Ghost Trees, the Charlotte nearly-free jazz outfit, has built its music and reputation as a barebones ensemble. Two elements, tenor sax and drums, provide the two most basic tenets of music, melody and rhythm. Two players, Brent Bagwell and Seth Nanaa, express 14 years of collaboration (and 16 of friendship) in the now chaotic, now harmonious ebb and flow of advanced musical communication. Bebop stutter-steps blur into lyrical cool jazz heads blur into clattering avant-garde, often in the same cut, with the 1:1 ratio of Bagwell's sax to Nanaa's drums evidently making Ghost Trees' wickedly nimble improvisation possible.
- Charlotte Viewpoint
- Charlotte Viewpoint
Saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa epitomize intuitive interplay as they balance furious cacophony and subtle melodicism, each permutation feeding off its counterpart.
- Creative Loafing
- Creative Loafing
At times, their playing resembles the interplay of Archie Shepp and Beaver Harris, reflective, yet strong.
- Creative Loafing, Atlanta
- Creative Loafing, Atlanta
The duo of drummer Seth Nanaa and tenor sax player Brent Bagwell - aka Ghost Trees - play meandering, experimental jazz in surprisingly concise chunks.
- Cool Cleveland
- Cool Cleveland
Gritty yet sensitive improv know-how.
- Time Out New York
- Time Out New York
A high-octane, suit-wearing blistering jazz duo.
- Chattanooga Now
- Chattanooga Now
The undisputed local masters of ferocious, sorcerous, and way out there jazz.
- Matt Cosper, CLTure
- Matt Cosper, CLTure
RECORD REVIEWS
About Intercept Method :
As soon as anyone sees a tenor saxophone/drums duo situation, they reach for comparisons with John Coltrane and Rashied Ali’s Interstellar Space, but it turns out that both saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa, who’ve kept the Ghost Trees partnership going for a decade, were both independently more affected by Sun Ship instead.
Ironically, that was one of the few Coltrane albums not recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s iconic studio — which is where Ghost Trees laid down this remarkable set, with Maureen Sickler supervising. So there are some nice symmetries and asymmetries. Like Coltrane, Bagwell and Nanaa are interested in digging deep into sometimes quite minimal materials. A couple of the tracks here, “Super Eight” and “Leevin,” seem to be built on the same chord structure, though it’s not much more than a basic armature. Others seem to trade on small melodic cells that aren’t a million miles from the Ascension code. The tenor sounds strong in the studio space, almost preacher-like in places.
But one of the wonders of Ghost Trees, honed over a handful of albums going back to The New Gravity a full decade ago, and the more recent self-released The Fascination and Universal Topics, is not so much their ability to play together but rather each to play exactly as and when he needs, almost oblivious to the other, and still make the music work resonantly. To stretch the inevitable comparison, this is their inner rather than interstellar space, and they occupy it with total conviction. [**** Four Stars]
- Brian Morton, Downbeat (June 2024)
The number of jazz musicians influenced by John Coltrane is staggering—but if pressed, most of those players will cop to being inspired by the jazz legend’s pre-free jazz work: A Love Supreme, Blue Train, Giant Steps, etc. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, but it overlooks a part of the saxophonist’s career of equal significance. Albums like Sun Ship, Ascension, and, especially, Interstellar Space have had equal impact on the jazz idiom, the genius bending free jazz to an entirely distinctive standard.
North Carolina’s Ghost Trees grok the vibe. Though they were brought together in part due to a shared love of Sun Ship, saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa adopt the band structure of Interstellar Space, cutting out any middle men that might provide things like chords and a bottom. Rather than simply blow, however, the duo imposes a structure on the dozen songs that comprise fourth LP Intercept Method, organizing them into a suite of three songs per side of vinyl. Creating “shadow” tracks—songs that contain common structures or changes, but run in different directions—the pair weaves a thread through the album, inviting the listener to find the commonalities, but not requiring complete comprehension. Ghost Trees include enough snippets of melody, snatches of chaos, and soupçons of soul to bypass any game of connect the dots.
Which makes sense: you don’t have to check the boxes of the frenetic “Lymars,” the bluesy “Carnation,” or the soulful “Tannhauser Gate” in order to appreciate the high level of creativity going on in these grooves. What makes Intercept Method most remarkable isn’t the musicians’ ability to spontaneously create something out of nothing, but to take spontaneity and fashion a cogent musical statement—making structure out of anarchy without losing the latter’s fiery spirit. That’s what makes Intercept Method—and Ghost Trees—special.
