Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Adam James Wilson Quintet: Unify

Adam James Wilson Quintet: Unify

By Glenn Astarita
June 22, 2002
View read count

Guitarist Adam James Wilson hails from upstate New York and acknowledges folks such as Joe Maneri and Harry Partch as influences. His infatuation with microtones is transposed into his utilization of a fretless guitar. On this outing, Wilson’s quintet explores clipped themes, subtle variances in pitch and disparate tonal ranges amid free improvisational excursions. Needless to state, improvising ace Joe Maneri’s influences are evident here. However, the band delves into a bevy of concepts and practices that intimate a personalized mode of attack. Flutist, Arto Artinian provides ephemeral characteristics to this outing, due to his concisely organized yet altogether airy lines. Jonathan Vincent (piano) and Katt Hernandez (violin) often complement Wilson’s sinuous voicings with interleaving patterns and discontinuous exchanges.

The guitarist cranks up the volume in a few spots, as the band sometimes sound like a wayward prog-rock outifit. Essentially, they surge forward with a mindset that might offer a new twist to previously applied theorizations or practices. Whereas the album title offers credence to the notion that the musicians are emphasizing the value of the whole and the correlation of its parts.

Adam James Wilson

Track Listing

1.Unify 2.Steam Engine 3.Brooklyn 4.Cry For Me 5.Somnambulus 6.Diminuendo 7.Stark 8.Two Plus One 9.Turn Away 10.The Slow Crucible 11.Under Your Thumb 12.Until The Beginning

Personnel

Adam James Wilson

vocals

Arto Artinian: flute

Album information

Title: Unify | Year Released: 2002 | Record Label: All Music

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Transfiguration
< Previous

Surreal
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.