Jazz Articles about Stewy von Wattenwyl

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Stewy von Wattenwyl: After the Rain

by Dan McClenaghan
October 26, 2013

After the storm has passed through, after the rain, with the sunbeams peaking though the breaking clouds, the day takes on an unblemished clarity. The horizon's sharp edge separates land from sky. Details of the landscape shine with fine detail. That after-the-rain clarity and focus is what elevates the artistic endeavor. Swiss pianist Stewy von Wattenwyl, with recordings like the trio outing Dienda (Brambus Reocrds, 2005), and the quartet set with saxophonist Eric Alexander, Live at Marians (Bemsha Music, 2009), ...

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Rolf Häsler: Crosswalk

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 27, 2013

"Piacevole" è l'aggettivo che più si addice a Crosswalk, l'abum firmato dal saxofonista Rolf Häsler e licenziato dalla label Brambus. Termine che dunque mette a debita distanza le undici tracce proposte - tra originali e rivisitazioni - da quelle che potrebbero essere sensazioni di imprevedibilità formale e fantasia espressiva. Questo perché il quartetto del tenorista percorre un sentiero mainstream che quasi mai trasporta l'ascoltatore verso territori inattesi, né ha in programma variazioni tematiche. Cosicché la title track iniziale mette in ...

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Stewy von Wattenwyl Generations Band: Live at Marians

by Dan McClenaghan
December 10, 2009

Swiss pianist Stewy von Wattenwyl blasts into this high energy set, Live at Marians, with a blistering one-two punch of Wes Montgomery's “Fried Pies" and John Coltrane's “Moments Notice." The leader pounds the keys in a McCoy Tyner mode, and saxophonist Eric Alexander sounds raw and just barely tamed. This is not a sound that can be called laidback; this is a gale force wind gusting into town.Von Wattenwyl, a well-versed keyboardist, has a discography that includes a ...

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Stewy von Wattenwyl: Wabash

by Dan McClenaghan
October 12, 2008

It never hurts to have a great CD cover. Wabash, from Swiss keyboardist Stewy von Wattenwyl, features art reminiscent of Miles Davis' sometimes maligned On the Corner (Columbia Records, 1972). But while the Davis cover seemed to project hipness with his cartoon characters, von Wattenwyl's pencil-necked, slouching musicians--beside, upon and within a monolithic music machine--seems to be an invitation to a good, unpretentious straight-ahead listening experience, and that's just what you get with the CD.

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Stewy von Wattenwyl / Nick Perrin: I Got a Right to Sing the Blues

by Jack Bowers
May 2, 2006

In music as in sports, the best players always make whatever they do seem deceptively easy. Guitarist Nick Perrin and pianist Stewy von Wattenwyl are so loose and casual that one might think they were jamming in a basement or garage instead of cutting an album in a recording studio, belying the years of study, discipline and hard work it took to get them to that point. The duo format requires unremitting focus and the ability to listen carefully and ...

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Stewy von Wattenwyl: Dienda

by Jack Bowers
June 20, 2005

Dienda, Swiss pianist Stewy von Wattenwyl's fifth album for Brambus Records, is an impressively recorded studio date, which wouldn't mean much if von Wattenwyl and his colleagues were less than impressive. Happily, they are not.

Von Wattenwyl, whose reputation is growing in his own country and elsewhere, clearly has found his own voice within a framework of elegance reminiscent of contemporary masters Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Barron; and power that calls to mind McCoy Tyner, Mulgrew ...

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Stewy Von Wattenwyl: Dienda

by Dan McClenaghan
March 20, 2005

In a review of Live at Bird's Eye, a CD by the Stewy Von Wattenwyl Trio featuring Eric Alexander, All About Jazz reviewer Jack Bowers praised saxophonist Alexander's ability to use his technique to form an emotional bond with the listener. That is what the best artists do, and it's what the pianist on that particular disc--Stewy Von Wattenwyl--does so well here on Dienda. It's obvious from the very first notes of Gershwin's “My Man's Gone Now"--a dark, lonely sound--and ...