Quotes about Kirk Knuffke
“Kirk Knuffke is a very creative trumpeter.”
“…explorative and advanced yet concise…”
“…colorful, witty, unpredictable, inventive and swinging…”
-Scott Yanow, All music guide
“…an abundance of inspired ideas…”
“His writing encompasses hearty in-the-pocket swing, turbulent collective improvisation and spacey, aleatoric interludes with equal conviction”
“drawing a conceptual line from Cootie Williams to Lester Bowie…”
“Big Wig is a smart and engaging debut record…”
-Troy Collins, All about Jazz
“There’s a poised fleetness to Knuffke’s lines …Knuffke employs a range of the history of his instrument.”
“Knuffke’s stately pathos tells one more in a few held half-valves than most trumpeters could in a lifetime…”
“…the trumpeter’s self-assured assimilation of the postbop language into free playing is extraordinarily fresh and gimmick-free.”
“….. it’s worth keeping a finger on this player’s pulse.”
-Clifford Allen, Bagatellen
“Kirk Knuffke on trumpet took an incredible solo here--one of several throughout the evening--showing off his remarkably round tone and patient phrasing.”
Hank Shteamer of Timeout New York, Posted on his Blog
“…nice themes, great improvisations…”
“A joy to hear…”
-Stef, Free Jazz Blog Spot
Full Reviews
Reviews for Kirk Knuffke Quartet Big Wig on Cleanfeed records
New York Times review by Nate Chinen
Kirk Knuffke Quartet - Big Wig (CF 107)
Since moving to New York from his native Colorado in 2005, the trumpeter Kirk Knuffke has found solid footing: he works with both the avant-garde composer
Butch Morris and the pop tunesmith Josh Ritter, and he’s a member of Ideal Bread, a collective devoted to the music of Steve Lacy. But Mr. Knuffke hadn’t released his own album until “Big Wig,” now out on the Portuguese label Clean Feed (cleanfeed-records.com).
If he was taking his time on purpose, more power to him, because this is a smartly self-assured debut, stocked with appealingly scrappy original tunes. Mr. Knuffke connects deeply with the trombonist Brian Drye, and likewise with the bassist Reuben Radding and the drummer Jeff Davis. Together these musicians make “Big Wig” feel more rugged than heady, steeped in free-jazz protocols but organized like a hard-bop
session.
All Music Guide review by Scott Yanow
Kirk Knuffke Quartet - Big Wig (CF 107)
Kirk Knuffke is a very creative trumpeter. Since moving to New York from Coloardo in 2005, he has played avant-garde jazz (including with Butch Morris) and pop music in addition to working with Ideal Bread, a group dedicated to the music of Steve Lacy. Knuffke’s recording debut as a leader ranges from free improvisations to free bop with a healthy dose of interplay between the trumpeter, trombonist Brian Drye, bassist Reuben Radding and drummer Jeff Davis. The playing is explorative and advanced yet concise, and the music fits such songtitles as “Enough,” “Normal” (which is almost a blues) and “Repeat.” Each of the musicians is clearly familiar with earlier jazz styles yet is uninhibited and open enough to improvise fairly freely within the confines of Knuffke’s originals. No musician overwhelms the ensembles and the results are colorful, witty, unpredictable, inventive and swinging in their own fashion.
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0jfuxzwjldfe
All About Jazz review by Troy Collins
Kirk Knuffke Quartet - Big Wig (CF 107)
Since moving to New York in 2005 from his native Colorado, the young trumpet player Kirk Knuffke has performed with composer Butch Morris, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter and Downtown drummers Kenny Wollesen and Jeff Davis, among others. Knuffke initially sought out bassist Reuben Radding and drummer Jeff Davis as trio-mates, but a chance encounter with trombonist Brian Drye yielded a quartet.
As members of a new generation of Downtown musicians, these four share a conceptual outlook towards jazz improvisation that finds no contradiction between inside and outside playing. The result is sinuous free bop with deep roots in Pre-War swing as well as Post-War innovations. Big Wig is Knuffke’s debut album.
