referred to as Misplaced Valentine they usually performed so exhausting I used to be shocked that the home windows weren’t blown out of the membership. It was all free improv jazz and it smoked. Folks’s jaws had been on the ground. I recorded that gig on my transportable DAT recorder after which launched it on CD. The album is named 1, 2, 3. The shocking factor is, it is probably the greatest free-jazz albums I’ve ever heard, nevertheless it hasn’t bought nicely in any respect. Go determine!
Wally was additionally a really gifted painter and author. He revealed a e book referred to as Music as Journey. I extremely suggest it to the true poet and improvising musician. His piece, “Countering the Con,” is a traditional of free-jazz literature.
We did not all the time see eye-to-eye, however I revered him vastly. We did not gel musically after we tried to play collectively, however I’ve listened to his stuff religiously. He was all the time one of many first those that I referred to as when placing collectively a competition or a gig. Completely killer punk participant, additionally. He actually understood the depth of punk music and its relationship with free jazz and free improvisation.
One of many issues that he and I talked so much about was that being true to the follow of your artwork means not promoting out—your music, your mates, your allies, your private integrity. There was none of that discriminatory bullshit with him. He jogged my memory of Lemmy—what you see is what you get.
Beth Fleenor (Samantha Boshnack Quintet, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble)
I improvised with Wally Shoup a handful of occasions and was undeniably struck by his relentless power in sound, and all the time had large respect for him and his multi-disciplinary explorations. However probably the most personally impactful experiences I had with Wally had been across the kitchen desk in his visits with poet Margareta Waterman at Stephen Fandrich’s Spitehouse—a long-time music and art-community house. It was so significant to me, particularly 20 years in the past after I was a younger artist, to have the respect of experiencing and witnessing the palpable connection between these two longtime collaborators, who supported and challenged one another and danced via change over many many years, and all the time introduced me into the dialog, revered as a peer moderately than a “younger artist” on the time. Pure inspiration for protecting occurring this wild continuum that’s music.
Steve Schmitt (Diminished Males)
At all times been an enormous fan and was saddened at his passing. I recall seeing him with Spider Trio on this soiled basement at a celebration that gave the impression to be in an deserted home run by a bunch of sketchy punks.
I recall that at Vito’s one evening with a full band, he performed the Twin Peaks theme together with another compositional items. I had solely see him do out jazz, so I used to be pleasantly shocked after I heard him play compositional materials with such ardour. On YouTube is a low-quality video of Diminished Males enjoying on the ground on the Comet Tavern round 2010. And nonetheless to at the present time it’s my favourite clip of us [because] Wally sat in on this Kabuki-esqe quantity we nonetheless play, and simply cranked up the cool issue for the music by many levels.
Invoice Horist (Ghidra, SYCH)
I had the pleasure of assembly Wally Shoup within the mid ’90s after shifting to Seattle. Regardless of being deeply intimidated by the person, we struck up what in the end grew to become 1 / 4 century of friendship and collaboration. I used to be deeply honored to be the guitarist in a number of teams with a musician who counted different string-slingers like Nels Cline, Thurston Moore, and Davey Williams as periodic bandmates.
The person I got here to know, first as musician, then as a great good friend, was a mannequin of Twentieth-century riot. Rising up within the South, Wally started his step via the vale with formative dosages of movie noir, Black music divined at evening by transistor radio dial and later, the Beat writers. One might virtually think about him sauntering off the pages of a Pynchon novel—a personality slipping via the fissures throughout the shattered ideations of plastic midcentury fever desires (what, in his personal phrases, he referred to as “the large con”), into the Technicolor™ tightrope circus-world of radical and unbridled, self-reliant creation. A younger insurance coverage adjuster who pried his personal eyes, and in an act of iconoclastic acrobatics, made a Gauguin-pivot into free jazz and primitivist artwork and slowly migrated West.
Wally was an adamant proselytizer for freely improvised music. His robust convictions about unrestricted inventive freedom as agent of turning into touched each facet of his life (his music, writing, artwork, curating, and dealing with kids), and deeply influenced most of the individuals with whom he performed. The affect of his childhood shone via in his elucidations about artwork and riot, as did his devotion to James Carse’s e book Finite and Infinite Video games, in addition to the tarot.
A lot of this soul-scientist’s insightful quasi-sermons revolved across the “cons” and the “video games” of life and artwork—replete with the wry, oblique supply of a real Southerner. Wally was right here to play the sport, and the sport was, as he wrote in Music as Journey, his quick quantity of essays, “…to constantly play with self-created boundaries moderately than inside given ones; to play not for the sake of successful or shedding another person’s sport however to proceed enjoying…” As with phrases, he spoke in sound, playfully glancing…feinting… all the time burning vivid.
