Two sticks beat incessantly on a snare and a tom while a third rests snuggly in Matt Wilson’s armpit. Poised on his steed of a stool, arched foot tapping methodically on the high-hat pedal, the bespectacled, mock turtleneck wearing, just-turned-forty-year-old resembles a Revolutionary War hero. In reality he’s a New York jazz musician on stage at Sweet Rhythm with pianist Frank Kimbraugh and bassist Ben Allison, having so much fun that after each tune he lets out a full-throttled guffaw.
Wake Up! (To What’s Happening) , the new album with his band Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts brims with a similar jubilance. Flashy flugelhorn rambles by Terell Stafford interject Larry Golding’s glorious escapades on the organ, while Wilson and bassist Dennis Irwin fill it all in with rhythmic whimsy.
His sense of humor is evident in everything he plays,� said Allison about his long-time collaborator. “He's got a real light-hearted spirit. It's what the audience responds to when they listen to him.�
Audiences of all ages seem too dig Wilson. His daughter Audrey a budding violinist like her mom, is almost seven, and his triplet boys, Max, Henry and Ethan, all major Hilary Duff fans, are three and a half. “I think they understand what’s going on,� he explained between bites of a tuna fish sandwich, “They know we’re up there sort of in the sandbox like they are. My daughter especially who has been around it a lot, sees that playfulness of the music and understands that there’s some sort of connectivity.�
Wilson’s father-in-law came along for the recording session where vocalist Curtis Stiger laid down the tracks for “There Comes A Time�, a breezy take on Tony Williams’ 1970s love song. “He found it to be totally fascinating,� explained Wilson. “Here’s to me the strangest thing on this record, and that’s the thing that he loves, because he was there. I find that when people really get to experience it, [they’re able to connect with it]. That’s why playing live is so important, getting out and playing for these people in all these different places is really important.�
As a teenager growing up in the prairie lands of Illinois, Wilson drove many miles to see music. One week the young jazz aficionado and a devoted pal traveled to three separate towns where they saw individually, Clark Terry, Dizzie Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Now as an established player himself, with two active bands (Arts & Crafts and the Matt Wilson Quartet), plus a long list of side-man gigs, Wilson hits the road constantly and the experiences keep getting better.
While in college at Wichita State University the drummer and all his bass player pals listened to Buster Williams, and played Sphere arrangements all the time. “I remember the first time I played with Buster. It was at the San Francisco Jazz Festival,� he explained. “I saw my hand playing the ride cymbal and there’s Buster Williams standing there, I was like ‘wow this is great.’�
Last summer, before setting out on tour with the Liberation Music Orchestra, the drummer played with Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden at the Montreal Jazz Festival. “When I wasn’t playing, I laid out, which is a great thing to do and hear those guys. I actually sort of pinched myself,� he recalled.
Glancing at his jammed schedule Wilson gets excited. "I look at all these things I’m doing between now and May, and I’m ecstatic about each one of them,� he said. “I just can’t wait to play here, or I can’t wait to do the gigs with Dena, and I can’t wait to do this stuff with Ted Nash’s Odeon band, and tonight with Frank [Kimbrough] at Sweet Rhythm, and stuff with Bill [Frissell], there are all these things, there’s nothing I look at and say ‘oh what a drag, I have to go and play…’ it’s all cool and everybody is so inviting in that sort of way, and boundaryless."
