Wilson, Tony

Horse's Dream

Label: Drip Audio Country: Canada

"Vancouver's Coastal Jazz and Blues hails him as "unquestionably one of the most original guitar stylists on the Canadian scene". Down Beat Magazine entitles him as "...a talismanic West Coast figure." On 'Horse's Dream', his first solo-based guitar recording, Tony Wilson taps into the history of jazz and blues with his compositions. They shift from Leadbelly's moaning style to Metheny-like combustion. The other side of the album includes incomparable improvisation's that seem to be heading for an unknown target in an unknown land, a la John Fahey or Marc Ribot. Although Horse's Dream is solo-guitar based, it includes appearances by the odd fiddle, fireplace, spoon and kora. This unique album was recorded in a cabin at the Shire on Hornby Island.

Tony Wilson has studied with many acclaimed jazz musicians including Oliver Gannon, Dave Holland, John Abercrombie, Kevin Eubanks and Steve Coleman. Tony won a West Coast Music Award with his band Video Barbeque and released the critically acclaimed 'Lowest Note' in 2001, which went on to become a pick of the year in the Globe and Mail. Tony's current sextet, which includes 5 young Vancouver improvisor's, is turning heads after recent successful appearances at this year's Guelph and Vancouver Jazz Festivals. Tony's compositions have been played by artists as diverse as the NOW Orchestra, The Hard Rubber Orchestra, Myra Melford, Kokoro Dance, Marilyn Crispell, François Houle and Zubot & Dawson. Tony has shared the stage with well know international artists such as Vinny Golia, William Parker, Wilbert de Joode, Gerry Hemingway, Han Bennink, Marilyn Lerner, Toby Delius, Benoit Delbecq & Eric Boeren in the US and Europe."-Drip Audio

"[...] The fourteen primarily solo guitar excursions (Wilson sometimes overdubs, layering delicate lines over lulling strums in "Meditation #3") feature delicate jazz-tinged playing and dissonant noise squalls in equal measure, with atonal scraping, electric roar, and ruminative picking in the episodic "A Bit More 1, 2, 3/Retracing (a) & (b)" a microcosm of the entire album.

Wilson impresses most, however, when he plays it straight, with tunes like the lyrical "Hornbilly" and warhorse "Danny Boy" showcasing his talents most artfully. The clean tone presented in "Meditation #2," a lovely folk-waltz also distinguished by Jesse Zubot's countrified violin playing, recalls Bill Frisell (the tune's back-porch character further reinforced by Bob Grant's "woodstove and utensils" on three cuts) while the duo's second pairing, "Meditation #4," marries Wilson's restrained elegance and Zubot's lush lines to good effect too. Elsewhere, the guitarist's reading of Coltrane's "Venus/Offering" generates suitably ferocious heat without ever veering entirely out of control. [...] "-Textura.org