Jazz Articles about Hendrik Meurkens

About Hendrik Meurkens

Album Review

Gabriel Espinosa/Hendrik Meurkens: Samba Little Samba

Read "Samba Little Samba" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 24, 2014

Mexican-born bassist Gabriel Espinosa and German-born harmonica specialist Hendrik Meurkens--though coming from vastly different backgrounds--have always had a common passion for the bossa nova and the samba. Continuing their successful collaboration of the past, the two co-leaders join forces once again for another Brazilian musical dance on Samba Little Samba and follow up to their highly-acclaimed Celebrando (ZOHO, 2012), their very first outing. The duo present an offering of nine originals (four each) plus one from pianist Misha Tsiganov who ...

Album Review

Gabriel Espinosa/Hendrik Meurkens: Samba Little Samba

Read "Samba Little Samba" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 6, 2014

The hundredth release on the Zoho imprint was the aptly-titled Celebrando (Zoho Music, 2012)--the debut collaboration between Gabriel Espinosa and Hendrik Meurkens. This follow-up date, arriving a little more than two years later, is cut from the same musical cloth, though a few minor personnel changes and role adjustments give this one its own identity. The personnel constants across both albums are pianist Misha Tsiganov, drummer Antonio Sanchez, multi-reedist Anat Cohen, and vocalist Alison Wedding. Cohen, appearing ...

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens/Misha Tsiganov: Junity

by Dan Bilawsky
July 9, 2014

Junity? No, that's not a misprint. Take “junto," the Brazilian word for together, and marry it with “unity"; that's how you get “junity," a hybridized term that accurately describes the relationship between harmonica master Hendrik Meurkens and pianist Misha Tsiganov. These two men have been playing together for nearly a decade, appearing together on stages across the world and pleasing Meurkens albums like Samba To Go! (Zoho Music, 2009) and Celebrando (Zoho Music, 2012). Junity, a program ...

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: Live at Bird's Eye

Read "Live at Bird's Eye" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 20, 2012

Live at Bird's Eye embodies the truly global nature of modern jazz: Meurkens' fourth ZOHO release was recorded at two concerts performed at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club in Basel (Switzerland) by his Samba Jazz Quartet, which features this German-born vibes and harmonica player with Russian pianist Misha Tsiganov and the rhythm section of bassist Gustavo Amarante and drummer Adriano Santos, who demonstrate a deep intellectual and emotional familiarity with sambas and other forms from their native Brazil.Tsiganov's ...

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: Live at Bird's Eye

Read "Live at Bird's Eye" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 2, 2012

Live at Bird's Eye documenta due registrazioni, una del 2008 e l'altra del 2010, realizzate presso l'omonimo jazz club di Basilea, dalla band capitanata dall'armonicista e vibrafonista tedesco Hendrik Meurkens, il quale riversa la sua passione per la musica brasiliana nei nove brani proposti, un buon mix di composizioni originali e rifacimenti di alcuni brani di Antonio Jobim, Sergio Mendes e Joao Gilberto. Siamo di fronte ad un lavoro godibile sia dal punto di vista espressivo che formale, soprattutto nei ...

112

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: Live At Bird's Eye

Read "Live At Bird's Eye" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 8, 2011

As a virtuoso harmonicist and vibraphonist, Hendrik Meurkens has always reigned supreme in the unique instrument doublers category, yet he never seems to get the attention he fully deserves. The German-born, New York-based Meurkens has been making beautiful and bouncy Brazilian-based music for decades with his instruments of choice, and Live At Bird's Eye is no exception. For his fourth date on the Zoho label, Meurkens culled nine numbers from two different stints that took place eighteen ...

160

Album Review

Hendrik Meurkens: Live at Bird's Eye

Read "Live at Bird's Eye" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
November 24, 2011

Considered, by many, to be the most important jazz harmonicist since Toots Thielmans, German-born/New York-based Hendrik Meurkens has long been a connoisseur of Brazilian jazz, with an impressive discography of bossa nova and samba-infused music. Live at Bird's Eye is an assemblage of Brazilian, American and Italian jazz standards recorded live on several sessions from 2008 and 2010 at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland. For this recording, Meurkens draws on music from Joao Donato, Antonio Carlos Jobim ...