University of Florida Performing Arts

presents

Steve Wilson & Wilsonian’s Grain

Friday, January 25, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

University Auditorium

Steve Wilson & Wilsonian’s Grain

Steve Wilson — Alto and Soprano Saxophones

Orrin Evans — Piano

Ugonna Okegwo — Bass

Bill Stewart — Drummer

STEVE WILSON, alto and soprano saxophones

Steve Wilson gained ubiquitous status in the studio and stage with the greatest names in jazz, as well as critical acclaim as a bandleader in his own right. A musician’s musician, Wilson has brought his distinctive sound to more than 100 recordings led by such celebrated and wide-ranging artists as Chick Corea, George Duke, Michael Brecker, Dave Holland, Dianne Reeves, Bill Bruford, Gerald Wilson, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, Charlie Byrd, Billy Childs, Karrin Allyson, Don Byron, Bill Stewart, James Williams and Mulgrew Miller among many others.

Wilson has seven recordings under his own name, leading and collaborating with such stellar musicians as Lewis Nash, Carl Allen, Steve Nelson, Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Irwin, James Genus, Larry Grenadier, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley and Nicholas Payton.

Starting his formal training on saxophone in Hampton, Va., Wilson played oboe and drums in his school band while performing in various R&B/funk bands throughout his teens. After a year-long stint with singer Stephanie Mills he decided to major in music at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he performed and/or studied with Jimmy and Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, John Hicks, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis. During those years, he was in constant demand for recording studio work, and as backing musician for touring shows such as The Four Tops and Sophisticated Ladies.

Landing a chair with O.T.B (Out of the Blue), a sextet of promising young players recording on Blue Note Records, Wilson moved to New York in 1987 and the following year toured the U.S. and Europe with Lionel Hampton. Becoming a first-call choice for veteran and emerging artists alike, Wilson was the subject of a New York Times profile A Sideman’s Life, highlighting his work with Ralph Peterson, Jr., Michele Rosewoman, Renee Rosnes, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Joanne Brackeen, The American Jazz Orchestra, The Mingus Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Leon Parker and Buster Williams’ Quintet Something More.

In 1996, he joined the acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet, and from 1998-2001 he was a member of Chick Corea’s Grammy winning sextet Origin. Cited by his

peers in a New York Times poll as one of the artists most likely to break out as an established leader, Wilson recorded four CDs — New York Summit, Step Lively, Blues for Marcus and Four For Time — on the Criss Cross label. He then recorded two projects for Chick Corea’s Stretch Records label — Generations, his multi-generational quartet with Mulgrew Miller, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley — and Passages which features his long-time musical partners Bruce Barth, Ed Howard and Adam Cruz and special guest Nicholas Payton. Containing nine original compositions, Passages established Wilson as a leader whose vision reveres the past, creates a soundscape of the present and reaches toward the future.

In 2003, Wilson’s recording Soulful Song was released on MAX JAZZ launching the label’s Horn Series. It features special guest vocalists Rene Marie, Carla Cook and Phillip Manuel and issues forth a powerful and provocative performance from these dynamic and versatile artists. As Wilson explains, “It’s a tribute Black radio, as it was called then, that was particularly inclusive in its programming and a galvanizing force in the community. On the same station one could hear R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, comedy, local news and affairs, and social commentary”.

In addition to new original material, the program includes arrangements of songs by Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Abbey Lincoln, Gil Scott Heron, Earth, Wind & Fire, Patrice Rushen and The Staple Singers. In 2009, Wilson was a member of the Blue Note 7, an all-star septet assembled to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The project culminated in a successful 50-city tour of the U.S., and their recording Mosaic.

Also in 2009, Wilson made his orchestral debut performing Heitor Villa Lobos’ Fantasia for soprano saxophone and chamber orchestra with the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra. By popular demand he returned to the VMF in 2010 performing a commissioned work, Sweet For Duke, for saxophone and chamber orchestra, by Jonathan Ragonese.

In February 2011, Wilson celebrated his 50th birthday with a six-night engagement, leading six different bands at Jazz Standard, NYC’s premiere jazz club. The all-star line-up included Mulgrew Miller, Bruce Barth, Karrin Allyson, Lewis Nash, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Carla Cook, Geoffrey Keezer, Christian McBride, Linda Oh, Ed Howard, Adam Cruz, Diane Monroe, Joyce Hammann, Nardo Poy and Troy Stuart. In a major interview feature preview, the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, “The Sideman Becomes the Star.” The article, written by award-winning journalist Larry Blumenfeld, added, “Mr. Wilson is essential to this city’s jazz landscape.”

