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Russ Wilson is one of the busiest musicians in Western North Carolina. Leading or playing in no less than nine bands, the singer and multi-instrumentalist has still found time to compile an album of songs that showcase the breadth of his musical vision. And for the sixth year in a row, he was set to host an evening of holiday classics: \u201cHave Yourself a Swingin’ Little Christmas\u201d happened December 22 at Isis Music Hall in Asheville.<\/p>\n
Born in the mid 1960s, Wilson’s musical journey took him in a direction very different from that of most of his contemporaries. \u201cWhen everyone else was listening to DEVO and Blondie, I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Red Nichols, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cAnd It’s all because of my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson’s dad didn’t have any special musical talent. \u201cHe always joked that he could barely play the radio,\u201d the bandleader says. But he was a voracious reader, and also took a great interest in the vinyl boxed sets put together by Reader’s Digest<\/i>. Two of those collections would make an indelible impression on young Wilson. \u201cOne was called The Great Band Era, 1936 to 1945<\/i>,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd another one, which I still listen to, is called In the Groove with the Kings of Swing<\/i>.\u201d The latter inspired the name of Wilson’s popular radio show on WPVM-FM.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough my dad, I also got into Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and just whatever was laying around the house,\u201d Wilson explains. \u201cAnd when I was old enough to be let out of the house by myself, I’d hang out at the public library on Saturday afternoons, checking out records. And it just stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today Wilson appears live four or five nights a week, singing and\/or playing with groups led by him or other longtime associates. Those groups take in a wide array of styles, from big band swing to jump blues to prewar hot jazz to early rock ‘n’ roll.<\/p>\n
And that wide-encompassing approach to American musical forms is condensed \u2013 like the stories in his father’s favorite Reader’s Digest<\/i> \u2013 on Wilson’s latest album, It’s All About Me<\/i>. Across fourteen tracks \u2013 some recorded decades ago \u2013 the album is a tidy survey of Wilson’s musical world. Featured variously a a singer, musician and conductor, Wilson works his way through uptempo proto-rock (\u201c7 Nights to Rock\u201d), doo-wop (\u201cI Only Have Eyes for You\u201d), vocal jazz (\u201cBei Mir Bist Du Sch\u00f6n\u201d) and even Southern gospel (\u201cHeadin’ Home\u201d).<\/p>\n
That last track is one that Wilson recorded himself in the 1990s using a pair of cassette decks. Playing guitar and overdubbing his voice multiple times \u2013 and crediting the track to Russ Wilson’s Harmonizing 4 \u2013 the recording makes the point that he can do it all.<\/p>\n
But instead, on most of the album’s tracks (and for live performances) Wilson draws upon the deep well of musical talent in and around Asheville. The album features recordings by The Jon Henrys, Firecracker Jazz Band, The Russ Wilson Swingtette and more. In his liner notes for It’s All About Me<\/i>, Wilson makes it clear that the album title is meant half in jest: \u201c…without these people in my musical life, there is no ‘ME,’\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n
And some of those people would be joining Wilson as he took the stage for this year’s Christmas concert. Frequent collaborators Wendy Jones (vocals), guitarist Hank Bones and pianist Richard Shulman are part of an 18-piece big band \u2013 \u201cfour trumpets, four trombones, five saxes, piano, bass, guitar, drums and me,\u201d Wilson says \u2013 for an evening of song and sentimentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got a few new arrangements that we’re bringing in, but we’re going to play all the old favorites,\u201d Wilson said ahead of the show. \u201cWendy has a big band arrangement of ‘White Christmas.’ And last year we started doing ‘Silent Night.’\u201d For that number, Wilson stands at the edge of the stage as the house lights are brought up just a bit. And the audience joins in. \u201cYou’d be amazed how many good singers are out in the audience; you start hearing spontaneous harmony parts,\u201d Wilson says, smiling at the thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s like every one of those Bing Crosby and Perry Como Christmas shows you saw,\u201d Wilson says. His dad would have been proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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