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Michael Janisch: The Whirlwind, Paradigm Shift and London's Label of the Moment
However you look at it Michael Janisch is an extraordinarily driven, highly motivated, success story. Not only has he been the founder, owner and force behind London's wonderful Whirlwind Recordings for the last five years, but he has also just released one of 2015's finest albums in the adventurous 2CD set Paradigm Shift. It's no coincidence that the label takes Janisch's nickname “the whirlwind"--at the time of the interview in late October he was two thirds of the way through ...
read moreMichael Janisch: Paradigm Shift
This impressive double album recorded live over two nights in 2011 at Pizza Express Jazz Club, London is Michael Janisch's follow-up to his 2010 debut album Purpose Built. The release has been some four years in gestation for the U.S. born, Berklee educated and now UK-based bassist and composer. Additional post-production electronics and effects were introduced over a period of roughly a year, between 2014 and 2015, yielding an extremely satisfying result. The low groan of looped bass ...
read moreTake Five With Michael Janisch
Meet Michael Janisch:Freelance double & electric bassist, composer, producer, record label owner & bandleader from the USA, resident since 2005 in London, England. Performances with Joe Lovano, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, George Garzone, Dianne Reeves, Shirley Horn, Evan Parker, Gary Husband, Joe Locke, Walter Smith III, Mike Moreno, Jason Palmer, Jon Irabagon, Logan Richardson, Will Vinson, Ingrid Jensen, Patrick Cornelius, Ambrose Akinmusire, etc. Founder and MD of Whirlwind Recordings. Instrument(s): Double and electric basses
read moreMichael Janisch: Purpose Built
A relative newcomer on the international jazz scene, Michael Janisch is an American bassist currently living in London and making his debut recording with the very impressive Purpose Built, a potent selection of eight original composition and four familiar jazz standards. Janisch offers a diverse repertoire of melody-rich, sophisticated charts in a musical palette of essentially modern jazz which--with its improvisational approach, time signatures and many intricate lines throughout--would at first, seem appealing to only the most discerning of jazz ...
read moreMichael Janisch: Purpose Built
The first notes of Purpose Built's opening track draw attention, setting up a pleasurable jaunt into the world of Michael Janisch on this 30 year-old bassist's debut as a bandleader. Born in the United States and now residing in London, England, Janisch is skilled at both the acoustic and the electric bass. He has performed with various jazz luminaries, including vibraphonist Gary Burton, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, pianist Shirley Horn, and saxophonist Joe Lovano. For his premiere release, he ...
read moreMichael Janisch: Purpose Built
At a glance, Purpose Built, bassist Michael Janisch's debut as a leader, looks like a big-band session. The roster on the back of the CD case is not just stocked with notables, it's a long list of notables. As such, it would make sense to imagine this group arranged on risers, pinning the studio's needles as they achieve full song. However, the key to this disc is in its title. Rather than put all his talented eggs in one basket, ...
read moreMichael Janisch: Purpose Built
Since moving to Britain from the US in 2005, bassist Michael Janisch has put much of his energy into collaborative projects involving musicians from the two countries. It's hardly a radical idea, but it's as good a shtick as any with which to carve a profile, and along with his prodigious instrumental talents, Janisch is an unusually media and marketing savvy artist, with an all singing, all dancing website and now, with Whirlwind Recordings, his own record label.
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By Connie Lansberg
Member since: 2010
As a songwriter and vocalist, I love jazz for the experience of being in the center of intense creativity. It is the most potent form of music for keeping the artist and the audience in the 'now”
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