Search - Matt Arts Wilson & Crafts, Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts :: Wake Up! (To What's Happening)

Eclectic and rewarding

Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 09/20/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Wake Up (To What's Happening)" is drummer Matt Wilson's second recording with his Arts and Crafts ensemble. Commonly regarded as his more straight-ahead group (with his dual sax fronted quartet being his more adventurous unit) they actually cover a wide swath of territory, so much so that one might ask which group is actually the more adventurous. A question irrelevant even in it's own asking, as all of Matt Wilson's projects are overflowing with creativity and exploration, no matter who's in the line-up.



A seemingly incongruous mixture of styles, the Arts and Craft's ensemble tackles everything from straight ahead acoustic ballads to covers of droning electric proto-fusion. Despite coming off as a bit of a mish-mash, the eclectic combination still works. Where some jazz artists work in a variety of genres across an album, but manage to find the common denominator between opposing styles, Wilson throws caution to the wind and lets his group take each piece in a different direction, yet always to it's best effect.



The traditional line-up of trumpet, piano, bass and drums is sometimes augmented by hammond organ. It is with this instrument at the forefront that the group often engages in its most adventurous excursions. Ingenious covers by Tony Williams Lifetime, "There Comes A Time," and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, "Silence" are prime examples of the realization of this approach. Other standards, such as Jaki Byard's "Aluminum Baby" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Luiza" are given new life on this session and sound as fresh today as when they were conceived in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Fleshed out with a few ballads, a sprightly Afro-Cuban folk tune, "Cuban Carnival Song" a burn-out tune, "Fast Edd" and a few swinging bop tunes, "Wake Up (To What's Happening)" is a fine addition to Matt Wilson's discography."