Corey Wilkes
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"Power Stronger Than Itself: Celebrating the AACM in Guelph"



....Corey Wilkes was up next, and delivered a solo that should forever remove “new” or any other qualifier from reference to the trumpeter’s AEC membership. Not only did he display a thorough understanding of Lester Bowie’s distillation of the jazz trumpet tradition, he applied it with the forcefulness of a Hannibal Marvin Peterson. Whenever Bowie got out on a limb, chops-wise, he could always rely on a smear of a bleat if his intonation or attack failed him. A technical juggernaut, Wilkes uses such devices solely as an aesthetic choice. Most importantly, there’s a spirit to his playing that was obviously inspired both Roscoe Mitchell, who then stepped up with a blistering statement that punctuated streams of notes with plangent cries, and Famoudou Don Moye, who was simply masterful throughout the concert.

The music downshifted into a collage, with Jarman playing birdcalls, conch shells and percussion, and Wilkes squawking softly. It may be a well-worn path for them, but the AEC nevertheless creates extraordinary momentum using tactics that leave many ensembles hopelessly mired. The fragments soon coalesced into long tones and sinewy melodies stated by Jarman on clarinet and Mitchell on soprano, supported by Moye’s brushwork and the arco bass lines of Jaribu Shahid, whose tenure with the AEC is even shorter than Wilkes’. Whereas the late Malachi Favors Maghostut provided a Wilbur Ware-like foundation, Shahid’s sense of bottom and line is more rooted in Paul Chambers.

Jarman’s “Lifetime Visions (For The Magnificent Human)” emerged unobtrusively from this soundscape. Initially, Jarman sang the tranquil melody accompanied only by bells. Heat was slowly applied in a subsequent Jarman-Moye flute-congas duet until a tumultuous, circular breathing-fueled Mitchell alto statement ripped off building until the lid. He was soon enjoined by Jarman’s screaming soprano and Wilkes’ riveting trills. As the music approached the boiling point, Jarman laid down on the stage, pumped his legs in the air as if pedaling a bicycle, while continuing to play tenor and little instruments. In the meantime, Mitchell and Wilkes both began to play two horns simultaneously, creating a bracing mass of sound.

When all hell seemed certain to break loose, Shahid and Moye triggered a killin’ funk groove and the AEC launched into Mitchell’s rollicking “Big Red Peaches.” If there was any doubt that Wilkes is jazz’s next rising trumpet star, it was dispelled by his final solo, which referenced Lee Morgan’s tangy soul-jazz, Freddie Hubbard’s full-bore hard bop and a whole bunch of stuff that is clearly his own. Steadily, the AEC ramped up a mighty crescendo and then plunged into “Odwalla,” the initially soft-spoken anthem that is stoked over the course of several choruses to a simmer. Usually, “Odwalla” ends the evening; but on this occasion, the AEC played a short encore, a slightly melancholy, sing-songy tune, the type Mitchell occasionally pens. It was, in fact, William Parker’s “Malachi’s Mode.”

-Bill Shoemaker - Point of Departure


"Rochester Jazz Festival 2005"


Ethnic Heritage Ensemble

The following night, free jazz Chicago style (AACM’s “great black music, ancient to the future”) was represented by an appearance of Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. Long time affiliate, saxophonist Ernest Khabeer Dawkins manned the saxophone chair. The real surprise was new member, trumpeter Corey Wilkes, a player who’s just beginning to make a name for himself. His trumpet work was stellar. His tone could be clear as a bell, yet he would continually shade it with effective smears and growls. He had great technically facility but he wasn’t continually hitting the listener over the head with trumpeting acrobatics. His solos had a maturity and intelligence that belies his young age (early 20s?). If there was a rising star at this festival, it was Wilkes. But it was the group cohesion that made this band so effective. With El’Zabar at the center, on both trap drums and hand drums and Dawkins and Wilkes flanking him on either side, they ran through a set of EHE favorites including “Ornette” and Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance”. A surprisingly effective “All Blues” chugged along on El’Zabar’s thumb piano and Wilkes delivered a solo that succeeded because it wasn’t aping Miles’ licks and displayed original ideas. By the end of the show, the almost-full house was on their feet. It was an indication that this type of adventurous music can be booked at jazz festivals and audiences, given half a chance, will respond to something different.

