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Jazz Articles about Deanna Witkowski

5
Album Review

Deanna Witkowski: Force of Nature

Read "Force of Nature" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Pianist Deanna Witkowski has been studying the life and work of pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams for twenty years. This has resulted in her writing a biography of the artist, Mary Lou Williams; Music For The Soul (Liturgical Press, 2021) and making this companion album of her interpretations of Williams' music. Working in a trio format with occasional trumpet from Clay Jenkins, Witkowski covers all phases of Williams' musical career, her time writing for Andy Kirk in ...

4
Radio & Podcasts

New Releases, Jazz Birthdays With A Celebration of the 48th Anniversary of Joni Mitchell's Court And Spark

Read "New Releases, Jazz Birthdays With A Celebration of the 48th Anniversary of Joni Mitchell's Court And Spark" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast presents new releases from vocalists Irene Jalenti, Jim Caruso & Billy Stritch, Sasha Dobson, saxophonist Azar Lawrence, trumpeter Thomas Heflin, and pianist Deanna Witkowski's tribute to Mary Lou Williams, plus birthday shoutouts to Dolly Parton, Barbara Carroll, Etta James, among others. In the second hour, a celebration of the 48th anniversary of Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of pandemic so they ...

9
Album Review

Deanna Witkowski: Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns

Read "Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The improvisatory phrase and the song of praise don't stem from the same place, but who's to say they can't break bread together? With Makes The Heart To Sing: Jazz Hymns, pianist Deanna Witkowski erases lines between the strict-toned sacred and malleable secular, creating music that manages to be tradition-minded and open-minded all at once. The fifteen tracks contained herein pull from myriad sources and eras. An African-American spiritual cozies up next to a 17th-century German hymn, ...

4
Album Review

Deanna Witkowski: Raindrop: Improvisations with Chopin

Read "Raindrop: Improvisations with Chopin" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Pianist Deanna Witkowski is a truly versatile artist and consummate musician. Her superb forays into sacred music in a jazz framework, for instance, are captivating in their free flowing spirituality and her subtly adventurous category defying explorations thrill in their spontaneity and their imagination. On her fifth release, the intimate Raindrop she goes solo in interpreting and embellishing eight of polish composer Frederic Chopin's deeply emotive pieces. She elegantly peppers these with fragments of Bossa Nova and other ...

271
Album Review

Deanna Witkowski: From This Place

Read "From This Place" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Deanna Witkowski takes the spiritual road on From This Place through gospel, Catholic liturgy, blues and jazz, and 19th century text to which she has written music.

Sacred music and jazz have come together through Mary Lou Williams and Duke Ellington, to name two, while John Coltrane brought in his own ardent beliefs to several of his compositions. Witkowski's sacerdotal calling is strongly manifested, particularly in the sincerity of her singing.

“Let My Prayer Rise (Psalm ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Deanna Witkowski

Read "Take Five With Deanna Witkowski" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Meet Deanna Witkowski: Winner of the 2002 Great American Jazz Piano Competition and a past guest on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, pianist/composer/vocalist Deanna Witkowski has been heralded for her “consistently thrilling" playing and her “boundless imagination" (All Music Guide). Her brand new fourth release, From This Place, focuses on her sacred jazz material with musicians including Donny McCaslin and John Patitucci.

Witkowski was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday on April 12, 209; her trio will present Moving With the ...

136
Album Review

Deanna Witkowski: Length of Days

Read "Length of Days" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Deanna Witkowski marches on to the sound of some well-crafted tunes on her latest release, Length of Days. The pianist/vocalist blends standards, her own compositions, and a chilled-out, laid-back, and unusual, but endearing version of “Hi-Lili Hi-Lo, to winning effect.

Witkowski plays with clarity, never rushes, and keeps away from a welter of notes that could clog her flow. Her playing resonates with harmonic skill as she feeds a composition with ideas that permeate, fill, and extend into ...


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