For the last couple of years I've been receiving regular shipments of music from the Chicago based jazz and blues label Delmark Records. Practically every month an envelope shows up in the mail containing the past, present, and future of music from the city which is arguably the crucible of American jazz and urban blues. I can usually count on a couple of CDs of re-mastered jazz style recordings, a live recording of a recent blues gig in Chicago (DVD and CD), and a contemporary jazz recording.

I have to admit that initially listening to jazz was like listening to a foreign language. While some of the earlier recordings were relatively straight forward and deciphering their syntax didn't take very long, recordings from the Art Ensemble Of Chicago era and latter were a different story. Nothing I had ever listened to prepared me for that experience, in fact I found that in order to properly appreciate it I needed to let go of all my preconceptions of what constituted music. Like abstract painters the majority of these men and women were less concerned with form than they were with intent.

That's not to say there is no structure to this work, it's merely one I wasn't familiar with. After listening and not understanding, gradually I began to hear with new ears and comprehend what was happening with the music. Understanding has led to appreciation, not only for the avant-garde, but for all jazz. So when I listen to something like Corey Wilkes' latest release on Delmark, Drop It, I'm able to appreciate nuances in his music that I might have previously missed.

You see, Corey Wilkes has looked at jazz music, all of jazz music, found bits and pieces that he likes from various eras throughout the twentieth century, and blended them together. Not being content with limiting himself to jazz, he's also looked around at the other African American music and decided that it's all part of jazz. Listen to some of the cuts on Drop It and you're going to hear a funk base line sneaking under his trumpet solo in one song, some seriously tribal drums shaking the foundations of another song, and some mean trumpet and flugelhorn playing.

Now I have to admit that I have a hard time with the way some people play trumpet. They play it like rock guitar heroes play electric leads: fast, high pitched, and furious to the point where it becomes just so much noise pollution. That's not the case with Corey Wilkes as he's more than just an excellent trumpet player, he's also a band leader and composer. Of the eleven songs on Drop It Corey has written nine, and each one demonstrates the depth of the rapport he has with the music.

"Trumpet Player", the opening track on the disc, is a piece with lyrics by the great African-American writer Langston Hughes. It's actually a spoken word piece with Miyanda Wilson speaking Hughes' words over top of Wilkes' music. In part, an ode to an unknown trumpet player, "Trumpet Player" is also a history of the African-American experience in North America. While the words are a powerful element in their own right, the music that Wilkes has composed to accompany them are the extra ingredient that brings them alive for the listener by underscoring the emotions that run through them. So muted that at times it's almost impossible to hear, the music is an electrical current coursing through the lyric, illuminating and highlighting each event recounted by Ms. Wilson's recitation.