-Robert Iannapollo - All About Jazz


"Memories as Bold as Brass"


Corey Wilkes Abstrakt Pulse

Following Brass Ecstasy was a band led by the trumpeter Corey Wilkes, who has replaced Bowie in the Art Ensemble of Chicago. A quartet of young Chicagoans called Abstrakt Pulse, with a more common trumpet-tenor saxophone-bass-drums lineup, it worked through long jazz grooves and funk bounces, working in bits of reggae and Afrobeat here and there, including a version of Fela Kuti's "Water No Get Enemy." (There's a Lester Bowie connection there, too: Bowie once traveled to Nigeria and recorded a few albums with Fela.) It was back-to-the-70's stuff, but Mr. Wilkes is a battling musician, and charismatic; for a stretch he put two trumpets to his lips and soloed through both at once, making glancing references to old bebop tunes.

- Ben Ratliff - New York Times


"Ottawa International Jazz Festival 2005"


Roscoe Mitchell Quintet

With subtle queues, Mitchell helped direct his quintet, featuring trumpeter/flugelhornist Corey Wilkes, pianist Craig Taborn (making his second appearance in Ottawa in the past four months, last time with Tim Berne Acoustic Hard Cell at the same venue), bassist Jaribu Shahid, and drummer Tani Tabbal, through a complex chart that was as much about European postmodernism as it was more traditional jazz roots.

Elsewhere things were more chaotic, with the second number an extended piece more in line with the kind of music Mitchell writes for the Art Ensemble of Chicago. With the rhythm section creating a rolling maelstrom underneath, Mitchell, Taborn, and Wilkes delivered powerful stream-of-consciousness-style solos where nothing was forbidden. Wilkes began his solo blowing trumpet and flugelhorn simultaneously, managing to punch out unison and harmonized passages. Later he began deconstructing his instrument, at one point removing the valves of the trumpet, blowing through the mouthpiece and using his finger to alternately block and expose the hole where the valve belonged, while at another point he removed the mouthpiece and blew it into the bell of the horn. Creative extended techniques seem to be de rigeur for a lot of free improvisers, but many of Wilkes' approaches were truly unique.

-John Kelman - All About Jazz


"Effortless Versatility & Mercurial Speed - Corey Wilkes is in Control of his Horn"


For inexplicable reasons, Chicago produces more than its share of one-of-a-kind, this-is-something-new jazz talents.

Patricia Barber, Kurt Elling, Reginald Robinson, Maurice Brown, Laurence Hobgood, Paul Wertico -- the list of gloriously idiosyncratic, technically startling players who have emerged in the last 20 years alone stretches for miles.

To this roster, one soon might add the name of Corey Wilkes, a trumpeter who has become ubiquitous on the Chicago scene during the last few seasons. Though he hasn't yet made a major recorded statement as bandleader and composer, his live work has been so impressive in so many settings that expectations surrounding him have been high among Chicago jazz audiences.

Playing to an overflow crowd Tuesday evening at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Wilkes reminded listeners of the seemingly effortless versatility of his playing. Though it's true that he did not venture as deeply into the avant-garde as he has on some occasions -- most notably in his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- Wilkes addressed many other jazz idioms during two vibrantly charismatic sets. Down-home blues, hard-edged bebop, dance-tinged funk, unabashedly sweet balladry -- the man breezed through these jazz languages, and others, with understated authority.

Regardless of the musical style, however, Wilkes produced a sound that consistently distinguished him from other young trumpeters. The pinpoint precision of his technique, the crystalline clarity of his tone, the mercurial speed of his most technically challenging passages and the stripped-down, vibrato-less, utterly unsentimental nature of his sound pointed to an artist in complete control of his instrument.

