If you’re a guitar fan, then you’ll only need to read this while listening to this six stringer’s delight. If you’re one of those uninitiated with “Good Ol’ Mr. Wilson” (did I just date myself?!?), just realize that Anthony Wilson has been the go to guy for singers ranging from Diana Krall and Madeleine Peyroux to Paul McCartney and Barbara Streisand. His own releases are the type that you could use as a guitar workshop on their own merits, displaying everything you’ll ever need to be a master of the frets.
This time around, Wilson brings together some of the best of the “new kids on the block” and composes a suite for the quartet to perform, then giving everyone a chance to solo at a concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The main body of work, Seasons, is a wondrous collection of four themes allowing clever interplay, intriguing soloing and well crafted arrangements to weave in and out of the Wilson-composed piece. Each guy then gets a chance to display his wares, with Pinheiro’s take of “Tide” a real delicacy, but none of these gents gives anything less than inspirational delivery. The delicacy and sensitivity of Lage on “April Kisses” or the genteel interplay by the quartet on the closing “The Circle Game” should make this disc (and accompanying dvd) something to be absorbed, studied and revered.
Goat Hill Recordings