Sarah Wilson Brings Incandescence to Berkeley
Bay Area trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Sarah Wilson consistently writes music that fills a room like a street parade fills a neighborhood. Her new album, Incandescence, comes from that same instinct. It is music inspired by visual art, community performance, and the joyful noise of brass instruments played in close harmony. She will perform the entire album at the Back Room in Berkeley on Saturday, November 8, with the same band that recorded it. (Click play to listen.)
Wilson’s path to Incandescence was not a straightforward jazz-to-club journey. She grew up in Healdsburg, California, studied at UC Berkeley, and then entered the world of political puppet theater in Vermont, where musicians, dancers, and giant puppets shared the same outdoor space. That environment reignited her love for trumpet playing and instilled a lifelong passion for music that resonates with people from the very first beat. “I kind of joined the circus,” she said. “I started working with a political puppet theater company in Vermont… we toured around the world, and I started playing trumpet more and more, then moved to New York in the early ’90s to focus on it.” The blend of New Orleans parade rhythms and theater music she absorbed from these locations still influences her perception of a band.
Incandescence took form during two residencies, one at Djerassi in Woodside and another in Krems, Austria. In Krems, she encountered the large, layered paintings of Viennese artist Thomas Reinhold. His work, which treats time as something that can be stacked and revisited, became a direct inspiration for pieces like “Architecture in Space.” Wilson said the painter’s writing about listening to John Coltrane and feeling time stop matched her own experience. “When I’m in that state of either composing or performing my own music, everything else disappears and I lose any sense of space or time,” she explained. “For me, that’s a joyful place to be.” Incandescence is her attempt to translate that feeling into sound.
The band that will perform at the Berkeley show is central to that sound. Wilson leads an all-women horn section with alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen and trombonist Mara Fox, supported by guitarist John Schott, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and drummer Jason Levis. It is a brass-heavy sextet that can shout like a marching band and then shift to a chamber-like texture. Wilson was intentional about that choice. “It feels empowering to have a majority of women in the band, and in particular to have all women horn players,” she said. That decision also reflects years of shared work in Bay Area ensembles, which gives the group a natural, conversational blend onstage.
Danceable rhythm is a core element in this music. Wilson emphasized it as the foundation. “You can dance to almost any of my songs,” she said. “I’m always dancing to them… that early work involving movement, writing for objects moving in space, is a natural part of my work.” That line explains why Incandescence, though inspired by museum art, never sounds museum-bound. The tunes reflect the lively, street-level energy she first experienced in theater scores and New Orleans jazz, but they are crafted with more detail and a wider sound palette.
She wants the album release show to let listeners experience the record as she imagined it. “We’re going to perform the whole album, and I might even test the audience beforehand to see if they can fully immerse themselves in the music without my interruptions,” she said. After the album's release, the band plans to return with new music influenced by Wilson’s recent deep dive into the work of jazz pianist Geri Allen. That second set will broaden the perspective and point toward her next phase.
What unites it all is Wilson’s belief that art can briefly lift people out of the noise of daily life. She explained her motivation for writing Incandescence simply: “When you have a visceral, powerful experience with art or music, that is the essence of joy for me… I want people to feel good and to experience joy.”
Show information and links
Sarah Wilson: Incandescence album release concert
The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley, CA
Saturday, November 8, 8:00 p.m. (doors 7:30 p.m.)
Tickets and venue info: https://backroommusic.com
Artist website (music, bio, calendar): https://sarahwilsonmusic.com
Bandcamp (Incandescence and earlier releases): https://sarahwilson.bandcamp.com
