BST 84270

Jack Wilson - Easterly Winds

Released - March 1968

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, September 22, 1967
Lee Morgan, trumpet #1-5; Garnett Brown, trombone #1-5; Jackie McLean, alto sax #1-5; Jack Wilson, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

1951 tk.4 Frank's Tune
1952 tk.11 Easterly Winds
1953 tk.16 Nirvanna
1954 tk.17 On Children
1955 tk.20 Do It
1956 tk.23 A Time For Love

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Do It	Jack Wilson	September 22 1967
On Children	Jack Wilson	September 22 1967
A Time for Love	Johnny Mandel	September 22 1967
Side Two
Easterly Winds	Jack Wilson	September 22 1967
Nirvanna	Jack Wilson	September 22 1967
Frank's Tune	Frank Strozier	September 22 1967

Liner Notes

TODAY’S JAZZ ARTISTS generally do not speak the same language. But this has always been the jazz tradition — that although an artist approaches a form differently, the inflections, personal expressions, feelings of exploration and innovations are the potent substances which make the music or the soloist rich with importance and thoroughly stimulating. And so it is with pianist Jack Wilson, who, like many of the jazz innovators extant today, is deserving of wider recognition and a spot right up front where the other giants reign.

Wilson’s first album on this label, Something Personal (4251), made a fact abundantly clear—that Wilson is a devastatingly independent thinker loaded with a personal expression lying dormant too long. Something Personal seemed an appropriate title for the album for Jack regards jazz as a very personal thing and the music and performance of Wilson in that initial outing indicated this unequivocally.

That, however, was only the beginning—for within this new album lies an extension of Something Personal, a new and engaging revelation of another side of Jack Wilson that is new and exciting. Heretofore, Jack’s music had never been recorded using horns and the personalized styles and voicings of Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Garnett Brown, Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins — all sterling jazz expressionists—were a challenging as well as pleasurable experience for Wilson. In addition, Jack had never recorded with Lee Morgan and McLean before and had never played with Billy Higgins at all.

The choice of Morgan, McLean and Brown as a frontline was the strength Jack knew he wanted for this horn date. “I wanted strong soloists within themselves and musicians who in their formative careers have managed to blow something of their own and not what had been stated so impressively by their mentors.” Regarding the selection of Brown, an old Army buddy, Jack added, “He’s an astute musician on all levels and since I knew I wanted a trombone to give a little more depth to the sextet, Garnett was my man.”

As for the selection of Cranshaw and Higgins, Wilson stated, “Bob and I go back to Chicago. We used to work a lot when he was part of the M.J.T. Plus Three and I was with Dinah (Washington). We always used to pick Walter Perkins and Bob to work with us. I never worked with Billy before, but I heard him play with Ornette (Coleman). I felt I needed a drummer who could play both inside and outside. I was overjoyed Billy was available.”

It is one thing to get a group of first rate musicians together, but it is another to expect the best out of them, especially when the person they’re working for is new to them, both musically and personally. After listening to this album in its entirety, you will sense the rapport that is apparent (after only three days of rehearsal and doing the actual date). The proper melding of feelings to make the date a success is quite evident.

Do it, the opener for the album, was ‘a fun tune.” Originally written for another date and another instrumentation with the title Florence of Arabia, it is for all practical purposes, representative of our present idiom and heavily lined with the blues. However, as opposed to the normal 12-bar structure, Jack used a 16-bar construction, which I’m sure will evoke the same foottapping, fingersnapping, and possibly dancing, which the band mernbers did in the studio while recording this piece. This tune opens with the three horns in unison with the rhythm setting up and holding tight on the heavily charged blues vamp. McLean, definitely a child of Bird, opens the fun, followed by Morgan, Garnett with some masterful, completely inventive passages that draws heavily on one’s attention, before Wilson enters to carry the blues message one step further. This may have been a “fun” tune, but it certainly puts the album in a groovy perspective.

On Children, starts out on an accented quarter note which is something like “Bang!”, according to composer Wilson, and again a 16-bar construction is utilized. The tune, written in D minor, is a dedication to the Negro youth of today as an incentive-type song to spirit them along in their quest for equal rights. (“I don’t feel the tune will necessarily have the lasting quality of, say, Chopin’s Polonaise which helped greatly in encouraging an important revolt some years back, but if the whole tenor of the piece—aggressiveness and drive—i. felt, then my supporting feelings of PUSH ON! should also be realized”.) The solo spots on this one has Brown opening things up and setting a superlative pace for his two front line colleagues. Notice the note Brown leaves off on, giving McLean an aggressive road to travel. Morgan soars into the happenings as though saying “keep on pushing, baby” while at the same time, taking care of part of that feeling with the pulsating rhythm backdrop of Higgins, Cranshaw and Wilson, who also raps beautifully with a bunch of choruses, adding catalytic ingredients to Morgan’s spiel.

The last track of this side, the very beautiful A Time For Love, is the change of pace tune of the album. It is an opportunity to witness the touch of love Wilson can give to a ballad. Jack is lucidly, flowingly introspective on this tune and reveals a considerable capacity for lyricism with the piece.

Easterly Winds, the title track of the date, is one of the tunes Jack wrote during a three night hiatus in his hotel room, composing and arranging the material for this date. His reasons for the D major piece is a declaration by Jack that albeit he’s transplanted himself on the West Coast, his roots and feelings, musically, are indeed Eastern. The theme of this piece is composed of two modes and a set of changes. The structure is ¡n the tradition, to an extent, of C.F.D. and Harbor Freeway 5 P.M., both on the Something Personal album.

The enchanting Nirvanna is my favorite of all the pieces played in the album. Originally written as part of a suite, it is made up of major changes going down with a bridge of minors, providing a sort of tension and release. The tension builds with a sort of avant-garde approach, when the ensemble sets the stage for some of the most rewarding solos by all in the album. Jack attributes the success of the phrasing of the horns to Lee, who “captured the essence of the tune — the tranquil feeling of being suspended in a peaceful mood.

Frank’s Tune, an original by alto saxophonist Frank Strozier, “provided the most mainstream groove of all the tunes in the album,” according to Jack. This was mainly because of the “tight-horn” voicing on the E flat uptempo swinger. It is an oddly constructed piece — 16-bars on the outside and 8 bars on the inside. It is an inspiring piece from the standpoint of the soloist being able to get into a building groove with ease. The rhythm section (Higgins and Cranshaw were rhythmically resourceful throughout) punctuates with extremely crisp statements on this track. And Wilson is remarkably stylistic on this one—sort of playing differently than he is usually recognized for, to which the following afterthoughts by Jack are a fitting conclusion to these notes.

“I don’t like to be typed. I try to fit into anybody’s bag ... anybody’s groove I’m working with.”

I doubt if any listener will type Jack Wilson. After listening to this album and the one that preceded it, documentation of Wilson’s substance as a gifted and sensitive artist should be lucid. But even more, that his potential as an influence in and on jazz is quite probably because he has so much more to say.

-LEROY ROBINSON