- Michael Toland, The Big Takeover (12 April 2024)
John Coltrane and Rashied Ali might not have been the first to record as a free jazz duo with Interstellar Space (Impulse!, 1974), but the pair did set the bar for future performances from the likes of Frank Lowe and Rashied Ali, Peter Brötzmann/Peeter Uuskyla, Anthony Braxton/Max Roach, and Joe McPhee/Hamid Drake. Admittedly, this genre of music might send many a traditional jazz listener packing.
Fear not. The duo Ghost Trees creates accessible free jazz, and the use of that term is not an oxymoron. Intercept Method from tenor saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa create approachable music, similar to that of say, Bill McHenry and Andrew Cyrille or Joe Lovano and Billy Hart.
What distinguishes the music of Ghost Trees from the above duos is Bagwell and Nanaa's preparation for their performance. Intercept Method is a double LP, the duo's fourth full-length LP and it follows the self-released Universal Topics (2021), both of which were recorded at the infamous Rudy Van Gelder studio. The pair worked and reworked their music while practicing during the pandemic. Their method was not unlike the style of the punk band Fugazi. Like Ian MacKaye's process, Bagwell and Nanaa did not so much put pen to paper composing music as they experimented, rephrased, and refined their improvising language.
That is evident with the first track "Carnation" with Bagwell's languid tenor coaxed along by the pulse. Nanaa's drumming is the accelerator here and throughout the recording. They exercise some energy music with "Spherical" and "Meanwhile Gesture" plus an insouciant blues "Lessons in Renunciation." The tension on display is purposeful and it serves the duo's mission, be it delivering an Albert Ayler-like simple melody "Lymars" or the chamber music of "Station Keeping." Like the finest musicians, Bagwell and Nanaa have developed their own language, one that can be appreciated by all.
- Mark Corroto, All About Jazz (27 April 2024)
In their own words, North Carolina based jazz duo Ghost Trees, are “bringing the fire back to jazz” with their new album Intercept Method. I was immediately and pleasantly surprised with the opening track “Carnation.” It felt curious, enticing, well-constructed, and dare I say resonant to the warm and hearty sounds from Coltrane. The drumming quite heavily piqued my interest. In this track, or every track for that matter, the drumming is its own beast. [...] And the tenor…geez. There’s soft and warm elements that can be heard on tracks like “Super Eight” and “Tannhauser Gate,” or hectic and shreddy elements that can be heard on tracks like “Lymars” and “Spherical." There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that immense talent is present here. [...] I don’t think it’s the most digestible jazz album you could listen to, but I also don’t think this is just any run-of-the-mill jazz record either. This sounded well-constructed, confident, dedicated, and impressive.
- Pingu Davis, Toilet ov Hell (22 March 2024)
North Carolina's Ghost Trees are a duo consisting of Brent Bagwell on tenor saxophone and Seth Nanaa on drums. The pair have been partners in various ensembles for over two decades, and they've established a method that relies as much upon prepared materials as instantaneous invention. Several of the 12 tunes on Intercept Method are conceived as matched sets that apply the same minimal chord structures to differing ends. This lends a sense of cohesion to their briskly tuneful but never rushed duets.
- Bill Meyer, The Wire (August 2024)
Ironically, that was one of the few Coltrane albums not recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s iconic studio — which is where Ghost Trees laid down this remarkable set, with Maureen Sickler supervising. So there are some nice symmetries and asymmetries. Like Coltrane, Bagwell and Nanaa are interested in digging deep into sometimes quite minimal materials. A couple of the tracks here, “Super Eight” and “Leevin,” seem to be built on the same chord structure, though it’s not much more than a basic armature. Others seem to trade on small melodic cells that aren’t a million miles from the Ascension code. The tenor sounds strong in the studio space, almost preacher-like in places.
But one of the wonders of Ghost Trees, honed over a handful of albums going back to The New Gravity a full decade ago, and the more recent self-released The Fascination and Universal Topics, is not so much their ability to play together but rather each to play exactly as and when he needs, almost oblivious to the other, and still make the music work resonantly. To stretch the inevitable comparison, this is their inner rather than interstellar space, and they occupy it with total conviction. [**** Four Stars]
- Brian Morton, Downbeat (June 2024)
The number of jazz musicians influenced by John Coltrane is staggering—but if pressed, most of those players will cop to being inspired by the jazz legend’s pre-free jazz work: A Love Supreme, Blue Train, Giant Steps, etc. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, but it overlooks a part of the saxophonist’s career of equal significance. Albums like Sun Ship, Ascension, and, especially, Interstellar Space have had equal impact on the jazz idiom, the genius bending free jazz to an entirely distinctive standard.
