The Aubrey Wilson Quartet - Honeysuckle Rose (2020)

Honeysuckle Rose, the Aubrey Wilson Quartet’s debut album, is the culmination of two years’ worth of arranging, rehearsing, and workshopping, to say nothing of the time that the band has been together, performing consistently for nearly a decade. A true collaborative endeavour, the arrangements for the album were a group effort; though individual band members created the initial arrangements, everyone in the quartet contributed to the process of tweaking and perfecting the songs’ orchestration. Each member of the quartet brings something special to the proceedings. Altobelli and Bruder, with a background in funk and R&B, inject the album with soulful flourishes and harmonic sophistication. Parker, a studied, technically adept drummer, brings an ear for specificity and tempo, and an adventurous spirit. Honeysuckle Rose also features two special guests. The first, guitarist Scott Taplay, is a player with whom the quartet has a long, shared history. Having heard Taplay play at many of the same venues at which they regularly appear, he was a natural fit for Honeysuckle Rose, on which he demonstrates the impressive range of his artistry on the tracks Nature Boy and Honeysuckle Rose. The second guest, saxophonist Luis Deniz, brings his unique linear authority to bear on two swinging standards, I Will Wait for You and Lullaby of the Leaves.