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Jack Wilkins: Windows
by Chris May
Guitarist Jack Wilkins' debut on producer Bob Shad's Mainstream label lay gathering dust for almost forty-five years before being reissued on CD by Solid Records in 2017. That disc, and now WeWantSounds' 2018 vinyl edition, have restored to general circulation an album that can be filed alongside such mid-twentieth century jazz-guitar gems as Johnny Smith's Moonlight In Vermont (Roost, 1956), Wes Montgomery's Incredible Jazz Guitar (Riverside, 1960) and Grant Green's Idle Moments (Blue Note, 1964), from each of which Windows ...
Continue ReadingJack Wilkins: Playing What He's Preaching
by Rob Rosenblum
Some time in 1975 a box of records from the Mainstream label was dropped by my front door. I picked it up and began to open it with a mix of excitement and dread of having to face writing more record reviews. I saw an LP titled Windows with an unfamiliar cast of characters and put it aside. I had too many other albums to listen to and render judgment. Despite a nagging sense of obligation, this piece of vinyl ...
Continue ReadingJack Wilkins: Until It's Time
by Jim Santella
A guitarist with the kind of dexterity that Jack Wilkins shares is bound to find success in many fields, especially when based in New York, where he's surrounded by great musicians all the time. As Until It's Time features piano, bass and drums in support of Wilkins' sensual fret board articulation, much of the album relies on familiar songs and a conservative love affair with melody.Wilkins works in unison with piano, stretches out frequently, and turns his musical ...
Continue ReadingJack Wilkins: Dear Old Stockholm
by Jack Bowers
This agreeable studio date, inspired by tenor saxophonist Jack Wilkins' experiences while visiting Sweden, was recorded in Stockholm with a group of splendid Swedish musicians, two of whom--pianist Per Danielsson and his wife, alto saxophonist Tamara--are fellow teachers with Wilkins at the University of South Florida in Tampa. To bolster the front line, Wilkins chose one of Sweden's finest, trumpeter Jan Allan, and enlisted bassist Hans Backenroth and drummer Johan Lofqrantz Ramsay to round out the rhythm section.
While a ...
Continue ReadingJust Jazz Guitar Articles
by Rob Smeets
Jack Wilkins Just Jazz Guitar Articles Mel Bay Publications ISBN: 0-78-667221-8 2004
Since Jack Wilkins' release of Windows in in 1973, Wilkins has been a mainstay in the jazz guitar scene. Currently an instructor at the New School and at the Manhattan School of Music, Wilkins is known for his incredible technique and refreshing ideas in the realm of jazz guitar. The book is called Just Jazz Guitar Articles published by Mel ...
Continue ReadingJack Wilkins: Ridge Lines
by Eric J. Iannelli
" Ridge Lines ," read the album's liner notes, “is Jack's second CD release, following Artwork , which was well received by critics, jazz radio stations, and a few normal people." This is a double loss--for the critics, who secretly crave the acceptance of the public while professing indifference, and the majority of “normal" folks, who are missing out on some fantastic hard bop and swing.Wilkins has assembled a fine ensemble for his second outing, most noteworthy among ...
Continue ReadingJack Wilkins: Ridge Lines
by Jack Bowers
A pity that musicians this talented have to produce their own albums, even though this one by tenor saxphonist Jack Wilkins and his companions was made possible in part by a Research and Creative Scholarship award from the University of South Florida where he is a member of the Music School’s faculty, as, I presume, is almost everyone else on the date (trumpeter Scott Wendholt, busy on the New York scene, may be an exception). Wilkins, who wrote four of ...
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