“This Land,” a new album by the all-brass quartet the Westerlies and the masterly vocalist Theo Bleckmann, celebrates music’s role in protest throughout American history, mixing covers (Woody Guthrie, Joni Mitchell) and originals.

Larry Blumenfeld, The Wall Street Journal Bleckmann, who here sometimes alters his pure and transparent voice through electronic processing. The resulting 15 tracks form concise expressions of resistance and resilience….As an ensemble, the Westerlies produce magisterial sounds as well as pained ones, execute deft improvisations, and project both affecting sincerity and knowing wit. Bleckmann and the Westerlies reconsider 20th-century protest songs, hymns and poems, and present new compositions addressing more current events. Press for “This Land” (Theo Bleckmann & The Westerlies) Westerlies Records, January 2021 “The Westerlies join a decades-long line of wind players who helped shape jazz history, each with a unique brand of genre agnosticism and freedom fighting.” - Downbeat Magazine There are plenty of other stops in between, all delivered with stunning clarity and richness.' - Chicago Reader “a kind of bastard child, standing fiercely between genre cracks with works that evoke the Americana of Aaron Copland and John Philip Sousa on the one hand but seeming to translate the rhythmically spastic machinations of EDM on the other. “Skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers” - NPR’s Fresh Air

“proof, if any be needed, that the same music can be both folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous.” - NPR Music “Chamber music with bracing melodies and, crucially, an undeniable sense of fun” - L.A.

“An arty quartet featuring two trumpeters and two trombonists, mixing ideas from jazz, new classical and Appalachian folk.” - The New York Times

Amarcord lead sheet