Jazz Articles about Matt Wilson

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Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts: The Scenic Route

by Troy Collins
January 28, 2007

Drummer Matt Wilson's Arts and Crafts ensemble has followed a somewhat more mainstream path than some of his previous efforts. With each release, Wilson has been slowly expanding the concept of this unconventional quartet with an eclectic and exploratory ear. Arts & Crafts' third album on Palmetto Records, The Scenic Route, is as varied and rewarding as either of the group's previous efforts.

A solid mainstream player, trumpeter Terell Stafford represents the group's dominant solo voice, acquitting himself ...

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Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts: The Scenic Route

by Jim Santella
January 17, 2007

Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts swings in a collective manner with a comfortable fit that speaks from the jazz tradition, while driving with soulful authority. Trumpeter Terell Stafford gives Wilson an eloquent lyrical voice that he backs with propulsive rhythms. Pianist and organist Gary Versace gives this powerful quartet its various moods, which bassist Dennis Irwin complements with a lyrical rhythmic foundation.

The organ sound lends a soulful texture to much of the album, while Versace's piano carries ...

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Matt Wilson

by Peter Madsen
May 30, 2006

If you combined Groucho Marx with Marco Polo, Gomer Pyle and Albert Einstein and gave them a drum set they would probably play exactly like the funny, explorative, country-boy genius Matt Wilson.

I first met Matt a couple of years after he had arrived here in the big apple back in 1992. It was then that we started working together with beautiful singer Carla White and soon after with the band of saxophone/flute virtuoso Thomas Chapin as well ...

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M.O.B. Trio: Quite Live In Brooklyn

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 26, 2006

Il mondo cambia, evolve. L’Europa si guadagna i suoi spazi e forse New York non è più il centro del mondo jazzistico. Però è certo che la scena newyorkese è sempre molto interessante e vivace, così come interessante e vivace è il catalogo di un’etichetta (la Omnitone - che aveva pubblicato anche il disco d'esordio del trio Loose) che quella scena la documenta. Questa volta è il turno del M.O.B. trio (dalle iniziali dei suoi tre componenti), la cui musica ...

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Pete Mills: Art and Architecture

by Jerry D'Souza
December 7, 2004

If there is one defining aspect about Pete Mills, it is his ability to pave a path that is in direct communication with his listeners. Though he often shows a big, brawny disposition, he never overplays his hand. And while there is turmoil and a roiling heat as he takes the high post-bop road, he also showcases a softer side with ballads that shimmer and glow in the emotional nest he builds for them.

Mills plays surprise to ...

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Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts: Wake Up! (To What's Happening)

by Eric J. Iannelli
November 20, 2004

Wake Up! (To What's Happening) is drummer Matt Wilson's first album after realizing, thanks to the unintentional example set by his children, that he'd been going about things all wrong. Well, not wrong, exactly--just differently.

“The more I play improvised music," he writes in the closest thing to an explanatory preface, “the less I want to understand it." For years he has taken what he views as a deliberate approach to music-making (though still one that won him ...

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Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts: Wake Up! (To What's Happening)

by Ken Franckling
October 2, 2004

"Arts & Crafts" is the perfect name for versatile drummer Matt Wilson's band for this session. For the music they make is indeed an art--and it involves much musical craft. And then there's the title of this, the band's second recording. A title like Wake Up! (To What's Happening) could lead one to guess that Wilson is referring to society's current agenda. Or whether he is speaking to the need to learn from the children around us. The Wilson family ...