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Steve Wilson

Steve Wilson has attained ubiquitous status in the studio and on the stage with the greatest names in jazz. A bandleader in his own right, Jazz Times calls him the consummate saxophonist-composer and one of the finest alto and soprano saxophonists of our time. A musicians musician, Wilson has brought his distinctive sound to more than 100 recordings led by such celebrated and wide-ranging artists as Chick Corea, George Duke, Michael Brecker, Dave Holland, Dianne Reeves, Bill Bruford, Gerald Wilson, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, Charlie Byrd, Billy Childs, Karrin Allyson, Don Byron, Bill Stewart, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller among many others. Wilson has eight recordings under his own name, leading and collaborating with such stellar musicians as Lewis Nash, Carl Allen, Steve Nelson, Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Irwin, James Genus, Larry Grenadier, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley, Nicholas Payton, Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo and Bill Stewart.

In 2015 Wilson released his first project as a leader in 12 years, Steve Wilson & Wilsonians Grain: Live in New York: The Vanguard Sessions, on Random Act Records. Recorded live at the famed Village Vanguard in NYC on May 24 & 25, 2014, the recording features Wilsons potent quartet with Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo and Bill Stewart. The CD was conceived to truly capture the live experience and the sound of one of the best listening rooms in the world. The tracking order reflects a Wilsonians Grain set, and includes three Wilson originals, and tunes by Orrin Evans, Joe Chambers, Thelonius Monk and Migiwa Miyajima. WBGO Radio describes Wilsonians Grain as jazz at its finest in conception, execution and spontaneity.

He has recorded another project, Sit Back Relax & Unwind, for JMI Records that features Ray Angry, Ben Williams and Willie Jones, III just recently released. In the vein of the old CTI recordings, it is an analog recording and will be released a vinyl LP only. Produced by Steven Mandel (Music Supervisor the The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Roots), he also contributed four tunes that were arranged by Wilson. There are two new tunes by Wilson and an arrangement by Ray Angry of David Bowies Space Oddity.

Starting his formal training on saxophone in his native Hampton, Virginia, Wilson also played oboe and drums in school bands while performing in various R&B/funk bands throughout his teens. After a year-long stint with singer Stephanie Mills he decided to major in music at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he performed and/or studied with Jimmy and Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, John Hicks, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis. During those years he was also in constant demand for recording studio work, and as backing musician for touring shows such as The Four Tops and Sophisticated Ladies. Landing a chair with O.T.B (Out of the Blue), a sextet of promising young players recording on Blue Note Records, Wilson moved to New York in 1987 and the following year toured the U.S. and Europe with Lionel Hampton. Becoming a first-call choice for veteran and emerging artists alike, Wilson was the subject of a New York Times profile A Sidemans Life, highlighting his work with Ralph Peterson, Jr., Michele Rosewoman, Renee Rosnes, Marvin Smitty Smith, Joanne Brackeen, The American Jazz Orchestra, The Mingus Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Leon Parker, and Buster Williams Quintet Something More. In 1996 he joined the acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet, and from 1998-2001 he was a member of Chick Coreas Grammy winning sextet Origin.

Cited by his peers in a New York Times poll as one of the artists most likely to break out as an established leader, Wilson recorded four CDs New York Summit, Step Lively, Blues for Marcus and Four For Time on the Criss Cross label. He then recorded two projects for Chick Coreas Stretch Records label Generations, his multi-generational quartet with Mulgrew Miller, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley and Passages which features his long-time musical partners Bruce Barth, Ed Howard and Adam Cruz, and special guest Nicholas Payton. Containing nine original compositions Passages established Wilson as a leader whose vision reveres the past, creates a soundscape of the present, and reaches toward the future.

In 2003 Wilsons recording Soulful Song was released on MAX JAZZ launching the labels Horn Series. It features special guest vocalists Rene Marie, Carla Cook, and Phillip Manuel and issues forth a powerful and provocative performance from these dynamic and versatile artists. As Wilson explains, Its a tribute Black radio, as it was called then, that was particularly inclusive in its programming and a galvanizing force in the community. On the same station one could hear R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, comedy, local news and affairs, and social commentary. In addition to new original material the program includes arrangements of songs by Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Abbey Lincoln, Gil Scott Heron, Earth, Wind & Fire, Patrice Rushen, and The Staple Singers.

Wilson was a member of the Blue Note 7, an all-star septet assembled to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records in 2009. The project culminated in a successful 50-city tour of the U.S., and their recording Mosaic. Also that year Wilson made his orchestral debut performing Heitor Villa Lobos Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra with the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra. By popular demand he returned to the VMF in 2010 performing a commissioned work Sweet For Duke for Saxophone & Chamber Orchestra by Jonathan Ragonese.

