Archive for the ‘Spike Wilner’ tag
All About Jazz schools us on Werner’s teachings on enlightenment on “Koan”
I have an idea that pianist Spike Wilner has read Kenny Werner‘s book Effortless Mastery: Liberating The Master Musician Within (1996), because Koan emulates Werner’s lessons in surrendering one’s self to music. Werner’s teachings on enlightenment flow through this trio recording, Wilner’s sixth as a leader.
As a disciple of Harlem stride and ragtime, Wilner, like so ...Read More
JazzdaGama recognizes the Zen quality of “Koan” by Spike Wilner
When a musician uses, in his music, ‘chance’ operations in order to free the ego from likes and dislikes, trusting that this use is comparable to sitting cross-legged with a musical-ancestor-teacher and allows the way of Zen to work it is possible that the mind not cut itself off from Mind, but let Mind flow through it. This, it would seem is the ‘koan’ that has wrought the fine music that ...Read More
CultureJazz -The Art of Jazz Piano – “Koan” Spike Wilner
We find with pleasure the New York pianist Spike Wilner four years after “The Tenderness” previous album which borrowed its title (and the jacket picture) to a work of his grandmother, the artist Marie Wilner (born in 1910). Koan with his reference to the Buddhist concept of spiritual awakening and his picture in the Zen spirit, we find it very touching feature of a musician lucid styl ...Read More
Spike Wilner’s ‘Koan’ Transcends Limiting Piano Trio
Man, those guys at Posi-Tone are on a roll! Spike Wilner’s Koan is as engaging a piano trio CD as you’ll hope to hear. I thought I was done with basic piano trios but Wilner is so inventive, his originals so, uh, original, his covers so well-picked and performed, that if you have to hear yet another piano trio, let it be he. Of course, bassist Tyler Mitchell and drummer Anthony Pinci ...Read More
Mel Minter’s Musically Speaking blog reviews “Koan” by Spike Wilner
Pianist Spike Wilner brings a refreshing lack of pretention to his work on the trio recording Koan, with bassist Tyler Mitchell and drummer Anthony Pinciotti. There’s something so easygoing and unassuming in his playing and his compositions that you can’t help but like the man, and the jaunty opener, his original composition “Iceberg Slim,” captures you right at the start. The title track ...Read More
Step Tempest examines the musical meditation from “Koan” by Spike Wilner
Pianist and composer Spike Wilner, a native of Manhattan, may be best known for his “night job”, manager of both Smalls Jazz Club and its next-door neighbor, Mezzrow. He’s also quite an accomplished pianist and band leader; “Koan” is his 10th album as a leader and 3rd for the Posi-Tone label. The CD, like his previous release, “La Tendresse“, is a trio ...Read More
JazzTimes reviews Spike Wilner “La Tendresse”…
jazztimes.com
Following the stirring modal opener, Wilner’s original title track which carries a distinct McCoy Tyner influence, the pianist settles into a program of charming old-school ditties performed either solo or with accompaniment by his capably swinging rhythm tandem of bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Joey Saylor. There’s a giddy solo piano interpretation of Harold Arlen’s “I ...Read More
Lucid Culture looks into “La Tendresse”…
lucidculture.wordpress.com
Who Says Club Owners Can’t Play?
Most club owners who play music usually suck at it. The reason many of them open a venue is to have a place to play since nobody else will give them a gig. But once in awhile, you find a club owner who not only isn’t an atrocity exhibition, but actually has talent. Case in point: pianist Spike Wilner, impresario of Smalls, the well-l ...Read More
Spike Wilner gets a look on Midwest Record….
midwestrecord.com
SPIKE WILNER/La Tendresse: First drawn to piano when bitten by the ragtime bug as a teen, piano man Wilner takes his trio on a wild ride through impressionistic to straight ahead jazz, original and cover, putting his own stamp on the whole proceeding. A known quantity to the hard core jazzbo, Wilner is extending his reach here with a feisty but friendly set that isn’t movin ...Read More
theJazzWord on Spike Wilner “La Tendresse”…
thejazzword.blogspot.com
FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 201
Spike Wilner – La Tendresse
2012 Posi-Tone
The opening title track of pianist Spike Wilner’s La Tendressesuggests only hints of affection before the straight-eighth pulse intensifies into a McCoy Tyner-inspired demonstration of intensity, buoyed by drummer Joey Saylor and bassist Dezron Douglas. A schooled musician, comfortable in an expan ...Read More