Wally’s enjoying was an encyclopedia of the incendiary. It was mild, warmth, and all its trailings and shadows. With out coaching, he had willed himself an limitless gasoline provide for a trademark searing, jet-piercing, steam-screaming that haunted a listener’s inside ear with buzzing distinction tones like your mind had turn out to be an insect, buzzing alongside together with his conjuration-concussions in brutal however rapt sympathy. Fast flaming after-charge from Tommy-gun-double-tongue hocket rockets. Wave and particle yoyo in unsure states—the equilibrium isn’t any equilibrium. Quantum jazz-cum-Stooges dances with Beefheart in a brass fission reactor—a query to the reply of overhyped fusion. Then he’d let it cool in swimming pools of velvet noir smoke, lazily drifting alongside the partitions because the ear’s after-image evanesces into the nice and cozy void. Wavering pitch-embers pulse like after-set cigarettes and blink out, swallowed in their very own oblivion. What stays because the silence returns is the glint of an outdated, ever-out-of-tune-in-the-upper-register-but-who-gives-a-flying-fuck-’cause-damn-that-was-hot, scratchy alto. The bell nonetheless glowing orange—a haunted cornucopia of fusillades.
Taking part in with Wally was all the time enjoying with the manifold iterations of fireside.
One factor that cemented our years-long music connection and the half dozen information that resulted from it was that we shared a robust sense of that radical, inventive self-reliance. Neither of us had any coaching on our respective devices. We each, at our personal factors, determined that we might play the playing cards drawn for us by an sudden oracle. A tarot studying that directed us towards an virtually quixotic pursuit into one of the crucial recondite enclaves of the musical arts—and within the absence of any institutional or educational oversight in any respect. Tapping the Tao, we referred to as it our “uncarved block” method.
Many teams and musicians have used the time period “punk jazz” to explain their or others’ turn-of- the-century amalgams. Whereas I like and was deeply impressed by music so described (listening to John Zorn’s Bare Metropolis was in some ways a life-changing occasion), I discovered that the outline rang a bit hole. In most cases, this punk jazz was created by extremely expert—and, extra notably, schooled—musicians. One in all my very own formative steps backstage of the “con” within the ’80s was to only choose up an instrument, be part of a band, start, and never get caught up within the studying of it; an method that, in my ageing conceit, and for higher or worse, nonetheless feels extra true to the spirit of punk.
In an arcane musical world the place the lion’s share of gamers took the time to be taught their instrument, whether or not by personal classes or PhDs, earlier than shifting past formal constraints, there have been just a few of us that precociously sidestepped portray the cow earlier than assaulting the canvas with unrestricted coloration. My years working with Wally was an homage to that uncarved block, to the kid inside, to that spirit of punk jazz. Even, and maybe paradoxically, in our long-standing “free-shred” trio Ghidra (with the Accüsed drummer Mike Peterson), it was Mike, the precise punk-rock drummer (and a lot extra), who knew far more about enjoying his instrument than we did.
Later in my life, my lack of understanding had a profound impact on my confidence and dedication to enjoying as usually as I had. After 20 years of enjoying guitar, I stepped again 10 years in the past to truly find out how—and now educate. However Wally by no means equivocated, by no means blinked on the blinding uncertainty that may rise over any of our horizons. And that was and can proceed to be an inspiration to me. Though I do know rather more than I did, I search the uncarved area and nonetheless play freely improvised music, utterly forgetting every little thing I’ve since discovered within the second.
And that will likely be one in every of Wally’s ever-renewing reward to me. Geared up with radical self-reliance, Wally performed and impressed us to play our personal video games—collectively. At size, he finally earned well-deserved however usually inadequate accolades alongside the best way, his rough-edged, playful, and unstoppable drive obvious to all. Whilst he was awarded a “Lifetime Achievement” award by Earshot Jazz, his drive was acknowledged when he was launched with admiration to the group as “Wally Fucking Shoup.”
Wally was additionally an especially lucky particular person. Dwelling an uncompromising life as artist does are inclined to require robust and constant assist, and he actually had it in Shirley Wong, his long-term companion, who believed within the worth of his imaginative and prescient and with out whom his life and dying would have been rather more tough and dire. Radical self-reliance can solely go to date, and Wally’s success can’t be actually assessed with out acknowledging and appreciating the years of unwavering and, at occasions, tough dedication and sacrifice Shirley made on his behalf.
And, bolstered by such help, eventual admiration, and infrequently awe, Wally performed his sport and countered the con in a means that was uncommon in its time and much more so now. A lifelong dedication to the uncarved block in sound, coloration, and phrase. And another time, the phrases of the person himself, [from his book, Music as Adventure], “Anybody can improvise (refuting arguments that it’s elitist) however not everybody can proceed to improvise.” Wally actually did each with limitless aplomb.
