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Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.
Ben Wolfe: The Freedom to Create
This article was first published at All About Jazz in September 2001. Ben Wolfe is a consummate musician. He has served as the bassist-of-choice for Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, and Harry Connick, Jr. Also a prolific composer, Ben has just released his third album of original compositions, Murray's Cadillac, for Amosaya Records. I met Wolfe just a few hours before he was scheduled to play Carnegie Hall with Diana Krall. He was scouring the shelves of ...
read moreBen Wolfe: The Whisperer
While swimming in the rather large body of sounds that comprise the jazz mainstream, Ben Wolfe's The Whisperer evinces no obvious stylistic points of reference or influence, possesses unusual depth, and adds up to something larger and more significant than a composite of impressive individual performances. Wolfe's compositions--eleven out of the disc's twelve tracks--comprise the record's core. He crafts melodies that are familiar in a good way, and encases them in tightly knit, logical, non-standard forms. There's ...
read moreBen Wolfe: The Whisperer
You can always gauge a bassist-led recording by the players he attracts on the bandstand or in the studio. Proof of this premise is Ben Wolfe's latest, The Whisperer. Just like Charles Mingus had his Jaki Byard, Booker Ervin, and Dannie Richmond, and Dave Holland his Craig Taborn, Kevin Eubanks, and Eric Harland, Wolfe is also a magnet for talent. His past recordings featured Ned Goold and Joe Magnarelli on Murray's Cadillac (Amosaya Music, 2000), Branford Marsalis and Terell Stafford ...
read moreBen Wolfe: The Whisperer
Ben Wolfe is the man responsible for double bass duties for some of the most popular names in jazz. As well as his six previous albums as leader, in a recording career that extends back to the '80s Wolfe can also be heard on a fist-full of recordings by Harry Connick Jr, Diana Krall and Wynton Marsalis among others. What keeps him gainfully employed by some of the jazz world's biggest hitters? The Whisperer, a superb combination of great tunes ...
read moreBen Wolfe Quintet: Live at Small's
Ben Wolfe is a commanding presence beside the gravitational weight of his bass violin. On Live at Smalls, Wolfe brings something of the fabled Charles Mingus' authority and leadership to his own quintet. It had to be so; Wolfe undertakes to have four towering individualists interpret the charts performed on this date at the club that is now becoming all the rage of Greenwich Village, NYC. Pianist Luis Perdomo, somewhat better-known for his tumbao, is heard here negotiating the knife ...
read moreBen Wolfe Quintet: Live at Smalls
In New York City, there's a popular venue known as Smalls Jazz Club. The Ben Wolfe Quintet introduces a series of performance recordings, simply titled Smalls Live. A Baltimore native, Wolfe's professional associations include Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall. He is currently a faculty member at Julliard School of Music, Jazz Division. The high-energy, attention-grabbing “Block 11"--one of nine songs, all composed and arranged by Wolfe--begins the set, with Ryan Kisor's blistering ...
read moreBen Wolfe: Live At Smalls
Smalls jazz club entered the CD market in a big way in 2010, releasing a series of albums documenting live performances at this venerable Greenwich village institution. While Smalls Records already had a hand in showcasing the musicians and scene surrounding this club, Smalls Live is all about presenting the music as it happened on any given night in the club. The label has already released a bounty of brass-lead sessions by the likes of trombonist Steve Davis and trumpeters ...
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