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Kenny Werner: No Beginning No End
by John Kelman
Few tragedies strike as hard as that of a child's death preceding that of its parents, something that pianist Kenny Werner and his wife, Lorraine, know far too well. When their daughter, Katheryn, was killed in a 2006 car accident, it sent the couple into a downward spiral from which they were only capable of returning due to the profound strength of their relationship, and the enlightened teachings that, as Werner describes in the almost-too-painful-to-read liner notes to No Beginning ...
Continue ReadingKenny Werner: New, Transcendent Sounds
by R.J. DeLuke
Inspiration behind art is a curious thing. It takes many forms, from personal to universal perspectives. Many times it's unexpected. It is intertwined with one's life and the vicissitudes therein. As Charlie Parker famously said, “If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn."For pianist/composer/arranger Kenny Werner, music has evolved, over time, into a direct expression of his being, less about a series of notes on paper.“For me, music is not the message, ...
Continue ReadingKenny Werner / Jens Sondergaard: A Time For Love
by Jakob Baekgaard
After many years of knowing each other, Danish saxophonist Jens Søndergaard and pianist Kenny Werner decided that it was the right time to translate years of friendship into music. The result is the enchanting A Time For Love, which digs deep into a program of classic ballads.
Songs like Jimmy Van Heusen's “But Beautiful" and Ann Ronell's “Willow Weep For Me" have entered the general consciousness, and the challenge to every ballad player is to make them speak with new ...
Continue ReadingKenny Werner: With a Song in My Heart
by Ken Dryden
Kenny Werner has long been active as a jazz pianist/bandleader, composer and jazz educator, having recorded around two dozen albums as a leader and many more as a sideman. He has performed with quite a few jazz greats, including Charles Mingus, Bob Brookmeyer, Lee Konitz and Toots Thielemans. He's also a sought after pianist by vocalists, having long worked with Broadway star Betty Buckley and jointly leading the Delirium Blue Project with Roseanna Vitro. This trio date ...
Continue ReadingKenny Werner: Lawn Chair Society
by John Kelman
Kenny Werner is best-known as an acoustic pianist, but he's no stranger to other keyboards. Still, Lawn Chair Society's greater emphasis on electronics will no doubt come as a surprise to those who know him through solo piano outings like Live at Maybeck Recital Hall (Concord, 1994) or the more recent post-bop of Democracy: Live at the Blue Note (Half Note, 2006). With its combination of strong group interplay, electronica textures and occasional post-Miles musings, Lawn Chair Society simply confirms ...
Continue ReadingKenny Werner: Lawn Chair Society
by Terrell Kent Holmes
Keyboardist Kenny Werner's ambitious work Lawn Chair Society is an amalgam of straight-ahead jazz, R&B and funk, skillfully blending the avant-garde, the accessible and the modernistic. The rush-hour scatting of Dave Douglas' cornet and Chris Potter's bass clarinet on “Lo's Garden and the postmodern “New Amsterdam, featuring Potter's gritty tenor, set the CD's tone. The tight horn arrangements and funk pedigree should be no surprise considering that producer Lenny Picket was a mainstay in the vaunted horn section of Tower ...
Continue ReadingKenny Werner: Lawn Chair Society
by Samuel Chell
It would be an exercise in futility to attempt to classify this music. When standard tunes from the American Songbook and jazz idioms such as swing and bebop spark little to no recognition among the general public, music that could once be called “experimental" or “avant-garde" necessarily defines the modern mainstream. If there are similarities with early landmark recordings like Out to Lunch (Blue Note, 1964) or Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970), Lawn Chair Society would definitely qualify as the less ...
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