John Litweiler on Freeman and Wilkerson

[brownie]

From the Chicago Sun-Times today.

Freeman, Wilkerson take different approaches to great jazz

November 21, 2004

BY JOHN LITWEILER

Chicago is one of the world's greatest jazz cities -- does anybody doubt this? The best possible evidence was at Hot House on Friday night: tenor saxophonist Von Freeman's quartet and fellow tenorist Edward Wilkerson's Eight Bold Souls. Their music made that downtown nightclub live up to its name.

They were certainly different groups. Octogenarian Freeman is a dynamic improviser with boundless energy and powers of creation, and spontaneity is at the heart of his music. On the other hand, Wilkerson is an ingenious composer of detailed, subtle scores for an octet of empathetic and distinctive soloists-interpreters.

Unique sound

There is surely no other sound in jazz like that of Freeman's saxophone. Big, rich, pliable, it moves from gruff tones to warmth to wobbly within a few bars, often with a tantalizingly flat or sharp edge.

It's a terrifically expressive sound, big and forceful, yet vulnerable at the same time. Like his sound, his style was founded in the best of swing era and bebop models -- Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker -- yet the tension that he mounts in his long solos is very much his own. Contrast is a large element, as in "All of You," in which long, super-fast runs, as if melody was squeezed into the tiniest possible notes, alternated with brief, spacey abstractions of the theme.

That selection, in fact, began the show 20 minutes early -- Freeman told the audience it was "just a sound check."

His "real" performance proved to be a remarkable curve of emotion, beginning with his complex construction of a fast blues solo 17 choruses long. In that most bitter of minor-key ballads, "You Don't Know What Love Is," yearning lingered in his long, held tones. By the second chorus his solo turned into a desperate plea, with a lovely top note, then slow, tumbling phrases, and finally the theme again with wavery tones.

After another, even faster blues, he offered a slow blues that subsided into spaced phrases like a man sobbing. Hearing this set, you felt Freeman was baring his heart. His rhythm section of young veterans, including guitarist Michael Allemana and drummer Mike Raynor followed him closely, and bassist Matt Ferguson created especially well-shaped solos.

Eight Bold Souls

What a band of distinctive individuals the Eight Bold Souls are. The horn players especially sound like old-time New Orleans musicians or Duke Ellington sidemen who time-traveled to the 21st century. In Wilkerson's subtle composition "Odyssey," Mwata Bowden played the strangely flatted, drooping first theme on clarinet, and then twisted it into fantastic knots and gnarls, full of growls, honks, and high cries.

When he was done, "Odyssey" suddenly slowed into a five-beats-to-the-bar. This rare, herky-jerky meter surely lent a strong edge of irony to Robert Griffin's tightly muted trumpet solo and even to a trombone solo by Isaiah Jackson, who normally plays with a sweet sense of melody. In fact, Griffin, too, is a lyric artist who, in the blues "Third One Smiles," even played both trumpet and flugelhorn at the same time. That tune was just the right medium for Wilkerson himself, a swinging, blues-drenched player who mingled humor and intensity as he took the time-honored "soul" tenor sax idiom into free-jazz territory.

Supporting them with ever-bobbing patterns were probably the world's only cello-tuba-bass-drums rhythm section (in order, Naomi Millinder, Gerald Powell, Harrison Bankhead, and Dushun Moseley). As composer, Wilkerson is not prolific. But each piece is a gem, with finely defined moods arising from varied sound colors and the interplay of voices.

Altogether, both groups made this evening a reason to rejoice. New Yorkers, eat your hearts out.

John Litweiler is author of The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 (Da Capo Books).

[SEK]

Thanks for the fine review.

I love 8 Bold Souls. I wish that I could have been there.

[JSngry]

I love 8 Bold Souls.

Damn straight!

[ghost of miles]

I wish Litweiler had ended up posting here--not that we're lacking for jazz crit luminaries!

[Larry Kart]

About a month ago, John mentioned in passing that he'd been having computer problems (sounded like they might have been computer-user problems) that were making it difficult for him to get onto the 'Net with ease or maybe at all. Or maybe he said that he couldn't find the site anymore (this might have been when it was down for a good while). I'll try to get in touch with him and see what I can do to bring him back to the party.

[Larry Kart]

John replied: "Yes, I wish I could access that Organissimo web site. Too much red tape there, not

enough time to struggle through it."

I think he's just very computer/internet shy. I'll try to talk him into it/through it but have a feeling that this may not work. There's nothing I would call "red tape" here.

