Matt Wilson: Good Trouble
Palmetto Records

For his fourteenth album as a leader, drummer Matt Wilson has a new band and a same-titled album to go with it. Good Trouble takes its name from inspirational words spoken by the late United States congressman John Lewis from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama fifty-five years after he participated in that landmark Civil Rights march: “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” Wilson honours Lewis directly in the three-part Good Trouble Suite, but other figures are celebrated too, among them Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and jazz icons Ornette Coleman, Gary Bartz, and Albert Ayler. Reflective of Wilson's open-minded sensibility, a cover of John Denver's “Sunshine on My Shoulders” appears after Ornette's “Feet Music,” as extreme a juxtaposition as you'll find on a jazz release (the drummer also dedicates the set to the sorely missed Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Ron Miles, and Frank Kimbrough).

The players he's recruited for the band are a terrific bunch. Alto saxophonist Tia Fuller and tenor saxophonist (and clarinetist) Jeff Lederer form the front-line, and the two wail like spirits unleashed. Here's one of those cases where the horn players aren't trying to out-duel but rather inspire one another to greater heights. Hearing the two spar like some modern-day incarnation of Ornette and Dewey Redman is just one of many appealing things about the quintet. Dawn Clement not only contributes piano, she also elevates two songs with strong vocals. Partnering with the boisterous leader is bassist Ben Allison, the calm at the centre of the Good Trouble storm. Celebrating his sixtieth birthday, Wilson's never sounded more inspired and energized.

His generosity extends to the writing. Alongside his two compositions (and the covers) are ones by Lederer and Akihito Gorai, a student of the drummer's at the New School in New York; the tenor saxophonist also shares credit with Wilson on the suite. He grabs the listener right away with the spirited post-bop workout “Fireplace,” the leader animating the group with brushes and Clement serving up a Monkish solo to get the party started. A gutbucket Lederer and honking Fuller threaten to blow the roof off, before the five settle into the tune's cheeky groove. Lederer's blues-drenched Ayler homage “Albert's Alley” follows, with both saxophonists channeling the firebrand's spirit in respective statements.

Wilson loved Gorai's “Be That as it May” the moment he heard it, and it's easy to see why. It's a gorgeous, gently soaring ballad sweetened with glockenspiel accents, but lovelier still are Clement's stirring vocal and her soulful piano. She later distinguishes the group's lightly swinging take on “Sunshine on My Shoulders” with the unaffected sincerity of her delivery. The suite begins with the Ginsburg homage, “RGB,” which elevates its Coltrane-esque intro with an infectiously singing theme and a rousing vocal chant from the band (“Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg / Honour her plea, serve your community”) one could imagine an audience singing with the band. While “Walk With the Wind,” Wilson's dignified tribute to Lewis, is sober and earnest, the suite's concluding part, “Good Trouble,” is a jubilant, gospel-tinged blast.

First heard on 1987's In All Languages (twice, by Ornette's original quartet and his electric outfit Prime Time), the bluesy “Feet Music” becomes a wailing raver in Good Trouble's hands; Bartz's rat-a-tatting “Libra,” on the other hand, catches the quintet in breezy free-flight. With Lederer wielding clarinet, “CommUnity Spirit” caps the set with an uplifting outro that's as much calypso as gospel. Rumour has it Wilson has contributed to more than 400 albums as a sideman in addition to those he's issued as a leader. Even with so much mileage behind him, Good Trouble finds him playing with unbridled enthusiasm, optimism, and youthful energy, no doubt in part attributable to the company with him on the date. He would be wise to keep the group going, though following up this debut set with something equally good won't be easy.

June 2024