Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Wilson's Way (2026)

Chicago pianist Christopher Lucas Wilson has released his fourth album, Wilson’s Way. It is the debut recording of his current working trio with bassist Alex Austin and drummer Isaiah Spencer, made at Transient Sound studio. The music is rooted in swing, bebop, and the blues, and it plays with the unhurried assurance of a group that has long since settled in on Chicago bandstands. Wilson says the album is not about proving anything but about trusting the music and each other, letting a collective voice keep evolving within a tradition he loves.

Wilson’s road to this sound was a long one. He grew up in metropolitan Detroit, started on the piano in his parents’ living room, and was drawn to jazz through swing. He studied with Bess Bonnier and Marcus Belgrave, came up through the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Jazz Program under bassist Rodney Whitaker, then studied jazz at Michigan State University and hosted the weekly jam session at Detroit’s Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. A decade in Los Angeles produced the albums Feelin’ Better (2014) and Leaving Los Angeles (2019), and in 2019 he moved to Chicago. His 2023 release Solemn Moments drew strong reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, and the new album’s title points to full ownership of his musical lineage.

The record contains five originals, two standards, and a solo-piano piece. The title track immediately sets a direct, unhurried mood built on feel rather than flash. “Bésame Mucho” convinces through Spencer’s authentic rumba groove and Austin’s assured bass work. “Stillness” is reflective, “Good Company” swings with momentum, “Hallowed Be,” with its drum solo and boppish piano lines, becomes the most animated stretch of the record, and on “Night Notes” all three play as a single unit. Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” gets a warm reading that trusts the tune rather than reinventing it. The album closes with a solo-piano version of the ranchera classic “Tu Recuerdo y Yo” by José Alfredo Jiménez: a wistful, late-night, emotionally exposed ending, close in spirit to “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”

The record’s chief virtue is that the trio functions as one organic voice rather than three soloists taking turns, in the spirit of the great piano trio tradition. Spencer, whose sound has been called “propulsive and fiery,” has shared stages with William Parker, Fred Anderson, and Clark Terry and also teaches music at New Trier High School. Austin is equally assured, and his rumba-rooted solo on “Bésame Mucho” justifies the confidence Wilson places in him. The album doesn’t try to reinvent the trio format, and that restraint is its strength: a pianist who has spent two decades refining his own voice has found a trio capable of saying the same thing alongside him. Like the recent duo album Chiaroscuro by Kevin Fort and Andy Brown, it needs no fireworks, relying instead on three musicians who trust each other completely.

Musicians:
Christopher Lucas Wilson – piano
Alex Austin – bass
Isaiah Spencer – drums

Tracklist:
1. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Wilson's Way
2. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Bésame Mucho
3. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Stillness
4. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Good Company
5. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Hallowed Be
6. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Night Notes
7. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
8. Christopher Lucas Wilson Trio - Tu Recuerdo Y Yo