Results for "Kirk Knuffke"

Kirk Knuffke

Reflecting on his guiding artistic impulse, Kirk Knuffke says: “I’m concerned with making beautiful music. Even when the music is free and avant-garde, I want it to reach into people’s hearts. I like to play fast and loud and high, but beauty is always first, though not in a precious way. It can be in a rough way, too.” A prolific, lauded record-maker, the cornetist-composer has made some 20 albums as a leader or co-leader over the past two decades. Knuffke’s 2022 release as a leader — Gravity Without Airs (TAO Forms/AUM Fidelity), featuring pianist Matthew Shipp and bassist Michael Bisio — fulfilled his poetic aims as well as any recording he has made to date, earning a review of 4 ½ stars from DownBeat magazine as well as a critic’s playlist pick in The New York Times. As an in-demand sideman, Knuffke also records and tours the world with some of today’s leading jazz musicians, from vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and guitarist Mary Halvorson to drummer Matt Wilson and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. Knuffke was a standout front-line foil for Lewis on the tenor man’s hit Red Lily Quintet disc Jesup Wagon, which JazzTimes named the top album of 2021. All About Jazz has aptly extolled Knuffke as “one of modern jazz’s most skilled navigators of the divide between inside and outside, freedom and swing.”

The Waters of Non-Existence - by David Haney

By David Haney

Label: Ravello Records
Released: 2026
Track listing: 01 Book One: The Strange Tale of Markendaya - Chapter One - The End of Time; 02 Book One: The Strange Tale of Markendaya - Chapter Two - The Endless Promenade; 03 Book Two: The Waters of Non Existence - Introduction - It's the Middle of the Night; 04 Book Two: The Waters of Non Existence - Preface - You Have Twelve Years; 05 Book Two: The Waters of Non Existence - Chapter One - The Gift; 06 Book Two: The Waters of Non Existence - Chapter Two - The Family; 07 Book Two: The Waters of Non Existence - Chapter Three - The Storm; 08 Book Three: The Parade of Ants - Appendices - A Letter to the Mayor; 09 Book Three: The Parade of Ants - Chapter One - The Rebuilding of New York; 10 Book Three: The Parade of Ants - Chapter Two - Vishwakarman's Plight; 11 Book Three: The Parade of Ants - Chapter Three - The Auspicious Guest; 12 Book Three: The Parade of Ants - Chapter Four - The Parade of Ants; 13 Prologue - 26 Lilas - Darker than the Night

Two Truths

By Peter Brötzmann

Label: Not Two Records
Released: 2026
Track listing: 1. Productive Cough (Peter Brötzmann, Jörg Fischer) 2. Beside (Per‑Åke Holmlander, Tim Daisy) 3. Conversation I (Joëlle Léandre, Lauren Newton) 4. Truth in the Abstract Blues (Joe McPhee, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten) 5. Goldie (Kirk Knuffke, Mike Pride) 6. Skywriting (Rob Brown, Daniel Levin) 7. Penumbra for woodwind(s) & bass(es) 1+1 (Anthony Braxton, Chris Dahlgren) 8. Improvisation No. 4 (Paulina Owczarek, Tomasz Gądecki) 9. Dear Rafał 1 (Agustí Fernández, Rafał Mazur) 10. Landing Takeoff (Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp) 11. In Kraków, In November (Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura) 12. Persistence (Thomas Pernes, Andy Manndorff) 13. Gold (Lucas Niggli, Peter Conradin Zumthor)

Henry Threadgill, Shipp/Parker, Glass Triangle & Rich Halley

by Maurice Hogue
September 14, 2026

Congratulations to saxophonist / composer / innovator Henry Threadgill & his Zooid band on their 25th anniversary, well-celebrated with the releases of Cut You Where You Was. This is one of Zooid's best. Props also to the tied-at-the-improvisational--hip duo, pianist Matthew Shipp & bassist William Parker for the re-release of Zo, on vinyl for the first ...

Trumpet Trios: Bass, Drums and Trumpet

by Jon Greenbaum
September 13, 2026

On this special edition of North Star Sounds we focus on trumpet trios (trumpet, bass, drums). Check out the vibrant variety of approaches and moods created with just these three instruments. Playlist Steven Bernstein “Mammoth" from Resonation Trio (Royal Potato Family) 00:00 Ramon Lopez / Percy Pursglove / Rafal Mazur"au lapin agile" from Threefold ...

Bob Nell & Michael Bisio Trios: Trios: We Are Here

by Mark Corroto
August 2, 2026

Don't be misled by the adjective naïve when describing the collaboration between pianist Bob Nell and bassist Michael Bisio. Their recording We Are Here is hardly “naïve" in the sense of being inexperienced or unsophisticated. Rather, it embodies the word's more generous meaning: music that is natural, unforced and free of affectation. There is no posturing ...

Fonterossa Days #10

by Neri Pollastri
June 4, 2026

Fonterossa Days #10 Teatro S. Andrea Pisa 25-26 aprile 2026 Taglia il traguardo delle dieci edizioni la rassegna Fonterossa Days, organizzata a Pisa da Francesco Mariotti e Silvia Bolognesi dedicata alla “comunità" che ruota attorno all'omonima etichetta indipendente, creata e curata dalla contrabbassista senese. Che quest'anno l'appuntamento cadesse nel fine settimana ...

Shunzo Ohno, Adam O'Farrill, and Julian Lage

by Jerome Wilson
May 20, 2026

This episode features newer releases by Shunzo Ohno, Adam O'Farrill, and Julian Lage as well as older music by Charles McPherson and Khan Jamal.Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Julian Lage “Night Shade" from Scenes ...

The Top 25 Songs Featuring Clarinet

by Dean Nardi
April 21, 2026

As Ian Dury might have sung had he played the clarinet, “Hit me with your licorice stick." (That is “rhythm stick" for those not fluent in punk rock.) From the intricacies of classical music to the smooth swing of jazz to Klezmer--the folk music of the Eastern European Jewish population--the instrument resonates throughout a good portion ...

Yelena Eckemoff: Lonely Man and His Fish

by Tyran Grillo
May 3, 2023

After a run of emotionally expansive albums, pianist and composer Yelena Eckemoff once again pivots without losing her center. Reinvention has become part of her artistic language, and here it arrives with a new cast and a story told in patient detail. Kirk Knuffke appears on cornet, Masaru Koga on a flute modified with a shakuhachi ...