Douglas Joel Wieselman (born November 30, 1954) is an American composer and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
reedist. He plays primarily clarinet and tenor saxophone, though he occasionally also plays soprano and baritone saxophone.
Early life and education
Wieselman was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. He earned a bachelor's degree in music at
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...
in 1976, where he first played with
Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz (born 1955) is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer. He came to prominence in the Downtown scene of 1980s and '90s New York City, where he met his future wife, the singer, songwriter and pianist Robin Holcomb. He ...
; he played with Horvitz extensively into the 1990s.
Career
In 1982, Wieselman began working with
Robin Holcomb, and played with her again from 1987 to 1996. In the late 1980s he also worked with
Bill Frisell
William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...
,
Guy Klucevsek, and
Anthony Coleman
Anthony Coleman (born August 30, 1955) is an avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on '' Cobra'', ''Kristallnacht'', '' The Big Gundown'', '' Archery'', and '' Spillane'' and helped push modern Jewish music ...
. He started his own group, the Kamikaze Ground Crew, in 1983, with
Gina Leishman, and also co-founded the
New York Composer's Orchestra in 1986. Other credits include work with
Karen Mantler,
Nels Cline
Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004.
In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has w ...
,
Ben Perowsky
Ben Perowsky (born May 12, 1966) is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, and music producer. He is the drummer on stage in the 8 TONY award winning Broadway musical Hadestown. Perowsky leads the Ben Perowsky Trio, Moodswing Orchestra and ...
, and others.
In addition to his work in jazz, Wieselman has also written music for the performances of the
Flying Karamazov Brothers
The Flying Karamazov Brothers (FKB) are a juggling and comedy troupe that has been performing since 1973. They learned their trade busking as street artists starting in Santa Cruz, California, eventually going on to perform nationally and internat ...
and played as a
session musician for pop and rock acts such as
She & Him
She & Him is an American musical duo consisting of Zooey Deschanel (vocals, piano, ukulele) and M. Ward (guitar, production) formed in 2006 in Portland, Oregon.Scaggs, Austin"Smoking Section: Modest Mouse, Zooey Deschanel, Kings of Leon"''Rol ...
,
Cibo Matto
Cibo Matto (, Italian for "crazy food") was an American alternative rock band formed by Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori in New York City in 1994. Initially, the band's lyrics were primarily concerned with food, before expanding into broader subject ...
,
Antony & the Johnsons
Anohni and the Johnsons (previously known as Antony and the Johnsons) is an American music group presenting the work of Anohni and her collaborators.
Career
British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to r ...
,
Joan As Police Woman
Joan Wasser (born July 26, 1970) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer who releases music as Joan As Police Woman. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders and played with Black Beetle, Antony and the Johnsons, a ...
,
Iron and Wine
Samuel "Sam" Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, several EPs and singles, as well as a few download-only releases, which include a li ...
,
Lou Reed,
Yo la Tengo
Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for "I have her") is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James M ...
,
Martha Wainwright,
Shudder To Think
Shudder to Think was an American alternative rock band. Formed in 1986, they released three albums on the Washington, D.C.-based label Dischord Records, and two on Epic Records. Their early work was largely influenced by post-hardcore although ...
,
Translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
, and others. He was also a lead composer on ''
The Backyardigans
''The Backyardigans'' is a computer-animated musical children's television series created by Janice Burgess. The series was written and recorded at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It centers on five animal neighbors who imagine themselves on fantas ...
'', from which his song "
Castaways
A castaway is a person cast adrift or ashore.
Castaway or Cast Away may also refer to:
Literature
* "The Castaways" (short story), P.G. Wodehouse
* ''Castaway'' (book), a 1984 memoir by Lucy Irvine
*''The Castaway'', Hallie Erminie Rives's 1904 ...
" became a viral hit on
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version o ...
in 2021.
Discography
*''Todos Santos'' with Wayne Horvitz (Sound Aspects Records, 1988)
*''Dimly Lit'' (
Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records is a record label in New York City that specializes in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. He is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases. Tzadik is a n ...
, 2003)
*''From Water'' (88 Records, 2014)
With
Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot (;
born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.
His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wai ...
's Ceramic Dog
*''
YRU Still Here?'' (Northern Spy, 2018)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doug Wieselman
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
American jazz clarinetists
Musicians from Los Angeles
Jazz musicians from California
American male jazz musicians
1954 births
Living people