The record features a dozen tunes in just over an hour (short by jazz standards) yet the quartet packs an abundance of inspired ideas and stellar interplay into each selection. There is an appealing, roughshod feel to the album which provides stark contrast to many over-polished post bop sessions. As a former student of Ornette Coleman and an admirer of Steve Lacy (he’s a member of Ideal Bread, a Lacy repertory band), Knuffke’s inside-outside concepts exude an unfussy, yet tuneful sensibility. His writing encompasses hearty in-the-pocket swing, turbulent collective improvisation and spacey, aleatoric interludes with equal conviction.
The rhythm section is top notch; Radding and Davis are two of the finest players of their generation. Their interaction is punchy and aggressive, yet fluid and dynamically varied. They veer from abstract, ramshackle rhythms peppered with metric modulation and stop-time tempos to sly understated swing with effortless grace. Drye makes an ideal front line foil for Knuffke; together they uncoil brassy unison cadences that blend catchy melodies with pungent growls and smears—drawing a conceptual line from Cootie Williams to Lester Bowie.
While the tunes share a similarity in tone and execution, they offer compelling dialogs and brisk solos that never overstay their welcome. Swaggering with hard-bop muscle and free jazz expressionism, Big Wig is a smart and engaging debut record.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=29900
Bagatellen review by Clifford Allen
Kirk Knuffke Quartet - Bigwig (CF 107)
Unassumingly ambitious is one way to characterize the debut disc on Clean Feed of trumpeter Kirk Knuffke’s quartet. Knuffke is a relative newcomer to New York, who has worked in the ensembles of Butch Morris and drummer Kenny Wolleson in addition to his own small groups. For his first leader date Knuffke’s joined by bassist Reuben Radding, drummer Jeff Davis and trombonist Brian Drye on twelve originals. The leader hails from Denver, Colorado and cut his teeth in bands around the state in recent years, while also studying with contemporary hardbop players like Ron Miles and Hugh Ragin. The music is deft freebop deployed with strength and facility, and for a pianoless quartet the instrumentation is rather unique.
There’s a poised fleetness to Knuffke’s lines that gives away expert music school training, and that’s not a slight – one need only to listen to players like Warren Gale or Kelly Rossum to know that what one does with “technique” in service of the music is key. Knuffke employs a range of the history of his instrument – hardboppers like Freddie, Lee and Woody as well as the scree of Don Ayler, not to mention a significant amount of steely heft. Though his assembly of phrases is very clean, his bravura is unequivocally democratic, always in support of Drye’s fat purrs and the tenuous push-pull of Radding and Davis.
The title track has a little bit of Rudd’s “Yankee No-How” in the head, dense singsong flurries in stop-time that open up into chortles and whinnies, a conversation of insects and horses atop glinting percussion and pliant thrum. It doesn’t hurt that Drye has that slushy tailgate down pat, brothel-ready in the closing “Truck” as well as throughout. Those bouncy heads are something that draws a line back several decades toward something not taught in the average music school – thematic material derived from Shepp, Rudd, Lacy and their kin. There’s actually a swinging of poles between tendencies of “New Thing” classicists and an opening up of those tendencies toward sonic exploration. But exploring space without tempo seems like a tool here rather than an ineffable outgrowth of the structure, a deliberate contrast to the lickety-split engine that keeps trying to rear in “Enough,” for example. Eventually, though, Knuffke will find a way to balance his ideas, and for that it’s worth keeping a finger on his player’s pulse.
