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.”

Window

By Kirk Knuffke

Label: Royal Potato Family
Released: 2025
Track listing: Choose; Gong Suite - Part 1; For Your Needing; Mr. Bill; A Divine Image; Runs Red; Ballad; Window; Gong Suite - Part 2; Heavy Times; Gong Suite - Part 3; Carey; A Little More So.

C��cile McLorin Salvant's Ogresse At Carnegie Hall

by Adam Beaudoin
August 8, 2025

C��cile McLorin Salvant Carnegie Hall Ogresse New York, NY May 21, 2025 The relationship between jazz and classical music has a long, complicated history. Musicians themselves tend to care more about the music than concepts of genre, and you only need to listen to the echoes of French Impressionism ...

Fonterossa Days #9

by Neri Pollastri
June 2, 2025

Teatro Sant'Andrea Fonterossa Days #9 Pisa 26--27 aprile 2025 Nona edizione del minifestival Fonterossa, creatura di Silvia Bolognesi al pari dell'omonima etichetta discografica, che dallo scorso anno s'�� allargato a due giorni. Cos��, anche stavolta il sabato ha visto i primi due concerti, non pi�� all'Ex-Wide ma nella tradizionale sede ...

Matt Pavolka: Disciplinary Architecture

by Vincenzo Roggero
February 19, 2025

Pur essendo da oltre vent'anni una presenza importante della scena newyorchese il bassista, trombonista, compositore Matt Pavolka ha pubblicato solo tre album a proprio nome: l'esordio di Something People Can Use (Toneofapitch, 2008), l'ottimo The Horns Band (FSNT,2014) e, a dieci anni di distanza, questo Disciplinary Architecture per la prestigiosa Sunnyside. Se nell'album ...

Elegy for Thelonious

By Frank Carlberg

Label: Sunnyside Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: Spooky Rift We Pat; Out of Steam; Wanting More; Elegy for Thelonious; Scallop��s Scallop; Wrinkle on Trinkle; Brake Tune.

Exotic Materials In Development

By David Haney

Label: Cadence Jazz Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: Warning - Exotic Materials In Development In the Desert - with Cheryl Pyle, Kirk Knuffke, Dave Storrs; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development Track Five Folk Blues; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - No. 11 with Dave Sewelson and Dave Storrs; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - Musicians Wren with Cheryl Pyle, Dave Sewelson and Dave Storrs; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development with Dave Sewelson and Bernard Purdie; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - The Creation with Dave Sewelson and Dave Storrs; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - with Kirk Knuffke; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development Track 20 Trio; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - Pretty Prancing Hangup with Cheryl Pyle; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - with Cheryl Pyle; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - with Kirk Knuffke; Warning - Exotic Materials In Development - with Dave Sewelson.

Guilty?!?!?!

By Jeff Lederer

Label: Little (i) Music
Released: 2024
Track listing: Buzzsaw; Buttigieg Vs. Saunders; Deportation Operation; Piccolo-Buster; Guilty!!!; And She Speaks; We The People; Fables Of Faubus; Truth is Marching In.

Kresten Osgood: Presence in the Room

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 23, 2024

It is hard to underestimate the influence of drummer Kresten Osgood on Danish jazz. As a co-founder of the prominent ILK Music label and the man behind several festivals and musical events, he has been a vital part of creating a vibrant modern jazz scene and community that has also welcomed visits from the many jazz ...

Kresten Osgood Quintet: Live At H15 Studio

by Mark Corroto
November 26, 2024

For a reader of contemporary fiction, sometimes you wade through some fine literature with skillful writing by authors who have honed their craft but have failed to give you a plot. Then, some books tell stories that seize your imagination. You can't put them down. There is a parallel occurrence in modern jazz. There are virtuous ...