The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

Life for the past six months has had its fair share of unenjoyable moments. Non-stop work, study, writing papers and the like have left me with little free time, none of which has been spent listening to live music (which is one of my favorite things to do). The last two nights was an enjoyable break from that trend. For the first time I had an opportunity to listen and also photograph Kurt Rosenwinkel, who played at Chris’s Jazz Cafe, in Center City Philadelphia.

I have been a long time admirer of Rosewinkel’s work. He is without a doubt one of the most unique voices in modern jazz, both in his sound, playing style and especially, his song writing. Kurt was joined by Mark Turner on the tenor saxophone, who recorded with Kurt on his latest album, Deep Song. Rodney Green accompanied on drums (who played his ass off on Christian’s Sci-Fi album), as well as Aaron Park on piano and Joe Martin on bass.

Both sets I heard consisted of the same song list (my only critique as someone who came two nights in a row. Kurt’s got so many good tunes I’d've liked to have heard a few more). A couple of songs from his new album as well as a new original, Ezra, a ballad of sorts that is name after his new son. They also took a spin on Milestones which was quite enjoyable. On a personal level, Kurt was very amenable and even had a chance to shoot him with one of his old teachers, Jimmy Amadie, who showed up to see him. I hope to have another opportunity in the future to see him play. If Kurt shows up in your neck of the woods, I’d highly recommend taking the time to go as well as picking up anyone of his very good albums (Deep Song is on regular rotation for me). Additional photos here.