Home » Jazz Musicians » Henry Kaiser

Henry Kaiser

Henry Kaiser (born Oakland, California, 1952) is widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz, and experimental music. As one of the "first generation" of American free improvisers, he has helped unfetter the guitar from the conventions of genre-bound techniques.

A restless collaborator who constantly seeks the most diverse and personally challenging contexts for his music, he not only produces and contributes to a staggering number of recorded projects, he performs frequently throughout the USA, Europe and Japan, with several regular groupings as well as solo guitar concerts and concerts of freely improvised music with a host of diverse instrumentalists.

Evidence of his exceptional musical breadth and versatility can be found in a partial list of the extraordinary artists with whom he has recorded and/or performed: Herbie Hancock David Lindley, Bob Weir, The Rova Sax Quartet, Elliot Sharp, John "Drumbo" French, Raymond Kane, Michael McClure, Bill Laswell, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, Terry Riley, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Sang-Won Park, Jin-Hi Kim, John Oswald, Yuji Takahashi, John Tchicai, George Lewis, Jerry Garcia, Miya Masaoka, and Cecil Taylor. His grandfather was the industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In 1978, Kaiser founded the Metalanguage Records label with Larry Ochs (Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Greg Goodman.

Henry Kaiser journeyed to the island of Madagascar in 1991, where he and David Lindley recorded 6 CDs for the Shanachie label, in collaboration with various Malagasy musicians. The first of these CDs to be released, A World Out Of Time, is, perhaps, the most successful of all American World Music releases of all time. Volume 2 of A World Out Of Time was nominated for a Grammy award.

4
Multiple Reviews

Henry Kaiser & Rome Yamilov and Bernard Allison: Blues Changes

Read "Henry Kaiser & Rome Yamilov and Bernard Allison: Blues Changes" reviewed by Doug Collette


Is blues music the most mutable of all musical forms? It's a question worth asking when taking into account the expanse of styles within the genre that stretch all the way from the skeletal acoustic likes of Son House and Reverend Gary Davis to the earthshaking electric onslaughts of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Henry Kaiser and Rome Yamilov's collaboration, The Lenoir Investigation, and Bernard Allison's Highs & Lows, are both contemporary interpretations of the blues in which consciously ...

8
Album Review

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 2 - Remixes

Read "Fractal Guitar 2 - Remixes" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Guitarist & composer Stephan Thelen's experimental guitar-fest Fractal Guitar (MoonJune Records, 2019) was followed by Fractal Guitar Remixes And Extra Tracks (MoonJune Records, 2019), a substantially fresh look at the material, as well as an expansion. For the sequel Fractal Guitar 2 (Moonjune Records, 2021) Thelen produced an even more radical approach to contemporary guitar-driven music. The remixes are also a step beyond. To start with, the album could just as well have been titled “Point Of Inflection ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

John McLaughlin, Henry Kaiser-Leo Smith, Asaf Sirkis, Igor Willcox

Read "John McLaughlin, Henry Kaiser-Leo Smith, Asaf Sirkis, Igor Willcox" reviewed by Len Davis


John McLaughlin Live In Paris Yo Miles! Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith, Android Trio, {{m: Asaf Sirkis and Brazilian drummer Igor Willcox. Playlist John McLaughlin"Acid Jazz" from Live In Paris (Verve) 00:00 Yo Miles! Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith “What I Say" from Upriver (Cuneiform) 10:17 Android Trio “Quark" from Other Worlds (Cuneiform) 20:39 Asaf Sirkis “Kinship" from Solar Flash (Moonjune) 30:52 CMD & The Nomads “I Told You So" from The Board Tapes (Red Dot) ...

6
Album Review

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 2

Read "Fractal Guitar 2" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Guitarist and composer Stephan Thelen's Fractal Guitar (MoonJune Records, 2018) found him stepping outside of his role in the band Sonar in a big way. An absolute feast of multiple guitars with electronic effects, live looping and soundscaping, it also featured a star-studded group of guest guitarists (not to mention a grooving rhythm section). The good news is that almost all of them are back for the second installment, along with some new friends. The original album was largely created ...

