CD Reviews

Matt Wilson's Arts and Crafts

The Scenic Route | Palmetto

By JON GARELICK | January 28, 2010

3.0 Stars

Drummer Wilson could borrow a title from his old boss Russ Gershon’s Either/Orchestra: neo-modernism. You know: a new look at old modernism before it got post. So you get your Monk (“We See”), your Ornette (“Rejoicing”), Metheny (“The Bat”), Bobby Hutcherson (“Little B’s Poem”), and some Ellingtonia in a Ducal take on the Gross-Lawrence standard “Tenderly.” Wilson likes hard-bop blues, roots, and tunefulness, the sharp contours of standard song forms. His “Feel the Sway” grooves on a simmering bass vamp and opens up with a Horace Silver–like backbeat and the trumpet line from Terell Stafford’s “Song for My Father” before floating out on a female vocal chorus. Pianist Gary Versace saves “We See” from over-familiarity and enlivens “Rejoicing” with his tumbling, ecstatic patterns. Wilson breaks up the latter with a back-to-Ghana Ed Blackwell solo, and he guides the band through the stop times of a piece by another of his old bosses in “In Touch with Dewey.” Versace’s B-3 organ lends chirping commentary to Wilson’s driving title tune, with its comic free-time “detour.” “Our Prayer” suggests a South African township hymn before segueing into John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Maybe Wilson’s postmodern after all.

Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts | Scullers, DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Rd | February 6 | 617.562.4111

Topics: CD Reviews , John Lennon, Bobby Hutcherson, Russ Gershon, More

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