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Jazz maniacs offered a treat

By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- So, just who is that sax man who's jazzed up the Illinois Shakespeare Festival this summer?

He's Glenn Wilson, no stranger to B-N night crawlers who've followed his combo around town to jazz-friendly venues like Swingers Grille and Destihl.

He calls his crazy-for-jazz cats the Jazzmaniacs.

It's a moniker he conjured after he was told to come up with something sexier than the relatively strait-jacketed Glenn Wilson & Friends he originally offered.

That was at a club in Richmond, Va., some time ago. The straits came off, and he's been a Maniac ever since.

Earlier this year, Wilson and his baritone sax were enlisted as part of a makeover plan to help move the Shakespeare fest into a new and more eclectic groove.

The consequence: He's been gigging in the Ewing Manor courtyard every Friday and Saturday evening since the festival opened in June, with three weekends to go.

The hour-long sets at 6:30 p.m. are festival freebies, there to serve as pre-show entertainment for the main event on the theater stage just a sax wail away.

But they're also there, backed up by potables/victuals from sponsors Destihl and Swingers, as entities unto themselves. As a result, notes Wilson, some folks have been showing up specifically for the music.

Joining Wilson through the series has been a rotating repertory of both his regular Jazzmaniacs (pianist Chip Stephens, bass player Richard Drexler, alternating drummers Josh Hunt and Joel Spencer) and visiting cronies from around the state and beyond.

"It's been going great, and we've had full houses," he says with obvious satisfaction. "People are very happy, and it's a good lead-in to the shows."

The play's still the thing, of course -- something Wilson, no stranger to the world of theater himself, knows.

In fact, the reason he moved to the Twin Cities seven years ago is because his wife, Janet, landed a job with ISU's theater faculty, where she teaches acting.

Wilson himself is now on the U of I music faculty in Champaign after going back to school there several years ago to earn his master's degree in jazz performance -- never mind that his past performance track record includes recording with the likes of Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Bruce Hornsby and Tito Puente.

"I was older than all of my teachers, which I found kind of funny," muses Wilson, a long way away from his undergraduate days at Youngstown State University in Ohio.

Part of his reason for returning to the classroom was a realization that it was time start giving some of his amassed knowledge back.

"My jazz mentor, Tony Leonardi at Youngstown State, passed away unexpectedly and it was a shock to me. As a student of his, everything I did in jazz was tied to 'what would Tony think, how would Tony feel about it?' Then, a year later, my dad passed away, and that really told me I need to start giving something back."

These days, he's giving back in classes with names like Jazz Pedagogy and Music Business.

He knows whereof he teaches, to be sure, per that impressive track record of associations forged during his days gigging in New York City (1977-1991). That's where he toured and/or recorded with the likes of Hampton, Rich, Puente, Machito, the Bill Kirchner Nonet, Mel Lewis, Toshiko Akiyoshi and the Bob Belden Ensemble.

And his music business sensibilities were honed in the mid-'90s when he became a part of piano-pop star Bruce Hornsby's backing band after the singer jazzed his sound up via the albums "Harbor Lights" and "Hot House."

The Hornsby gig came about, Wilson recalls, during his Richmond, Va., period of the '90s. Hornsby, who loves in Williamsburg, where he also records, wound up soliciting Wilson to pen some five-horn arrangements "at the last minute" after he rejected another arranger's work.

Through that association, Wilson wound sharing space on the album with an all-star lineup that included Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Garcia and Branford Marsalis.

"Bruce brought all these people into the studio at his house, and that was kind of fun," notes Wilson. "And I got my only gold record."

Wilson also got to play on the album's touring dates and appearances on TV series like "Austin City Limits" and "VH1's Center Stage," and he appeared in the music video for the album's "Rainbow Cadillac" featuring Raitt.

Along the way, Wilson got his first and last taste of the rock-star lifestyle.

"Bruce has such a fan base, and because he was then playing with the Grateful Dead, we also had Deadheads following us all around. You're riding in limos and having food and drink available wherever you go, and playing to huge amounts of people. I could see how rock stars get spoiled."

Wilson didn't have time to get spoiled, though, since Hornsby downsized his band back to rock quartet specs after the "Hot Nights" album.

But the experience served him well for teaching that music business class at the U of I.

And there's another rock star story in Wilson's repertoire.

"When I was living in Virginia, I was playing at a club in Charlottesville on a semi-regular basis and our bartender was one Dave Matthews," he begins.

"People would always say, 'You should hear the bartender's band. He writes some great tunes.'"

For Wilson, it was, "sure, every bartender you know has a band and writes his own music. But later, when I was with Bruce, John D'earth (a trumpeter and good friend of Dave's) and I took Dave's music to Bruce. I'm not sure it ever led to anything directly, but Dave has always been an inspiration.

"He writes the songs he feels and had a band most folks said would never make it. He's really just a guy, from what I know, who could care less about stardom and success. He just wants to play his songs!"

A man, and maybe maniac, after Wilson's own heart, in other words.

Sweet sounds

What: Glenn Wilson Jazz Series

When: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, through Aug. 9

Where: Ewing Manor courtyard at Illinois Shakespeare Festival

Cost: Free

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The Glenn Wilson Jazz Series, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, through Aug. 9 at Ewing Manor courtyard at Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

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