Jazz Articles about Ben Wolfe

like 402

Ben Wolfe: No Strangers Here

by Troy Collins
July 14, 2008

Ever since the seminal Charlie Parker With Strings (Mercury 1950), numerous artists have attempted to add symphonic strings to jazz ensembles. Some have succeeded, but many have failed to capture a proper balance, resulting in string arrangements that sound superfluous.

Bassist Ben Wolfe's fifth album, No Strangers Here, is one example of a successful merger of two worlds--acoustic jazz quartet and classical string quartet. A compelling bassist, Wolfe came to prominence as a sideman for Harry Connick Jr., ...

like 180

The Ben Wolfe Octet at The Jazz Standard, NYC

by Budd Kopman
June 18, 2008

The Ben Wolfe Octet at The Jazz Standard, NYCThe Jazz StandardNew York City, New YorkJune 4, 2008 Bassist Ben Wolfe took the stage on this night to present music from his new release on MaxJazz, No Strangers Here. As usual for CD release gigs, a lot of press was present as were many friends of the musicians. However, the atmosphere was, for some reason, not one of expectation and excitement, and Wolfe tried to ...

like 211

If I can make it here...

by AAJ Staff
May 15, 2008

By Ben Wolfe In late October of 1985 I loaded my car with my string bass, electric bass, Polytone amp, record collection, some cassettes a friend gave me for the drive, a boombox, my clothes, a thermos for the enormous amount of black coffee I would drink, a full-length down jacket which I would use for a blanket when sleeping in my car at night and a pile of blankets that would be my bed in Brooklyn. ...

like 145

Ben Wolfe: My Kinda Beautiful

by Brian P. Lonergan
February 18, 2006

The liner notes to bassist/composer Ben Wolfe's My Kinda Beautiful refer to the record's “cinematic scape and the handiness of describing its music “in images. Many of the nineteen tracks do sound remarkably like they could accompany scenes from films, though they're not linked by a reference to a single dramatic arc. The result is a suite of less-than-satisfying filmic vignettes, each evoking the world that it will for an individual listener, but not connected and supporting each other in ...

like 138

Ben Wolfe: My Kinda Beautiful

by Mark Corroto
January 25, 2005

What do you have when you make a soundtrack recording that has no film? Is it a concerto? Maybe. But in these days of digital downloads and ADD (or is it DHTV?) we sometimes forget about the concept of an entire album of music. Remember that Ellington made them, and so did Coltrane. Bassist Ben Wolfe also reminds us that Charles Mingus did too.

My Kinda Beautiful is an entire album of music written as a whole thought. ...