Jazz Articles about Kenny Wollesen

Steph Richards: Supersense

by Mike Jurkovic
October 22, 2020

With all the threatening weirdness and desperate surrealism that has become life in the USA, it makes absolute sense that Supersense, daring trumpeter/composer Steph Richards' third full length album, starts out like an encroaching invasion of ants, or microbes, or a disruptive, divisive, myopic political movement. As with such forward seeking rebels as Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and Yoko Ono, Richards' modus operandi is chiseled in the very foundations of the music itself. Never ...

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: Free Hoops

by Troy Dostert
September 28, 2020

With her idiosyncratic mixture of mystery and mirth, and a seamless conjoining of jazz and classical musical vocabularies, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier has carved an enviable niche for herself. She not only possesses impeccable technique, but her voice as a composer is just as formidable, whether in partnerships with fellow mavericks like Mary Halvorson, Evan Parker, or Mark Feldman, or in her blue-chip trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Their D'Agala (Intakt) was a widely hailed highlight of ...

Mark Murphy, Folk Artist: Hiding Place

by C. Michael Bailey
August 5, 2020

Mark Murphy's 2018 release Pocketful of Rainbows (Self Produced, 2018) was a surprise stand-out recording that year. Now, this Mark Murphy is not that Mark Murphy (1932 -2015), icon of jazz vocals. This Mark Murphy is a singer/songwriter whose 2016 release, Slip Away (Mini Movie) scored points for one of Downbeat Magazine's recordings of that year. Murphy returns with Hiding Place, a slim collection of seven songs, originals mixed with imaginative covers, in keeping with his previous offerings.

Eivind Opsvik: Overseas IV

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 25, 2012

Overseas è il nome della band che il contrabbassista e compositore norvegese Eivind Opsvik fondò nel lontano 2002. Nel corso di dieci anni e quattro pubblicazioni Opsvik ha dato ampia testimonianza della sua evoluzione artistica e della sua capacità di coagulare attorno a questo progetto prestigiosi esponenti della scena prog-jazz newyorchese, esaltandone peculiarità non sempre esibite in altre situazioni. Struttura del lavoro e impatto sonoro sono decisamente cinematografici e non solo perché il disco è parzialmente ispirato al film di ...

Slow Poke: At Home [MP 3]

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 14, 2008

La pigra indolenza che marca, sin dall’apertura, questo ottimo At Home del gruppo Slow Poke è un segno indelebile del tipo di approccio che il quartetto ha scelto dal primo momento (e l’indizio principale era già ben evidente nel nome stesso che i musicisti avevano deciso di darsi). Questo album in realtà non era mai uscito ufficialmente. Era una sorta di demo fatto in casa ('at home', per l'appunto) che serviva per proporsi alle case discografiche. Poi il gruppo decise ...

Slow Poke: At Home

by Donald Elfman
January 15, 2008

Formed at the home of bassist Tony Scherr, Slow Poke--David Tronzo, Michael Blake, Scherr and Kenny Wollesen--play everything slower and funkier. It's an extraordinary idea for a jam band--bring the groove way down and somehow the vibe and energy go way up thanks to the new focus. It certainly helps that all of these guys are virtuosos and truly care about the aesthetics of sound. This debut disc caught the attention of Paul Simon and producer Lee Townsend, and has ...

Slow Poke: At Home

by Ralph A. Miriello
December 13, 2007

This re-mastered recording of Tony Scherr's 1998 basement record, Slow Poke At Home , is a joy for those who can appreciate the slow cooked, steamy sound of master musicians plying their trade in a gutsy, simmering, sweetly rhythmic stew of sounds. The label, Palmetto Records, should be applauded for taking a now defunct band and reissuing the material as a testament to just how good the music was and still is.

Slow Poke was one ...