Anthony Wilson Nonet | Scripps Research Auditorium | Athenaeum Jazz Fall 2025 (Sunday, November 9, 7:30 PM) La Jolla

The series continues Sunday, November 9, with the Anthony Wilson Nonet. A longtime Athenaeum favorite, guitarist-composer Anthony Wilson brings his new nine-piece ensemble to the Scripps Research Auditorium to perform music from his latest album, House of the Singing Blossoms. Wilson has cultivated a diverse body of work shaped by long-standing collaborations with jazz greats like Diana Krall (whose quartet he has been a core member since 2001), Charles Lloyd (with whom he last appeared on the Athenaeum series in 2023), and John Clayton, as well as by the deep musical influence of his father, legendary bandleader Gerald Wilson.

Wilson launched his musical career in 1995 when he was awarded the Thelonious Monk Institute International Composers’ Award. His first album, Anthony Wilson (1997), featured a nine-piece “little big band” and received a Grammy nomination for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Recording. It was followed by Goat Hill Junket (1998) and Adult Themes (2000). His fourth recording with the nonet, Power of Nine (2006), was recognized as one of the top ten jazz albums of the year by The New Yorker. With House of the Singing Blossoms, he returns to the nine-piece format for the first time in nearly two decades. For this album Wilson crafted lush, harmonically sophisticated arrangements with a reverence for the jazz and blues tradition that balance intricate ensemble interplay while spotlighting his nuanced compositional voice and the expressive artistry of the elite improvisers that comprise his ensemble.