Columbia Icefield with Susan Alcorn ~ The Free Jazz Collective

The news of pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn’s passing came as quite a shock yesterday. Today’s video features Susan in Nate Wooley’s Columbia Icefield project. Susan was also in the trumpeter’s thunderous Seven Storey Mountain VI. In 2021, Alcorn appeared at Jazzfest Berlin performing Columbia Icefield. Of it, I wrote:

…The mournful, charged, amplified breath blew a cold breeze across the
stage. It was musical dawn, and guitarist Ava Mendoza provided the first rays
of light breaking through the tonal darkness. Deep, thick
droning tones hovered in the background, emanating from Susan Alcorn’s pedal
steel guitar. As the music awoke, the textures came into sharp relief:
Wooley changing from a metallic rush of sound to a mournful melody, drummer
Ryan Sawyer adding additional texture, and Mendoza delivering aggressive
arpeggios and discordant tones. 

It seems a video of that performance is not readily available, but I did stumble upon this version from Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, with Alcorn, of course, and Mary Halvorson replacing Mendoza: 

– Paul Acquaro