http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/002038.html
Free Jazz review by Stef
Kirk Knuffke Quartet - BigWig (CF 107)
****
Although the Clean Feed label changed the design of its CDs (gone are the complexly folded brown cardboard sleeves), they have not changed their ability to spot new talent and to give them a chance. And that’s the case with the Kirk Knuffke Quartet, the first CD of the trumpeter as a leader, although he has already recorded several albums with amongst others Butch Morris and Kenny Wollesen. Knuffke sought out band-mates Reuben Radding on bass and Jeff Davis on drums, initially for a trio recording, but after he met trombonist Brian Drye at a concert he invited him to join. After many live gigs they now have their own album, of what can be called “free bop”, with influences of Ornette Coleman but also of more traditional swing. The music is rhythmic, with nice themes, great improvisations and wonderful interplay, and - surprisingly - relatively compact. The 12 tracks are on average 5 minutes long, and that’s short compared to most free jazz albums. This is of course straight-ahead music, with no other goal than to bring a nice tune, play with it, explore it, juggle a little with it, bounce it around among the four musicians and bring it to a close, before they start doing the same with the next tune. This sounds disrepectful, but it is not : the themes themselves are often complex, as are the rhythms, the exploration, the juggling and the playing are excellent, a joy to hear and probably fun to play too, or that’s at least how it comes over. Great debut.
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/
Garden of Gifts review by Stef- free jazz blogspot
Drummer Federico Ughi created with the 577 Records label a series of great albums with like-minded spirits such as Daniel Carter and Ras Moshe. On this album he is joined by trumpeter Kirk Knuffke and guitarist Chris Welcome, two upcoming musicians with a style of their own, but working in the tradition of Other Dimensions In Music (if that exists!), with long slowly elaborated pieces that explore sounds, moods and interaction. The slowness gives the music a sad, sometimes spiritual or contemplative feeling, while the open interaction leads to surprises and creative exchanges. Even if rhythm and melody are unclear, the music is relatively accessible, without shock element, or too much use of extended techniques of the instruments, whose basic sound is the norm here, with the musicians most of the time trying to play as quiet as possible. The nice thing about the music is to be found in the openness of the texture, the feeling that anything is possible, yet at the same time the three musicians to their utmost to play in a very restrained and focused way. The overall effect is almost organic in nature, without any straight lines or repetitive elements, in contrast with most man-made constructions, with sounds flowing in reaction to other sounds, like water finding its way through rocks, like leaves growing in many directions, but still growing on the same stem. Their total lack of urgency, especially their sublime use of silence and knowing when not to play, especially exemplified in the last track, gives the music a soft, meditative quality, appreciative of the moment itself, of the sound, of the creation, but then one with sufficient tension and vital force to make it all very captivating. A beautiful and very free-spirited album.
Reviews for Ideal Bread "The Ideal Bread" on KMB Records
Ideal Bread review by Ivana Ng All about Jazz
According to Eric Devin, founder of Kordova Milk Bar (KMB) Records, it is much harder for a free-jazz group to sell a record than it is for a punk band. Which is why he started KMB Jazz in 2006—to promote avant-jazz projects. The latest pressings, from December 2007, are Ideal Bread's self-titled album and Trio Caveat's Compliments of the Season.
The Ideal Bread is a tribute to the late soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who mentored Ideal Bread's leader Josh Sinton. Here, Sinton reworks the arrangements on Lacy's 1979 record NY Capers & Quirks and uses unusual instrumentation (his baritone sax and Kirk Knuffke's trumpet replace Lacy's soprano sax) to honor Lacy's compositional genius and his ability to inspire brilliant, probing improv.
On most tracks, the sax and the trumpet play in unison. A careless listener might say that this quartet's interpretations are very loyal to Lacy's compositions. Lacy's songs are constructed, however, to give the musicians freedom in exploring the boundaries of his melodies. In “Capers,” for example, Tomas Fujiwara deviates from the script with an Afro-Cuban rhythm.
Ideal Bread follows Lacy's somewhat formulaic style: play the melody several times over, improvise, and then return to the beginning. The quartet's innovation lies in its improv sessions during each song. Sinton and Knuffke respond to each other's exploratory melodies with an innate sense of the other's thought process. Radding and Fujiwara support them with tight, angular rhythms.
