Guitar fans were in fret heaven at The Edye Friday night as Anthony Wilson brought together some of the best pickers around for a quartet’s worth of picking, strumming, tapping and plucking. Wilson’s 2013 Season’s album which debuted the 4 guitar concept was the centerpiece for the 1 ½ hour axe fest, as Larry Koonse, Julian Lage and John Storie teamed up with the leader to create units and subunits of solos, duets and trios and ensemble passages within the framework of originals and standards.
The mixture of buoyant charm and prismatic angles were well exemplified on a pair of tunes by Thelonious Monk, as “Work” skipped along with joyful eccentricities and “Ask Me Now” had Storie and Koonse sprinkling notes like a morning rain. Julian Lage introduced his own “Fake Standard” with a honeycombed sweetness that lead into a homey melody that he and Wilson dueted together, melding like peanut butter and jelly. The opus of the evening was the four part “Seasons” that gave a half hour sonic journey through the year, opening with an icy chilled “Winter” that had the guitars twinkling like a starry night, to a “Spring” that had the strings perkily popping in unison like budding flowers, into a “Summer” that evoked images of the Shanendoah Valley into a “Fall” that had Lage dropping suave notes like red leaves from Mid West trees. The closing take of Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game”, which had the artists chiming the melody like church bells, ended the evening as it began, with a celebration of the width, breadth and depth that six strings can bring when put into the proper hands.
Upcoming shows in March include Hiromi, Larry Goldings/Gerald Clayton and Kurt Elling. Check out the calendar at www.thebroadstage.com