North Carolina’s Ghost Trees grok the vibe. Though they were brought together in part due to a shared love of Sun Ship, saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa adopt the band structure of Interstellar Space, cutting out any middle men that might provide things like chords and a bottom. Rather than simply blow, however, the duo imposes a structure on the dozen songs that comprise fourth LP Intercept Method, organizing them into a suite of three songs per side of vinyl. Creating “shadow” tracks—songs that contain common structures or changes, but run in different directions—the pair weaves a thread through the album, inviting the listener to find the commonalities, but not requiring complete comprehension. Ghost Trees include enough snippets of melody, snatches of chaos, and soupçons of soul to bypass any game of connect the dots.
Which makes sense: you don’t have to check the boxes of the frenetic “Lymars,” the bluesy “Carnation,” or the soulful “Tannhauser Gate” in order to appreciate the high level of creativity going on in these grooves. What makes Intercept Method most remarkable isn’t the musicians’ ability to spontaneously create something out of nothing, but to take spontaneity and fashion a cogent musical statement—making structure out of anarchy without losing the latter’s fiery spirit. That’s what makes Intercept Method—and Ghost Trees—special.
- Michael Toland, The Big Takeover (12 April 2024)
John Coltrane and Rashied Ali might not have been the first to record as a free jazz duo with Interstellar Space (Impulse!, 1974), but the pair did set the bar for future performances from the likes of Frank Lowe and Rashied Ali, Peter Brötzmann/Peeter Uuskyla, Anthony Braxton/Max Roach, and Joe McPhee/Hamid Drake. Admittedly, this genre of music might send many a traditional jazz listener packing.
Fear not. The duo Ghost Trees creates accessible free jazz, and the use of that term is not an oxymoron. Intercept Method from tenor saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa create approachable music, similar to that of say, Bill McHenry and Andrew Cyrille or Joe Lovano and Billy Hart.
What distinguishes the music of Ghost Trees from the above duos is Bagwell and Nanaa's preparation for their performance. Intercept Method is a double LP, the duo's fourth full-length LP and it follows the self-released Universal Topics (2021), both of which were recorded at the infamous Rudy Van Gelder studio. The pair worked and reworked their music while practicing during the pandemic. Their method was not unlike the style of the punk band Fugazi. Like Ian MacKaye's process, Bagwell and Nanaa did not so much put pen to paper composing music as they experimented, rephrased, and refined their improvising language.
That is evident with the first track "Carnation" with Bagwell's languid tenor coaxed along by the pulse. Nanaa's drumming is the accelerator here and throughout the recording. They exercise some energy music with "Spherical" and "Meanwhile Gesture" plus an insouciant blues "Lessons in Renunciation." The tension on display is purposeful and it serves the duo's mission, be it delivering an Albert Ayler-like simple melody "Lymars" or the chamber music of "Station Keeping." Like the finest musicians, Bagwell and Nanaa have developed their own language, one that can be appreciated by all.
- Mark Corroto, All About Jazz (27 April 2024)
In their own words, North Carolina based jazz duo Ghost Trees, are “bringing the fire back to jazz” with their new album Intercept Method. I was immediately and pleasantly surprised with the opening track “Carnation.” It felt curious, enticing, well-constructed, and dare I say resonant to the warm and hearty sounds from Coltrane. The drumming quite heavily piqued my interest. In this track, or every track for that matter, the drumming is its own beast. [...] And the tenor…geez. There’s soft and warm elements that can be heard on tracks like “Super Eight” and “Tannhauser Gate,” or hectic and shreddy elements that can be heard on tracks like “Lymars” and “Spherical." There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that immense talent is present here. [...] I don’t think it’s the most digestible jazz album you could listen to, but I also don’t think this is just any run-of-the-mill jazz record either. This sounded well-constructed, confident, dedicated, and impressive.
- Pingu Davis, Toilet ov Hell (22 March 2024)
North Carolina's Ghost Trees are a duo consisting of Brent Bagwell on tenor saxophone and Seth Nanaa on drums. The pair have been partners in various ensembles for over two decades, and they've established a method that relies as much upon prepared materials as instantaneous invention. Several of the 12 tunes on Intercept Method are conceived as matched sets that apply the same minimal chord structures to differing ends. This lends a sense of cohesion to their briskly tuneful but never rushed duets.
