Anthony Wilson Hackensack West

AAA 180g Vinyl LP!
Second Album from Kevin Gray's Cohearent Records!
Produced by Joe Harley & Pressed at RTI!
Michael Fremer Rated 11/10 Music, 11/10 Sound!
Recorded by award-winning mastering engineer Kevin Gray's record label, Anthony Wilson's Hackensack West is Cohearent Records' follow-up to Kirsten Edkins' Shapes & Sound album. Produced by Joe Harley and recorded all-analog/all-tube at Gray's studio, Cohearent Recording, the AAA vinyl release is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI and housed in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket.
With Anthony Wilson's "Hackensack West", Cohearent Records, the record company of award-winning mastering engineer Kevin Gray, is releasing the second release after Kirsten Edkins' successful opening "Shapes & Sound". Jazz guitarist Wilson, who was born in L.A. in 1968 and is the son of legendary jazz trumpeter Gerald Wilson, plays swinging originals and fine ballad cover versions that are a pleasure.
Thelonious Monk fans and jazz connoisseurs will sit up and take notice at the name "Hackensack West": This is the pseudonym for Gray's "Cohearent" recording studio, a place inspired by Rudy Van Gelder's first studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. It was there that Thelonious Monk recorded his classic "Hackensack" in 1954, a "counterfactual" melody about the chord change of Gershwin's "Oh, Lady Be Good". Wilson's own bebop-inspired melody "Hackensack West" seems counterfactually alluding to the changes in some well-known standards without conforming to a specific one.
The LP, produced by Joe Harley, is an audiophile feast for the ears, which the American music journalist Michael Fremer also warmly recommends.
From the liner notes:
The week before these sessions in the summer of 2023, I sat down each morning with the goal of composing one new song by day's end. I knew I'd soon be in the room with my dear friends Gerald Clayton, John Clayton, and Jeff Hamilton, three musicians whom I trust the most, and with whom I've played the most over the last couple of decades. I tried to imagine themes that would feel natural to us, the kinds of songs we could simply dive into without much thinking. When we headed to Kevin Gray's studio to record, I brought seven new songs along with me. Five are included on this album.
"Daido" is dedicated to Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama, who became known in the late 1960s for his grainy, sometimes blurry, high-contrast black and white images made throughout Japan. I love his pictures taken on the streets of various Tokyo neighborhoods such as Shinjuku. His portrait of a menacing stray dong, from his series "A Hunter," is the kind of picture that, seen just once, is unforgettable. These days Daido is still out on the street making pictures, at the ripe young age of 85.
"Verdesse" has a sinuous, chorinho-like melody and rhythmic feel. The tune seems to weave and bob playfully in a space of brightness the way a grapevine seems to curl towards the sunlight. So I named it after a wine grape native to the pre-Alpine region of Isère, near Grenoble in eastern France, that makes a particularly delicious and drinkable white wine.
I wrote "Sunday," well...on Sunday. It unfolds slowly, like a good Sunday does when there's nothing to do, you can sleep in, you've got your person beside you, and you just relax into the day.
"The Lands" is dedicated to a family very dear to my heart: that of tenor saxophonist Harold Land. My mother met Harold when they were both teenagers growing up in San Diego, California. The two of them became lifelong friends, and a little later, Harold enjoyed a fruitful musical association and close friendship with my father, Gerald Wilson. Harold, his lovely wife Lydia, and their son Harold Jr. were extended family for us; they looked after me with love and care. Some of my first gigs ever as a young guitarist were with Harold's incredible band that included Oscar Brashear, Billy Higgins, Richard Reid, and Harold Land Jr.
I've loved Todd Rundgren's "Marlene" since I first heard it on his epic double-album Something/Anything. With its tender, well-contoured melody buoyed by a few special harmonic surprises, it almost seems like something from the pen of Burt Bacharach. It tells such a complete musical story. Rundgren's recorded version has a beautiful endlessly repeating tag. So we played the melody simply, and used the tag as a small staging area for a bit of improvising.
Hackensack West is our alias for engineer Kevin Gray's studio Cohearent Recording, a place inspired by Rudy Van Gelder's first studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. Located inside Van Gelder's parents' home, the musicians played in the living room! It was there, in 1954, that Thelonious Monk recorded his classic tune "Hackensack," a "contrafact" melody over the chord changes to the Gershwins' "Oh, Lady Be Good!" In contrafact-like fashion, my own bebop-spirited melody "Hackensack West" seems to nod toward the changes of a few recognizable standards, without corresponding to any particular one.
"All-in-all a straight ahead set of swinging originals and one surprising ballad cover that's sure to please yours ears and brain and get your toes tapping and blood flowing. If you've ever wondered what you were thinking when you nearly put yourself in hoc to own a really great hi-fi rig, this record is guaranteed to provided the answer!" - Michael Fremer, Tracking Angle, Music 11/10, Sound 11/10

Features:

• AAA Recording
• 180g Vinyl
• Second Release on Kevin Gray's Cohearent Records
• Recorded All-Analog/All-Tube at Cohearent Recording (aka Hackensack West) on June 20 & 21, 2023
• Produced by Joe Harley
• Engineered & Mastered by Kevin Gray
• Deluxe Tip-On Gatefold Jacket
• Pressed at RTI

Musicians:

• Anthony Wilson, guitar
• Gerald Clayton, piano
• John Clayton, bass
• Jeff Hamilton, drums

Selections:

Side A
1. Daido
2. Verdesse
3. Sunday
Side B
1. The Lands
2. Marlene
3. Hackensack West