IDEAL BREAD - THE IDEAL BREAD
Ideal Bread is a quartet consisting of baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton (a former Chicagoan who studied with Allan Chase, Ari Brown, and Ken Vandermark), trumpeter Kirk Knuffke, bassist Reuben Radding and Boston-based drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Their modus operandi is to explore the compositions of Steve Lacy, though unlike other Lacy tributes – such as those by straight-hornmen Joe Giardullo and Jurg Wickihalder – there is no soprano saxophone present. After all, there’s a tendency to compare soprano saxophonists to Lacy when inhabiting the same musical territory, even when they sound very little like the elder statesman. The inclusion of baritone does separate Ideal Bread a bit, but only superficially, as Lacy used baritone players like Charles Davis and Charles Tyler in his bands (and even Jimmy Giuffre reportedly worked the low horn alongside Lacy at one point). Lacy’s compositions are also tremendously orchestrated and often have a more pronounced bottom end than might at first be apparent.
Sinton states in the liners how Ideal Bread intend to do for Lacy what Lacy did for Monk’s music in the early ‘60s; namely, work with the tunes to show the possibilities that lay beyond their basic structures. Here, they’re using tunes mostly from the mid- to late-70s as springboards, including cuts from Trickles (Black Saint, 1976) and the underrated NY Capers & Quirks (Hat Hut, 1981). The earliest piece here is “Esteem,” first recorded in 1972 on The Gap (America), which its composer dedicated to Johnny Hodges. Whereas the original was a poem of piercing tones, Ideal Bread moves the piece into an elegiac melody of orchestral weight – massive in unison yet microcosmic from bar to bar.
Radding takes the first solo spot into a mini-concerto, his arco thick and trailed by throaty whispers of horsehairs and Fujiwara’s mallets. Sinton’s baritone is smoke and slippery cadences, building into growls and slurs but harping on delicacy of digits. Likewise, Knuffke’s stately pathos tells one more about “Esteem” in a few held half-valves than most trumpeters could in a lifetime. Sinton and Knuffke make an interesting front-line pair, hard-charging baritone panning sound while the trumpeter’s self-assured assimilation of the postbop language into free playing is extraordinarily fresh and gimmick-free.
“Bud’s Brother” was written for Richie Powell, like all of Lacy’s tunes having a curious dedicatee whose connection to the theme might seem spurious. After all, one of the most raucous lines on The Gap, “La Motte Piquet,” was appended with the composer’s statement that “Sonny Clark always liked this sort of tune.” Uh huh. The head of “Bud’s Brother” is a deft trip of ascending and descending flicks, singsong and blur. Sinton takes the first solo, worrying thematic fragments and toying with them like a dog shaking a stuffed toy as Radding and Fujiwara skip the tempo like stones. Soon, a baritone pyramid is built and the trio is far from anything Lacy could’ve imagined. Knuffke is steely cry, working threads over a massive ensemble drone until he and Fujiwara take the reins as a duo, brassy particulates assembled in clear lines atop a blur of gong-and-tom motion.
The only unfortunate thing about The Ideal Bread is the fact that it is a limited edition CDR release, and will probably be long gone by the time the jazz world catches up. It’s a shame because not only is the playing extraordinary, but the germinating ideas and the conviction with which the group approaches them is something that a lot of people in this music could learn from.
~ Clifford Allen
Posted by clifford on July 13, 2008 9:25 PM
Live Review of Ideal Bread By Hank Shteamer of Timeout New York, Posted on his Blog
If Little Women is subversive/confrontational/marauding, Ideal Bread has a certain reverent quality about them. And it makes sense given that they are indeed a tribute band, playing Steve Lacy's music exclusively. Their debut CD-R (pic'd above), gettable from KMB Jazz, is one of the few tribute CDs I've ever found truly worthwhile (see also, uh, Lacy's Reflections) and in general really something else--I state that a tad more eloquently in the latest issue of The Wire, with Carla Bozulich on the cover--but they were, as one would hope, even better live when I saw them tonight as part of a KMB festival at the new Douglass Street Music Collective (formerly the Center for Improvisational Music). (Gotta give brief props to Ras Moshe, who was absolutely burning in classic free-jazz mold when I entered, along with the very sick and supple drummer Rashid Bakr, of Other Dimensions in Music fame.)
