A Small World: Immanuel Wilkins and a Community of Jazz Artists
Posted: 03/06/23
While March 25 is saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins’s highly anticipated inaugural Wisconsin Union Theater performance, you may have already enjoyed a taste of his style from a few of our past performances. The jazz world is as connected as it is diverse!
If you were at the sensational Joel Ross Good Vibes concert on Oct. 16, 2022, you experienced one of Wilkins’s frequent collaborators. Wilkins often performs alto sax in vibraphonist Joel Ross’s ensemble at shows across the United States and is featured on Ross’s albums “Parable of the Poet” (2022), “Who are You?” (2020) and “KingMaker” (2019), among others. Wilkins and Ross also collaborated with trumpeter Marquis Hill, who you may have heard on the UW Credit Union Terrace Stage during the 2021 Madison Jazz Festival.
Taking it back to winter 2021, the Vijay Iyer Trio performance featured bassist and longtime friend of Wilkins, Daryl Johns, who “represents everything this music is about, his respect for the history belies his youth," according to heralded jazz drummer T.S. Monk.
Johns can be frequently heard in Wilkins’s rhythm section and is featured on Wilkins’s ultra-introspective albums “The 7th Hand” (2022) and The New York Times #1 Jazz Album of the year, “Omega” (2020).
While this is Wilkins’s first performance as part of a Wisconsin Union Theater season, you’ll recognize the influence of this community on his style in which he is a pioneer.
His compositions receive endless praise, with Blue Note Records describing his music as “filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath.”
Join us in the Play Circle or online on March 25 at 7:30 p.m. CST to hear a live performance from the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet. You can purchase tickets to the performance here.