Gerald Wilson Orchestra
Released June 21, 2011
Grammy Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2012
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hYaLmSnV-d4&list=OLAK5uy_mAmpEmgwGH3ZiOdWscFoAsPffw3hV-TH8
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4ev74uSquuDEvvSOTtE1Ex?si=mfA2aBwLS4qfSRGVgZvvmQ
About:
Gerald Wilson, jazz’s reigning composer/orchestrator pays homage to his adopted hometown, Chicago on his fifth Mack Avenue Records release, Legacy. Composers Igor Stravinsky and Giacomo Puccini also receive Wilson’s musical tips of the hat. Wilson’s son, guitarist/composer Anthony Wilson, and grandson Eric Otis are also represented by a composition/orchestration apiece, thus extending Gerald’s musical legacy.
The Gerald Wilson Orchestra assembled for Legacy comprises many of the great jazz artists who’ve been Gerald’s collaborators for the lion’s share of his Mack Avenue canon. A first-class rhythm section of pianist Renee Rosnes, guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash anchors the group. Trumpeters Sean Jones, Jeremy Pelt, Tony Lujan and Mike Rodriguez and trombonists Dennis Wilson, Douglas Purviance, Luis Bonilla and Alan Ferber stud the brass section. Antonio Hart Dick Oatts, Kamasi Washington, Ron Blake, Jay Brandford and Gary Smulyan comprise the reeds. Al Pryor continues as Wilson’s producer for this collection of tributes and portraits.
His new suite “Yes, Chicago Is…” is an affectionate series of sketches—what Wilson calls a “romantic ballad”—that delineates one of his favorite cities. (He wrote and recorded “State Street Suite,” an earlier civic valentine, in 1993.) Commissioned by the Chicago Jazz Festival, it recalls some key personal junctures. Wilson lived in the Windy City for a better part of a year at the age of fifteen, when the Chicago World’s Fair was there. Later on, as a member of the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (which he joined in June of 1938), he used the town as his home base. And while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval facility (1942-’44), Wilson took advantage of the fact that he didn’t have to live on the base and moved into town.
The suite begins appropriately with “A Real Jazz Mecca.” “I always loved Chicago,” the 92 year-old Wilson says. “It’s such an exciting city, and it’s one of the great jazz cities—a real ‘jazz mecca.’ I tried to capture some of the flavor of the Chicago I’ve known: the wonderful Regal Theatre, the great sports teams and the El Grotto nightclub, where I played six weeks with my band in 1946.”
Wilson’s fans won’t be surprised that he’s an admirer of 20th Century musical giant Igor Stravinsky. One of his mentors, the late Phil Moore, brought the Russian composer to Wilson’s attention. Italian opera great, Giacomo Puccini, however, might raise a few eyebrows. “They’re both dedicated to Wynton Marsalis,” he relates. “He’s been so good to me, playing my music at Lincoln Center. I took a small excerpt (just a couple of bars) from ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Puccini’s opera, Turandot—and wrote the ‘Variations on a Theme by Giacomo Puccini.’ I did the same with Stravinsky. I write short pieces these days so I don’t need much material for inspiration.”
“Variations on Clair De Lune” fulfills a childhood desire: Wilson’s first musical studies were on piano; he always liked the piece and wanted a chance to do something with it. The twist is that Wilson had pianist Avery Parrish, composer and player of the bluesy “After Hours,” in mind. “Avery was a brilliant pianist,” he reminds us. “He could play as much piano as Art Tatum or Earl Hines.”
Wilson clearly revels in his working relationship with Mack Avenue Records. His previous releases for the label are: New York, New Sound (2003), In My Time (2005), Monterey Moods (2007) and Detroit (2009). “They’re so nice to me and our arrangement is so comfortable,” he says. His albums receive maximum exposure—in the press, on radio and on Internet sites like YouTube. “I love working with Al Pryor and Gretchen Valade has given me carte blanche to do what I want.”
Legacy lives up to its name in offering a forum for the composing and orchestration talents of Wilson’s progeny: his son, guitarist Anthony Wilson, and his grandson, Eric Otis. “Anthony has been writing for quite a while now,” Gerald points out. “He’s well aware of how I work but he’s got his own point of view. That number of his, ‘Virgo,’ was commissioned by the Hollywood Bowl for a concert that my band was on, sharing the bill with pianist Hank Jones in 2008. He’s taken that piece and added more material to it for this album.”
Eric Otis—grandson of Wilson and rhythm and blues pioneer Johnny Otis and son of guitarist and musical auteur Shuggie Otis—is also a guitarist. (“So many young people play and write their music on the guitar these days,” Gerald muses.) Eric has been Wilson’s transcriber for quite some time and, as such, he’s had a unique insight into his grandfather’s musical methodology. “It’s been an educational process,” Otis offers, “and a very practical education. I’ve watched how he works, how he sketches out his compositions, and how he voices his chords; that’s something I couldn’t have gotten from a classroom. I’m at the point where I can now use all the things that I’ve learned.”
“September Sky,” Otis’s first orchestration, was midwifed by his grandfather. “I began writing it on the guitar in 1999 and for some reason I put it away. Last year I pulled it out of the drawer and I completed it; I finished it to my satisfaction and then orchestrated it. It’s an accumulation of everything he’s taught me over the years.”