Ideal Bread is most certainly a band. As far as I know the lineup has been steady for several years and these players really, really inhabit this music. Lacy--I'll spare you the whole "I'm obsessed" rant; lord knows I've been down that road--was an ultraprolific composer, but one who hasn't really been reckoned with as such, and as the Ideal Bread mission statement seems to go, the band is attempting to tackle that reckoning as Lacy did for Thelonious Monk. It remains to be seen whether Ideal Bread will stick it out as long as Lacy rocked Monk (over 40 years), but they seem well on their way.
I was surprised when I heard their CD that their Lacy predilections seemed weirdly identical to mine, in that they pay special attention to some of the obscure Lacy records that have knocked me down most, namely the astounding mid-'70s joint Trickles, and the astounding late-'70s joint Capers (reissued as N.Y. Capers and Quirks). Both feature Lacy outside his way-sympathetic stably staffed Sextet but in equally fruitful company. As on the CD, IB took on "Trickles" and "Quirks" tonight along with another favorite, the Johnny Hodges dedication "Esteem."
"Trickles," which opened the set, demonstrated the band's mastery of the material. The piece has this very strange, playful opening passage that on the original record is played sort of out of time, with the instruments hovering and floating around one another. IB nailed that section, perfectly capturing its weird weightlessness, and moved confidently into the manic marchy section that follows.
They really killed it on "Esteem" as well, a droning, luminous yet ominous piece that features one of Lacy's most arresting melodies; grand, imposing, somewhat terrifying. I noticed on this piece--which flowed uninterrupted out of "Trickles"--how naturally the improvisations grew from the heads. There was a sense of jumping into spontaneity, but doing so confidently, with a clear compass. Kirk Knuffke on trumpet took an incredible solo here--one of several throughout the evening--showing off his remarkably round tone and patient phrasing. Josh Sinton's statement was killer as well, focusing on an upper register of the horn that actually fell in the Lacy-an soprano range. But he also went for the burly bottom of the instrument, providing nice contrast. Drummer Tomas Fujiwara brought the closing head to an awesomely anguished climax with some muscular bashing.
Fujiwara and bassist Reuben Radding kept things extremely funky in general, trading fours on the last piece ("Baghdad," an unrecorded composition that was apparently Lacy's final tune) and Duo-ing in the intensely intertwined mode of Little Women's Laplante and Jones on "Quirks."
All in all, there was a simple lesson being played out, namely that really knowing the music frees you up to extrapolate from it. Ideal Bread is playing Steve Lacy's pieces, but it's also putting in the time to own those works and respond to them emotionally. Sinton and Knuffke especially emanated feeling; their solos gave a sense of meditating on and communing with the compositions. I really, really hope they keep this project up; selfishly, for one, because I adore Lacy's music, but also because it really seems to be getting them places as individual improvisers and yes, as a BAND.
