Thursday, November 14th, Dave Wilson Quartet, CD Release! For One Night at Chris’, by the Dave Wilson Quartet, Tellus 360, in AN Sibín(an-she-been); Located in the ground level of the building, this is an intimate venue for live music gatherings. 17602 (717) 393-1660. http://www.tellus360.com/gatherings/event/dave-wilson-quartet/. 8:00-10:00. $10.00. 21 and over.
Press Release: The new Dave Wilson Quartet has released their new CD "One Night at Chris’" on Dave Wilson Music! (Release date: 5/27/2019)
One Night at Chris’ is the fifth release of The Dave Wilson Quartet, recorded live at the famous Chris’ Jazz Cafe ‘in Philadelphia, PA in March of 2018. Featuring Dave Wilson - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones; Kirk Reese – Piano (East Coast Legend); Tony Marino - Acoustic Bass (From the Dave Liebman Group); Dan Monaghan – Drums (Legendary Philadelphia drummer); Wilson’s Spiral (Summit Records-2010) and There Was Never (ZOHOMusic-2016) were critically acclaimed and received significant airplay nationwide, the latter rising to #18 on the Jazz Weekly countdown. The disc contains 10 tracks, four originals by Wilson and six re-arrangements by/of pop/rock favorites including The Grateful Dead’s “Friend Of The Devil”, The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood,” Creed’s “My Own Prison, ”Ambrosia’s 1980 hit single, “Biggest Part of Me,” and The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” Bill Milkowski states in the liner notes of the CD, “savvy adaptations of familiar pop tunes, filtered through a distinctly jazzy prism.” And, from Bill Milkowski. “The crackling intensity of One Night at Chris’ is a testament to what can happen on the bandstand on any given night. And this was a particularly good night indeed.” The recording is a document of one evening of music recorded live, no overdubs, no second takes and with all the nuances, surprises and magic known as Jazz. We wanted to take some our best work, including own compositions and original, creative interpretations of others work, most but not all featured on previous recordings (dating back to the early 2000’s), and present this in a live context. Utilized a long-standing working band with a rhythm section composed of East Coast and nationally known all-stars, we succeeded at capturing the virtuosity and magic of “One Night At Chris’”.In rotation nationwide and achieving “Chartbound” status (Top 50) on jazz radio, and garnering positive reviews, One Night at Chris is perhaps Dave’s greatest work, yet! One Night at Chris' Made WRTI-FM, leading Jazz Radio Station in Philadelphia, “Jazz Album of the Week”, the week of August 26th.
Brief Artist Bio
Dave Wilson is a leading jazz saxophonist, recording artist, band leader, composer, and educator in the Central PA/ Delaware Valley area, with a very active venue and festival schedule as both a leader of his own groups and as a sideman. He is very active playing at restaurants and establishments in South Central Pennsylvania, and play or have played in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and New York City. The Dave Wilson Trio or Quartet offers high caliber, compelling, contemporary Jazz music with top notch, nationally and internationally known personnel known for their exciting improvisations, creative individualistic compositions, and unique arrangements of standards. Wilson has worked with the likes of pianists Mark Soskin, Jim Ridl, Phil Markowitz, Bobby Avey, Kirk Reese, bassists Tony Marino, Steve Varner, drummers Adam Nussbaum, Bill Goodwin, Dan Monaghan, and Marko Marcinko,. He has also shared the stage with the likes of Tim Warfield, Steve Giordano, Wynton Marsalis, Tom Harrell, Lou Soloff (BS & T), the late Steve Marcus, Conrad Herwig, Gary Smulyan, Steve Smith (from Journey), among others The Dave Wilson Quartet has four great CDs out under their own name. The latest, “There Was Never” (ZOHO), featuring an all-star lineup of Bobby Avey-Piano, Tony Marino-Bass, Alex Ritz-Drums (members of the Dave Liebman Group), for 6 weeks in 2016 was in the top 50 of the nation-wide Jazz Weekly Jazz Radio Countdown, reaching a high of #18 in the nation! It was in the Top 11 in Philadelphia's WRTI New Releases, for several weeks, reaching a high of number 5. The track "Cassidy" was #13 in WRTI'S countdown for the top 100 in 2016. There was also a great review in the February 2016 issue of famed Downbeat Magazine. His latest recording “One Night At Chris”, recorded live at the famed Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia and released in May of 2019, features PA all stars in Dave’s working ensemble including Kirk Reese-Piano (East Coast All-Star, educator), Tony Marino (from the Dave Liebman Quartet), and Dan Monaghan (Top Philadelphia drummer), and promises to be another top hit, capturing all the intensity of a live performance on an exceptionally good night!
