Gary Wilson

"Although it might sound perverse to say so, Music for Piano may well be my favorite Gary Wilson record. Most people who dig Wilson are very into his lyrics, but I actually find them to be a bit taxing after a while. Those early records all sound and feel amazing, but what I really wanted was to hear the music without the words. I had high hopes when I found a copy of Another Galaxy, the 1974 Gary Wilson Trio LP, but it had a very different heft than that which Gary displayed on You Think You Really Know Me. It was really just a jazz LP. Well, here's some instrumental material from the same mid-late '70s time frame as You Think, and it's pretty amazing. There's one side of classic youthful piano destruction by Gary and the late Vince Rossi (one of Gary's most dependable collusionists). And the second side has five shorter tracks with a trio, that moves like oddball soundtrack music from '70s exploitation cinema (which is exactly what I'd hoped Another Galaxy would be like), before ending with the vocal track 'I Love Gary' -- as maniacally collapsed a 'pop song' construct as anyone could hope for. It's a great record. A bit more overtly avant than the other three GW LPs we've done. But surely you can handle that." --Byron Coley, 2015