COREY WILKES

Drop It

Delmark DE 582

Corey Wilkes – tpt/flg/cnt; Jabari Liu – as (3, 7, 9, 10, 11); Chelsea Baratz (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10), Kevin Nabors (3, 5, 6) – ts; Robert “Baabe” Irving III – pno/Fender Rhodes; Junius Paul – bs/bs gtr; Jeremy “Bean” Clemons – dms; Miyanda Wilson – sp (1); Scott Hesse – gtr (3); Dee Alexander – vo (9-10); Justin Dillard – B-3 (10). Chicago: Oct. 8/9, 2007 (1-10) – Riverside Studio; Oct. 10, 2007 – live @ Close Up 2 (11).

Trumpet Player/Sonata in the Key of Jack Daniels/Drop It/Remy’s Revenge/Prelude: Touch/Touch/Return 2 Sender/ Searchin’/Ubiquitous Budafly/Funkier Than a Mosquita’s (sic) Tweeter/Drop It (Live). TT: 66:00.

What do you know – my first digi-pak from Delmark! This is Wilkes debut as a leader after bravely taking Lester Bowie’s vacated trumpet chair in the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He flies in rough company! Modern jazz/improvised music with a groove – this is well thought out and arranged stuff with good interplay and soloing by all involved.

Beginning with a Langston Hughes poem w. musical backdrop and ending with almost 11 minutes in a club, this CD covers most of today’s bases without any home runs. What this is, is a harbinger of things to come, for one must start SOMEwhere! I look forward to later efforts and will seek out albums on which he plays other peoples’ music. Singles and doubles by all – I’m taken with Jabari Liu’s alto along with the leader’s horns. A solid, funky effort by all… I look forward to future sessions led by Wilkes, for he has great promise. Jazz is NOT dead, by any means.

Peter B. Lowry         [IAJRC JOURNAL: v.42, n.1 – March 2009; p. 76.]