Dave has performed at the Media, PA “Jazz by Night” festival, The Berk’s Jazz Fest, Harrisburg’s American Music Festival, Bethlehem Musikfest, Philadelphia's Jazz Bridge Sponsored "Neighborhood Concert Series", headlining at JazzFest in York, PA, the Manassas (VA) Wine & Jazz Festival, Herndon (VA) Music Festival, Penns Woods Winery Wine and Jazz Festival/"Wine and Jazz Under The Stars", Pittsburgh Cider & Mead Festival, Baltimore's Artscape, Central PA Arts Festival, People’s Choice Art and Music Festival, Jazz in the Attic (both in State College, PA) and the Scranton Jazz Festival among others. Dave also performed in New York City at the Somethin' Jazz Club and The Garage, venues and concerts in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Baltimore, and has made regular appearances at the famed Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia for several years now. He has also been active in college master classes and concerts.
With his Traditional Jazz group first the Canal Street Hot 6 then the Rampart Street Ramblers he has played for the Florida Suncoast Jazz Society, The Tri-State Jazz Society, PA Jazz Society, among others.
Wilson has worked with the likes of pianists Mark Soskin, Jim Ridl, Phil Markowitz, Bobby Avey, Steve Rudolph, Kirk Reese, bassists Tony Marino, Blake Meister, and Steve Varner, drummers Adam Nussbaum, Bill Goodwin, Alex Ritz, Frank Russo, Dan Monaghan, and Marko Marcinko, as well as saxophonist Tim Warfield and Philadelphia based guitarist Steve Giordano among others. During his stint with the Dave Stahl big band he played alongside such Jazz luminaries as Wynton Marsalis, Tom Harrell, Lou Soloff (BS & T), the late Steve Marcus, John Fedchock, Conrad Herwig, Gary Smulyan, Steve Smith (from Journey), John Riley, among others.
His All Star concert appearances feature the likes of such nationally and internationally as well as regionally jazz notables as, on piano-Mark Soskin, Jim Ridl, Bobby Avey, Phil Markowitz, Steve Rudolph, Kirk Reese, Fred Hughes; Bass-Tony Marino, Blake Meister, Steve Varner, Frank Gravis; Drums- Adam Nussbaum, Marko Marcinko, Frank Russo, Alex Ritz, Larry Marshall, Butch Reed.
Dave has studied with saxophonists Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Ralph Lalama, Tom Strohman, and David Bilger, guitarist Steve Giordano, and pianist Kirk Reese.
For over twenty years, Dave has kept an active performance schedule logging an average of 120-150 dates a year with big bands and small ensembles at concerts, festivals, club dates and private engagements. Wilson resides with his wife Lisa in Lancaster, PA. where, when off stage, he teaches woodwinds and also owns and operates Dave Wilson Musical Instruments, a business focusing on the buying and selling of both vintage and contemporary, professional and student brass and woodwind Instruments.
(From the liner notes):
“The crackling intensity of One Night at Chris’ is a testament to what can happen on the bandstand on any given night. And this was a particularly good night indeed.” — Bill Milkowski
“savvy adaptations of familiar pop tunes, filtered through a distinctly jazzy prism.” — Bill Milkowski
Dave Wilson Quartet official YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnw6zRruL8S2Q8UO6x9gDiA?view_as=subscriberhttps://
Visit Davewilsonmusic.org
REVIEWS:
5/23/2019
From CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher, Midwestrecord.com.
http://midwestrecord.com/MWR1527.html
“DAVE WILSON QUARTET/One Night at Chris’: A protean sax man that can lead his crew through anything, he smokes on originals and covers that you wouldn’t think fit the format—-but they do. Lively and crackling, they are turned on by the live Philly audience and make sure they heat up the night properly. Tasty stuff that makes you wish you were there.”
