Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Kirk Knuffke / Federico Ughi / Chris Welcome: Garden Of Gifts

245

Kirk Knuffke / Federico Ughi / Chris Welcome: Garden Of Gifts

By

View read count
Kirk Knuffke / Federico Ughi / Chris Welcome: Garden Of Gifts
There are no signposts to direct towards great free improvisation recordings, because there are no scenic overlooks where it's possible to pull over and take a snapshot or buy a postcard before heading to the next tourist attraction. To take in a recording such as Garden Of Gifts, it's necessary to stand back and take in the whole—the same way the Grand Canyon has to be viewed.

Garden Of Gifts was recorded in May at drummer Federico Ughi's house in Brooklyn. Born in Italy, Ughi moved to the US in 1999 and has been a best known for his work with the likes of Daniel Carter, Steve Swell, William Parker and Ras Moshe. His playing partners are up-and-coming improvisers trumpeter Kirk Knuffke and guitarist Chris Welcome. Knuffke's quartet released Bigwig (Clean Feed, 2008) to positive reviews and the versatile musician has worked with both the avant-garde Lawrence "Butch" Morris and pop star Josh Ritter.

The music mushrooms from organic and simple parts. All four tracks ease into meaning, with Ughi setting the scene. Much of the territory explored is without a constant pulse or rhythm. And each track unfurls without sounding rushed, mostly spare affairs with seemingly no space needing to be filled with extra notes. The drummer appears to guide this outing through its mystical paths. Not one single moment is chosen as a pinnacle, but the bent guitar notes, slurred trumpet passages and cymbal tracings give the recording very rich textures.

Track Listing

In The Vernacular; Gratitude Time; Fall Expanded; Inner Void.

Personnel

Kirk Knuffke
trumpet

Kirk Knuffke: trumpet; Federico Ughi: drums, percussion, flute; Chris Welcome: guitar.

Album information

Title: Garden Of Gifts | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: 577 Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Kirk Knuffke Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.