Wilkes, Corey - Cries from tha Ghetto

SKU 32-PI29
"This is a smart, passionate, yearning, exploratory and generous set of performances from a young trumpeter who came to my attention via his work in the TransAtlantic Ensemble CDs of Evan Parker and Roscoe Mitchell. I have been a little wary of his first release because of the reviews (which) make it sound like a fairly traditional set of music. This CD is something else however. Let's start with the personnel:
Corey Wilkes- trumpet and flugelhorn
Kevin Nabors- tenor sax
Scott Hesse- guitar
Junius Paul- bass
Isaiah Spencer- drums
Jumaane Taylor- tap dance
Part of what I find exciting about this list is that I knew none of these guys and all of them shine on this CD. So the CD introduces me to a bunch of people to look and listen for in the future. Sweet. There are sound samples available on the MP3 listing for this recording so please go there to hear some of what I am going to try to describe. The first thing is that several of the tunes are representative of the kind of music that the best of the mid-60's Blue Notes used to put out. I am talking the Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean and Andrew Hill type of postbop. Very sophisticated, intelligent, angular music that didn't necessarily swing (although sometimes it does like crazy) but was always rhythmically interesting and driving. Listen to First Mind and Levitation for examples of what I mean. Other tunes are more out there- sort of a cross between those Blue Notes and something that the AACM or BAG might have put out. Check out Chasing Leroy for this. On parts of this tune Hesse, Wilkes and Nabors are all soloing with each other and they somehow make it all work. Then there are the Abstrakts. These are short pieces where one or more musician plays free. Abstrakt #1 is a feature for Wilkes with the tap dancer Taylor, on #2 Nabors runs amok and Paul plays weirdly on his bass on #3 and #4. It used to be a tradition by guys like Sonny Stitt that when they recorded a quartet album, that they would reserve a song just for the rhythm section to play. I loved that generosity and I like that Wilkes continues that tradition in his own way. So there you have it. Good compositions (I should mention that most of the tunes are by Nabors or Wilkes) being played by very skilled young musicians coming into their own. I look forward to hearing much more excellent music from all of these guys in the years to come. So should you."-Greg Taylor


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