In February 2011 Wilson celebrated his 50th birthday with a six-night engagement, leading six different bands at Jazz Standard, NYCs premiere jazz club. The all-star line-up included Mulgrew Miller, Bruce Barth, Karrin Allyson, Lewis Nash, Jeff Tain Watts, Carla Cook, Geoffrey Keezer, Christian McBride, Linda Oh, Ed Howard, Adam Cruz, Diane Monroe, Joyce Hammann, Nardo Poy and Troy Stuart. In a major interview feature preview, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, The Sideman Becomes the Star. The WSJ article by award-winning journalist Larry Blumenfeld added, Mr. Wilson is essential to this citys jazz landscape. Since the 1990s Wilson has been regularly cited in the Downbeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls in the soprano and alto saxophone categories. The Jazz Journalists Association nominated him for Best Alto Sax Player in 2008, and for Best Soprano Sax Player in 2010. His work in film has included being artistic consultant to Harvey Keitel for "Lulu On The Bridge as well as being featured on the soundtrack.

Wilsons current projects reflect his multifaceted artistry, versatility, and associations with some of the most highly regarded artists on the scene. His quartet Wilsonians Grain, which consists of Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo, and Bill Stewart or Clarence Penn, has been featured on NPR live from the Kennedy Center and the Village Vanguard in New York City, and headlined at the prestigious Detroit Jazz Festival in 2011. Wilson is one-half of two dynamic duos, Musical Dialogue with renowned drummer Lewis Nash, they released their recording Duologue on MCG Jazz, and in another with pianist Bruce Barth as documented on their recording Home on the We Always Swing label. He co-leads an elegant trio with pianist Renee Rosnes and bassist Peter Washington, and with composer/arranger David ORourke has a repertoire as soloist with strings. Wilson is touring member of the Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Billy Childs Quartet, Christian McBride & Inside Straight as well as McBrides Grammy-winning Big Band, and the Buster Williams Quartet.

An in-demand and passionate educator Wilson is the Director of Jazz Studies and an Associate Professor of Music at City College of New York. In 2019 he joined the prestigious faculty at Ravinias Steans Music Institute in Chicago, IL.

He has been artist-in-residence and/or guest artist at University of Oregon, University of Michigan, University of Maryland-College Park, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Delaware, Lemoyne College, North Carolina Central University, Bowling Green University, Lafayette College, University of Northern Colorado, SUNY New Paltz, Florida State University, California State University at Stanislaus, University of Manitoba, Hamilton College, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and for the award winning arts organization CITYFOLK in Dayton, Ohio.

With the support of friend and mentor Dr. Billy Taylor, Wilson has been a frequent guest performer/educator at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He has been a featured performer, panelist, and clinician at conferences of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Chamber Music of America, and International Association of Jazz Educators. Wilson was honored with the Marc Crawford Jazz Educator Award from New York University 2001 and the Virginia Jazz Award 2003 Musician of the Year presented by the Richmond Jazz Society, recognizing his outstanding service in the advancement of jazz and education in their respective communities. He is an active mentor in the nurturing and promotion of his former students emerging careers who have performed with The Count Basie Orchestra, Johnny Mandel, Beyonce Knowles, Roy Hargrove, and many others.
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Noah Haidu: Standards III

Read "Standards III" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 14, 2025

Standards III, the ninth album by New York-based pianist Noah Haidu, is essentially a trio date with a guest appearance on one number ("Slipstream") by alto saxophonist Steve Wilson. As was true on Standards (Sunnyside, 2021) and Standards II (Sunnyside, 2024), the inclusion of several unfamiliar themes (including some by Haidu) stretches the meaning of “standard" well beyond what most listeners would consider acceptable. To be fair, there are a liberal number of standards on all three ...

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Noah Haidu: Standards III

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Ryan Truesdell / Gil Evans Project: Shades Of Sound

Read "Shades Of Sound" reviewed by Jack Kenny

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Shades of Sound is not about Ryan Truesdell recreating the past. There are excellent reasons to listen to recreations of the music of Gil Evans. As critic Bill Mathieu wrote of Evans, “The mind reels at the intricacy of his orchestral and developmental techniques. His scores are so careful, so formally well-constructed, so mindful of tradition that you feel the originals should be preserved under glass in a Florentine museum" (Mathieu in Max Harrison, Jazz Profiles, 2011). Evans ...

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Read "Shades Of Sound" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

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Ryan Truesdell's Shades of Sounds: Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 2 is a triumphant continuation of his lovingly curated Gil Evans Project--a musical venture focusing on both preservation and revelation. With this latest volume, Truesdell guides us through Evans' well-known sonic landscape and deeper into the vaults, unearthing four never-before-recorded arrangements that offer a renewed understanding of the composer's nuanced brilliance. Truesdell's decision to record live at Jazz Standard is both philosophical and ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Steve Wilson

Source: Michael Ricci
February 9, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Steve Wilson's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Steve Wilson

Source: Michael Ricci
February 9, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Steve Wilson's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Steve Wilson

Source: Michael Ricci
February 9, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Steve Wilson's birthday today!

