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| Jack Wilkins (photo courtesy of Jack Wilkins) |
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| Jack Wilkins June 2015 |
I had the privilege of interviewing this superb guitarist just shy of his seventieth birthday in June of 2014. The experience of speaking with Jack was one that I came to cherish. The three-part interview was a fascinating look into Jack's life as one of the premier jazz guitarists of the last fifty years. He was a brilliant artist on the guitar, a dedicated, generous educator, and a genuinely humorous, thoughtful human being, who I learned had a soft spot for Sci-Fi movies. You can read this three-part interview here, here, and here.
A year later, when I was frantically looking for a jazz trio that would be able to play at my wedding in Westchester, and importantly to do right by my jazz sensibilities, it was Jack who came to my rescue. He was gracious, professional, and a huge hit to all the attendees. The trio thoroughly amazed the crowd with the tasteful music of three allstar jazz players Jack on guitar, bassist Andy McKee and drummer Mike Clark. Who could ask for anything more?
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Jack Wilkins Trio with Mike Clark (drums) and Andy McKee (bass) June 2015 |
Upon learning of his passing from a surprise and deeply sad post that I read from his long-time friend Mike Clark, I made a point to relisten to some of Jack's great music and to re-read the interview we did together from 2014.
I recalled Jack's amazing speed and remember him telling me how guitarist Al DiMeola, no stranger to being blazingly fast on the fretboard himself, once told him admiringly how "Wow, man I never heard anybody play as fast as you!" Peers always knew and respected Jack's excellence.
Though he briefly entered into the fusion side of things with his guitar in the seventies, he confidently quipped "People don't know that, but I can play the tar out of fusion guitar.", he preferred the undistorted sonic purity of the traditional electric jazz semi-hollow guitar sound that he so expertly mastered throughout his career. Besides his quick, flowing single-note lines, his chordal work was exceptional.
As an educator, who has worked as an adjunct at the Manhattan School of Music and the New School. In his own humble honesty about the challenges of teaching jazz to his students, he said
"It's difficult to try and teach 'jazz.' It's an expression, it's a feeling, it's something that really can't be taught..but you can teach the language."
He took his calling as an educator and as an elder passing on the art of jazz guitar seriously, telling me
"When I can hear somebody starting to play better because of my helping them, I am very grateful...I want to help them because they so want to learn."
He was a musical history buff of sorts and spoke of his early influences -Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and Johnny Smith. He admired his contemporaries like Tal Farlow, Jimmy Rainey,
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| Atilla Zoller, Jack Wilkins, and Jimmy Rainey (photo courtesy of Jack Wilkins) |
Chuck Wayne, and trailblazers Billy Bean and Joe Pass. He astutely named blues master Lonnie Johnson as one of the true original innovators on the guitar. Speaking with Jack about the history of the jazz guitar was like getting an education from a true sage.
After his classic 1973 debut album Windows, Jack landed a gig with drummer great Buddy Rich. The gig was five or six days a week for thirty-five to forty weeks a year for over two and a half years with Rich starting in 1974. Despite the grueling schedule he never found it repetitive or unrewarding. He credited Rich with being more of an amazing drummer in person than even the legend that was built around him. Wilkins cherished his time with the turbulent drummer and rated his stay with him as an immeasurable learning experience of a lifetime.
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| Jack Wilkins with Buddy Rich and Sal Nistico: (photo courtesy of Jack Wilkins) |
Wilkins often accompanied vocalists and enjoyed working with the likes of Morgana King, Jay Clayton, and Sarah Vaughan to name a few. Jack worked effectively in all musical groups-big bands, trios, duets, and as a solo artist.
Though Wilkins never chased the spotlight that many musicians with lesser abilities did, he was never jealous or resentful. He just played, played well and his reward was the knowledge that his musicianship was always appreciated by his colleagues and his fans.
On his seventieth birthday celebration, held at the Jazz Standard in NYC, he was honored by some of his most esteemed colleagues, a who's who of jazz guitarists - John Abercrombie, Vic Juris, Larry Coryell, Howard Roberts, Joe Diorio, and Jack. Their mutual respect for him speaks volumes.
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| Abercrombie, Juris, Coryell, Roberts, Diorio, and Wilkins 1974 70th Birthday bash at Jazz Standard (photo courtesy of Jack Wilkins) |
Listening to the feelings and expressions that are present in much of Jack's music, he always conveys a sense of artistry, commitment, excellence, and authenticity. For me, at this time of loss, his music evokes a sense of joy and condolence.
Re-reading his words from the interview from 2014 reinforces Jack's humor, his humanity, and his generous thoughtfulness.
Jack was not fond of listening to his own recorded music. "Music is like a portrait, you play something that you are feeling at one time in your life, and then you put it on wax, and it's recorded and it's there forever. It's really introspective when you listen to your own music. That's why I am not keen on listening to my own music."
Fortunately for the rest of us, we can all be grateful to have his recordings to listen to and cherish.
I am forever grateful for knowing him both as a brilliant musician- and although we were not close- I consider him a friend. Jack Wilkins will be sorely missed by those whose lives he touched with his musical excellence and his sincere and humorous humanity. RIP Jack.
Here are two from Jack.
