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Kenny Werner

Kenny Werner is a world-class pianist and composer. His prolific output of compositions, recordings and publications continue to impact audiences around the world.

Kenny was recently awarded the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his seminal work, No Beginning No End. No Beginning No End is a musical journey exploring tragedy and loss, death and transition, and the path from one lifetime to the next. Utilizing over 70 musicians, Kenny’s third album for Half Note Records is an expansive composition featuring Joe Lovano, Judy Silvano, Wind Ensemble, Choir and String Quartet.

Born in Brooklyn, NY on November 19, 1951 and then growing up in Oceanside, Long Island, Kenny began playing and performing at a young age, first recording on television at the age of 11. Although he studied classical piano as a child, he enjoyed playing anything he heard on the radio. In high school and his first years of college he attended the Manhattan School of Music as a classical piano major.

His natural instinct for improvisation led Kenny to the Berklee School of Music in 1970. There he sought tutelage of the renowned piano teacher Madame Chaloff. A Her gracious wisdom and inspiration became a driving force in Kenny’s conception: A music conscious of its spiritual intent and essence.

From Boston, Kenny traveled to Brazil with the saxophonist Victor Assis Brasil. There he met Victor’s twin brother, Brazilian pianist Joao Assis Brasil. He studied with Joao, who provided another piece of the puzzle for Kenny’s conception that would lead to Effortless Mastery, his landmark opus on how to allow the master musician from within to manifest. The Book was published in 1996. It recently became available as an ebook on kindle and in Ibooks.

Kenny started his own trio in 1981 with drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Ratzo Harris. The Kenny Werner Trio matured for fourteen years, wowing audiences in America and Europe and recording four albums along the way.

Kenny has written many original compositions featuring trios and other small group configurations, but in the mid 1980’s, he became the pianist for the Mel Lewis Orchestra (currently known as the Village Vanguard Orchestra). Challenged by Mel and Bob Brookmeyer to write for the band, he produced his first compositions and arrangements for jazz orchestra, consequently leading him to write for the major bands in Europe including the Cologne, Danish, and Stockholm Jazz Orchestras, The Umo Jazz Orchestra of Finland and several times as the guest composer and soloist with the Metropole Orchestra of Holland. He’s release two CDs with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. One released in 2011 is called “Institute Of Higher Learning.” Werner has had many commissions to write for large ensembles such as jazz orchestras, full orchestras and most recently, wind ensemble, choir and string quartet as featured on his latest CD, No Beginning, No End. He continues to release Cds . A new solo cd and new Quintet Cd is set for release in 2012.

Several outstanding musical partnerships began in the 1990’s. Kenny continues to play duo with Toots Thielemans, the legendary harmonica player. For twenty years he has played with and arranged for Betty Buckley, a Broadway legend. They made six albums together and she has sung his arrangements for small band and orchestras across the globe. He also has had a nearly forty-year friendship and musical collaboration with Joe Lovano. They have recorded on a number of each other’s projects.

In 2000, Kenny formed a new trio with Ari Hoenig on drums and Johannes Weidenmueller on bass. They played nearly a decade together and released three albums, with Kenny acting as composer, arranger, and pianist. Their last album, Peace – Live at the Blue Note, released in 2004, began a wonderful relationship with Half Note Records, the recording arm of the Blue Note Jazz Club. He created three CDs before the release of his masterpiece, No Beginning No End. In 2007, Kenny Werner released his first album for Blue Note Records.Lawn Chair Society, featuring Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade, received critical acclaim for its fusion of electro and acoustic elements. For several years now he has also toured with his quintet featuring David Sanchez on sax, the legendary trumpet player Randy Brecker, Antonio Sanchez on drums and Scott Colley on bass. There recent release on Half Note is titled “Balloons.”

Quincy Jones has said of Kenny, “Perfection, 360 degrees of soul and science in one human being. My kind of musician.”

Kenny groundbreaking work on Improvisation, Effortless Mastery – Liberating the Master Musician Within, was published in 1996.Using his life experiences as a microscope into the artist’s mind, Effortless Mastery is a guide to distill the emotional, spiritual, and psychological aspects of an artists life. Today it is one of the most widely read books on music and improvisation, helping thousands of musicians around the world unlock their talent and potential.The book is required reading at many universities. Werner, without intention, touched off a revolution of inspiring musicians to do inner work on the mind, body, and soul in attempt to upgrade their musical experience from the mundane to the profound. The book is also popular with artists of other mediums and business professionals. Kenny continues to teach and give clinics in the United States and abroad. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at New York University.

