Drop the Needle w/ Howard Wiley
9m 44s
Watch Howard Wiley’s California Love concert from 3/23/24 On Demand here:
https://www.sfjazz.org/athome/on-demand/howard-wiley/
Saxophonist extraordinaire, composer, and SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Howard Wiley enthuses about his formative influences and shares memories of the Bay Area artists who mentored him and put him on his path as a musician. But please, don’t mention the cost of parking or the quality of East Coast kale. Having been mentored by Bay Area great Jules Broussard and sharing formative bandstand experiences with the likes of Clark Terry, Jason Moran, Orrin Evans, and Lauryn Hill, Berkeley-born saxophonist and composer Howard Wiley is a constant presence on SFJAZZ stages and venues around the country as both a bandleader and collaborator with former Tower of Power and Santana organist Chester Thompson, Ethio-folk vocalist Meklit, and as drummer with jump-blues chanteuse Lavay Smith’s Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
He’s released a trio of masterful solo recordings, including two that were inspired by Dr. Harry Orster’s famous field recordings of spirituals performed by Angola Penitentiary inmates in the 1950s, and has performed SFJAZZ Hotplate tributes to Ornette Coleman and Coleman Hawkins. As an SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director, Wiley has presented evenings in both Miner Auditorium and the Joe Henderson Lab devoted to projects rooted in the Bay Area experience highlighting his diverse and soulful approach.
Track listings:
Johnny Hodges: “Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You” from The Big Sound (1958)
Bishop Norman Williams: “Dolphy” from Bishop’s Bag (1978)
Mulatu Astatke: “Nétsanét (Liberty)” from The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975 (2009)
John Handy: “Karuna Supreme” from Karuna Supreme (1976)
Donald Harrison & Terence Blanchard: “Guardians of the Flame” from Nascence (1986)
Eddie Marshall: “Salt Peanuts” from Dance of the Sun (1978)