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| Acclaimed Nova Scotia guitarist/ composer Sam Wilson unveils her bi-coastal trio LP "Wintertides" Although conventional wisdom insists that hardships produce great art, this is not so simple for creators. Many would tell you that in order to make artistic use of the crises one encounters in life, they need adequate space to reflect and recuperate. Award-winning guitarist and composer Sam Wilson's fourth full-length release Wintertides is a testament to this very assertion. In 2020, the young musician made the decision to move out to the rural community of Scotsburn, Nova Scotia, roughly 150 km from Halifax. This choice would soon prove both trying and isolating as pandemic restrictions came into play—especially once she hit the province's notoriously gruelling winter season. Furthermore, as someone who grapples with chronic depression, these less-than-ideal circumstances cast a dark shadow over her mental health. Something shifted when she saw an ad for the Leña Residency on Galliano Island in British Columbia, just off of Canada's west coast. Not only did it feel like an opportunity for some reprieve via the change in scenery, it also offered her a chance to confront the aforementioned shadow that had been looming over her. Her proposal for the music she would compose at Leña was predicated on comparing the winter seasons of the two coasts—the one where she lived, and the one where the residency would take place. And, once she was able to immerse herself in creating on Galliano, she did indeed manage to extract something meaningful from the situation back home. "I was curious to see how the landscape and immersion in two different landscapes would affect the sonic material." remarks Wilson of the underlying concept. "The process involved going out into nature for long walks, taking pictures, then using the pictures as graphic scores to generate musical ideas. I later took these skeletons and fleshed them out into complete tunes, some heavily improvised and some more through-composed with short sections for improvisation." The resultant music is steeped in a sort of melancholic pastoralism, on one hand embracing jazz, on the other evoking folk-like transparency, the textural sophistication and formal poise of modern composition and even the pared-down open-ended atmospherics of groups like Low. The geographical inspiration for the record is echoed in its personnel. Wilson, who plays acoustic and electric guitars is joined by Vancouver bassist Geordie Hart and drummer Jen Yakamovich, a former Halifax resident, who currently lives on Vancouver Island. Hart is known as a founding member of acclaimed groups the Boom Booms and Malleus Trio, and has toured widely with both units. Meanwhile Yakamovich plays songs under the alias Troll Dolly, and has collaborated with noted improvisers such as Jay Clayton, Lisa Cay Miller, Dan Gaucher (Fond of Tigers), and Róisín Adams (Beatings Are In The Body). Wilson's trio began establishing its potent chemistry directly after Wilson's initial residency in February 2022. She had previously met both players during the Creative Music Workshop, a Halifax institute that was initiated by jazz legend Jerry Granelli, and contacted the two of them to meet her in Vancouver to look at her fresh body of work on her way home. This cursory meeting was heartening enough for Wilson that she decided to invite them to record with her. That December, she hosted Hart and Yakamovich at another residency at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, where they refined their collective approach to these pieces over the span of a week. Visual artist Megan Boyle also joined them, improvising alongside the band with paint to create the artwork for the album. From December 19th to the solstice, the trio captured the music at Halifax's Sonic Temple with engineer Darren Van Niekerk. Wintertides is a bold but delicate statement reflecting both the natural beauty and inclemency of winter. While at times it gestures toward the underlying emotional turmoil that motivated it, the warm fluidity of the performances it captures exudes assurance and buoyancy. Born in Windsor, Ontario, Sam Wilson has crafted an original voice on her instrument since moving to Nova Scotia, blending her early love of finger-style/ acoustic guitar music with her love of jazz. Her current practice as a performer-composer focuses on creating instrumental music of various kinds for improvisers ranging from extensions of jazz to abstractions thereof. In 2021, she was awarded the Paul Cram Creation award by Nova Scotia institution Upstream Music Association, giving her the opportunity to write a piece honouring the trailblazing Cram's musical legacy. The work was premiered by Symphony Nova Scotia at the 2023 Open Waters Festival. Upstream has also commissioned Wilson on several other occasions, yielding her compositions Illusions on Shaky Ground (2021), Waterside (2022) and Recover-we (2023). In addition to leading several of her own ensembles, she frequently performs with acclaimed trombonist Andrew Jackson in their collaborative project the Jackson\Wilson Duo. The pair have been exploring the interplay of trombone and guitar, while honing their musical chemistry as a duo since 2014. Upon meeting, both musicians were searching for a setting to explore jazz in a less traditional format, which has led them to develop a common and individualistic musical language. Their repertoire juxtaposes jazz standards, covers of folk music, as well as original compositions. Their debut album New Doors came out in January 2023 garnering Music Nova Scotia's 2023 'Jazz Recording of the year.' Wilson's solo album Into a Heart Pt. II (released in 2020 by Japanese imprint Muzak Records, and in 2021 in Canada), won this same award the year prior following two previous nominations for the East Coast Music Awards. "Best Jazz of 2019 : Resembling eyespots on moth wings, Sam's music wards off what preys upon our tenderness [...] Across nine glowing tracks, subtle themes develop with humble patience, inviting us to inhale their airy atmospheres [...] Passing over edgier idioms preoccupying much of non-commercial jazz these days, the Canadian resident returns the genre to its simpler roots, connecting post-bop energy with contemporary production techniques." — Todd B. Gruel, PopMatters on Groundless Apprehensions "With her sophomore album, the young Halifax-based guitarist Sam Wilson has crafted a distinctive post-bop outing for her brass-forward quartet." — Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen on Groundless Apprehensions "Wilson's music is rooted in jazz — she is a St. Francis Xavier University grad with a bachelor of music — but that is just the starting block for the musician, bandleader, composer and educator whose own work draws from modern composition and improvisation, as well as African-American music traditions" — Saltwire write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |