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Johannes Weidenmueller

“One of the most interesting and explosive bass players to come along in a long time” reads a quote from a review in the French newspaper Le Monde, referring to bassist Johannes Weidenmueller.

Bassist Johannes Weidenmueller has been a first call performer with a long list of jazz greats since settling in New York City 20 years ago He has been a member of the Hank Jones trio, Ray Barretto’s New World Spirit, the Carl Allen-Vincent Herring quintet, the John Abercrombie quartet, the Joe Lovano trio and the Kenny Werner trio. Other associations include Brad Mehldau, George Benson, John Scofield, Dewey Redman, Randy Brecker, Kenny Wheeler, Toots Thielemans, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Gary Bartz, Jonny Coles, Clifford Jordan, Joe Chambers, and many others.

His warm full sound, his mastery of time and his flexibility and openness have made him one of most sought after bassist in a wide variety of musical settings. He has collaborated with the National Orchestra of Spain, the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra and choir, flamenco musician Chano Dominguez, the Indian music ensemble of Gaurav Madzumdar, tabla virtouso Ty Burhoe, New Orleans keyboard legend Dr.John, and singer Madeleine Peyroux.

Born in Heidelberg, Germany Johannes was introduced to music early on. He started playing cello at the age of 6 and kept a busy performance schedule throughout his high school years, participating in many local and regional chamber music and orchestral events. After switching to the double bass at age 16, he went on to study jazz bass at the Conservatory in Cologne and soon after made the move to study at the prestigious Jazz and Contemporary Music program of the New School University in New York. Here he was able to study with jazz greats such as Ron Carter, Dave Holland and Buster Williams. In 1991 he joined the trio of legendary pianist Hank Jones and performed with him throughout North America. Playing with Hank Jones paved the way to becoming a full time professional bass player and countless performances with many other jazz greats have since followed.

While being busy performing over 200 concerts a year around the world, Johannes is also a committed educator. He has been on the faculty of the New School’s jazz and contemporary music program since 1997 where he teaches bass and ensemble and ear-training. He also is in demand as a clinician, teaching workshops and clinics at the Banff Center for the Arts, NYU, New England Conservatory, U of Green Bay, the Amsterdam Conservatory, U of West Virginia, U of N.C Chapel Hill and many others. In addition he is also the author of two bestselling books on metric modulation published by Mel Bay .

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Album Review

Bishu Chattopadhyay: Kolkata Stories

Read "Kolkata Stories" reviewed by Jim Trageser


Given this album's title, the fact that the leader's previous album was titled Harlem Meets Hooghly (self-produced, 2020), and even the song titles on this release, it's not unrealistic to be looking for an Indo-jazz fusion release in the vein of John McLaughlin, Warren Senders or simakDialog. But despite the Indian album and song titles, this is a straight-ahead post-bop album, closer to Monty Alexander than McLaughlin. Only in an occasional passage does one hear influences from the ...

10
Album Review

Dafnis Prieto Sextet: Transparency

Read "Transparency" reviewed by John Chacona


In Cuban music, emotional grandeur and extravagant virtuosity is built on a foundation of inexhaustible rhythm. So, it's no surprise to find an abundance of juicy melodies and breathtaking drumming on Transparency from drummer and MacArthur “Genius" Fellow Dafnis Prieto. Yet for all the astonishing things he does behind the kit, what stands out on Transparency is the dazzling formal sophistication of Prieto's compositions. Eight of the nine composer credits are his and the outlier, an arrangement of ...

1
Album Review

Dave Pietro: Hypersphere

Read "Hypersphere" reviewed by Paul Rauch


You may not know the name Dave Pietro offhand, but it is likely, if you are a jazz fan of any sort, that you have heard him play. As a saxophone/woodwind artist, composer, educator, sideman, and bandleader, he has performed across a broad spectrum of projects since his becoming a mainstay on the New York scene in 1987. That aspect of his career has enabled a sizable skill set that transfers over into his personal projects. His compositional ...

317
Album Review

Jonathan Kreisberg: Trioing

Read "Trioing" reviewed by Phil DiPietro


Some weird synergy was responsible for me perusing the current issue of Jazz Times while listening to guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg's astounding straight-ahead debut. An uncanny association occurred when I read Branford Marsalis's assertion, made during a blindfold test (while listening to a different player), that he would, “ban all guitar from jazz records" and “stick them in Foxwoods commercials, in perpetuity", precisely while being blindsided by Kreisberg's 90 second rendition of “Have You Met Miss Jones?" I sincerely doubt Branford's ...

263
Album Review

Jonathan Kreisberg: Trioing

Read "Trioing" reviewed by David Adler


Add Jonathan Kreisberg to your list of new and undiscovered jazz treasures. The New York-based guitar whiz has been featured to great effect in Yosvany Terry’s band and also with his own electrifying quintet, featuring Scott Wendholt, Gary Versace, Matt Penman, and Anthony Pinciotti. Trioing, his debut as a leader, is a trio standards session with bassist Johannes Weidenmueller and drummer Ari Hoenig (Kenny Werner’s steady rhythm section). While listeners must await a future quintet release for ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Kolkata Stories

Uhsib Cisum Music
2021

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Hypersphere

ArtistShare
2020

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Transparency

Dafnison Music
2020

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Our Story

Self Produced
2018

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Trioing

New for Now Music
2006

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Monky

Mongothrob
1998

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Midnight Rickshaw with Reni

From: Kolkata Stories
By Johannes Weidenmueller

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