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May 31, 2019
Dodie Miller-Gould, lemonwire.com
https://lemonwire.com/2019/05/31/the-dave-wilson-quartet-mixes-things-up-on-one-night-at-chris/
The Dave Wilson Quartet mixes things up on “One Night at Chris'”
“…What is noteworthy is the choice of songs that The Dave Wilson Quartet have covered. All of the cover songs are unexpected. Each offers listeners a bit of insight into the style and perhaps the inspiration of the quartet members…The songs included on “One Night at Chris'” have been captured in one take – – no overdubs, no retakes. The result is a recording that crackles with liveliness and a verve that resonates with the traditions of jazz, even when the group is taking on songs that are from rock and pop traditions….
“Biggest Part of Me” is sublimely beautiful. “Biggest Part of Me” is a masterful re-working of a classic and fun to listen to…”
6/17/19
Jim Hynes, https://www.makingascene.org/dave-wilson-quartet-one-night-at-chris/
“…This is a great fusion of straight-ahead and exploratory jazz, highly accessible, and packed full of the energy one expects in a live recording.”
Joe Ross, Roots Music Report NO URL ASSOCIATED WITH THIS REVIEW
“Bands occasionally have a terrible night or encounter the dreaded “gig from hell.” On the other hand, well-rehearsed groups also have exceptional nights when everything clicks. The Dave Wilson Quartet experienced the latter when they played Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia in March 2018…While the quartet really spotlights Dave Wilson’s sax, he and Kirk Reese (piano) trade lyrical improvised expressions, with colorful shading and distinctive twists, in this quartet’s very pleasant set of jazz.
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Grady Harp, June 19 HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER *****Live from Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia! NO URL ASSOCIATED WITH THIS REVIEW
“Dave Wilson, a prominent jazz saxophonist/band leader/composer/educator in the Pennsylvania area, brings his quartet’s recording a sense of immediacy…
Fine sound from fine musicians with the added excitement of a live performance!”
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July 18th
Jazz CD News/Reviews: The Audiophile Man
DOUG MACDONALD
https://theaudiophileman.com/jazz-cd-news-review/
“…Smooth but still crackling with energy, at ease but still ‘on’ the occasion, Wilson’s mob offers patterns of complexity that dance around the central themes. Playful too –…Clever stuff.”
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July 24th.
CD Review: http://www.musiczoom.it/?p=30734 - .XTgRUxTgq70
By Vittorio Lo Conte
“"It was a good night" and for this simple reason the recording of the concert has now been published on disc. Dave Wilson's quartet is in a state of grace, full of energy, a continuous flow of ideas from one piece to another. Dave Wilson's quartet is in a state of grace, full of energy, a continuous flow of ideas from one piece to another….The disc works to perfection showing how jazz, made by inspired musicians, can engulf material that comes from the world of pop and current rock without giving up the swing.”
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By Matt Silver for WRTI Jazz Radio in Philadelphia
https://www.wrti.org/post/jazz-album-week-it-all-comes-together-dave-wilson-quartet-one-night-chris-s
Jazz Album of the Week (For WRTI FM, Jazz Radio for Philadelphia): It All Comes Together for The Dave Wilson Quartet One Night at Chris’s
By Matt Silver •
August 26, 2019. Saxophonist Dave Wilson may be the coolest thing to come out of Lancaster since Dutch Wonderland—and Dutch Wonderland is pretty cool. For family fun, you can’t beat the log flume. But if the aim is to recreate a sophisticated evening of live jazz in the comfort of your own home, you really can’t beat One Night at Chris’s, the fifth recording from The Dave Wilson Quartet.
Recorded before a live audience at Chris’s Jazz Café, Philadelphia’s longstanding jazz club par excellence, One Night at Chris’s accomplishes all you could want from a live recording: genre-bending covers and bold originals, a fusion of the straight ahead and the slightly more avant-garde, and easy chemistry between a great group of musicians, each of whom are playing at or near their best.
