When jazz musicians discuss other musicians they admire, they often talk about the players’ skills in terms of chops. To have chops is to exhibit a command of your instrument, exceptional musicality, an ability to play off other players, a strong artistic point-of-view, and everything in between that can’t be put into words. Nate Werth has chops. In fact, Nate has the kind of chops that garner him Grammys, respect from his peers, and collaborations with some of the most interesting artists around (from David Crosby to Snarky Puppy). But Nate’s curiosity is what makes him a percussive force to be followed. He’s able to turn everything into an instrument, including objects we all neglected as sound makers until the moment he picked them up.
Nate brought his cacophonous collection of where-did-this-come-from percussion instruments to his recording session at Atlantic Studios in Brooklyn. He played frame drums, hand drums, weird wood blocks, handmade shakers, loose snares, crashing cymbals, brassy bells, and so much more. We recorded everything with an array of our favorite mics. We used two U87s as stereo overheads, SM57s and Sennheiser MD421s for the snares, hand drums, and miscellaneous percussion we wanted to mic closely, and a Neumann 47 to capture the overall room ambience. The resulting pack is a percussionist’s polyrhythmic dream.