- Bill Meyer, The Wire (August 2024)
About Goodyear :
Late last year, Ghost Trees filled the Goodyear building on East Stonewall Street with jazz. As part of the Goodyear Project, which brought an interdisciplinary arts series to the doomed structure, Ghost Trees skipped straight past combo size to a sprawling, 10-strong big band. They rolled in an actual piano; they populated the room with vibraphones and saxes, pedal steels and basses, cellos and violas for a month-long residency.
To be clear, nothing here nods to Glenn Miller - it's not that kind of big band. Insect-like fret noise and otherworldly singing saw introduce "Morse Code." "Silver Tongue" opens with Bo White's menacing bass and Nanaa's creeping percussive shuffle; Jeremy Fisher's wheedling guitar implies John Zorn, while tenor sax occasionally rises from the churn with melodic half-phrases. "Big Problem" opens the first side with darkly understated piano, the perfect film noir score, yet devolves after two-and-a-half minutes into a sputtering debate between sax and drums (and then an all-out argument between every instrument in the room). There's spontaneity aplenty, sure, but more work went into this than a casual one-off: for one, these are compositions; for another, rather than just sit down and wing it, as happens often enough, the Ghost Trees Big Band practiced.
- Corbie Hill, Charlotte Viewpoint
Ghost Trees is usually a duo of Brent Bagwell (tenor saxophone) and Seth Nanaa (drums), but for this project, named after the building in which it was recorded, they added eight more players and rehearsed some charts so they’d know what to do. There’s still a bit of gnarl, but also some circuitous piano outflanking the wall of sound and steel guitar raising the floor of sound like a mustachioed prestidigitator coaxing his beautiful assistant’s box of concealment into the air. The performance may be episodic, but it still feels complete, so even if you spring for the double 7” you might still find yourself resorting to the download, with its three extra tracks, for a closer approximation of what went down.
- Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine "Still Single"
To be clear, nothing here nods to Glenn Miller - it's not that kind of big band. Insect-like fret noise and otherworldly singing saw introduce "Morse Code." "Silver Tongue" opens with Bo White's menacing bass and Nanaa's creeping percussive shuffle; Jeremy Fisher's wheedling guitar implies John Zorn, while tenor sax occasionally rises from the churn with melodic half-phrases. "Big Problem" opens the first side with darkly understated piano, the perfect film noir score, yet devolves after two-and-a-half minutes into a sputtering debate between sax and drums (and then an all-out argument between every instrument in the room). There's spontaneity aplenty, sure, but more work went into this than a casual one-off: for one, these are compositions; for another, rather than just sit down and wing it, as happens often enough, the Ghost Trees Big Band practiced.
- Corbie Hill, Charlotte Viewpoint
Ghost Trees is usually a duo of Brent Bagwell (tenor saxophone) and Seth Nanaa (drums), but for this project, named after the building in which it was recorded, they added eight more players and rehearsed some charts so they’d know what to do. There’s still a bit of gnarl, but also some circuitous piano outflanking the wall of sound and steel guitar raising the floor of sound like a mustachioed prestidigitator coaxing his beautiful assistant’s box of concealment into the air. The performance may be episodic, but it still feels complete, so even if you spring for the double 7” you might still find yourself resorting to the download, with its three extra tracks, for a closer approximation of what went down.
- Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine "Still Single"
About The New Gravity :
The duo’s output exhibits a deft balance of the outre and the accessible, the visceral and cerebral. And The New Gravity goes even further to reclaim art from the exhibit halls of academia. The first proper Ghost Trees full-length showcases a suite of eight songs honed during a year-long, cross-country touring cycle that brought the duo to New England and the Deep South, the Midwest and the West Coast and to stops in New York, Chicago and L.A. The LP finds Bagwell and Nanaa in close communication, vamping spare melodies and swinging grooves into brash crescendos. “Farewell” lets a smoldering sax riff wind itself into jagged lunges through turbulent percussion without losing its grounding or its swing. “Black Ants” recruits a string section for a dramatic extended intro (courtesy of the Wm B. Kennedy chamber ensemble) that opens space for a pensive call-and-response between Bagwell and Nanaa.
Throughout the album, Bagwell and Nanaa tease at more radical directions, but they never give in to belligerent noise. Compared to the skronky impulses and righteous din of many peers, Ghost Trees sounds remarkably restrained, the product of wide-ranging influences from post-rock to post-bop and minimalist composition to big band jazz.
