Jazz Articles about Henry Kaiser

About Henry Kaiser

Album Review

Henry Kaiser and Ray Russell: The Celestial Squid

Read "The Celestial Squid" reviewed by Roger Farbey

by Roger Farbey
March 10, 2015

Jazz fusion guitarist Ray Russell and polystylistic experimentalist Henry Kaiser have never previously recorded together. Kaiser's recorded output is prodigious whereas Russell's is more modest. His debut album Turn Circle(1968) was swiftly followed by a clutch of critically acclaimed but more challenging ones such as Dragon Hill (1969) and Secret Asylum (1973) prior to Russell changing tack to more fusion based recordings. It is these “challenging" works to which The Celestial Squid invites most comparison. “Gutken Limpo" opens ...

Album Review

Elliott Sharp: Electric Willie

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 9, 2011

Willie Dixon è stato uno dei più influenti bassisti del blues elettrico di Chicago e la sua figura, non solo di musicista ma anche di organizzatore, si staglia in modo deciso nel panorama della musica nera dalla seconda metà degli anni quaranta in poi. Dixon era molto aperto verso le novità e non a caso molte sue composizioni vennero riprese negli anni sessanta, quando il rock stava nascendo abbeverandosi alle sorgenti del blues. Molti suoi brani, a cominciare dai celeberrimi ...

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Album Review

Kiku Day / Henry Kaiser: Zen Kaiju

Read "Zen Kaiju" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 16, 2008

Berkeley-based experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser has gained a justified reputation for his eclectic tastes and the way that he fuses his influences into an idiosyncratic guitar style. He began playing the guitar after listening to seminal free-improv guitarist Derek Bailey and has a deep knowledge of the Grateful Dead's musical journeys, as well as the 1970s electric-era of Miles Davis, as documented in the three volumes of his Yo Miles! band with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. He also has a ...

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Album Review

Henry Kaiser / Charles K. Noyes / Song Won Park: Invite the Spirit 2006

Read "Invite the Spirit 2006" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk

by Kurt Gottschalk
February 22, 2007

What was remarkable about the first Invite the Spirit record by the trio of guitarist Henry Kaiser, percussionist Charles K. Noyes and San Won Park (who plays the Korean kayagum, a twelve-stringed zither-like instrument) was how neatly they subsumed Asian traditions with the Western avant-garde. On the trio's second record, they more or less do the same, but some 23 years have passed and traditions have evolved. And in a sense, it's a misnomer to call it ...

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Album Review

Henry Kaiser/Wadada Leo Smith Yo Miles!: Sky Garden

Read "Sky Garden" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
May 20, 2004

With Miles Davis' electric period finally gaining the credit it deserves, the number of groups recording everything from “music-informed-by" to flat-out tributes is almost too large to count. Everyone from Dave Douglas to George Schuller has, in some shape or form, created works influenced by Miles' electric excursions. But when guitarist Henry Kaiser and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith released Yo Miles! back in '98, it was clear that the bar had been raised. Without losing site of their own distinctive ...