Maybe the Best Sounding LP We Sell! You Must Hear this Record!  

This album comes with Music Direct's Highest Recommendation! 

Composer-arranger-bandleader and guitarist Anthony Wilson, the 32-year old son of big band maestro Gerald Wilson, is one of the most brilliant musicians working in the US jazz scene today. A recipient of the IAJE's Gil Evans Fellowship Award, Wilson's rich, fluid and easy going style, with it's seductive references to Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell, is much in evidence on his latest CD, Our Gang from the Groove Note label out of Los Angeles.

Playing with a much pared down structure of guitar trio with organ and drums (his previous recordings have been with much larger outfits) gave Wilson the freedom to focus more on his own inventive and incomparable skills as soloist, and his close rapport with drummer Mark Ferber and organist Joe Bagg, with whom he has been playing with regularly for the last 2-3 years, pays off richly in this session.

Wilson's previous three CDs for the Mama label received a great deal of critical and commercial recognition. The self-titled debut album hit number 1 on the Gavin charts and received a Grammy nomination in the Large Jazz Ensemble category in 1997. His second album Goat Hill Junket also achieved great success both critically and on radio while his third album released in 1999 features talents such as Jeff Clayton, Greg Ellis and Jack Nimitz all performing a suite commissioned by the IAJE. Wilson also received a Downbeat International Critics Poll award for Composer Deserving Wider Recognition in 2000.

Wilson's newest effort is the culmination of all his most recent ideas, in both originals and standards, and this CD includes some stunning performances of standards like 'Chitlins Con Carne' (By Kenny Burrell), 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' (from Abbey Road), and 'Prelude To A Kiss' (Strayhorn). The album also contains further evidence of Anthony Wilson's skill and talent as a composer as demonstrated by original compositions like 'Our Gang' and 'Britta's Blues.' The sterling back-up by Ferber and Bagg also deserves special mention with organist Bagg in particular exchanging great solos on the Hammond B-3 with Wilson.

Recorded by the A-list team of producer Joe Harley (ECM, Enja) and Mike Ross (engineer) at Cello Studios in Hollywood, this remarkable session will serve not only to cement the much vaunted reputation established with the Mama CDs but will in fact greatly extend Wilson's high profile position as one jazz's finest talents.

1. Our Gang
2. Chitlins Con Carne
3. Britta's Blues
4. Time Flies
5. Road Trip
6. Luck Be A Lady
7. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
8. Prelude To A Kiss
9. Time Flies - 45 RPM Side A
10. Road Trip - 45 RPM Side B