Like Louis Armstrong, drummer/composer Matt Wilson makes no distinction between high art and low art. He probably wouldn’t even accept the use of those terms. So he finds beauty and meaning in just about any piece of music, and he manages to satisfy both the demanding jazz veteran and the tentative jazz newcomer. His quartet—composed of four leaders who manage to work together seamlessly—is always fun, always surprising, and always communicating something behind the music, as it does on the new release, Hug!

Matt Wilson Quartet
Hug! (Palmetto Records)
A review
On Hug! (available August 28), Matt Wilson’s life-affirming quartet reappears with yet another enlivening set of music. As usual, the repertoire offers an unpredictable collection of tunes that includes five and a half originals, one of which includes references to Sonny and Cher, and an equal number of covers, which range from Sun Ra to Roger Miller, with compositions also from Gene Ammons, Abdullah Ibrahim, Dewey Redman, and Charlie Haden. Also as usual, the quartet—Jeff Lederer (tenor, alto, and soprano sax; clarinet; piccolo; voice), Kirk Knuffke (cornet, soprano cornet, voice), Chris Lightcap (acoustic, electric, and eight-string space bass; voice), and Wilson (drums, xylophone, voice)—plays comfortably on either side of the in/out border, if there was a border. With no piano to assert harmonic control, the quartet simply erases the line with the logic and spirit of their playing. Opening with Ammons’ energetic “The One before This,” the quartet immediately finds that pie-in-your-face, banana-peel slapstick that inhabits much of Wilson’s work, and Lederer lights things up with a hair-raising solo. The soloing from each of the players throughout the album offers concise, well-constructed musical statements with plenty of surprises, loads of feeling, and no self-indulgence, and everybody swings. Wilson punctures presidential bombast on “Space Force March/Interplanetary Music,” which combines sampling of Agent Orange’s announcement of a new military branch with an original march and Sun Ra’s composition. Wilson’s loopy mania flowers on “Sunny and Share,” which features a ghostly cornet solo. On the other end of the spectrum, Wilson’s ballad “Every Day with You” honors his significant other and includes a touching solo from Knuffke. The title track toe-tapper, accented with strings, has the inescapable simplicity of a jingle—it’s an earworm—and encourages everyone to chill, baby. The album closer, “Hambe Kahler (Good-Bye),” delivers another earworm, this one with a touch of South Africa in it. With its humor, its respect for the material, and its border-crossing bravado, the Matt Wilson Quartet creates performances that take veteran jazz listeners deep into jazz waters while at the same time allowing neophyte fans to wade safely chest-deep into the invigorating flow.

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© 2020 Mel Minter