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Music instructor Skip Wilkins will join New York bassist Scott Lee for a jazz concert 7-11 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, at Café Aaron, 1110 Northampton St., Easton. Lee is a fellow recording artist on the Cathexis label.
For more information, call Café Aaron, 610-253-2332.
Wilkins performed with the Wilkins & Allen Quartet on April 17 in a live radio broadcast on WVIA, Scranton-Wilkes Barre (Pittston), Pa. The event took place in conjunction with the January release of his latest CD, Petty Theft.
Wilkins also made presentations on “The Jazz Studies Guide,” developed by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE)/Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Jazz Alliance, at the IAJE Conference in January in New York City and the MTNA Conference in March in Washington, D.C.
At Lafayette, Wilkins teaches music theory, music fundamentals, and jazz piano.
“I’m teaching majors in biology, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, art, and so on,” he says. “It’s exciting to take these kinds of students through a course that could prepare them for achieving a high level of music. They may not plan on making a living from music, but they have a ‘life of the mind’ commitment and are looking for connections with the musical arts. I find Lafayette students to be very engaging that way.”
Petty Theft was in the top ten in the jazz format on WVIA at the beginning of the year. It received a three-star review from Karl Stark in the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday, March 25.
“Pianist Skip Wilkins and flutist Jill Allen don’t do anything wild on this, their most recent release. They focus on swinging hard, showing off some prowess, and creating an amiable sound. They succeed nicely at all three with the backing of bassist Tony Marino and drummer Tom Whaley,” Stark wrote.
“Allen, a Queens, N.Y., resident, is a dervish of an improviser, showing her keening athleticism on the opening ‘Skip & Me.’ Wilkins, who lives in Emmaus, Pa., and has taught jazz at Lafayette, Moravian and Muhlenberg Colleges, emerges as both a sympathetic backer and an energetic soloist. He builds to a serious froth on his composition ‘Without You.’ The title track, another Wilkins tune, is a liquid-toned ditty with a Brazilian vibe that helped him win a 2001 fellowship worth $5,000 for excellence in jazz composition from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.”
The Morning Call’s Tim Blangger wrote on Feb. 24, “It’s obvious from Petty Theft that Wilkins and Allen have worked together for a long time-their interplay on the disc’s powerful opening cut, ‘Skip & Me,’ is perhaps the best and most swinging example of their familiarity on the disc, the third of their partnership. Wilkins is an inventive, subtle pianist, who has performed often in the Lehigh Valley and beyond since his arrival here about five years ago. This recording is an outgrowth of several recent area performances where pianist and flutist were joined by the veteran saxophonist David Liebman, who adds his sturdy, expressive work on two cuts. Usually jazz is either sweet or edgy, but seldom both. Wilkins, Allen and company have managed to achieve both moods, which is itself an achievement.”