Anthony Wilson

[rom661]

For those of you into jazz I wanted to recommend a fairly new release by Anthony Wilson. Anthony is a guitarist who is probably best known for his "day gig" playing for Diana Krall. His solo releases are, to me at least, more interesting. The release is titled Jack of Hearts. It is a guitar/organ/trio combo and I think it is outstanding. Anthony is a less is more sort of player. He completely respects the song, whether written by him or someone else, and doesn't regard songs as purely a backdrop for his solos. He is very generous and writes a lot of ensemble oriented material.

 

The recording is simply spectacular. I will give a plug to a friend of mine, Joe Harley, who produces Anthony and was behind the Audioquest label while it still existed. This release is on Groove Note. It is incredibly natural sounding, spacious with an amazing kick drum. Jeff Hamilton plays drums on four cuts and Joe was able to talk Jim Keltner into making the trip to the session and playing on the balance. They cover the theme from Chinatown and the sound of the drums and the rest of the group on that is worth the price of admission by itself. If you have a decent system and want to show someone why good sound is important to the increased enjoyment of good music, this is a great track to do it with.

 

I've no idea about downloads; I purchased the disk. Oh, for the record Joe is intimately involved in Audioquest's development of USB cables. Although they are doing some expensive stuff, he said the entry level piece (fifty bucks? eighty? It was a long CEDIA show) is a dramatic improvement over a generic piece. I haven't heard USB cables make a difference yet, although I haven't played around much, but I trust Joe's opinion and musical judgments, even when he has an obvious interest in promoting his product.

 

On another note, to whine a bit, my preordered Beatles boxed set was delivered while I was gone. I'm sure whoever took them from my front porch will enjoy them....

 

Rick

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just ordered it!