[cannonball-addict]

Is this Edward Wilkerson related to the eponymous texas tenor, Don?

cba (Matt)

[Larry Kart]

Don't believe they're related and have never heard that they were -- Edward born in Terra Haute, Ind. (and raised I think in N.C.), Don born in Moreauville, La. -- but maybe in some extended-family way.

[Larry Kart]

P.S. Don't mean to be a nag, but as an old copy editor, the misuse of the word "eponymous" drives me nuts. It does not refer to two things or two people of the same name but to a word or a place whose name derives from that of a human being. e.g. Washington, D.C., Morse code, Bunsen burner, boycott, cardigan sweater, guillotine, etc. Also, eponymous, when it's used correctly (to refer to the place or thing named after a person relationship), only works in that direction -- person's name to what's named after that person. For example, it's correct to say "Morse's eponymous code" but not to say that Morse is the eponymous creator of the code -- because the code was named after him, but he wasn't named after the code. This error crops in newspapers and magazines all the time -- and almost always when the writer is trying to say something in what they think is a cuter, fancier way and get credit for being cute and fancy (which is not BTW what Cannonball-Addict was doing).

Sorry for the rant, but it must be in my genes (or should that be "Mr. Levi's eponymous pants"?)

[pryan]

I enjoyed the rant, Larry. Never knew what that word meant before this morning. Now I'll try, carefully, to slip that trick into some of my writing (when I feel like being "cute"). Can't wait to read your book, BTW.

[John Litweiler]

There once was a jazz lover named Hieronymous

Who was bugged at the use of the word "eponymous"

He assasinated a chap named Levi

who levied taxes on the levee

Baffled police said the criminal was anonymous.

...getting tired. very tired...

[John Litweiler]

There once was a jazz lover named Hieronymous

Who was bugged at the use of the word "eponymous"

He assasinated a chap named Levi

who levied taxes on the levee

Baffled police said the criminal was anonymous.

...getting tired...very tired...

[John Litweiler]

There once was a jazz lover named Hieronymous

Who was bugged at the use of the word "eponymous"

He assasinated a chap named Levi

who levied taxes on the levee

Baffled police said the criminal was anonymous.

...getting tired...very tired...

[ghost of miles]

John, very good to have you aboard! Welcome, welcome, welcome!

[AllenLowe]

so - if i said - keep the horse before the Kart - that would be eponymous?

[ghost of miles]

Jesus H., Allen Lowe is posting here now?? Who's next--Scott Deveaux and Dan Morgenstern?

Welcome too, Allen!

[Chuck Nessa]

Y'ever feel the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes?

[Lazaro Vega]

Ed Wilkerson told me much of his writing was influenced by Archie Shepp's recording "Fire Music," and though critics outside of Chicago will often talk about Edward's "Chicago based" sound, it may be fair to say Shepp's influence as a player can be heard in Wilkerson's brawling solos, too.

Edited November 24, 2004 by Lazaro Vega

[Larry Kart]

"so - if i said - keep the horse before the Kart - that would be eponymous?"

No, but if I had invented a certain low-slung little race car, I'd be a wealthy man and you could refer to my eponymous Go-Kart.

[couw]

Y'ever feel the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes?

all the time.

and brown shoes don't make it.

[ghost of miles]

Y'ever feel the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes?

Yes, and I'm badly in need of a shine.

[AllenLowe]

I've been lurking for a while - finally had to say something - how about - food "a la Kart"

Edited November 24, 2004 by AllenLowe

[ghost of miles]

I've been lurking for a while - finally had to say something - how about - food "a la Kart"

Allen, when it comes to expression on this board, I think you'll find it's Kart blanche.

[Steve Reynolds]

was lucky enough to see both Von Freeman & Eight Bold Souls on a trip to Chicago back in 1998 - good to know both are still making beautiful sounds

amazing that Wilkerson still has the same great badn intact for all these yeasr - too bad there are only a few recordings - and the last one I know of (on thrill jockey) was a great one

[SEK]

Any 8 Bold Souls recording is worthwhile. My favorite is that one on Thrill Jockey, "Last Option". My other favorite is their first recording, simply called "8 Bold Souls", released originally as an LP on the Sessoms label and currently available on CD on the "Open Minds" label.

Nothing beats seeing them live. I saw them twice, in Grand Rapids and in Alma, Michigan.

Edited November 26, 2004 by SEK