Live Wednesday: Steve Wilson At The Village Vanguard

For many years, Steve Wilson has made a living as a "first-call" alto and soprano saxophonist. That is, he's a first choice musician for tons of acclaimed bandleaders: Christian McBride, Maria Schneider, Dave Holland, Mulgrew Miller, Chick Corea, Buster Williams and so forth. He spent much of last year with the 70th Anniversary Blue Note Records band, and even took a few gigs with classical music ensembles presenting works for strings and saxophone.

Of course, being called so often often leaves little time to call others for your own projects. That's thankfully untrue this week, when Wilson plays New York's Village Vanguard with his newest quartet, itself comprised of first-call musicians. NPR Music and WBGO will present and archive a live video Webcast and on-air broadcast of Wilsonian's Grain live from the Vanguard during their 9 p.m. ET set on Wed., Mar. 23.

It's hard to describe Steve Wilson's style; he's made his career on being a complete musician, technically and imaginatively. (In order to fit into so many bands, he plays alto sax, soprano sax, multiple flutes and a clarinet.) More accurate would be to say that he's a musician of honesty and good taste, within the vast field of mainstream post-bop, but never constrained by its parameters. With him is a group of old friends who are also on many a musician's speed-dial: pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Bill Stewart. They'll be playing a set of old tunes too, recorded compositions of Wilson's that never actually saw much time in public performance.

Wilson arrived in New York in 1987; the next year, he was already on the road with Lionel Hampton. The city's top musicians quickly learned of his talents; he now appears on well over 100 commercial recordings. Since 1991, he's also found time to record seven albums of his own. Wilsonian's Grain remains undocumented on disc, though not on tape; its October 2008 debut gig was recorded for air on NPR's JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater.

It's been nearly a year Wilson last led a group at the Village Vanguard, an entirely different quartet co-led by pianist Michael Wolff, Chip Jackson and Victor Lewis. He also visited the club with Christian McBride's Inside Straight last fall — NPR Music and WBGO recorded that show as well. In other words, he's no stranger to the place, no matter who calls whom for the gig.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125076907&ft=1&f=1039


http://jazzpolice.com Steve Wilson on saxophone with Peter Schimke on Piano, Billy Peterson on Bass, and Kenny Horst on drums. Live at he Artists' Quarter in 2004. http://artistsquarter.com