JAZZ REVIEW : Guitarist Wilson Debuts Octet: Like Pere, Like Fils

It was impossible to avoid “like father, like son” comparisons at Catalina Bar & Grill Sunday afternoon when 27-year-old guitarist Anthony Wilson, son of bandleader-composer Gerald Wilson, debuted his jazz octet as part of the club’s Young Artists’ Concert Series.

In a surprisingly mainstream program of his originals and arrangements, the younger Wilson, who last year won the Thelonious Monk Institute-BMI annual composition award, showed rhythmic and thematic tastes as wide as those of his father, a pioneer in employing Latin and contemporary beats into big-band writing. Also like his father, who was in attendance, Wilson showed a decided taste for swing.

Whether playing his own melody-rich originals or arrangements from such diverse sources as Freddie King, Oliver Nelson and the musical “Guys and Dolls,” Wilson often turned to swing tempos as a framework for improvisation. In traditional style, he colored his work with plenty of call-and-response sections and moments when the horns added echo and accent to the themes.

Sometimes he meddled too much when refashioning established material. An ambitious arrangement of “Do Nothin’ Til You Hear From Me”--orchestrated with clarinet, double bass clarinets, trumpet and trombone--was particularly idiosyncratic as the clarinets sounded a strangely harmonized line, with hints of “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” behind the familiar theme.

But Wilson also knew when to leave well enough alone. He told the audience that he did little to Nelson’s soulful arrangement of “Yearnin’,” but instead “took all the notes” from Nelson’s ‘Blues and the Abstract Truth” recording.

Without a piano, Wilson’s guitar served as harmonic anchor as well as frequent lead. His solos, including the driving circle of chords he layered against “The Nightrider,” were plucky, well-paced affairs, recalling the feel of Kenny Burrell’s work with the Gil Evans Orchestra some 35 years ago.

Though the ensemble occasionally sounded less than polished reading Wilson’s often difficult charts, it did deliver spirited improvisational play. Saxophonists Ernie Fields Jr., Phil Vieux and Doug Webb mixed and matched personalities with Webb’s baritone winning out as toughest kid on the block.

Trombonist’s Ira Nepus’ mellow-toned work added smooth contrast to the saxes’ more animated play. The rhythm section, with drummer Willie Jones III and bassist Joey Altruda, never faltered when the ensemble going got rough.