UUOO (Sam Wooster)
I thought I’d write something about my old housemate (and one of my best friends) from my Birmingham days. A few years ago, in Jazz College, Sam (UUOO) and I were regularly playing in a free jazz/rock project under his name (The Sam Wooster Quartet). We did ok, put out an album and got a bit of radio play, plus gigs all over the place. That sort of came to an end when I left Birmingham, and that band went on to become Husk. I had many a good gig with that lad, and it looks as if I’m gonna be the best man at his wedding too, which is a little nerve wracking.
Anyway. Sam is an incredible jazz trumpet player. To be honest, he’s an incredible musician, full stop. And he’s been busy beavering away over the last year or so (as I remember) on a new solo project under the name UUOO (I guess that’s a cooler way of writing Woo!). So far, as listeners, we have two tracks to get an idea of what he’s doing. Both are covers, but I’d bet good money on him having awesome originals up his sleeve too. Speaking of sleeves, check out his tattoo in the clip below……it’s real cool!
The first video to go up on YouTube was a cover of “Be My Husband” by Nina Simone, which is a really interesting take on that tune. In essence it’s acapella vocals, with percussion building as the song progresses, and it’s definitely worth a look because it’s cool and very conceptually strong. But the music I’d like to focus on in this post is UUOO’s second video, a cover of “Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran.
My Thoughts
I only know the original song vaguely, so I’m not gonna make too many comparisons, but I’ll start with this: the UUOO version is a lot more electronic, whereas the original is a lot more organic in terms of the instrument sounds. That’s not a detrimental thing, it’s just different. And different is cool, especially with glitchy drum grooves and lovely synth sounds like this. His vocals are also worth a mention: they’re great! I’d not heard him sing since freshers week at uni (all of 7 years ago!), but he’s obviously got LOADS better. That’s what happens when you’re that good at what you do, and you work as hard as him.
The coolest thing for me, apart from the actual tones and sounds, is the way he has re-harmonised the basic original chord progression. It really compliments the nice melody from the original, but the balance of consonance/dissonance and the syncopation from UUOO’s version is much more interesting to my ears. Finally, an often overlooked aspect of a song is the way it’s contoured, in terms of both playing and production, and this is absolutely perfectly contoured. The way it builds towards the end is amazing. My only gripe is I wanted the groove at the end to last longer before the fade out!
Check him out on the video below! Add him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel, and keep your eyes peeled for his next offering. It’ll probably be great, knowing him!
