| Melodic
acoustic pianist Jim Wilson, whose first recording climbed high on
Billboard magazine's national Top New Age Albums chart, is back with
Cape Of Good Hope which
will be augmented with a national PBS-TV special.
Wilson is
joined on the mostly-instrumental album by a bevy of top musicians,
special guests, close friends and recording artists in their own
right including singer-guitarist Dan Fogelberg, singer Stephen
Bishop, guitarist Davey Johnstone (Elton John), guitarist Steve
Lukather (Toto, Boz Scaggs), bassist Lee Sklar (James Taylor,
Jackson Browne, Carole King), keyboardist Steve Porcaro (Toto, Boz
Scaggs), jazz saxophonists David Sanborn and Richard Elliot,
guitarist Peter White (Al Stewart), jazzster Rick Braun producing
one track and playing percussion (riding the charts this year with
his own #1 jazz album), jazz stalwart percussionist Lenny Castro,
trumpet player and Columbia recording artist Chris Botti (Sting),
Irish flutist and Uilleann pipes player Eric Rigler (the Titantic
film soundtrack), and numerous others.
Wilson's
first album, Northern Seascape
(he co-wrote the title tune with Fogelberg), was released on
Angel-EMI Records because it bridged the gap between jazz, new age
and contemporary classical music with hints of Celtic, folk and pop
incorporated into the mix. It quickly became a chart-climber and
best-seller. Now Jim continues to expand his ambitious eclectic
musical blend on Cape Of Good Hope,
this time released on the quickly burgeoning Hillsboro label (distributed
by EMI).
The new
album will be presented visually to America in the fall of 2001 via
an hour-long national television special, Jim
Wilson & Friends: Cape of Good Hope (and Other Musical
Portraits), filmed in Amarillo, Texas, when
Jim returned to his hometown to explore his roots and perform a
special concert in the city's historic downtown district. The TV
show features musical performances, interviews with Jim and his
band, and "video art" sequences usually projected on-stage
during his concerts.
Although the
public knows Jim Wilson as a rapidly-emerging pianist and composer,
the music industry knows he has even more talents. He is the
co-developer of the revolutionary computer MIDI-adaptor for the
acoustic piano which, for the first time, allows this age-old
instrument to interact with computers and synthesizers. In addition,
when Jim first left Texas and ventured to Los Angeles, he built a
top-flight reputation as "the piano tuner for the stars."
Between tuning pianos and teaching uses of the piano-MIDI, he worked
closely for several years with the upper echelon of pop musicians
such as Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel,
Jackson Browne, Burt Bacharach, Carole King and many, many more.
Whenever Jim played his own music for them while sitting at their
pianos, they became fans, offered glowing endorsements and
encouraged him to pursue his own musical dreams.
This led
to an official endorsement by Yamaha Pianos, who provide instruments
for his performances across the country both as a solo artist and
with his six-piece band (more than a thousand shows so far and
counting). Additionally he composed music for the CBS-TV series Frank's
Place. On top of that, CNN's Showbiz
Today television show devoted a segment to
Jim's music and included interviews with renowned producers David
Foster and George Duke praising Wilson's talents.
Not bad for a
boy who grew up in Texas cow country. Although born in Greenville,
South Carolina, Jim moved to Amarillo when he was six and lived
there until he was 20. When he was seven, he picked up a guitar at a
friend's house and the older man gave it to Jim. "From then on
I had this incredible passion for music and learning to play it,"
he remembers. "I started learning some James Taylor riffs. That
style has stayed with me even after I switched to piano playing when
I was 19. But around nine or ten I started composing songs. About
then my charismatic cousin from California came to visit. He breezed
into town with his long hair, guitar, songs and stories, and that
really ignited the musical fire in my life. I started playing in
professional bands when I was 14. I couldn't wait to be a musician."
When he was 22,
Wilson went to piano-tuning school so he would always have a solid
money-making trade. He headed to Los Angeles where he continued to
write songs, got a song publisher and began placing his material on
television shows. During that time he also was making a name for
himself as a first-rate piano technician. He was so busy that he put
off trying to get a recording contract for several years until 1997
when, sadly, his best friend died suddenly. This life-changing event
made him realize "you never know when you're going to be called,
so you better be proud of what you've done and the legacy you're
leaving behind." Soon Jim wrote and recorded his first album,
sent copies to 20 record companies and seven of them immediately
responded with contract offers (that sort of overwhelming response
is almost unheard of in the music business).
On Nothern
Seascape, Wilson was joined by musical
luminaries such as Fogelberg, Johnstone, Castro and Rigler to create
an album that immediately drew attention from radio, media and
ultimately consumers. The recording featured all original material
with the exception of an exquisite instrumental cover version of Walk
Away Renee, the Sixties hit for the Left Banke and Four Tops.
Now with Cape
Of Good Hope, Wilson has crafted another album
of catchy, heartfelt melodies plus another instrumental cover
version, this time of Steve Winwood's 1969 Blind Faith classic, Can't
Find My Way Home. The album comes with two versions, a haunting
piano-guitar-sax trio recording and an expanded radio mix that
includes percussion. There are two songs with vocals -- Donna Lynn
with singer Stephen Bishop (best-known for his big hit On and On),
and Picasso's Midnight Stroll with ethereal wordless vocals
by Fogelberg, Wilson and Casey Stratton (who also adds gossamer
background vocals on Cape of Good Hope and Discovery).
Other
tunes include the Celtic-tinged Susanna, 'Til I See You
Again and More and More. There's also the quietly jazzy Friend
highlighted by a David Sanborn sax solo. The album kicks off with a
tour de force, the title track, named after the southern tip of
Africa where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet with violent
currents that claimed many sailors lives. Wilson says the song and
album are dedicated "to the spirit of voyaging into the unknown
in the quest for a better life. The song has a special meaning for
me as a metaphor for the triumph of making it to the other side
after confronting your fears."
According
to Jim, Discovery was written "to celebrate the spirit
of adventure and is dedicated to man's quest for flight." Picasso's
Midnight Stroll is the soundtrack for a visual adventure
imagining what the painter would see walking the streets of Paris
under a full moon. Home in the Heartland is Jim's tribute to
his Texas childhood. "There's nothing that compares to those
amazing sunsets, or the massive thunderclouds rolling through on a
hot summer day, or those bonfires and hayrides out on the farm."
Jim also
remembers another inspiration for this album. "When I was
growing up, I had a poster on my wall with this quote that said, 'Let
go of what you are for what you can become.' I also had a poster of
Farrah Fawcett in that red bathing suit, but that's a whole other
story."
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