Since the 1990s, Wilson has been regularly cited in the Downbeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls in the soprano and alto saxophone categories. He was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association as best alto sax player in 2008 and in 2010 in the category of best soprano sax player. His work in film has included being artistic consultant to Harvey Keitel for Lulu On The Bridge as well as being featured on the soundtrack.

An in-demand and passionate educator, Wilson is on faculty at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Music. He has been artist-in-residence and/or guest artist at University of Oregon, University of Maryland-College Park, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Delaware, Lemoyn College, North Carolina Central University, Lafayette College, University of Northern Colorado, SUNY New Paltz, Florida State University, California State University at Stanislaus, University of Manitoba, Hamilton College, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University and for the award-winning arts organization CITYFOLK in Dayton, Ohio.

With the support of friend and mentor Dr. Billy Taylor, Wilson has been a frequent

guest performer and educator at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; NPR’s JazzSet has aired two of those performances. Wilson has been a featured performer, panelist and clinician at conferences of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Chamber Music of America and International Association of Jazz Educators.

Wilson’s current projects reflect his multifaceted artistry, versatility and associations with some of the most highly regarded artists on the scene. His quartet, Wilsonian’s Grain, which consists of Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo and Bill Stewart or Clarence Penn, has been featured on NPR live from the Kennedy Center and the Village Vanguard in New York City, and headlined at the prestigious Detroit Jazz Festival in 2011.

Wilson is one-half of three dynamic duos, with renowned drummer Lewis Nash, and in another with pianist Bruce Barth as documented on their recent recording Home on the We Always Swing label, as well as a duo with Grammy-winning pianist/composer Billy Childs. He co-leads an elegant trio with pianist Renee Rosnes and bassist Peter Washington, and is a touring member of the Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, Christian McBride & Inside Straight as well as McBride’s Grammy-winning Big Band, Buster Williams Quartet and Mulgrew Miller’s Wingspan.

ORRIN EVANS, piano

Since moving to New York in the winter of 1995, Orrin Evans has been recognized as one of the most distinctive and inventive pianist of his generation. In a short span of time Evans earned the titles of pianist, composer, bandleader, teacher, producer and arranger and, most recently, a recipient of a 2010 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Growing up in a musical city like Philadelphia was extremely important to the early development of Evans’ career. Philadelphia gave him the opportunity to study informally with the likes of Trudy Pitts, Shirley Scott, Mickey Roker, Bobby Durham, Edgar Bateman, Sid Simmons and formally with William Whitaker, Jack Carr and Charles Pettaway.

In 1993, after attending Girard Academic Music Program, Evans was accepted into the Mason Gross School of The Arts at Rutgers University. While attending Mason Gross some of his teachers included Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen, Ralph Bowen and Ted Dunbar. They instilled in him the importance of the fundamentals of jazz as well as the necessity of listening to and living the music.

In August of 1996, Evans was invited to join Bobby Watson’s band Horizon on their European tour. This opportunity introduced Evans to the New York jazz scene. His recording and performing resume includes Wallace Roney, Mos Def, Common, Pharoah Sanders, Antonio Hart, Carmen Lundy, Ralph Peterson, Ralph Bowen, The Mingus Big Band, Roy Hargrove, Nicolas Payton, Brandford Marsalis, Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson, Sean Jones, Tim Warfield, Ravi Coltrane, Robin Eubanks, Duane Eubanks and Dave Douglas.

Evans’ recording career started in 1994 with a self-produced trio release called The Trio featuring Matthew Parrish on bass and Byron Landham on drums. The release can now be found on the Imani Record label under the title Déjà Vu. In 1996, he was introduced to Gerry Teekins from Criss Cross records. This relationship afforded Evans the opportunity to release six critically-acclaimed recordings for the Criss Cross label.

During a hiatus from Criss Cross, Evans released a recording for the Palmetto record label Meant to Shine and various recordings on his own label Imani Records. In 2002, Evans combined forces with drummer Donald Edwards, vocalist JD Walter, saxophonist Ralph Bowen and his wife, vocalist Dawn Warren, to form the band Luvpark. The band recorded the critically acclaimed self-titled album Luvpark and is presently working on the release of their sophomore recording.

