Jazz Articles

Mike Keneally: The Thing That Knowledge Can't Eat

by Mick Raubenheimer
April 12, 2023

A new Mike Keneally album is always a thing of humming excitement and intrigue. And pending contradictions eloquently resolved. Forever searching along and within nooks and crannies of the soniverse for fresh sounds and patterns, Keneally surveys the majestic reaches and possibilities of music and grins. A shockingly talented musician, Keneally has the calm energy of someone who can pull off the most complex musical riff (on keyboards and/or guitar, sometimes simultaneously) in an effortless manner, in this way appearing ...

Mike Keneally: You Must Be This Tall

by Glenn Astarita
October 12, 2013

Virtuoso guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally has been all over the musical radar, spanning the past three decades. Performing with Frank Zappa in 1988, the artist has also aligned with avant-garde guitar hero Henry Kaiser and currently mans the keyboards amid some guitar work in support of iconic progressive rock guitarist Joe Satriani. With his 24th solo album, Keneally propagates some insanely complex time signatures, perhaps deriving influence from Zappa but mixes it up poignantly by infusing humor, slamming backbeats, ...

Mike Keneally: Scambot 1

by John Kelman
December 20, 2009

If there's anyone carrying on Frank Zappa's legacy today, it's Mike Keneally. A monster guitarist, capable of shredding with the best of them, for many that would be enough. Keneally may have played in Zappa's last touring group before the legendary satirist/composer/guitarist died, too young, in 1993--sharing an equally eclectic, unfettered and label-less view of what music can and should be--but it would be unfair to suggest he sounds anything like the man who was an early mentor. In the ...

Mike Keneally Band: Guitar Therapy Live

by John Kelman
July 30, 2006

A musical chameleon who can fit into any context, Mike Keneally first arrived on the scene as guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist in Frank Zappa's last touring band. Since then he's recorded and/or performed with the likes of Robert Fripp, XTC and Greg Osby. While his own records have been as eclectic as the company he's kept, Guitar Therapy Live is the rock guitar album fans have been waiting for. Keneally is as comfortable in the contemporary classical context of The Universe Will Provide ...

Mike Keneally: Dancing

by Michael Askounes
October 1, 2000

“Hey, this sounds like Joe Jackson! No, no, wait a minute... it’s a lost Frank Zappa tune! Yeah, that’s it – it’s... hold up – that’s Adrian Belew! Those guitar stunts could only be done by... err... now what it Dave Matthews doing here? Oh never mind... it doesn’t matter who it is when it’s THIS good!”

The above was the conversation that would’ve been going through this reviewer’s head had I not had Mike Keneally’s Dancing CD cover directly ...