Andrew Bartlett - The Encyclopedia of Northwest Music Wally Shoup's most vaunted ensemble is Project W, whose debut CD of the same name on the Apraxia label has become the stuff of legend. Project W is a lean trio, placing Shoup's alto and Brent Arnold's cello in front of various drummers' percussive bedding while the group simultaneously discovers musical paths. They play entirely free music, with no notation or prior structures. Defying the common practice of free improvisors simply playing at length until they exhaust an idea, Shoup's model springs from the musical short form, much as opera draws on the art song. Project W's performances are built on kernals of energy that expand for comparatively brief spans, most often just a few quick minutes. In all, they display an elegantly adventurous sense of music as a constantly evolving series of brushstrokes.    Bio | Excerpts| Painting | Home Reviews: Live Performances

Monk Mink Pink Punk 37 Project W is a free-jazz trio from Seattle. They have a tape and a 7" on Apraxia, both of which are in my possession. I was shocked how good this band is, how they push all the right post-Braxton buttons. I approve of the alto sax, cello, and drums trio, and just everything exactly matched all of my requirements for good jazz. The loud bits go for the best Albert Ayler frenzy since, well, since the last time I played Spirtitual Unity. The slower, more intricate sections are what really grabbed me. A lot more deserves to be said about this, especially the powerful, adventurous playing of the sax and cello. Nick- Opprobrium #2 Top-shelf Seattle alto/cello/drums trio going more for the condensed-form, freely twisting, writhing interplay complexity than extended fast-forward blowouts, and hardly any less 'intense' (or good) for the career choice. Much more than a sax and rhythm section, Project W have a consensual equal-prominence membership plan ­ riding split-toned multiphonics in a whirlwind chase down winding roads after that special something else, they once or twice reach overstudied cul-de-sacs, but whenever else generate head-spinning flurries and bursts. The thought that there's a combo as amazing as this flailing away unheralded in every American state is a nice if unrealistic one. Puncture Magazine Project W is the debut long-player by a Seattle-based trio rooted in the burly American free-jazz style pioneered by Albert Ayler; drums, cello, and alto sax throw up an enveloping whirl of sound, although veteran saxophonist Wally Shoup's playing also betrays familiarity with the extended techniques of the UK's pioneering Evan Parker. The group plays music that's like pro basketball in its brawny ballet of split-section reaction. Bruce Greely - 5/4 Magazine Project W's eponymous disc starts off with a bang: no introduction-just a sheer sudden onslaught seamlessly developing into freer, fancier figures. Amazing how tight the group can sound at times without playing unison figures-their cohesiveness originating from much subtler, trickier depths. Certainly looking at the transcribed notes on a page would not lead one to believe they were even in the same room. Also startling how they can successfully avoid playing anything tonal or familiar or ordinary throughout the CD, though Arnold occasionally lapses into some Monkish figures that could be called jazz-Pias, too, determing a beat somehow. Meanwhile Shoup, still the saxiest, coaxes every metal nuance out of his garrulous horn. This is a fine recording to play for your grunge-loving, heavy metal nephew or friend. Show them what's really outside-far beyond, say, Mettalica's comparative ordinariness.