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A Fitting Tribute
Steve Wilson does Joe Zawinul at Jazz Standard
Photo: John Abbott
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A good jazz player packs a punch with the notes they perform on stage. Their music speaks to the audience and each note tells a story. A great jazz player says just as much with the space between the notes—the time of silence a respite, a planned break in the language of the story, a pregnant pause to provide suspense or inspection—and every moment of the performance truly contributes to the tale. Steve Wilson is this kind of jazz artist.
Studying music (saxophone and piano) since the age of twelve, Wilson has been touring the country with some of jazz’s greats for more than twenty years. After a lifetime of learning he branched off on his own, creating the Steve Wilson Ensemble. Recognized for his incredible versatility and breadth of knowledge, Wilson leads his Ensemble in enigmatic and technically suave performances.
On December 17–20 The Steve Wilson Ensemble will return to Jazz Standard for The Zawinul Project, a series of performances dedicated to the work of the late great keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul (1932–2007). The Vienna-born, conservatory-trained Zawinul played with Maynard Ferguson and Dinah Washington before becoming a mainstay of Cannonball Adderley’s powerhouse Sixties band and the composer of soul-jazz anthems like Mercy Mercy Mercy. Zawinul was a crucial contributor to Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, a co-founder of Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, and the leader of his own internationally acclaimed band, the Zawinul Syndicate.
The Ensemble will be playing some of Joe’s lesser- known music, but definitive of his evolution as a player and composer. With that in mind the three Zawinul recordings that are the centerpiece of this project are “Soulmates” (with Ben Webster), “Money In The Pocket,” and “Rise and Fall of the Third Stream.” Wilson will include “In A Silent Way,” “A Remark You Made,” and perhaps some of his material from Cannonball Adderley, Weather Report, and The Zawinul Syndicate. Sure to be included will be “4 Miles Away,” and “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”
For more information on the performances at Jazz Standard, please visit www.jazzstandard.com.