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Detroit
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To commemorate its 30th anniversary, the Detroit International Jazz Festival called on Gerald Wilson, the preeminent jazz orchestra composer and bandleader, to write a suite for Detroit. He recorded the piece with both his Los Angeles and New York orchestras for Detroit, his fourth Mack Avenue album, produced by Al Pryor. Detroit will premiere live on September 4th (which also marks Wilson’s 91st birthday), the weekend of the festival.
He has not only maintained his L.A. band for many decades, but Wilson’s New York branch convenes when he travels eastward for concerts, festivals and recording dates. He has the best of both coasts for this album, including trumpeters Jon Faddis, Bobby Rodriguez and Jimmy Owens; trombonists Dennis Wilson, Luis Bonilla and Doug Purviance; saxophonists Steve Wilson, Kamasi Washington, Antonio Hart, Jackie Kelso and Ronnie Cuber; pianists Brian O’Rourke and Renee Rosnes; bassists Trey Henry, Peter Washington and Todd Coolman; drummers Mel Lee and Lewis Nash. Guest soloists are flute master Hubert Laws, trumpeter Sean Jones and guitarist Anthony Wilson.
Wilson has written a musical sonnet to the city, where he spent five very important formative years in the late 1930s. Detroit’s progressive social policies made a huge impression on the young Wilson. “The city itself showed me so much,” Wilson insists. “All of the schools were integrated; so was the musician’s union. I had only known segregation before.” “Blues On Bell Isle,” written for a public park on the shore of the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, was the site of many lovely days from Wilson’s youth.
With a sly nod to Benny Golson (one of Wilson’s favorite composers), “Cass Tech” celebrates the school whose rigorous and comprehensive musical training prepared him for the real world. He states, “I don’t think I would be in this position if I hadn’t had that study.” The music classes brought him into contact with fellow students and future jazz stars like Wardell Gray, Al McKibbon and Rudy Rutherford. They also honed Wilson’s instrumental skills for work in local bands led by Bob Perkins, Harold Green and Glouster Current.
The slightly melancholy “Detroit” is Wilson’s song tribute to the city. “I love Detroit,” declares Wilson. “It’s my home; one of them, certainly.” Wilson heard some of the great jazz orchestras at Detroit’s Greystone Ballroom: Duke Ellington, Chick Webb, the Sunset Royals, Erskine Hawkins and Jimmie Lunceford. Lunceford would telegram Wilson with an invitation to join his band—and the jazz big leagues—in 1940.
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ARTISTS
Jon Faddis, Bobby Rodriguez, Jimmy Owens (trumpets); Dennis Wilson, Luis Bonilla, Doug Purviance (trombones); Steve Wilson, Kamasi Washington, Antonio Hart, Jackie Kelso, Ronnie Cuber (saxophones); Brian O'Rourke, Renee Rosnes (piano); Trey Henry, Peter Washington, Todd Coolman (bass); Mel Lee, Lewis Nash (drums); Hubert Laws (flute); Sean Jones (trumpet); Anthony Wilson (guitar) |
TRACKS
- Blues on Belle Isle
- Cass Tech
- Detroit
- Miss Gretchen
- Before Motown
- The Detroit River
- Everywhere
- Aram
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