Wilson Trio Finds Ideal Venue but Loses Touch With Crowd

One of the great pleasures of the Chamber Music in Historic Sites concerts is the opportunity to see and hear musical artists in classic settings. At their best, the programs are perfect blendings of people and places, the right performers in the right locale.

Sunday afternoon’s presentation of the Anthony Wilson Trio in Perfume Hall of the former Bullocks Wilshire Building seemed to have all the right potential--a small, chamber jazz ensemble playing in an elegant, Art Deco setting. And the elements, for the most part, were the correct choices, at least up to a point.

Wilson is a gifted, imaginative guitarist, and his soloing, especially in league with organist Joe Bagg, was the work of a mature artist, one who brought the careful crafting of a compositional viewpoint to his improvisational efforts.

That capacity was especially apparent on standards such as “Luck Be a Lady,” “It’s D’Lovely,” “You’re the Top” and “All the Things You Are.”

But the impact of Wilson’s playing was dealt a distracting blow when the production positioned his trio at the street end of Perfume Hall. Placed on a riser in front of an opaque window, the musicians were difficult to make out within the glare from the afternoon sunlight. Future Historic Sites settings in this venue would do well to reposition the stage in the middle of the long, relatively narrow room.

Nor did Wilson particularly aid the impact of his group by performing numerous new original tunes. Audiences for these programs cannot be described as sophisticated jazz listeners, and performers fail to take that into account at their own peril. Wilson clearly has learned a great deal about music from his father, the veteran bandleader Gerald Wilson, but he would be wise to observe his father’s programming approach and easygoing manner with an audience.

Given those circumstances, it was not surprising that a fairly large portion of the crowd disappeared after the intermission. And that was a shame, given the high quality of Wilson’s music. A better positioned stage, the programming of shorter, more accessible numbers, and a somewhat more amiable interaction between musicians and audience would have made for a sterling afternoon of the right sounds in the right place.