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Abram Wilson

Ride! Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta | Dune

By JON GARELICK | April 23, 2007

3.0 Stars

Young New Orleans trumpeter Abram Wilson, now living and recording in London, sorts out his mixed feelings about his heritage in this suite of original pieces for Delta blues trio, New Orleans brass band, and modern-jazz sextet. Over the whole thing hangs a fictional narrative about a young musician named Albert Jenkins who leaves his small town and family life for the big wide world. If that sounds like an over-determined drag, it isn’t — there’s more “story” in the liner notes than in the songs with lyrics. Acoustic slide-guitar-and-harp country blues intrude on modern jazz harmonies, duke it out, resolve, or jibber-jabber side by side. Wilson’s vocal turns don’t always convince (he’s too much “in character”), but he has a big fat trumpet tone in the Wynton manner, and like Wynton he has a beautiful ear for voicing horns. And he writes better songs. (“Why You Guys Laughin’?” is just one “hit single” here.) Blues and second-line parade rhythms inform everything but inhibit nothing. And when Wilson sets trumpet, alto, and tenor in simultaneous solo flights, it’s unruly Mingus heaven. By the end, he really has harmonized blues licks and jazz, and the last huffing harp and moaning horns over a second-line beat offer a satisfying resolution to a personal musical drama.

Related: Koko Taylor, Bring on the blues, Maria Muldaur, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Jazz and Blues, More

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