Omega

ブルーノートから、大注目の若手アルト・サックス奏者/コンポーザー、イマニュエル・ウィルキンスがデビュー

ヴィヴラフォニストのジョエル・ロスの2019年ブルーノート・デビュー作『KingMaker』に参加していたウィルキンスがこの度ジェイソン・モランのプロデュースの下、ブルーノートから『Omega』でデビュー。ウィルキンスは、本作では何世紀にもわたってアメリカで多くの黒人が耐えてきた深い痛みを伝えたいと考え制作した中、今年また非武装の黒人が白人の手によって殺害される事件が多発し、アメリカ中の都市が反乱を起こしているため、このメッセージはより深刻に映る。そんな中でも"Grace and Mercy"では「神が私の人生を通していかに私に好意を示し、赦しとあわれみを与えてくれたかについての曲。私はより多くの思いやり、共感、許し、謙虚さを得るために努力し続けている。」と前向きなメッセージも忘れない。

Immanuel Wilkins is a 23-year-old saxophonist and composer. Though well-known to musicians since he was a teen, his excellent playing on Joel Ross acclaimed 2019 debut KingMaker caught the attention of jazz fans. Wilkins tone is warm, but sometimes searing, and capable of expressing deep emotion with technical aplomb. His phrasing is eloquent, sometimes angular, and his compositions reflect a complex harmonic system derived equally from gospel, blues, spiritual post-bop, and the musical thinking of Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Omega was produced by pianist/mentor Jason Moran. Wilkins quartet includes pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Daryl Johns, and drummer Kweku Sumbry. The tunes here reflect Wilkins feelings about the ongoing struggle begun by the Civil Rights movement in the 20th century and carried on by Black Lives Matter in the 21st. Lush melody and shifting tempos govern opener Warriors. Jones takes the first solo, moving across jazz history with an expansive, swinging sensibility. The rhythm sections interplay is knotty and tight, addressing Jones right-hand runs with physicality. Ferguson: An American Tradition frames the communities reaction to the 2014 killing of unarmed teen Michael Brown, Jr. by a police officer who was later acquitted. Wilkins offers an elegy as his intro, portraying the event in reverse. It becomes more intense as piano and percussion fire in tandem; Wilkins solo bridges them, its motion and rumbling dissent are colored by grief, sorrow, and immense pain. The Dreamer, honoring James Weldon Johnson (the first executive secretary of the NAACP) is almost contemplative, with speculative piano chords, a sparse bassline, and brushed cymbals. Wilkins lyric statement and solo are abundant in tenderness and empathy. Mary Turner: An American Tradition is a turbulent, angry, and inventive composition about the brutal murder of a pregnant black woman lynched (and worse) by a Georgia mob in 1918, after publicly calling out whites for her husbands murder. Grace and Mercy is another respite, its lyricism finds Wilkins and Thomas joining in the melody before the saxist sets it aloft with his fluid solo. The albums centerpiece is a four-part suite of varying rhythmic and harmonic strategies that Wilkins composed at Juilliard. First, The Key offers subdued gospel tones with single alto notes as Johns plays chords and Sembry dances on his cymbals. Saudade is knotty modern post-bop that crisscrosses modalism with swing, and allows everyone a solo. Eulogy is a ballad entwining sax lines with slightly staggered piano chords as the rhythm section delivers angular asides, adding tension to the sweetness. Closing movement Guarded Heart weds an elegant modal lyric to fiery, heated, yet always graceful group improvisation. The title-track closer comes right out of John Coltranes Impressions period. Jones counters with striated Latin rhythms and comps as Johns and Sumbry embrace both and Wilkins solo buoys them in exploring outer dimensions. All told, it amounts to Omega as an auspicious, extremely impressive debut from an artist who arrives fully formed as a bandleader. ~ Thom Jurek