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Kenny Werner -
Beat Degeneration (Sunnyside) Oct 1
Pianist
Kenny Werner's newest CD,
Beat Degeneration, was recorded live in Paris with his trio of bassist Johannes Weidenmuller and drummer Ari Hoenig.
Werner has worked with musicians such as Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Mel Lewis, Rufus Reid, Ray Drummond, Jaki Byard, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, John Abercrombie, Tom Harrell and Chico Freeman and has recorded CDs as a leader for Concord, Sunnyside and other labels.
Hoenig is a talented and energetic young drummer from Philadelphia, and Weidenmuller is an agile bassist.
As for the new CD, "Trio Imitation" is a beautiful, ballad-like piece that starts with solo piano and develops intertwining melodies and features a bass solo against tight playing from piano and drums, while "Yump" is a swinging tune that has a wild drum solo over the bassist's full toned playing.
By way of comparison, I wanted to note that the lyrical playing on "Voncity the Emulyans" is somewhat reminiscent of pianist John Taylor's playing on his moody ECM trio recordings with drummer Peter Erskine. Likewise, the hymn-like piece "Guru" has a baroque-sounding start on the piano, followed by quiet entrances from the bass and then the drums; after a while, Werner starts playing a drone that reminds me of some of Keith Jarrett's work.
Throughout the album, Werner has a very nice touch and good left hand dexterity. Werner composed all the tunes on the new CD, but all three musicians are fully part of the music. For Werner, a piano trio is not just a bassist and drummer accompanying a pianist, but "three musicians with their own creative urges"—and that's what we have here with this very together trio.
Alex Riel - Celebration (Stunt) Jan 2
To hear Kenny Werner playing jazz standards, give a listen to his
sideman appearance on a trio recording by drummer
Riel has a very nice drum solo on one of my favorite standards, "You and the Night and the Music." You can tell that Riel really loves drums. The album ends with a Werner's solo piano homage to Riel with Bach's "Siciliana."
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last update 7 December 2002