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.”

Paintbrush

By Kirk Knuffke

Label: Sunnyside Records
Released: 2027
Track listing: Castilleja Miniata; Castilleja Levisecta; Castilleja Hispida; Castilleja Linariifolia; Think Without Thought; Brightness; How Am I; Sneak Head; Arms In Hands; Little More So; Castilleja Chromosa.

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)

L'avventuroso mondo di Patricia Brennan

by Angelo Leonardi
November 9, 2026

La presenza di Patricia Brennan ai vertici del jazz più innovativo è il risultato di un percorso artistico in costante evoluzione. Vibrafonista e compositrice di origine messicana, Brennan si è affermata negli ultimi anni come una delle personalità più originali della scena contemporanea. La sua musica mette in relazione una ricerca strumentale audace, una scrittura articolata ...

Kirk Knuffke / Marilyn Crispell / Thommy Andersson: Paintbrush

by Mike Jurkovic
November 8, 2026

Like all things refreshingly human, Paintbrush comes with a backstory of kinship. And the story goes that comrade-in-arms cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Thommy Andersson got in touch with pianist Marilyn Crispell and Crispell, ever one for a new fling, invited the pair to come to Woodstock, New York, as so many before them had in ...

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 ...