In 2008, Evans released the debut recording from Tarbaby, a co-lead band with drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Eric Revis on his Imani Records Label. Evans then signed with PosiTone Records and released, his highly acclaimed CD, Faith In Action. His composition, Don’t Call Me Wally has been nominated for a Grammy for best improvised jazz solo and the brand new sophomore project from Tarbaby, The End of Fear (PosiTone Records) is already generating a buzz.

The New York Times wrote, “You feel they’re in a continuous tradition… They could go down this road for a long time, balancing repertory and originals by all three core members, and balancing 50 years of approaches to the small band in jazz.”

Evans spent three years as a teacher at the coveted Germantown Friends School where he taught middle school music and conducted three jazz ensembles. He returned to Settlement Music School to teach individual piano lessons, theory lessons and advanced jazz ensemble. He continues to be a musical commentator, conducting workshops, clinics and master classes both in the United States and abroad, while continuing to record and tour with his own bands.

Lately Evins’ greatest joy has been producing projects for other artists like Sean Jones and playing with his own band, which at different times, has included such notables as Ralph Peterson, Jr., Sam Newsome, Ralph Bowen, Nasheet Waits, Reid Anderson, Eric Revis, JD Allen and Duane Eubanks.

UGONNA OKEGWO, bass

Ugonna Okegwo is one of the most distinctive and sought after jazz bassists in the world. Critics across the globe have praised him for his rich tone, supple sense of swing, stylistic range and inventiveness. These qualities have not only earned him a place on the bandstand with jazz legends as diverse as Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Pharoah Sanders and Joseph Jarman, but they have also established him as one of the leading lights of a younger generation redefining jazz for the new century.

“He is very individualistic, both in his soloing and accompanying. I love the way he plays in the ensemble,” says Tom Harrell, with whom Okegwo has worked for several years. “Ugonna does some really creative things that I haven’t heard anyone do with his articulation and timing.”

Born March 15, 1962 in London to a German mother and Nigerian father, Okegwo was raised in Germany and grew up listening to music legends such as James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and, eventually, the great Charles Mingus.

“What I always heard first in funk and rock ‘n roll were the bass lines, the ostinato, and later, in jazz, the walking bass,” he recalls. “That’s what first got me playing bass.” The fusing of funk and jazz bass conceptions is a foundation of Okegwo’s unique approach, making his sound instantly recognizable.

In 1986, he moved to Berlin to study with the American expatriate bassist Jay

Oliver, and with the American pianist Walter Norris. There Okegwo caught the attention of many prominent jazz musicians, most notably the trombonist and Mingus alum, Lou Blackburn, who invited Okegwo to tour Europe with his Afro-Jazz group Mombasa.

While working with Blackburn, Okegwo met and played with trumpeter Joe Newman, drummer Oliver Jackson and the bassist Major Holley, who encouraged him to move to New York. In 1989, Okegwo made the leap to Manhattan and began playing with musicians like saxophone legends Big Nick Nicholas, Junior Cook and James Spaulding.

In 1992, a call from legendary vocalist Jon Hendricks led to steady work as a sideman on stage and in recording studios. In 1994, Hendricks took Okegwo to the White House to perform for President Clinton. During this time, Okegwo’s artistry attracted two other gifted young musicians — pianist Jacky Terrason and drummer Leon Parker. The trio joined forces and performed at famous clubs such as the Village Gate and Bradley’s, developing one of the most creative and explosive group sounds of the ’90s.

Recently, Okegwo expanded his horizons and became a bandleader. In 2002, he took his quartet to Europe and documented the group with a recording titled UOniverse [Satchmo Jazz]. The material, which consists of his compositions and brilliantly arranged standards, draws from a wide range of influences, including jazz, African, funk and classical music.

BILL STEWART, drummer

Originally from Des Moines, Iowa, drummer and composer Bill Stewart has performed with many well-known musicians, including John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Maceo Parker, Larry Goldings, Joe Lovano, Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, Kevin Hays, Bill Carrothers, Jim Hall, Marc Copland, Joshua Redman, Peter Bernstein, Dr. Lonnie Smith, James Brown and many others. He has also recorded five albums; the latest is Incandescence on Pirouet Records, which features his two keyboards trio with Kevin Hays and Larry Goldings.