Review: Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble’s ‘Love is the Whole Thing, We are Only Pieces’

Drummer Matt Wilson’s frequent playfulness often masks the seriousness of the protest and communal causes underlying his work. Consider Good Trouble (Palmetto, 2024), his debut of the band bearing the same name, featuring alto saxophonist Tia Fuller, pianist-vocalist Dawn Clement, tenor saxophonist-clarinetist Jeff Lederer, and bassist Ben Allison. That record drew inspiration from the late Civil Rights icon John Lewis to urge active non-violent protest as a manifestation of justified and visceral anger. The same ensemble’s follow-up, Love Is the Whole Thing, We Are Only Pieces (Palmetto, 2026) is no less inspired but moves from righteous indignation to gentler forms of protest and the formation of a stronger sense of community. Wilson’s political outrage comes across far more subdued, prioritizing embracing love and community. Across Love Is the Whole Thing‘s assemblage of originals, works by active and late jazz visionaries, and songs penned by rock and pop songwriters, the album is overall more emotionally balanced, with burners and calming, beautiful pieces. The album’s title, itself words written over seven hundred and fifty years ago by the Sufi poet Rumi, suggests how the search for tranquility is an ages old struggle with which we still endure.

The band has also changed since its first outing. Love Is the Whole Thing adds altoist Anisha Rush. Rush is not entirely new to the group, having joined the band on live dates for the past couple of years. The additional voice adds a further cohesion to the group as a singular unit. As Wilson says, “We’ve all very quickly developed a real band vibe.”

The opener, “Wind Spirit,” immediately puts the listener at ease, with Clement’s clear vocals accompanying herself on piano as she sings the Biblical verse from John 3:8: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The rest of the band’s members soon join, one by one, as if carried in by the breeze and Wilson’s hushed cymbals. Rush’s alto and Lederer’s clarinet convey a yearning feeling. A jolt follows with Bobby Watson’s vamp-heavy “Fuller Love (aka In Case You Missed It).” A tune written as a tribute to the late trombonist Curtis Fuller, here, it rather ironically serves as a feature for (the unrelated) Tia Fuller. Good Trouble swings hard behind the altoist’s burning solo, embodying the spirit of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, who first rendered the tune.

Love Is the Whole Thing‘s greatest surprise is its complete transformation of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” featuring Lederer’s and Rush’s saxophones. On it, Allison’s bass sounds more like a finger-picked baritone guitar behind Clement’s easy approach to the lyrics. In his arrangement, Wilson subverts the original’s angst into a hymn-like call for peaceful resistance. In a stunning juxtaposition that’s patented Wilson, Andrew Hill’s “Black Fire” follows. Lederer and Fuller go full bore on their solos, doing serious justice to the tune’s title.

Wilson originals “Joonam” and “Welcome Table” deepen the sense of community and belonging. The former is a smoothly flowing piece that reflects a Farsi term for endearment or familial affection. The latter draws its title from the work of James Baldwin and drops hints of Lederer’s main sonic inspiration, Albert Ayler, as well as the angularity commonly associated with Ornette Coleman. It’s a feast for the woodwinds. The band also covers Jack DeJohnette’s “Festival” from the late drummer’s Album Album (ECM, 1984) by the band Special Edition. The tune is made for a drummer, with its polyrhythmic Caribbean groove, over which all three horns blissfully blow above the insistent beats.

The three additional vocal tunes on Love Is the Whole Thing cover a wide range. “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The song retains both the odd-metered 12/8 time signature and the wistful vocal that once made it a huge hit for Dionne Warwick back in 1963. Wilson’s arrangement adds soul with shouting saxophones. Ben Allison – on electric bass – contributes “Green Al,” a tune he has previously recorded on a few of his own albums. Here, Clement’s dreamy, floating lyrics take it in a different direction than initially conceived. The composer, as he did on the Petty tune, switches to the Hofner electric bass, adding a funk feel to the piece as well.  Rush’s solo and Clement’s piano play to the bassist’s double stops and harmonizing woodwinds. The album closes gently with a return to its title track. This time, clarinet and alto wind around Clement’s synth line. Clement’s is the only voice heard until the whole band chimes in with Rumi’s lyrics, transforming ancient poetry into communal hope through difficult times.

Wilson’s name has graced over four hundred albums. His span of joyous swing, free-form exercises, and thoughtful writing continues to impress. Each of those recordings have underscored his natural gift for bringing people together. One can only hope that Love Is the Whole Thing, We Are Only Pieces will inspire that sense of community and connectedness – in an overly disjointed and dysfunctional age – to places well beyond the recording studio.

‘Love Is the Whole Thing, We Are Only Pieces‘ is out now on Palmetto Records.

Photo credit: John Abbott