That Wilkes also generally chose to play less rather than more, to use a few well-chosen pitches where others might expound at length, only enhanced his appeal.

On this evening, playing on the MCA's outdoor Terrace before an audience of concertgoers and diners, the trumpeter mostly steered away from his most provocative fare, while showing how much he brings to mainstream traditions.

The lyricism of his phrasings on Cole Porter's "Night and Day" conveyed an intimacy one might not have expected in an outdoor setting, while his more virtuosic flights on Thelonious Monk's "Rhythm-a-ning" justly drew big ovations.

When Wilkes played trumpet and flugelhorn simultaneously, while bassist Junius Paul reiterated the famous theme of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," the gesture was no mere stunt. By effectively merging the sounds of both instruments, Wilkes attained a half-muted, half-brilliant tone unique to him.

Still, considering that he was playing the MCA -- a home for artistic innovation -- a bit more edge and experimentation might have enhanced an already persuasive performance.

Moreover, it might have helped to quiet the more voluble talkers in the crowd.

Can't someone at the MCA gently ask the audience to pipe down during the musicmaking?

-Howard Reich
- Chicago Tribune


"A Hit: Tuesdays with Corey - Wilkes heats up as the sun descends at MCA"


On a recent Tuesday evening, it was standing-room-only for trumpeter Corey Wilkes, an increasingly important presence on Chicago's ever-expanding jazz landscape. Chicagoans clearly have discovered not only the allure of the MCA at sunset but the power of Wilkes' work, which straddles several jazz traditions and idioms.

In mainstream repertoire, Wilkes dispatched jazz standards with the authority of someone who has been playing them a lot longer than he has been alive. In funk-tinged and contemporary music, he broke free of jazz conventions more easily than many players of his generation.

Savvy performer that he is, Wilkes clung to familiar, fervently melodic tunes during the earliest portions of the evening, while visitors were dining and chatting. No need to disrupt the heavy socializing that was under way, Wilkes seemed to be saying.

Yet those who took a few moments to listen to Wilkes and his quartet heard something considerably more substantial than background music.

The long and fluid lines Wilkes brought to "On Green Dolphin Street," the lush textures the band created in "Caravan" and the detail and technical acuity of Wilkes' solos in these tunes, and others, easily could have withstood scrutiny in any jazz club in the city.

With the formidable Robert Irving III bringing ample virtuosity to electric keyboard, Charles Heath keeping time nimbly on drums and Junius Paul proving equally persuasive on stand-up bass and its electric counterpart, this quartet did not lack for drive or impact.

Later in the evening, as food was cleared away and hard-core listeners focused on the music, Wilkes and the band pushed into somewhat grittier fare. Nothing as radical as the music that Wilkes plays with the iconoclastic Art Ensemble of Chicago, of course, but oft-explosive, rhythmically agitated improvisation nonetheless.

-Howard Reich - Chicago Tribune


"Like a larger-than-life music box"

Young trumpeter Corey Wilkes danced when he wasn't playing and soloed so intensely he appeared to be in danger of exploding.

-Frank De Blase, Ron Netsky and Chad Oliveiri - Rochester City-News


"CD Reviews"

All soloists make uniformly impressive statements with trumpet Corey Wilkes repeatedly excelling.

- Michael Point - Downbeat


"Time to trumpet horn artistry of Corey Wilkes"


During the past few years, Corey Wilkes has blossomed into one of the boldest, most versatile young trumpeters in Chicago jazz.

Whether inventing strangely innovative sounds with the Art Ensemble of Chicago or fronting a straight-ahead group at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he proves that a nimble technique and a sense of adventure can distinguish a musician from his peers.

This weekend, Wilkes presents his latest band -- Black Slang -- at HotHouse, a potentially excellent venue for it, considering the room's sightlines and emphasis on music (rather than conversation). Staffed by saxophonist Jabari Liu, percussionist Kahil El'Zabar, poet Khari B and African dancers, among others, Black Slang could be Wilkes' most stylistically wide-reaching ensemble yet.

