Saxophonist Steve Wilson plays two sets tonight, at 7 and 9 p.m., at the Crawlspace Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo. Western Michigan University jazz faculty Matthew Fries on piano, Carlo De Rosa on bass and Keith Hall on drums join him.
Wilson's newest album, Enduring Sonance, came out in May on Smoke Sessions Records. It features Renee Rosnes, who wrote the arrangements, along with Joe Locke, Jay Anderson and Kendrick Scott. French hornist Kevin Newton of Imani Winds appears on two tracks. The album collects less familiar songs Wilson has loved since he was a child in Hampton, Virginia. His father's record collection ran from Johnny Mathis and Mario Lanza to Motown and James Brown.
Wilson, 65, says the album is about lyricism and storytelling, not technical display. "You get to a certain point in life where you start to value your, what means the most to you. And for me, it's always been about connecting with people, connecting with audiences."
He tells his students to treat a song form like a painting in a museum: "You have a frame with a finite measurement... And when you look into that painting, it is infinite, what you can find."
Wilson is a full professor and co-director of the jazz program at The City College of New York, and he'll work with students at Western Michigan University during his stay before taking the stage tonight.
Wilson was the series' first artist in March 2022, and he is its first returning guest. Hall, one of the curators, says the John Stites Jazz Awards fund the series. A new WMU student series is starting there too, with the goal of jazz every Thursday at the KNAC building, the former First Baptist Church.
Tickets are available at KzooJazz.com.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
