Immanuel Wilkins: Recitations, Confrontations, and Dissolving the Bandstand

There may not be words coming out of Immanuel Wilkins' saxophone when he plays, but make no mistake: what he's saying in his warm, evocative, deeply felt improvisations is political, confrontational, and informed fundamentally by philosophy as much as aesthetic. "I'm attracted to where the bodies are buried, and there are always more bodies," says the GRAMMY-nominated 28-year-old Philadelphia native, citing cinematographer Arthur Jafa as he explains why it's as important for him to keep learning about and fighting injustice as it is to study the music itself. "I create art that's 100% abstraction, but during times like this, it's really hard to be poetic. I want to serve the moment as well."

That pursuit, of serving the moment and particularly people facing inequality and exploitation, has led the rising jazz star to the library, which led him in turn back to his horn. "I started thinking, 'What would it look like to turn the concert hall into a reading room?'" Wilkins' inspiration for "Recitations," the SFJAZZ commission that will premiere during his upcoming residency, goes back to the way the Black church figured into what he calls "fugitive organizing" during the Civil Rights movement — how the church is one of the only places people gather and study together, a source of not only communion and faith but rigor, not only stunning, transcendent spiritual music but functional, earthly labor and organizing.

In "Recitations," then, he's seeking to make something that takes the form of traditional church worship, without the specific spiritual practice at the center — "like responsive reading, where one person says something, and then the congregation answers," Wilkins says by way of example. Or reading together "not in unison, but in chorus — a roar of spoken word."

But the Black church isn't the only religious refuge Wilkins tapped for "Recitations." His compositions for the piece will take the form of kirtan songs — simple melodies rooted in the Vedic tradition meant to be sung repeatedly by a group of congregants "until something happens" as Wilkins puts it. Concertgoers can expect distilled meditations that the top-flight band can play and play with repeatedly in conversation with different text readings, which both artists and audiences will be invited to recite.

"I actually hate audience participation," Wilkins quips. "I hate going to a show and having to clap something or sing something. But there is something that happens a few minutes into that kind of work — something super intimate — where the audience actually starts to feel connected to one another in a transformative way. It feels really powerful." He's planning to confront his audiences, to "put them in interesting predicaments for an hour," in his words, with radical, political, provocative texts made visceral by the act of reading them aloud and hearing them read as opposed to the internal act of reading them to oneself.

"I'm chasing a performance — a gathering — where the audience is experiencing the exact same thing that the musicians are," Wilkins says. He alludes to his live performances of his most recent album, the critically acclaimed Blues Blood (Blue Note, 2024), which included a chef onstage cooking a stew. The delicious aroma was inescapable for both the audience and musicians, creating an unforgettable shared visceral sensation. With "Recitations," he'll be seeking that same kind of unexpected earthiness and togetherness — "dissolving the bandstand" as he puts it, in favor of something richer, more communal and less transactional.

Joining his always memorable quartet onstage for "Recitations" will be an array of top-tier artists whom Wilkins tapped for their diverse sounds and musical backgrounds: Amina Claudine Myers — a first time "dream" collaboration — Marvin Sewell on guitar, Holland Andrews on clarinet and Brontë Velez on vocals/readings. Wilkins will be partnering with another living legend during his residency in David Murray, for a rare dual saxophone performance of Wilkins' compositions, also alongside his quartet. He first played alongside Murray a few years ago, and describes it as "a literal rollercoaster ride." "It really lit a fire inside of me, where I was like 'Oh my God, I need to practice,'" Wilkins says. "It's ridiculous to hear your heroes play your songs." According to SFJAZZ Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard, the honor may very well be mutual: "Immanuel Wilkins is the future of creative music," he says. "He’s well steeped in the history of jazz while not being held back by it."

As those heroes become his peers, Wilkins continues to find inspiration among other genres of hero, like Frantz Fanon and academics influenced by him, like Glen Coulthard and J. Kameron Carter — integrating their work into his art to imbue it with urgency and meaning. In a time when it would be easy to focus on using his art as escapism, Wilkins insists that his work — and his SFJAZZ residency — confront his audiences as it draws them into a collective, expressive experience. He puts it simply: "Let's lay a lot bare."

Immanuel Wilkins presents "Recitations" in Miner Auditorium on 3/26 and in the Joe Henderson Lab on 3/27-28 with his quartet and guests including Amina Claudine Meyers, Marvin Sewell, and David Murray. Tickets and more information are available here.

Natalie Weiner is a writer living in Dallas, covering jazz, country music, women's sports and everything in between. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, JazzTimes, Pitchfork and Billboard, among other outlets.