Point Of Departure, May 2008
“Ideal Bread is the initiative of Josh Sinton, who first encountered Steve Lacy in 2002 as the baritone saxophonist was completing his Masters in Jazz Performance at New England Conservatory. Until then, Sinton had only a passing familiarity with such core-collection Lacy recordings like Evidence with Don Cherry. His ongoing exposure to Lacy at NEC – which included extensive rehearsals and occasional copyist duties – increasingly pulled Sinton into what he considered to be "the deep inscrutable mystery of (Lacy's) compositions." Realizing that unraveling this mystery would be a life long preoccupation, Sinton formed Ideal Bread upon arriving in New York in 2004; trumpeter Kirk Knuffke and bassist Reuben Radding were enlisted first, with drummer Tomas Fujiwara signing on later. Unlike most ensembles, whose scrambling for gigs and recording deals have created an almost rabidly frothing race to the bottom of a flooded market, Ideal Bread was true to Lacy’s practice of mulling, spending almost three years shedding and playing the very occasional gig before recording The Ideal Bread, released in a micro edition of 250 copies. It is a must-hear album for anyone who has a serious interest in Lacy's music and heard the promise of Lacy work with Charles Tyler on One Fell Swoop (1986; Silkheart). The baritone-trumpet front line transforms chestnuts like “Esteem;” whereas the theme necessitated Lacy to reach into his highest register to evoke a hallowed, even eerie ambiance, Sinton and Knuffke use their lower pitched voicings to more visceral ends. The instrumentation places a distinctly robust emphasis on the more overtly jazzy phrases on pieces like “Trickles” and “The Uh Uh Uh,” The ensembles are appropriately propelled by Radding, who leans towards the offsetting, space-soaking phrases and blunt attack of Kent Carter, and Fujiwara, who splits the difference between the bustling, yet unobtrusive style of John Betsch and the splashier, bomb-dropping approach of Oliver Johnson. Ideal Bread creates additional appreciable daylight between themselves and Lacy’s recordings through their judicious use of broad textures and occasional rubato forays in the improvisations. Overall, the quartet succeeds in the seemingly contrary goals in articulating what has been, to date, scantily interpreted repertoire: They establish bona fides by demonstrating how the various facets of a composer’s sensibility fit together; and they take notable risks in going off-road. The Ideal Bread lays down a serious marker for the posthumous evolution of Steve Lacy’s music.”
-Bill Shoemaker
Downtown Music Gallery, March 2008
“Ideal Bread is a local quartet featuring Josh Sinton on baritone sax, Kirk Knuffle on trumpet, Reuben Radding on contrabass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums. "Ideal Bread" is also a tribute to the late saxist and composer Steve Lacy, with all eight pieces penned by Mr. Lacy. Since Steve Lacy only played the soprano sax for the length of his 50+ year career, it is unusual to hear these pieces played on the baritone sax, from the other end of the sax's range/spectrum. "Trickles" opens and is the title piece from an old Black Saint Lacy Qt disc with Roswell Rudd on trombone. This piece is a bit tricky and is played at a relaxed pace with the bari sax playing some soft blusters of notes while the bass and drums play skeletally around him, the bass taking a long, calm solo during the second half, building into a powerful quartet conclusion. "Esteem" is again a title track from a rare Lacy album recorded in 1975 with his quintet and recently reissued on Atavistic. It is a most haunting work, with soft, dark harmonies for the dreamy bari sax, cautious trumpet, bowed bass and spacious mallets on the drums. I dig the way that Mr. Sinton stretches out his notes carefully on his bari sax, often playing with a hushed elegance. Reuben Radding's superb bowed bass is a perfect partner for both Josh's austere bari and Kirk's contemplative trumpet. "Capers" is yet another fine title piece from an out-of-print Lacy disc on Hat. The main theme has that Monkish oddball melody yet the quartet move into some strange free section in the middle with some ghosts floating in here and there. I am not sure where "Bud's Brother" is from, but it is a unique song with an odd structure. The sax and trumpet plays a series of quick, twisted lines together while the rhythm team plays tightly around them. When the bari sax finally gets a chance to erupt, the rhythm team spins faster and faster underneath. "Quirks" is another album title with an appropriately quirky structure. The theme is fractured and memorable while the mid-section if fast and furiously charged. "Kitty Malone" is a stunning yet calm work that goes back and forth between different dynamic sections. "The Uh Uh Uh" is taken from the 'Esteem' album and was originally dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. Trumpeter Kirk Knuffke takes a great, high-flying solo here while the rhythm section constantly shifts gears underneath. Considering the Steve Lacy is more known as a unique stylist on his soprano sax than as a composer, this CD presents eight of his compositions, all quite different and all challenging. A brilliant idea and very well done”.
- Bruce Lee Gallanter