Anthony Wilson Returns to the Power of Nine With "House of the Singing Blossoms"

a nonet return after almost 20 years produces rich musical rewards

It's been almost 20 years since guitarist/arranger Anthony Wilson released a nonet record. That one was Power of Nine (Groove Note GRV1035-1) and it's certainly highly recommended but that was then and this is now. And now is a very good time for Anthony Wilson. Over the past few years he's released a series of musically thoughtful and intriguing albums including Songs and Photographs and Frogtown. Worth checking out.

Wilson is now back with a live nonet set recorded at Sam First in Los Angeles this past March 21st and 22nd 2025 and released on the club's label of the same name. Arranging is in his DNA. The set begins with his father Gerald Wilson's "Triple Chase"—a wild large group ride that's sure to excite you as much as it did the Sam First audience.

Wilson's track order (not sure if the record follows the set order), designed for maximum audience engagement, follows the raucous opener with Joe Zawinul's familiar "In A Silent Way". The guitar seeps into the familiar dreamy intro that then unfolds to include the triple saxophones, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass and drums. It's a musical and sonic spectacular that segues into the funky "Walk Tall" another Zawinul composition that wasn't recorded by Weather Report (though I could swear it was).

Side two opens with Bennie Wallace's mischievous, cinematic "Bordertown"—Wallace came to the attention of many audiophile types on his '90s era Audioquest release and he's got a new deeply atmospheric one coming soon that you're sure to love for both music and sound—that's followed by an ingeniously arranged cover of Lennon/McCartney's "Because" with the horns replacing the original's Moog synthesizer. Clayton's piano drifts along behind the horns— be sure to pay attention to what he does. The side ends with Wilson's title tune—a multi-part composition that moves through multiple moods and genres within the first few minutes before settling into a bluesy romp anchored by Clayton's piano before the horns add the muscle. From there it drifts off into cascading, breathing horns and from there.....enough of my musical travelogue—it's a tour de force of moods and colors that also gives Wilson some room to soar on the guitar.

A Wilson composition opens side 4 followed by a few Keith Jarrett compositions ("Introduction & Yaqui Indian Folk Song" and "e Mistral") and a closer, "Simple Song" written by Canadian saxophonist Ben Wendel.

A few of the musicians who played on the Groove Note studio session tracked at Sunset Sound return here— the Ferber twins Alan on trombone and Mark on drums—but the others—a mix of guys and gals— are new, including pianist Gerald Clayton. The musicianship on the probably not particularly easy to play charts is superb and that matches the sound, which is spectacular in every possible way—spatially, timbrally, dynamically, you're in the space-rally, three-dimensionally, you're in the audience-rally, on the closer the trombone is in your room-rally. It's positively dazzling.

If you needed proof that digital recording has "come of age", this record will be it. It's sonically among the best live recordings I've ever heard—and I really try to not say such things unless I'm really sure. I'm sure.

Here's how it was done—from the website:

Recorded using Sam First’s state-of-the-art analog to digital recording setup, carefully mixed in-house and then mastered by Bernie Grundman. The music is then pressed onto two 180-gram vinyl LPs and packaged in poly-lined paper sleeves with protective lining. Jacket is thick stock (24pt) gatefold displaying a full-bleed print of the vibrant cover photo taken by Sam First Records owner, Paul Solomon, as well as photos from the recording session by Brian Bixby. Edition of 1,000, each copy displaying its own unique foil-stamped number.

So I'll throw a little water on the fire: the gatefold direct to board jacket is not Stoughton "Tip-On" quality, which is not the biggest deal, and the Furnace pressing though good is not RTI, QRP or Gotta Groove quality (I hope Eric Astor and Lars Ulrich don't double team and beat me up for writing that but it's true), but it's good enough for you to be slammed back in your chair from the first note and sit transfixed by the music and sound for all 4 sides.

Do not miss this!

It's available now at the Sam First Records website

A snippet of "Triple Chase"

A snippet of "Bordertown":