Jazz Articles about Mike Wofford

About Mike Wofford

Album Review

Sono appena una decina i dischi a nome di Mike Wofford, a fronte di una prestigiosa carriera iniziata in California negli ultimi anni del West Coast Jazz e tutt'ora in pieno svolgimento all'età di 75 anni. Dotato di una solida preparazione classica, ha iniziato a esibirsi con Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper, Chet Baker e Maynard Ferguson, ha collaborato a lungo (dal 1967 al 1980) nel quintetto di Shelly Manne e con formazioni orchestrali (Oliver Nelson, Bud ...

Album Review

Mike Wofford: It's Personal

Read "It's Personal" reviewed by Jeff Dayton-Johnson

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
July 31, 2013

Pianist Mike Wofford can boast decades of high-caliber sideman gigs: notably with vocalists Ella Fitzgerald (for whom he served as music director), Mel Tormé and Sarah Vaughan, as well as drummer Shelly Manne, saxophonist Phil Woods, guitarist Joe Pass and others. His studio work is amply represented on records by a dizzying variety of artists. And his frequent collaborations with his wife, flutist Holly Hofmann, have been warmly received. Solo sets are not unknown in Wofford's lengthy discography but, on ...

Album Review

Mike Wofford - Holly Hofmann Quintet: Turn Signal

Read "Turn Signal" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 13, 2013

Mike Wofford e Holly Hofmann sono presenti da oltre un trentennio sulla scena statunitense: con questo Turn Signal compendiano in sette brani, un paio di originali e cinque composizioni di autori più o meno loro coetanei, i tratti fondamentali del loro stile. Con una carriera costellata di importanti collaborazioni, i due riuniscono qui un quintetto dalla front line con flauto e tromba, inusuale per una formazione di derivazione bop. Il gruppo suona un mainstream consapevole e ben radicato nella tradizione ...

Album Review

Mike Wofford / Holly Hofmann Quintet: Turn Signal

Read "Turn Signal" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
January 11, 2012

Holly Hofmann is an energetic, swinging, straight-ahead jazz flautist who has been performing for over 30 years. Mike Wofford, her husband, a recognized piano master, co-leads on Turn Signal, playing with an understated, intuitively rhythmic style. The two now live in San Diego, California, but travel extensively for performances. Recording her first disc for Capri in 1989, Turn Signal is her twelfth CD as a leader, in a career that has included collaborations with pianists Kenny Barron ...

Album Review

Mike Wofford / Holly Hofmann Quintet: Turn Signal

Read "Turn Signal" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 10, 2012

Down in out-of-the-way San Diego, California (that's out-of-the-way in a New York-centric jazz world), flautist Holly Hofmann and pianist Mike Wofford have been steadily making world-class jazz for a couple of decades. Wofford--who has spent much of his career in supporting roles, backing vocalists Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, saxophonists Zoot Sims and Benny Carter, and many more--is evolving into a first-rate leader. His Live at Athanaeum (Capri Records, 2004) demonstrated the pianist's acumen in the trio context, while Live ...

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Album Review

Mike Wofford Trio: Live at Athenaeum Jazz

Read "Live at Athenaeum Jazz" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 4, 2005

Mike Wofford is one of those unsung yet enormously talented pianists (there are a lot of them) whose names rarely surface in the so-called “best of popularity contests (excuse me, polls) conducted by various jazz periodicals. One of the reasons, of course, is that Wofford makes his home in San Diego; another, closely related to the first, is that he hasn't the name recognition of a Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones, Cecil Taylor, Oscar Peterson, ...

Album Review

Mike Wofford: Time Cafe

Read "Time Cafe" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2002

The piano, Mike Wofford writes, is an “instrument of endless possibilities,” many of which are brought to light on his first album for Azica Records. Wofford certainly is qualified to advance such an idea, having played piano for almost forty years with a veritable who’s who of celebrated Jazz artists including Shelly Manne, Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Shorty Rogers, Mel Tormé, Joe Pass, Gary Burton, Lee Konitz, Sarah Vaughan, Lockjaw Davis, Zoot Sims, Benny Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Burrell, Art ...