For Wilson’s part, he couldn’t be prouder of his offspring. “I’ve had a very fulfilling career,” he maintains. “I’ve reached all of my goals. I’ve played and written for all of the greatest jazz orchestras (Lunceford, Ellington, Basie, and Benny Carter among them), I’ve written for movies and television, I’ve written for concert orchestras and I’ve maintained my own band for many decades. But it goes beyond my accomplishments to see that members of my family are carrying on the music in their own ways.” “Everything I write,” Wilson asserts, “from here on in, is going to be jazz. It’s the language I speak and it’s my music.”
Track Listing:
1. Variation on a Theme by Igor Stravinsky (Gerald Wilson) 3:34
2. Virgo (Anthony Wilson) 9:58
3. Variations on Clair de Lune (Gerald Wilson) 7:35
4. Variation on a Theme by Giacomo Puccini (Gerald Wilson) 6:20
5. September Sky (Eric Otis) 7:05
Yes Chicago Is…(Suite):
6. A Jazz Mecca (Gerald Wilson) 2:09
7. A Night At The El Grotto (Gerald Wilson) 3:42
8. Riffin’ At The Regal (Gerald Wilson) 1:55
9. Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and White Sox (Gerald Wilson) 3:09
10. 47th St. Blues (Gerald Wilson) 1:06
11. Blowin’ In The Windy City (Gerald Wilson) 1:01
12. A Great Place To Be (Gerald Wilson) 2:17
Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York, NY
Producer: Al Pryor
Engineer: Todd Whitelock
Personnel:
Gerald Wilson: Conductor
Rhythm Section
Lewis Nash: Drums
Renee Rosnes: Piano
Peter Washington: Bass
Anthony Wilson: Guitar
Saxophones
Ron Blake: Tenor Sax
Jay Brandford: Baritone Sax
Antonio Hart: Alto Sax, Flute
Dick Oatts: Alto Sax, Flute
Gary Smulyan: Baritone Sax
Kamasi Washington: Tenor Sax
Trombones
Luis Bonilla: Trombone
Alan Ferber: Trombone
Douglas Purviance: Bass Trombone
Dennis Wilson: Trombone
Trumpets
Frank Greene: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Freddie Hendrix: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Sean Jones: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Tony Lujan: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Jeremy Pelt: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Mike Rodriguez: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Review:
The beauty of listening to an orchestra in fine form
is like being treated to an oceanic swell of music that rises and falls,
creating great harmonic waves of sound. This further regales the intellect with
the swish of brushstrokes as the music changes in color, from sometimes thick,
dark dripping shades, evoking brooding emotion to the pale and moist shades of
elation in an ever-changing palette. Then there are the timbres that refresh
the soul and the rhythms that dance as soloists and ensemble engage in endless
maneuvers, to bring the music to life. This and so much more is something to
that flows effortlessly and endlessly from the Gerald Wilson Orchestra on Legacy.
The vibrant force of the music is unstoppable, as Wilson draws music from the
soul of each member of his ensemble.
Aside from the sophistication of the music—putting it in a stellar region all
its own—Wilson digs ever so deeply into his own heart and soul, and finds the
magical element of the blues in its most visceral and elemental form. That and
the almost vanishing aspect of great jazz: swing. So whether he is paying
homage to one of his fellow-musicians, albeit from another era—Igor Stravinsky,
or Giacomo Puccini or Claude Debussy—Wilson calls up the swagger and wickedly
sensuous swish of rhythmic swing. Like the other masters of the attitudinal
strut, Duke Ellington, his old mentor, Jimmie Lunceford, Count
Basie and a handful of others, Wilson can make music dally almost
languorously and yet move up and down and side to side in a hip-grinding
manner. He is that young of heart.
With a handful of notes, a few bars of music tossed in the air like an expert juggler, Wilson creates sweeping sketches of impressionistic beauty in each case. The bone-crunching thunder of his “Variations on a Theme by Igor Stravinsky” is followed closely by an exquisitely complex wave of harmonic majesty in his homage to Debussy in “Variations on Clair de Lune.” The deepest of emotion and painter-like brush-strokes are reserved for the Puccini impression. In all of these pieces, Wilson’s joyous character is retained, as he makes the music of his ancestrors meld with the Europeans, like an expert alchemist working the brass in bright bronzed shades, and hammering the metal into submitting to sheets of sound, tempered by virtuoso rhythm. No credit is given to soloists here, and the breaks are short, but the pirouetting cadenzas, but the technical virtuosity and the deep emotion of each are unparalleled.
Guitarist Anthony Wilson contributes “Virgo,” a muscular, yet pliant and soaring piece that mimics the constellation. Eric Otis seems in tune with the magic and mystery of brassy musical alchemy in the wonderfully crafted “September Sky.” But it is the unstoppable “Yes Chicago Is… (Suite)” that is ultimately the centerpiece. Legacy is a heartfelt homage to a city that has clearly touched Wilson to his very soul; one that he wants enshrined in gorgeous, joyful music.
Raul D’Gama Rose (AllAboutJazz)
