69.00 PLN

CD:

Nr kat.: MAC1056
Label  : MackAvenue (USA)

JazzTimes (p.65) - "His 'Variations on Clair de Lune' is especially intriguing, Wilson having reinvented it with the Avery Parrish tune 'After Hours' in mind." Gerald Wilson, jazz’s reigning composer/orchestrator pays homage to his adopted hometown, Chicago on his fifth Mack Avenue Records release, Legacy. Composers Igor Stravinsky and Giacomo Puccini also receive Wilson’s musical tips of the hat. Wilson’s son, guitarist/composer Anthony Wilson, and grandson Eric Otis are also represented by a composition/orchestration apiece, thus extending Gerald’s musical legacy. The Gerald Wilson Orchestra assembled for Legacy comprises many of the great jazz artists who've been Gerald's collaborators for the lion’s share of his Mack Avenue canon. A first-class rhythm section of pianist Renee Rosnes, guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash anchors the group. Trumpeters Sean Jones, Jeremy Pelt, Tony Lujan and Mike Rodriguez and trombonists Dennis Wilson, Douglas Purviance, Luis Bonilla and Alan Ferber stud the brass section. Antonio Hart Dick Oatts, Kamasi Washington, Ron Blake, Jay Brandford and Gary Smulyan comprise the reeds. Al Pryor continues as Wilson’s producer for this collection of tributes and portraits. His new suite “Yes, Chicago Is…” is an affectionate series of sketches—what Wilson calls a “romantic ballad”—that delineates one of his favorite cities. (He wrote and recorded “State Street Suite,” an earlier civic valentine, in 1993.) Commissioned by the Chicago Jazz Festival, it recalls some key personal junctures. Wilson lived in the Windy City for a better part of a year at the age of fifteen, when the Chicago World’s Fair was there. Later on, as a member of the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (which he joined in June of 1938), he used the town as his home base. And while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval facility (1942-’44), Wilson took advantage of the fact that he didn’t have to live on the base and moved into town...