- Bryan Reed, Charlotte Viewpoint
The foundation of the album rests on the power and warmth Bagwell and Nanaa generate by themselves. The duo’s veteran chemistry is at its sharpest - and The New Gravity is at its best - when Bagwell and Nanaa split the difference between free jazz’s visceral bluster and post-bop’s cerebral discipline. “Farewell” surges forward on Bagwell’s gasping phrases and Nanaa’s lunging, coloristic tumbles, but it never loses its innate swing. “Nostromo” moves in a balladic arc, but delivers its melody in bracing gusts and meter-free form. It’s at these moments when Bagwell and Nanaa’s conversational rapport is easiest, and when The New Gravity is most intriguing and adventurous.
- Patrick Wall, Dusted Magazine
Throughout the album, Bagwell and Nanaa tease at more radical directions, but they never give in to belligerent noise. Compared to the skronky impulses and righteous din of many peers, Ghost Trees sounds remarkably restrained, the product of wide-ranging influences from post-rock to post-bop and minimalist composition to big band jazz.
- Bryan Reed, Charlotte Viewpoint
The foundation of the album rests on the power and warmth Bagwell and Nanaa generate by themselves. The duo’s veteran chemistry is at its sharpest - and The New Gravity is at its best - when Bagwell and Nanaa split the difference between free jazz’s visceral bluster and post-bop’s cerebral discipline. “Farewell” surges forward on Bagwell’s gasping phrases and Nanaa’s lunging, coloristic tumbles, but it never loses its innate swing. “Nostromo” moves in a balladic arc, but delivers its melody in bracing gusts and meter-free form. It’s at these moments when Bagwell and Nanaa’s conversational rapport is easiest, and when The New Gravity is most intriguing and adventurous.
- Patrick Wall, Dusted Magazine
About the self-titled 10" :
Ghost Trees are no rookies; tenor saxophonist Brent Bagwell and drummer Seth Nanaa (ex-Indian Summer, ex-Sinker) first got together in New York c. 2000, and they have made a number of albums for Black Saint and other labels in a trio called The Eastern Seaboard. But now that they’ve downsized and re-settled in Charlotte NC, their music is stripped not only of extra instruments, but excess activity. The first five tracks on this 10” can be circuitous, but never in the “where are we going” way that some improvisers willingly expose. No, it’s more like they know where they want to go, and they comment along the way about what Archie Shepp might have said about the trip if someone had thought to ask him in 1967. Bagwell sounds swell when he summons that phlegmy Shepp bark, but he has sufficient restraint and melodic imagination to strike a welcome balance. Nanaa moves things along quite satisfactorily, either swinging or adorning. The final track is a bit of a curveball. It’s a brief backwards-tape piece, mostly fleeting percussion and piano sounds that seem to retreat from your ears. It ends with a reverberant fade so well timed that I’d like to hear them do a whole record of tape composition. That snippet aside, this music doesn’t transform its vernacular or try to move it forward the way Ken Vandermark or Mats Gustafsson, for example, have done. But it says some things worth hearing with the established language. So get it if nude sax and drums is your thing, or get it if you like really well executed picture discs. Side one is a vintage image of heroic whalers doing battle with a breaching sperm whale. The flip side is a multi-colored replica of a coastal map with the track listing typed on. The cover is a heavy, transparent polyethylene sleeve - with a record that looks this stately, you don’t really need anything else.
- from Dusted Magazine's "Still Single"
The combination of saxophone and drums feels primal and immediate. It's great to hear Bagwell, the city's most adventurous reedsman, in a setting where he's playing against/around/through a mostly rhythmic entity, as he does on the duo's gorgeous self-titled 10-inch picture disc. On "Serpico's Dream," for instance, Bagwell and Nanaa joust and parry in ever-tightening circles before wrestling a surprisingly tight melody into submission. Their years together in The Eastern Seaboard serve Bagwell and Nanaa well in establishing the trust level necessary to create some truly intriguing and adventurous moments.
- John Schacht, Creative Loafing
- from Dusted Magazine's "Still Single"
The combination of saxophone and drums feels primal and immediate. It's great to hear Bagwell, the city's most adventurous reedsman, in a setting where he's playing against/around/through a mostly rhythmic entity, as he does on the duo's gorgeous self-titled 10-inch picture disc. On "Serpico's Dream," for instance, Bagwell and Nanaa joust and parry in ever-tightening circles before wrestling a surprisingly tight melody into submission. Their years together in The Eastern Seaboard serve Bagwell and Nanaa well in establishing the trust level necessary to create some truly intriguing and adventurous moments.
- John Schacht, Creative Loafing