Certainly it suggests another step in the trumpeter's ongoing evolution.

-Howard Reich - Chicago Tribune


"Time to trumpet horn artistry of Corey Wilkes"


During the past few years, Corey Wilkes has blossomed into one of the boldest, most versatile young trumpeters in Chicago jazz.

Whether inventing strangely innovative sounds with the Art Ensemble of Chicago or fronting a straight-ahead group at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he proves that a nimble technique and a sense of adventure can distinguish a musician from his peers.

This weekend, Wilkes presents his latest band -- Black Slang -- at HotHouse, a potentially excellent venue for it, considering the room's sightlines and emphasis on music (rather than conversation). Staffed by saxophonist Jabari Liu, percussionist Kahil El'Zabar, poet Khari B and African dancers, among others, Black Slang could be Wilkes' most stylistically wide-reaching ensemble yet.

Certainly it suggests another step in the trumpeter's ongoing evolution.

-Howard Reich - Chicago Tribune


Discography

2008
Corey Wilkes
"Drop It"
(Delmark Records)

2008
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
"Mama's House Live"
(EHE Records)

2008
IG Culture
"Zen Badizm"
(Freedom School)

2008
Evan Parker & Transatlantic Art Ensemble
"Boustrophedon"
(ECM Records)

2007
Gordon Chambers
"Love Stories"
(Chamber Music)

2007
Roscoe Mitchell & Transatlantic Art Ensemble
"Compostion/Improvisation Nos 1, 2, & 3"
(ECM Records)

2007
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
"Hot N' Heavy"
(Delmark Records)

2007
Voltress
"Antelopes"
(Cancer Records)

2006
Art Ensemble of Chicago
"Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City:Live at the Iridium"
(PI Records)

2006
Tortoise
"The Brave & The Bold"
(Overcoat Recordings)

2005
Various Artist
"Unwrapped Volume 4"
(Hidden Beach Records)

2005
Roscoe Mitchell Quintet
"Turn"
(Rogue Art)

2004
DJ Shannon Harris
"The New World Reveal-A-Solution"
(Urbanicity Recordings)

2004
Ernest Dawkins' Chicago 12
"Shades of Charade & Misconceptions of a Delusion"
(Dawk Records)

2003
Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble
"Afrika Rising"
(Dreamtime Records)

2002
Roscoe Mitchell & the Note Factory
"Song for My Sister"
(PI Records)

2001
Young Bleed Carleone
"Vintage"
(Da'Tention Home)

Photos

Bio

A young lion with a roar being heard in several music genres; Corey Wilkes burst onto the music scene in 2002 and landed in the soul of the Chicago Jazz Club scene. For his next feat he took on the ghost of Lester Bowie and filled the vacant trumpet seat in the the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Big shoes to fill for a new musician but Corey isn’t an ordinary musician. He began at the age of 10, made the Illinois All State Honors Jazz Combo in high school and honed his talent at Berklee College of Music.

His soulful notes can be heard gracing a variety of projects such as DJ sets by Logic, Osunlade and Josh Deep; tracks on Hidden Beach’s Unwrapped Vol 4, as well as Kahil El Zabar’s Ascension Loft Series.

Corey has shared the stage and knowledge with Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Ledisi, Soulive, James Moody, Meshell N'degeocello, Mike Phillips, Roscoe Mitchell, Von Freeman, Will Calhoun, Malcom Jamal-Warner and so many more. In addtion he performs extensively in Europe as well as Africa and South America

Holding down posts as an Artist in Residence and Board Member with the Jazz Institute of Chicago and a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians; this young lion has got a roar to listen for.

MANAGEMENT & BOOKING:

Martine MJ Urbach
LADY U PRODUCTIONS
484 West 43rd Street
Suite 29 F
New York, NY 10036
Tel.#: 212/643-1715
Fax#: 212/643-2379
email: ladyuprod@aol.com