Kenny Werner’s influence is unsurpassed. He has impacted an entire generation of musicians and artists. Despite his creative output, Kenny is still focused on the music.”I am still more and more aware of the true purpose of the music and the people who play it: to heal and unite the planet.
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Benjamin Boone: Caught in the Rhythm

Read "Caught in the Rhythm" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
September 28, 2023

The connection between poetry and jazz music is a delicate one. It has been documented so infrequently, in performance and recordings, that one still conjures the flicker of an image of Jack Kerouac reading in some dark Greenwich Village cafe with Steve Allen or Zoot Sims, surrounded by beret-wearing, cappuccino-sipping beatniks. The work of Fresno-based saxophonist Benjamin Boone has assisted in widening that view through four albums recorded for the Origin Records label, including the fourth, Caught in the Rhythm ...

Album Review

Janis Mann & Kenny Werner: Dreams of Flying

Read "Dreams of Flying" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 11, 2021

Janis Mann has quietly but steadily amassed an impressive body of work over the course of more than two decades. For this, the vocalist's eighth album, she brings studio and stage into beautiful alignment with different, intimate configurations hinging on the constant presence of pianist Kenny Werner. The majority of this music was recorded in 2016 at New York's Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, with key collaborator Werner and, more often than not, the rhythm combo of bassist Drew Gress and ...

Album Review

Benjamin Boone: The Poets Are Gathering

Read "The Poets Are Gathering" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
December 31, 2020

Saxophonist Benjamin Boone continues his ambitious foray into jazz and poetry, this time recruiting an impressive cadre of poets for his aptly entitled release, The Poets are Gathering (Origin, 2020). The union of poetry and jazz has never been so powerfly presented, reflecting the past year of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, the universal role of the poet, and the power of art and voice to raise awareness and inspire change. The album employs the likes of US Poet ...

Album Review

Kenny Werner: The Space

Read "The Space" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
April 24, 2019

Per Kenny Werner la decisione di affrontare questo progetto per solo pianoforte è riconducibile ad una duplice istanza: una ricerca del suono limpido e rarefatto, illuminata da un volatile pensiero interpretativo inteso a considerare gli standard come volano di un più complesso e dilatato percorso creativo. In linea con le rilevanti esperienze discografiche del sessantasettenne pianista statunitense, The Space contiene diversi elementi stilistici di rilievo. In primo piano la libera improvvisazione all'interno di una pregevole gestione di pieni e vuoti, ...

Multiple Reviews

Piano in Solitude

by Geno Thackara
April 14, 2019

There are people who play the piano, and then there are some who create a whole other state of consciousness with it. While these three may not be among the more common household names in the jazz world, here they each offer a master class in the craft to make you wonder just why the hell not. Lewis Porter Solo Piano Next to Silence 2019 Bill Evans this ain't. There are some ...

Radio & Podcasts

Kenny Werner on his Life and Career

by Leo Sidran
January 23, 2019

Kenny Werner might try to talk you out of becoming a jazz musician. “Please don't become a jazz musician just because you think you should. That's like saying you think you should become a typewriter salesman. Nobody needs you. I would do everything I could to talk them out of it and if they couldn't be talked out of it then I would say go for it. It's got to be a thing of extreme love because it doesn't make ...

Radio & Podcasts

Kenny Werner, Miles Davis & more

by Joe Dimino
January 14, 2019

The wise veteran New York Pianist Kenny Werner starts this week's show with a cut off his latest CD The Space. We then go into a track that was a huge influence on Kenny's perception and approach to jazz with Miles Davis's “In a Silent Way." We also profile the great band Butcher Brown and a wonderful veteran drummer like Chip White with a track off All Star Ensemble Volume 5. We continue the hour of jazz ...

