Jazz Articles about Kenny Werner

About Kenny Werner

Album Review

Benjamin Boone: Caught in the Rhythm

Read "Caught in the Rhythm" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
September 28, 2023

The connection between poetry and jazz music is a delicate one. It has been documented so infrequently, in performance and recordings, that one still conjures the flicker of an image of Jack Kerouac reading in some dark Greenwich Village cafe with Steve Allen or Zoot Sims, surrounded by beret-wearing, cappuccino-sipping beatniks. The work of Fresno-based saxophonist Benjamin Boone has assisted in widening that view through four albums recorded for the Origin Records label, including the fourth, Caught in the Rhythm ...

Album Review

Janis Mann & Kenny Werner: Dreams of Flying

Read "Dreams of Flying" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 11, 2021

Janis Mann has quietly but steadily amassed an impressive body of work over the course of more than two decades. For this, the vocalist's eighth album, she brings studio and stage into beautiful alignment with different, intimate configurations hinging on the constant presence of pianist Kenny Werner. The majority of this music was recorded in 2016 at New York's Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, with key collaborator Werner and, more often than not, the rhythm combo of bassist Drew Gress and ...

Album Review

Benjamin Boone: The Poets Are Gathering

Read "The Poets Are Gathering" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
December 31, 2020

Saxophonist Benjamin Boone continues his ambitious foray into jazz and poetry, this time recruiting an impressive cadre of poets for his aptly entitled release, The Poets are Gathering (Origin, 2020). The union of poetry and jazz has never been so powerfly presented, reflecting the past year of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, the universal role of the poet, and the power of art and voice to raise awareness and inspire change. The album employs the likes of US Poet ...

Album Review

Kenny Werner: The Space

Read "The Space" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
April 24, 2019

Per Kenny Werner la decisione di affrontare questo progetto per solo pianoforte è riconducibile ad una duplice istanza: una ricerca del suono limpido e rarefatto, illuminata da un volatile pensiero interpretativo inteso a considerare gli standard come volano di un più complesso e dilatato percorso creativo. In linea con le rilevanti esperienze discografiche del sessantasettenne pianista statunitense, The Space contiene diversi elementi stilistici di rilievo. In primo piano la libera improvvisazione all'interno di una pregevole gestione di pieni e vuoti, ...

Multiple Reviews

Piano in Solitude

by Geno Thackara
April 14, 2019

There are people who play the piano, and then there are some who create a whole other state of consciousness with it. While these three may not be among the more common household names in the jazz world, here they each offer a master class in the craft to make you wonder just why the hell not. Lewis Porter Solo Piano Next to Silence 2019 Bill Evans this ain't. There are some ...

Radio & Podcasts

Kenny Werner on his Life and Career

by Leo Sidran
January 23, 2019

Kenny Werner might try to talk you out of becoming a jazz musician. “Please don't become a jazz musician just because you think you should. That's like saying you think you should become a typewriter salesman. Nobody needs you. I would do everything I could to talk them out of it and if they couldn't be talked out of it then I would say go for it. It's got to be a thing of extreme love because it doesn't make ...

Radio & Podcasts

Kenny Werner, Miles Davis & more

by Joe Dimino
January 14, 2019

The wise veteran New York Pianist Kenny Werner starts this week's show with a cut off his latest CD The Space. We then go into a track that was a huge influence on Kenny's perception and approach to jazz with Miles Davis's “In a Silent Way." We also profile the great band Butcher Brown and a wonderful veteran drummer like Chip White with a track off All Star Ensemble Volume 5. We continue the hour of jazz ...