Jazz guitarist Dan Wilson is an Akron native who graduated from Hiram College, and followed up his bachelor’s degree in music with a master’s from Youngstown State University, where he researched Brazilian music in Rio de Janeiro for his thesis.Since then, he’s performed with pianist Joe McBride and bassist Christian McBride’s Tip City, and toured extensively with noted jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco. He released a trio of albums under his own name, starting with To Whom It May Concern in 2012.
Now here comes his fourth album as a band leader, titled Things Eternal, on the Mack Avenue label. On it, he examines the legacy an influence of his mentors and inspirations, including both grandparents who died recently, along with DeFrancesco, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack last August at the age of 51. His reflections on those close to him was intensified when his father had a massive stroke three days before Wilson’s second child was born. “He’s on the mend, but it’s been an arduous path,” says Wilson’s press release.
The new album includes takes on tunes by pop artists such as the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and Sting and jazz artists such as McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Michael Brecker and Herbie Hancock, plus two Wilson originals and a song Cleveland musician Phillip K. Jones II.
The album’s official release date in May 19; get it here.