Jazz Articles about Kirk Knuffke

About Kirk Knuffke

Album Review

Kirk Knuffke / Marilyn Crispell / Thommy Andersson: Paintbrush

Read "Paintbrush" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 8, 2026

Like all things refreshingly human, Paintbrush comes with a backstory of kinship. And the story goes that comrade-in-arms cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Thommy Andersson got in touch with pianist Marilyn Crispell and Crispell, ever one for a new fling, invited the pair to come to Woodstock, New York, as so many before them had in the years before. In January of 2024, come to snowbound Woodstock the pair did, to hang at Crispell's favorite studio, Nevessa Productions in neighboring ...

Album Review

Kirk Knuffke: Window

by Jerome Wilson
September 19, 2025

Cornet player Kirk Knuffke seems to work with a different combination of musicians on every recording he makes. This time out, he is joined by Stomu Takeishi on bass and Bill Goodwin on drums in a bare bones trio session that covers a lot of musical ground. The album consists of thirteen short tracks that hopscotch between various styles, with the three musicians thoroughly engaged with each other. “Choose" is a bit of sly funk with Knuffke pushing ...

Radio & Podcasts

Kirk Knuffke, Anat Fort, Bram de Looze, Bob Wellins & More

by Ludovico Granvassu
September 12, 2025

Another stack of recent and upcoming albums to soundtrack the week ahead, kicking off with three stunners by Kirk Knuffke, Bram de Looze, and Anat Fort's compelling take on the dreamworld of Paul Motian.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Kirk Knuffke “Runs Red" Window (Royal Potato Family) 0:16 Host talks 4:12 Bram de Looze, Thomas Morgan, Hank Roberts, Joey Baron “Dduddu (Live)" Live at Brussels Jazz Festival (Edition ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer: Guilty!!!

Read "Guilty!!!" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 23, 2024

Note to conservative Republicans: stop reading this review now. Note to self: There cannot be but a handful of folks who are both MAGA and jazz and improvised music listeners. Jeff Lederer's Guilty!!! recalls a time when jazz was at the forefront of the zeitgeist. Max Roach, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus were creating music about and during the civil rights movement. Elsewhere Neil Young was protesting the four dead at Kent State, while Graham Nash was recruiting ...

Album Review

James Brandon Lewis: For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)

Read "For Mahalia With Love (Expanded Edition)" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
April 22, 2024

La musica di James Brandon Lewis è potente, assertiva, trascinante. Ma rivela talvolta, sotto lo strato di forza, una sottile e affascinante vulnerabilità emotiva, che rende ancora più ricco il suo discorso compositivo e solistico. Come nel caso di questo scintillante omaggio al mondo espressivo di Mahalia Jackson, che si realizza attraverso memorie familiari, quelle della nonna che ha trasmesso a James questa passione tuttora bruciante. Lewis è una delle voci più convincenti del jazz contemporaneo che non ...

Album Review

Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

Read "Elegy for Thelonious" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
April 15, 2024

Dopo aver circumnavigato la musica di Monk in diversi contesti, prevalentemente come pianista in piccoli organici, Frank Carlberg, finlandese di nascita ma newyorchese a tutti gli effetti, affronta in questo suo ultimo, ambizioso lavoro l'ineffabile Thelonious da una prospettiva diversa: dedicandogli una serie di composizioni proprie ispirate a lui e alla sua arte così fuori da ogni ovvietà (non senza scampoli tematici acchiappati al volo e titolazioni spesso molto gustose ed emblematiche, da “Scallop's Scallop" a “Wrinkle on Trinkle," in ...

Album Review

Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

Read "Elegy for Thelonious" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
March 2, 2024

Pianist Frank Carlberg has been exploring the music of Thelonious Monk for some time, most specifically on his large group album, Monk Dreams, Hallucinations, and Nightmares, (Sunnyside, 2017). This new album has Carlberg returning to the large ensemble format for more Monk investigations, but this time approaching the work in a more splintered and abstract fashion. He does not simply interpret familiar Monk tunes. He writes compositions and arrangements which stitch Monk riffs and ideas into new fabrics, ...