Wilson studied under greats like Dave Liebman and Bill Barron (older brother of pianist Kenny Barron). And like his mentors, Wilson plays with great facility on both tenor and soprano saxophones.
Wilson’s turns on soprano include an up-tempo take on the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” that recalls Branford Marsalis’s string of early nineties guest-spots with the Dead and an ethereal yet earnest rendition of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows,” perhaps better known these days as the opening theme for HBO’s Big Love.
While these soprano-led tunes are highlights, it is Wilson’s aggressive, sometimes even borderline violent, tenor playing, especially in the instrument’s lower register, that makes the most lasting impact here. Think about some of the great tenors of postwar R&B—names like Coleman Hawkins and Jimmy Forrest. “Ocean Blues,” the Wilson original that opens the album, resurrects these names and announces, with not just a little bravado, that this throwback sound isn’t dead.
Although “resurrects” is never quite the right way to put it with jazz, because to resurrect something implies that it’s died in the first place—and jazz never dies; it just hibernates for a bit until it can, once more, add something new to the canon of America’s indigenous music.
So when Wilson and pianist Kirk Reese reprise an old favorite they call “Untitled Modal Tune,” they’re not resurrecting the John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner influences that so clearly color the piece, they’re simply waking up parts of a shared musical consciousness where Coltrane and Tyner reside in perpetuity.
Amidst all this conjuring and summoning, drummer Dan Monaghan and bassist Tony Marino serve as expert mediums, facilitating with ease and swinging hard when they must, as, for instance, when Monaghan finds himself trading eights with Wilson on one side and Reese on the other near the end of “Untitled Modal….”
Marino, for his part, serves as the group’s gravity, keeping the group tied to a regular orbit lest they be jettisoned into the abyss after dipping several toes into the unknowable depths of the avant-garde. See the quartet’s takes on The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” and a nearly twelve-minute version of Gershwin’s “Summertime” for the best illustrations of this cosmic phenomenon.
Wilson and company close by reprising “Spiral” from their 2010 album of the same name. The back and forth dialogue between Wilson and Reese suggests a kind of ancient, interminable conversation, where the speakers are happily resigned to there being no resolution in sight.
https://contemporaryfusionreviews.com/stunning-live-saxophone-jazz-the-dave-wilson-quartet-one-night-at-chris/?fbclid=IwAR18-obQNtTjxDUetVTGKxPMRtiNUpRaTnmhxbSUJZu8zgCvhMy6piZZ84k
By Dick Metcalf (AKA Rotcod Zzaj /Contemporary Fusion Reviews 10/10/2019
Stunning live saxophone jazz The Dave Wilson Quartet – ONE NIGHT AT CHRIS’: I first reviewed Dave’s stunning live saxophone jazz way back in issue # 106, where he got a “PICK” for “best jazz quartet”… his new album brings you even hipper jazz (if that’s possible)… get a taste of the quartet’s performance on this live video…
…in addition to Dave’s fine saxophone, he’s also joined by Dan Monaghan on Drums, the legendary Tony Marino on Acoustic Bass, and the great Kirk Reese on Acoustic Piano… be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Dave’s YouTube channel, where you’ll find many more thrilling performances.
Your eyes & ears will be pleasantly surprised as you check out the quartet’s rendition of “Friend Of The Devil“… mine were, to be sure…. Dave’s swingin’ original “Ocean Blues“, is the opener for the album, and the depth of his talent becomes totally clear… I’ve no doubt this tune will be getting MAJOR rotations on jazz stations ’round the globe (for years & years to come)!
In my previous review of Dave’s work, I called that album an “instant classic”… this new release digs even deeper into the cool that Dave & his players make happen for you… that’s especially true on another Wilson original, “Movin’ On“… Tony’s bass weaves tantalizingly in, through & all around the song, and all the players are just “ON”… if I were on the panels voting for jazz winners, this tune would be nominated & WIN awards.
I give Dave & his players a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) score of 4.99 for this great jazz release. Visit Dave’s website soon to stay in touch with his fine music. Rotcod Zzaj
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