Anthony Wilson

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever. As a sound seeker, Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his latest masterwork Trio of Trios, an expansive project that encompasses three albums, each a deft change of musical context that presents him in a different trio setting.

Most of Anthony Wilson's recordings to date tend to put the focus on his writing, so this workout by the guitarist in a trio is a welcome change of pace. Wilson has a melodic and boppish style with an attractive tone. He interacts with two fellow citizens of Los Angeles: organist Joe Bagg and drummer Mark Feber. Wilson contributes three originals and also plays songs by Bagg, Kenny Burrell, the Beatles, Frank Loesser, and Duke Ellington ("Prelude to a Kiss"). Overall this is a fine straight-ahead jazz date by an underrated but talented guitarist.

"The Plan of Paris" can be interpreted as a book of individual short stories with detailed, very specific cinematic set pieces conceived as narratives, an intimate, fluid hybrid of jazz, folk and blues. His longtime main ensemble - Wilson on guitar and vocals accompanied by Blue Note recording artist Gerald Clayton on piano and keyboards, bassist David Piltch and Jay Bellerose on drums and percussion - helps bring the tales to life with these musical settings much as, say, Jonny Greenwood's score does in Power of the Dog.

Guitarist Anthony Wilson is a particularly talented arranger-composer. He is usually heard with larger groups, so this trio outing gives listeners a rare opportunity to hear him stretch out as an improviser. The music mostly falls between hard bop and soul-jazz and tends to be laid-back and relaxed, even the rapid rendition of "All the Things You Are." The fine Los Angeles organist Joe Bagg works well with Wilson, while drummer Mark Ferber adds subtlety and swing. But the guitarist, who contributed four of the eight selections, is the main star and his soft tone and quietly inventive ideas make this set worth listening to closely.

Increasing his forces to a nonet, Wilson has created an album of interesting arrangements and many beautiful sounds, blending the brass and reeds expertly. The beginning of the record sounds like standard fare, starting with a straightforward mid-tempo Duke Pearson tune, "Make It Good," which leads to two slow ballads, "I And Thou" and Jimmy Rowles' "Looking Back," which features a guest vocal by Diana Krall. Wilson also seems to hold back on his guitar playing.

In 1997, bandleader/arranger Gerald Wilson was commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival to write an original piece to be performed at that year's festival. Wilson's goal was to compose a melody that the audience would leave the venue singing to themselves. He succeeded by casting his "Theme for Monterey" in five different styles, with his big band interpreting the theme in a variety of moods – as a ballad, a Latin romp, a medium-tempo piece and a shouting conclusion. His memorable five-part suite has solos by his son, guitarist Anthony Wilson, trumpeter Oscar Brashear, pianist Brian O'Rourke, trombonist George Bohanon, trumpeter Carl Saunders, Randall Willis on tenor, and others. Also on this CD are a couple pieces commissioned by the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Foundation, reworkings of "Summertime" and "Anthropology."

With her pre-bop piano style, cool but sensual singing, and fortuitously photogenic looks, Diana Krall took the jazz world by storm in the late '90s. By the turn of the century she was firmly established as one of the biggest sellers in jazz. Her 1996 album All for You was a Nat King Cole tribute that showed the singer/pianist's roots, and since then she has stayed fairly close to that tradition-minded mode, with wildly successful results…