Jazz Articles about Wilco

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Wilco Celebrates the Twentieth Anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

by Dave Kaufman
May 21, 2022

Wilco has been touring celebrating the 20th anniversary of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (YHF); their fourth album is often heralded as their masterpiece. The album has an interesting backstory recounted in the documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart named after the opening song on the album. I caught the final performance of a five-night stand (April 20, 2022) at the United Palace theatre in Northern Manhattan. Several personnel changes marked the early years of the band. However, this version ...

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Wilco: New York, NY, September 22, 2011

by Lawrence Peryer
October 1, 2011

WilcoRumsey Playground, Central ParkNew York, NYSeptember 22, 2011 Nels Cline can conjure wind. He did so mid-way through the third song of Wilco's performance in New York City on September 22. There were several thousand witnesses. Cline, Wilco's guitarist-cum-audio mad scientist, was at the crest of an intense solo passage in “Ashes of American Flags" when a strong, crisp breeze blew in from the East, lifting the blanket of early evening ...

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Wilco: Sky Blue Sky

by Doug Collette
June 9, 2007

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky belies the stark black and white of its graphics. It's music of pastels, seemingly designed to lull the listener into a false sense of security.

Consider the fact it was recorded with the lineup of the band including guitarist extraordinaire Nels Cline, who brought so much expansive texture to the sextet's tours since joining in 2004. “Shake It Off reminds why he is such an integral member of the group. Yet for the most part he, ...

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Wilco: Kicking Television: Live in Chicago

by Doug Collette
January 3, 2006

This ain't your mother's sensitive singer songwriter!.

No, during the entire time he has led Wilco, from the dissolution of Uncle Tupelo through the turbulence of the most recently acclaimed studio work, Jeff Tweedy has redefined what it means to be introspective. This double live CD only reaffirms his vision. More importantly, it documents the work of a versatile band that deserves kudos aplenty for realizing that vision.

The revelation of confessional truths in public can seem transparent ...

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Wilco at the Memorial Auditorium in Burlington Vermont

by Doug Collette
October 17, 2004

Burlington's old Memorial Auditorium has rarely, if ever, heard music orchestrated with more ornate detail than that which Wilco played this early autumn night. And Jeff Tweedy, the band's revered leader, couldn't seem to stop, as the dynamic regular set gave way to two encores, the extended length of which reconfirmed what the medium-sized but enthusiastic audience had just heard. That is, Wilco is very well the best rock and roll band in America right now.

It doesn't demean Wilco ...

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Wilco: a ghost is born

by Doug Collette
July 14, 2004

It's a bit of a stretch, perhaps, to consider Wilco a jazz band. But if you consider the stylistics leaps Jeff Tweedy & Co. have made since their earliest albums ( Being There , Summerteeth ) and the collective creative process that gave birth to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and now, this new album, perhaps the label fits.

Simpler and more immediate than YHF (contemporary folk songs cloaked in ambient sounds), ghost is the sound of inspiration caught as it happens-ever ...