The Highest Debut This Week On The JazzWeek Plus Increased Airplay!
ACCLAIMED MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST DAVE WILSON
REINVENTS CLASSIC 60s-70s POP FAVORITES WITH IMPROVISATORY FLAIR, ADDING HIS ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS FOR THE SEEMLESS
WHEN EVEN GOES EAST
His 8th Album as a Leader
“Dave's work on saxophone immediately grabs us, creating an alluring atmosphere and taking us in some interesting directions. His saxophone creates a world I want to check out, want to live in for a while. It promises some excitement, some unusual characters, some fun. Dave's sax work has a beautiful air of melancholy to it at moments, sometimes reaching out, sometimes turning inward.”
Michael Doherty’s Music Log
“There is no doubt that Dave Wilson, both as a saxophonist and as a composer, is an exceptionally gifted musician. From the very first bars, the listener is immediately won over by the clarity, intelligence, and personality of his writing. Wilson’s compositional voice is confident and distinctive, marked by a strong melodic sense and an understated sophistication that rewards close listening.”
Paris Move by Thierry de Clemensat
On WHEN EVEN GOES EAST, the newest release by DAVE WILSON, the saxophonist puts his own spin on pop tunes from the 1960s and 70s and shows off his considerable composing chops on four original compositions. This is Wilson’s eighth album as a leader.
“On When Even Goes East, the ever-inventive Dave Wilson leads his quartet through a thoughtful blend of originals and reimagined pop tunes, shaping an experience that feels both familiar and freshly personal. Wilson’s tenor and soprano saxophones deliver lyrical depth and an exploratory edge… a recording worthy of repeated listening.”
The Jazz Page by D. Glenn Daniels
Wilson has recorded his last three albums at live shows. This is his first studio recording since his 2015 release There Was Never. Since then, he recorded two live albums at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia, including One Night at Chris’ (2019) and Stretching Supreme (2022), on which he took a deep dive into Coltrane’s landmark 1965 Impulse! recording, A Love Supreme. The Art Music Lounge said, “All in all, this is an excellent CD, fully worthy of the one to whom most of the music is dedicated.” He also recorded Live at Silvana (2024) at the popular Harlem nightclub.
It took a while for Wilson to gather enough material for a new studio album. With 150 dates per year with big bands and small ensembles, playing at festivals, jazz clubs, and private engagements, while also teaching woodwinds and owning and operating Dave Wilson Musical Instruments (a business focusing on the buying and selling of vintage, modern and student brass and woodwind Instruments), his life has been very busy.
Wilson plays both tenor and soprano saxophones on the album and is accompanied by a top-notch rhythm section that includes JESSE GREEN (piano), EVAN GREGOR (bass), and DANIEL GONZALEZ (drums). It’s the same band that backed Wilson on Live at Silvana and frequently perform with him around the Poconos/Lehigh Valley area and New York City. He is also joined by special guest LENNY CASTRO (percussion) who flew from Los Angeles to take part in this project.
Wilson was born and raised in Bronxville, NY, and currently resides in Lancaster, PA. He began his journey in music in fourth grade, playing the clarinet. He studied piano for a while but became intrigued with the saxophone at the age of 14 after hearing Coltrane’s Live at the Village Vanguard. He eventually went to Wesleyan University where he studied with Bill Barron and continued his studies with some of the top names in jazz, like saxophonists Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Ralph Lalama, and others.
Over the years, Wilson has worked in a variety of musical genres, including funk, rock, jazz fusion, and Chicago-style horn bands. He also led his own straight-ahead jazz group, the Dave Wilson Quartet, and a couple of traditional/New Orleans ensembles, the Canal Street Hot 6 -- which made numerous appearances up and down the East coast -- and Dave Wilson’s Rampart Street Ramblers -- which featured an all-star lineup that included some of the top names in Mid Atlantic Trad circles. He was also a long-standing member of the Dave Stahl Sacred Orchestra and Dave Stahl Big Band, playing alongside jazz luminaries like Wynton Marsalis, Tom Harrell, Lou Soloff, the late Steve Marcus, John Fedchock, Conrad Herwig, Gary Smulyan, and Steve Smith, among others.
For WHEN EVEN GOES EAST, Wilson chose pop songs from the 1970s which he re-arranged as hip, modern jazz tunes. He says, “With these pop tunes, first I have to feel a personal connection with them…I make them my own thing, so they might veer off and not sound like the original…there has to be room for creative expression and improvisation."
The title of the album, WHEN EVEN GOES EAST, harkens back to his brief stint as a New York City cab driver. Most of Manhattan was built on a grid system, with some one-way streets going east and some west. The even numbered streets go east.
Wilson opens the album with his original composition, “Let’s Go.” An avant-garde burner, the tune features exciting, frenetic solos by Wilson and Reese. Other Wilson originals are “When Even Goes East,” “Slow Freeze,” and “Intragalactic Sunset.” Wilson says, “The guys came up with the groove for “When Even Goes East.” We were jamming on this one chord, and then I had this riff which served as an interlude, and it wound up being pretty effective. We recorded the tune in one take.” “Slow Freeze” is a dark, minor key ballad with a spacey vibe. “Intragalactic Sunset” is a Brazilian tinged composition featuring Wilson’s smoky tenor and an effervescent solo by Reese.
One of Wilson’s favorite musicians was guitarist Jerry Garcia, a rock icon and leader of the wildly popular group The Grateful Dead. Wilson chose to record “Eyes of the World,” written by Garcia and Robert Hunter. “This is my third Grateful Dead arrangement,” says Wilson. “I used to really like the Dead, and I love Jerry Garcia’s playing. For “Eyes of the World,” I embellished the melody but kept the form pretty straightforward.”
Wilson is also a big fan of Jimmy Webb and covers two of his tunes. Webb wrote the sad break-up song “Adios” for Linda Ronstadt. Wilson beautifully captures the poignancy of the lyrics on the soprano sax. Wilson’s wistful version of “Wichita Lineman” is embellished with a lyrical piano solo by Green.
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