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Immanuel Wilkins, 38, is considered among the most accomplished alto saxophone players and improvisers of the current Jazz world. His phenomenal articulation, his multi-layered sound, and his high creative capacity tell us that he is one of the best. But obviously not a big star for the mass audience; musicians and connoisseurs admire him so far. So let’s try to make him bigger! Originally from Pennsylvania, he lives in New York City, where he studied at Juilliard School with Bruce Williams, Steve Wilson and Joe Temperley. His debut album as a leader, Omega, was released in 2020 with the same nucleus playing at the Montreal Jazzfest – Micah Thomas on the piano, Daryl Johns or Ryoma Takenaga on the bass, Kweku Sumbry on the drums; those musicians also recorded the recent live album at the Village Vanguard.
So this is why PAN M 360 wanted to interview this great African American sax virtuoso, improviser and composer. Immanuel Wilkins answered generously to our questions, a few hours before his excellent set on June 27.
PAN M 360 : I know you, well, I saw you playing a long time ago at the Jazz Gallery in New York.
Immanuel Wilkins : Oh man, okay. So you’ve been around for a while.
PAN M 360 : Yeah it seems so! So you come from a great lineage of alto sax players
Immanuel Wilkins : Definitely.
PAN M 360 : Your description and explanation will be better than mine.
Immanuel Wilkins: Yeah, man, I mean, yeah, for me, I mean, yeah, the people I grew up, my first love was Kenny Garrett when I was young back then.
PAN M 360 : Very heavy alto.
Immanuel Wilkins: Yeah, exactly, yeah, super, like, I mean, full sound.
PAN M 360 : He was married with a Montreal woman.
Immanuel Wilkins: Oh, really? Wow, okay, man, I didn’t know that. Yeah.
PAN M 360: His wife Sayda, is the daughter of the late Sayd Abdul Al-Khabyyr; she was a very good flute player.
Immanuel Wilkins: Wow, incredible. Yeah, I started out listening to Kenny, and then from there it was like Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster, a lot of tenor players too, like.
PAN M 360 : Johnny Hodges is very soft, quite different from Kenny Garrett!
Immanuel Wilkins : Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a great player, I love him. And then in college I started listening to Ornette Coleman, and Ornette really changed things for me. He was like, he was the best, the best one for me. He was really, I mean, yeah.
PAN M 360 : Did you have the chance attending Prime Time band concerts?
Immanuel Wilkins : Oh, man, I wish, I wish, but I got to study, when I was really young, but I studied with two members of Prime time.
PAN M 360 : With Jamaaladeen Tacuma?
Immanuel Wilkins : Yeah, yep, exactly, Jamaladeen, who was in Philly, and this other cat, Charles Ellaby.
PAN M 360 : Yeah, I know, I saw this, well, I’m old, so I saw them many times.
Immanuel Wilkins : Oh, killing, yeah, man, I wish I got to see them, man, they’re a great band.
PAN M 360 : Years later fortunately, we see a new interest for jazz and you are absolutely part of this new historical influx of energy in the jazz world after many years.
Immanuel Wilkins : Yeah, totally.
PAN M 360 : How do you see yourself in that?
Immanuel Wilkins: I mean, I see myself amongst a bunch of friends who I went to school with, you know? I mean, like, I feel like I kind of just lucked out when I moved to New York. Just the names of people, like Gifton Gellin, Kalia Vandever, Leslie Mock, Joel Ross, James Francis, Jeremy Dutton, to name a few. I mean, there were so many people who, like, upon moving to the city, like, were my age, making really great music, and so it was just nice to be able to start working with them pretty early, you know?
PAN M 360 : Yeah. And do you go back often to Philadelphia?
Immanuel Wilkins: Yeah, I do, I do. I spend about 50% of my time there. I have my apartment in New York, but I’m back in Philadelphia all the time.
PAN M 360 : So now let’s see about what you’re presenting in this summer tour, after releasing Volume 1 at the Village Vanguard on Blue Note Records.
Immanuel Wilkins : Yeah, man, I mean, this is a cool period for us. I feel like this is the first time that I think we’re aware of how long we’ve spent together. You know, like, this is the first time we’re aware of our age as an ensemble. You know what I mean? Like, we’re approaching ten years soon, and maybe a year or two, we’ll be at ten. I think we’re at like eight now. And I think, yeah, like this time kind of just marks like a point at which we feel like we’re, you know, we feel like we’re a unit. We feel like there’s like some synergy and there’s, like, a language there, you know, that feels telepathic, you know. And I feel like my first three records, I really was occupied with conceptual recordings.
And this one, I felt kind of freed up to make the kind of technology of the ensemble the concept. You know, that is the meaning. You know, the meaning is just like how four people kind of work together, you know. And so, yeah, I mean, it’s been great. It feels good.
PAN M 360 : If we talk about artistic direction and the way your ensemble and your own aesthetics is going to go in the next, well, the close future. So, do we expect something in the jazz spectrum of expressions?
Immanuel Wilkins : Man, that’s a good question. I have no idea where I stand in the context of jazz music right now, but I definitely feel like I’m always trying to reinvent myself and challenge myself to do different stuff. Yeah, I feel like I’m always just trying to get to the next thing. So, yeah, I feel like the real goal, the real goal is to have people who listen to the music, who are radically committed to listening, you know, and have trust and give the artist the benefit of the doubt. You know, I think that’s the most important thing that a listener can do.
You learn a lot as a listener and you learn a lot as a musician that way in which, you know, I like I want to be. I want to feel free to experiment and do, you know, crazy stuff, you know, and not have it cancel my career, not have it in my career.
PAN M 360 : You can do both so well !
Immanuel Wilkins : Yeah, yeah.
Photo by ProductionsNOVAK
