Wayne Krantz

Transformation is the first studio album by bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, released independently on 14 May 2007. The album was recorded when she was 20 years old, having moved to the United States from her native Australia.

Leni Stern had grown considerably as a soloist by the time she recorded her fourth album, Closer to the Light. The jazz/pop/rock guitarist already had a very recognizable sound – light, lyrical, and definitely Pat Metheny-influenced, yet distinctively her own. But with Light, her improvising sounded more confident and assured. Stern's sympathetic company includes David Sanborn (alto sax), Paul Socolow (bass), Dennis Chambers (drums), and fellow guitarist Wayne Krantz (with whom she has often joined forces). Stern and Krantz seem an unlikely combination – in contrast to her subtlety and softness, Krantz can be very muscular, and has made the mistake of overpowering her at times. But that's never a problem on this generally relaxed date, which offers additional proof of Stern's thoughtfulness as a composer.

Leni Stern looks back on 13 years of a brilliant recorded legacy with Recollection, her tenth release as a leader and second for her own label. As well as featuring vintage material like an intimate duet with Bill Frisell from 1985's Clairvoyant, a track with David Sanborn from 1989's Closer To The Light and her boldest playing in the company of Dennis Chambers, Wayne Krantz and Lincoln Goines from 1991's Ten Songs, Recollection also includes new material that showcases her new more revealing vocal- oriented direction.

Keith Carlock – The Big Picture (2009)

Keith Carlock’s new two disc DVD set The Big Picture – Phrasing, Improvisation, Style, and Technique is an inside look at what makes this unique and in-demand drummer tick. It is set in a master class atmosphere, with a relaxed information exchange between Keith and the students. There are many topics covered in this package including: hand and foot combinations, playing over the bar line, technique, and his very unique concepts of tuning and setup among others.

For his fourth Criss Cross leader date, alto saxophonist-composer David Binney convenes his primary New York working quartet of the 2000s (pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and drummer Dan Weiss), adds to the mix guitar hero Wayne Krantz, with whom he works frequently in an electronica-oriented group, and augments the proceedings with several appearances by British pianist-composer John Escreet, a frequent partner in recent years. The leader plays with deep emotion and the concision of an old master; it's as strong a date as any in Binney's now sizable discography.

For his sixth recording, Turkish born pianist Fahir Atakoglu has gone retro, recalling the '80s contemporary New York City/Seventh Avenue South neo-bop, skunk funk, and fusion of the Brecker Brothers and Steps/Steps Ahead. Playing exclusively acoustic and not electric piano, he also employs the quite different sounding electric guitarists Mike Stern or Wayne Krantz on alternating tracks, adding Michael Brecker disciple Bob Franceschini, electric bass guitar pioneer Anthony Jackson, and the dynamic drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez. Atakoglu attains the sound he seeks quite easily, a bit derivative, but exciting and refreshingly done some 25 years after the fact.

On some level, saxophonist, composer, and arranger David Binney's Graylen Epicenter is a restless extension of the three previous recordings he's issued on his Mythology imprint. That said, it is also his most relentlessly ambitious, with his largest cast ever. Vocalist Gretchen Parlato appears on most of these cuts as another instrument in Binney's tonal and harmonic arsenal, as she sings wordlessly a great deal here. Binney's alto and soprano is also assisted by bassist Eivind Opsvik, guitarist Wayne Krantz, pianist Craig Taborn, percussionist Kenny Wollesen, drummer Brain Blade. Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and tenor saxophonist Chris Potter lend considerably to the diverse, intoxicating meld of textures and atmospheres found here.