M@'s EPK & Press Propaganda —Reviews
Time for Arts and Crafts: Matt Wilson at the Jazz Bakery, May 2-6
Posted: Tue, May 01, 2007
Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor
Matt Wilson has been collecting more than percussion instruments: His accolades include four consecutive titles as DownBeat critics’ “rising star” drummer”; “Best New Artist” by the New York Jazz Critics Circle; winner of the 2004 Modern Drummers reader’s poll; nomination as 2004 and 2006 Jazz Drummer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Similar accolades have been heaped upon his ensembles, the Matt Wilson Quartet and his other foursome, Arts and Crafts. Matt Wilson’s Arts and Crafts is currently touring in support of their latest release, Scenic Route (Palmetto), including five nights at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, May 2-6. Wilson’s two earlier recordings with Arts and Crafts were incendiary, and the new tour and recording only fan those flames.
Matt Wilson was born in Knoxville, IL, where his parents encouraged him to explore art and music. After seeing an episode of I Love Lucy with Buddy Rich as guest star, third grader Matt was inspired to take up the drums. He bought a pair of drum sticks and “began exploring a wide range of suitable cookware and five gallon buckets as sound sources.” After receiving a used set of snare and cymbals, Wilson joined his brother (on tenor sax) and found audiences with the local PTA and 4H Club. Notes Wilson, “It was quite a duo…We had a book that explored all of the hits of the 60’s and 70’s. We were serious Herb Alpert aficionados.” Wilson went on to play in school ensembles, learned to read music, and in 8th grade was hired by his high school band director to play drums in his weekend dance band. He soon had other gigs--a big band (Common Denominator), country bands, Dixieland bands, “anything I could play.”
After high school, Wilson attended Wichita State University where he studied with Dr. J.C. Combs, “not only a fantastic percussionist but he possesses one of the most creatively fertile imaginations on the planet.” With Combs, Wilson found ways to use a number of atypical percussion sources, including pinball machines, cloggers, bowlers, and professional wrestlers. In Wichita, Wilson met his wife-to-be, a violinist, and the two moved to Boston where she studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. Boston offered a lot of opportunities for a budding musician, including playing with the Either/Orchestra, Charlie Kohlhase Quintet, and John Medeski. With encouragement from such jazz virtuosos as Cecil Mc Bee and Andrew Cyrille, the Wilsons relocated to New York, where Wilson notes that “I loved the energy of the scene immediately and began playing with some amazing musicians.”
Wilson has made dozens of recordings as sideman, and has played on numerous national jingles and soundtracks. His resume includes work with a wide array of artists, including Dewey Redman, Ray Anderson, Bill Mays, Janis Siegal, Cecil McBee, Leni Stern, Fred Hersch, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Ravi Coltrane, Mark Taylor, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Rufus Reid, Ted Rosenthal, Mario Pavone, Joanne Brackeen, and many others. Currently he tours with the Denny Zeitlin Trio, Trio M (Myra Melford and Mark Dresser), and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, in addition to his two quartets. The Matt Wilson Quartet was initiated in 1996; in 2002 he founded his other touring band, Arts and Crafts, which currently features Terell Stafford, Dennis Irwin and Gary Versace. “Both groups swing and have these interesting personalities,” explains Wilson, “just with different instrumentation.” As a popular instructor, Wilson has conducted workshops throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, and South America, covering drumset performance, rhythm section performance, music business, and creativity and expression for all instruments. He is also a member of New York’s Jazz Composer’s Collective. Anyone attending the recent 2007 IAJE Conference in New York likely saw a lot of Matt Wilson—presenting clinics, performing a late set with Arts and Crafts, and manning the trapset for a number of other bands.
Wilson’s recordings as leader on Palmetto Records include As Wave Follows Wave (1996), Going Once, Going Twice (1998), Smile (1999), Arts and Crafts (2001), Humidity (2003), and his 2004 release, Wake Up! (2004), named one of the top jazz records of the year by the Village Voice, iTunes, Jazziz, ejazznews, All About jazz, the Providence Phoenix and the Sacremento Bee. Scenic Route is set for release on January 23rd.
Of his Arts and Crafts ensemble, Wilson notes that “I wanted to do something with a different instrumentation than the Matt Wilson Quartet. I also wanted to have the opportunity to records tunes I had stored in my ‘want to record someday’ file…to compose pieces that stretched the ‘classic’ jazz quartet instrumentation.” The first version of Arts and Crafts included trumpeter Terell Stafford, bassist Dennis Irwin, and pianist/organist Larry Goldings (now replaced by Gary Versace). Noted Michael Renner (St. Louis Post Dispatch), the results were “innovative, original compositions, beautifully executed standards and arresting musicianship…Wilson, a polyglot on the drums, spoke the languages of bop, Latin, avant-garde and straight-ahead jazz rhythm with equal command. His ballad work erased any distinction between traditional and avant-garde or modern.”
Master trumpeter Terell Stafford was an anchor of Bobby Watson’s Horizon before breaking out as leader of his own quartet and quintet. Over time he has also played with McCoy Tyner’s Latin All-Stars, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and Mingus Big Band. Mentor Tyner noted, “Terell is one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player. He has his own voice on his instrument—a very personal sound.”
Pianist/organist/accordionist Gary Versace has been in high demand since arriving in New York five years ago, where he has played with Danny Gottlieb, Seamus Blake, Andy LaVerne, Adam Nussbaum, Brad Shepik, Ingrid Jensen, Tim Ries , Lee Konitz and many others in addition to Matt Wilson. Down Beat named him Rising Star on the Hammond B-3 in 2004 and 2005. An active clinician, he was a member of the University of Oregon music faculty for eight years.
Dennis Irwin has been a first-call bassist on the New York scene for the past 30 years. Originally a clarinetist, Irwin has played with Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Al Haig, Chet Baker, Mose Allison, Johnny Griffin, Joe Lovano, and John Scofield, among others. With Arts and Crafts, he is likely to play both instruments.
Impressed with my introduction to Matt Wilson when I saw him with the Denny Zeitlin Trio a few years ago, I noted that, “With even more body language than most drummers, Wilson has a wide ranging human and technical arsenal at his disposal, and he uses it all, from wood to metal sticks, from wire brushes and strings of wood ‘shells’ to the air currents passing through his fluttering hands, literally all the ‘bells and whistles’ that can be whacked, thunked, jingled, even dropped on the floor. He seems to merely give a cymbal a certain look to coax just the right sound” (Jazz Police). To hear him in the role of bandleader and composer is a real treat, and in the stellar company of Stafford, Irwin, and Versace, I can’t think of a better way to enjoy Arts and Crafts.
“The more you invite people into the moment, the more you put your fellow musicians and the audience at ease and share the moment, then you create this big fantastic feeling.” --Matt Wilson (Jazz Times, February 2007)