Jazz Articles

Take Five With Rik Wright

by Rik Wright
October 17, 2014

Meet Rik Wright: A graph of Rik Wright's influences would read like a wave, running a gamut from jazz to rock and back again. As a guitarist he has taken on influences, often subconsciously, as varied as Andy Summers of The Police and John Abercrombie. Compositionally speaking, Wright hangs with a different crowd altogether, mingling instead with the spirits of Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis. Of this alliterative trio, Miles has been a decidedly conscious influence in ...

Rik Wright's Zen Tornado: Zen Tornado

by Eric J. Iannelli
April 11, 2005

Zen Tornado, as the name alone might imply, is a tempestuous brew of jazz fusion with moments of almost transcendental tranquility. The eponymous ensemble, a semi-conventional five-piece unit, is led by guitarist Rik Wright, and the resulting debut full-length has a distinct thrust and direction that suggests Wright was able to get precisely what he wanted out of the group (some performers, like drummer Simon Grant, are longtime friends and collaborators of his) without suppressing individual initiative or spontaneity.

Wright ...

Polymorphism: Sound Is What You Shape It

by Jason West
January 22, 2004

Originally from Winchester, Virginia, a small town in the north Shenandoah Mountains, guitarist and composer Rik Wright studied jazz in a program led by Ellis Marsalis at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. As a professional musician he’s lived in Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Orleans and San Francisco. Wright ended up in Seattle in 1994, and a few years later founded HipSync Records. Polymorphism is the third release from Wright on the HipSync label. The recording ...