Contest

Enter the "Steve Wilson/Lewis Nash - Duologue" Giveaway!

Source: All About Jazz
August 22, 2014

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the MCG Jazz “Steve Wilson/Lewis Nash - Duologue“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on September 22nd. Click here to enter the contest (Tracking Steve Wilson at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Your Friends at MCG Jazz About Duologue Saxophone. Drums. That’s it. A fearless confidence, bold daring and a serious sense of playfulness mark Duologue, released on ...
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Performance / Tour

Steve Wilson Returns To The Village Vanguard, December 4-9, Joined By Pianist Renee Rosnes And Bassist Peter Washington

Source: Seth Cohen PR
November 13, 2012

Acclaimed jazz saxophonist Steve Wilson will headline a week at the legendary Village Vanguard in New York City, December 4th through 9th, 2012. Wilson will be joined by pianist Renee Rosnes and by bassist Peter Washington. The collaborative, co-led trio first performed together at Kitano in NYC, a two-night sold-out visit which Wilson fondly recalls as “one of the best musical experiences I've ever had." This collaborative trio, which first played at Kitano in NYC, is looking forward to playing ...
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Performance / Tour

Steve Wilson Sets "Super Band" Tour for April, with Patrice Rushen, James Genus and Billy Kilson

Source: Seth Cohen PR
March 7, 2012

Steve Wilson Injects Some Funk with 'Super Band' Tour in April; Four Nights at Jazz Standard in NY are Confirmed, as are Shows in D.C. and VA Wilson Hits His Stride, Builds New Collaborations for 2012 Acclaimed jazz saxophonist Steve Wilson aims to 'get funky' with his Super Band tour, set for April. The Steve Wilson Super Band features Patrice Rushen on piano and keyboard, James Genus on bass and Billy Kilson on drums. The tour will begin with a ...
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Performance / Tour

Saxophonist Steve Wilson to Perform with the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra on March 4

Source: Michael Ricci
February 10, 2012

Jazz saxophonist Steve Wilson will join the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Pete McGuinness on Sunday, March 4 on the University's in Wayne as part of the Spring 2012 Jazz Room Series. The concert will begin at 4 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts on the campus. Prior to the concert, Wilson will be the guest for “Sittin' In," an informal discussion about jazz, at 3 p.m. in room 101 of Shea Center. Tickets ...
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Performance / Tour

Steve Wilson Plans New CD for 2012; Earns Raves for Sold out Kennedy Center Concerts

Source: Seth Cohen PR
November 2, 2011

With Four Sold-Out Shows at Kennedy Center Jazz Club, NPR Coverage, and Rave Previews & Reviews, Steve Wilson Continues to Build a Remarkable Career New CD Planned for 2012 Acclaimed jazz saxophonist Steve Wilson recently opened the 2011/2012 season at Kennedy Center Jazz Club with four sold-out sets, live coverage by NPR, rave previews & reviews and more. Wilson continues to sculpt an impressive career as a headliner, sideman, educator and jazz historian, and remains one of the most well-liked, ...
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102

Event

Steve Wilson to Open Kennedy Center Jazz Club's 2011/12 Season with String Concerts

Source: Seth Cohen PR
August 31, 2011

Steve Wilson to Open Kennedy Center Jazz Club's 2011/12 Season with String Concerts and Student Workshop Wilson Helping to Develop Next Generation of Jazz Artists by Producing and/or Performing on Upcoming CDs by Two of His Students Wilson to Appear on Upcoming Big Band CDs by Ron Carter, Christian McBride Acclaimed jazz saxophonist Steve Wilson is proud to announce that on October 7th and 8th, he will open the 2011/2012 season at Kennedy Center Jazz Club, with a special 'Strings' ...
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174

Education

Steve Wilson Embraces Role as Jazz Educator with Many Academic Appearances

Source: Seth Cohen PR
March 19, 2011

Fresh Off Triumphant Wall Street Journal Feature, NY Times Arts & Leisure Preview, WNYC, New Yorker and Other Major Coverage, Steve Wilson Returns to His Role as Jazz Educator with Series of Academic Appearances WSJ Headline for Wilson's 50th Birthday Celebration: “The Sideman Becomes the Star" Fresh off major coverage for his 50th Birthday Celebration, including a significant WALL STREET JOURNAL feature and other key placements (see below,) acclaimed saxophonist Steve Wilson has returned to his role as a respected ...
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