Education

Music Education Monday: Master classes with pianists Chick Corea and Kenny Werner

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
June 30, 2015

This week for “Music Education Monday," you can check out video master classes from a couple of prominent keyboardists. Chick Corea is one of the best-known pianists in jazz, having served his apprenticeship with Miles Davis and played free jazz with Circle before co-founding the seminal jazz-fusion band Return to Forever. His extensive catalog as a composer and bandleader includes recordings with various acoustic and electric groups and as a solo pianist, so his experience pretty much runs the gamut ...
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Video / DVD

Kenny Werner “Effortless Mastery Of Melody, Harmony & Rhythm” Instructional Video Released By JazzHeaven.com

Source: Falk Willis
March 2, 2015

Kenny Werner is a rare musician who is known as much for his teachings and wisdom as for his piano playing and composing. He has played with Joe Lovano, Betty Buckley, Mel Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Toots Thielemans, Randy Brecker, and many more. Kenny has been the leader of his own bands since the late 1970s and written for jazz orchestras and classical orchestras around the world. He is the author of the landmark book Effortless Mastery (over 90,000 copies sold)—now ...
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Recording

Kenny Werner - Lawn Chair Society (2007)

Source: Something Else!
January 9, 2012

When I think of the the overlap of jazz and funk, ensembles that come to mind are Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, On The Corner-era Miles, and even some of the smoother offerings out of the CTI label. In more recent times, Medeski Martin and Wood have really been laying it down. If I was to reorganize my record collection by genre, Kenny Werner's Lawn Chair Society would proudly sit beside the other titles on the jazz/funk shelf. The lineup a stellar ...
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130

Recording

Half Note Announces The Release Of Three New Recordings By Kenny Werner

Source: hubtone PR
August 26, 2011

With The Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Donald Harrison With Ron Carter, Billy Cobham And Francisco Mela & Cuban Safari With Special Guest Esperanza Spalding Kenny Werner & BJO, Institute of Higher Learning AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE AUGUST 26, 2011 The Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO), led by founder and Artistic Director Frank Vaganée, once again reinforces its reputation as one of Europe's premier big bands, a group that “manifests love," according to Grammy-winning arranger Maria Schneider. Kenny Werner and the BJO ...
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119

Interview

Composition for the Dearly Departed

Source: Michael Ricci
July 12, 2011

By NAT HENTOFF For years, jazz musicians have told me how much they value Kenny Werner as a pianist and teacher. According to premier jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans, for example, “He is a total musician. He feeds my heart and brain and pushes me into fresh territories." Students at various teaching clinics around the country agree. Now Mr. Werner has created a large-scale composition, “No Beginning, No End" (Half Note Records, available on Amazon), that is on the level ...
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167

Recording

Kenny Werner - Balloons (Half Note, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
May 10, 2011

Pianist and composer Kenny Werner brings together a fine post-bop unit consisting of David Sanchez on tenor saxophone, Randy Brecker on trumpet, John Pattitucci on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums. This album was recorded live at the Blue Note Club and features four long improvisations that allow for excellent ensemble playing and soloing on a variety of moods and textures.

The group opens with “Sada," a slow and probing composition that allows them to get their footing and explore ...
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125

Recording

Half Note Announces A New Release From Kenny Werner "Balloons" Featuring Randy Brecker, David Sanchez, John Patitucci, Antonio Sanchez

Source: hubtone PR
March 21, 2011

New York—Half Note Records announces the arrival of an advanced new work by pianist Kenny Werner, his fifth album for the label. On it, the influential composer assembles a sterling group of associates for an in-depth examination of four originals, all showcasing his singular approach to composition and the quintetʼs collective approach to improvisation. Recorded live at the Blue Note, the music represents a leap forward for Werner, who last year earned a Guggenheim Fellowship Award with his masterwork, No ...
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Contest

Announcing the Winners of the "Kenny Werner - No Beginning No End" Giveaway

Source: All About Jazz
December 20, 2010

122

Contest

Enter the "Kenny Werner - No Beginning No End" Giveaway Contest

Source: All About Jazz
November 16, 2010

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Half Note “Kenny Werner—No Beginning No End“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on December 16th.Click here to enter the contest (Following Kenny Werner at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Your Friends at Half Note Records About No Beginning No End This highly anticipated work is Mr. Werner's fourth for Half Note. It is an orchestral work—classical and jazz—dedicated ...
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159

Interview

Pianist Kenny Werner Interviewed at All About Jazz...and More!

Source: All About Jazz
October 11, 2010

Inspiration behind art is a curious thing. It takes many forms, from personal to universal perspectives. Many times it's unexpected. It is intertwined with one's life and the vicissitudes therein. As Charlie Parker famously said, “If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." For pianist/composer/arranger Kenny Werner, music has evolved, over time, into a direct expression of his being, less about a series of notes on paper. His latest release, No Beginning No End (Half Note, ...
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