1
Radio & Podcasts

New releases from Gavin Harrison-Antoine Fafard, plus Trio Grande

Read "New releases from Gavin Harrison-Antoine Fafard, plus Trio Grande" reviewed by Len Davis


Contemporary Electric Jazz from Trio Grande, Henry Kaiser and Vinny Golia, plus much more.Playlist Henry Kaiser-Vinny Golia “Meditations-Joy" from A Love Supreme Electric (Cuneiform) 00:00 Trio Grande “Oberkampf" from Trio Grande (Whirlwind) 07:14 Marcus Klossek Electric Trio “Unexpected Skies" from Time was Now (Double Moon) 14:21 Go Go Penguin “Petit_a" from Live from studio 2 (Decca) 21:31 A Tribute to Roger Burn and Shapes “Oddly English" from A Tribute to Roger Burn and Shapes (Blue Canoe) 28:41 Scott ...

5
Album Review

Ivar Grydeland & Henry Kaiser: In the Arctic Dreamtime

Read "In the Arctic Dreamtime" reviewed by John Eyles


In January 2019, the renowned guitarists Ivar Grydeland and Henry Kaiser met in a studio in Oslo and, playing electric guitars, recorded a duet soundtrack for the Norwegian silent film Ellsworths flyveekspedition 1925, which is about an unsuccessful 1925 attempt by polar explorer Roald Amundsen to fly over the North Pole by plane. Norway's Grydeland is best known as a member of the trio Huntsville and the quartet Dans Les Arbres, while Kaiser is a member of America's “first generation ...

Album Review

Simon Barker, Henry Kaiser, Bill Laswell, Rudresh Mahanthappa: Mudang Rock

Read "Mudang Rock" reviewed by Claudio Bonomi


Henry Kaiser aggiunge un'altra tessera alla sua ricerca etnomusicale sullo sciamanesimo coreano iniziata con Invite the Spirit nei primi anni Ottanta. Questa volta ad accompagnare il chitarrista californiano, paladino di un'avanguardia che da sempre centrifuga gli idiomi più disparati, dalla fusion alle musiche tradizionali, c'è un trio coi fiocchi formato dal bassista Bill Laswell, anch'egli esploratore irriducibile di sonorità orientali avendo suonato con il combo di percussionisti coreani SamuNori, il batterista australiano Simon Barker, studioso di ritmi e storia delle ...

Read more articles
13

Performance / Tour

World's Leading Performer Of Hybrid Sitar/Guitar Todd Mosby Tours California With Michael Manring & Henry Kaiser

World's Leading Performer Of  Hybrid Sitar/Guitar Todd Mosby Tours California With Michael Manring & Henry Kaiser

Source: DeBlaze & Associates

St. Louis based composer, inventor and recording artist Todd Mosby performs genre-defying music—a blend of jazz, classical, and traditional Indian—for over 35 years. The contemporary acoustic guitarist is the ONLY guitarist worldwide, outside of the royal family in India, whose mastered the 20-stringed Imrat Sitar. Todd makes his second of seven tour appearances—When Music Worlds Collide—at Don Quixote on Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 7:30 pm in Santa Cruz, CA. The evening features world-renowned, leading solo bassist / Grammy Nominee ...

114

Recording

Morgan Agren/ Trey Gunn/ Henry Kaiser - Invisible Rays (2011)

Morgan Agren/ Trey Gunn/ Henry Kaiser - Invisible Rays (2011)

Source: Something Else!

If there is any musician today who embodies the musical spirit of Robert Fripp, it must be his former King Crimson band mate, Warr Guitarist Trey Gunn. There are certain musical sensibilities that set Robert Fripp apart from other guitarists out there—mostly a serpent-like determination to strike at, and only at, the exact right moment, but also heavily dependent on a zen-like honor for space and silence that few other musicians in rock really grasp. Gunn has studied all of ...

227

Recording

A "Yo Miles!" (Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith) Two-Fer! - Shinjuku and Lightning (2010)

A "Yo Miles!" (Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith) Two-Fer! - Shinjuku and Lightning (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By S. Victor Aaron Since very early on we've eagerly pounced on records that re-image that dense, impenetrable period of Miles Davis between about 1969 and 1975 when he first defined fusion jazz and then kept redefining it again and again. This is music that doesn't come easily to most people; they must go to it, get inside of it and slather themselves with it. Even then, many folks might not “get it." I'd admit that there's a few cuts ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Infinity Squared

Ictus Records
2021

buy

Fractal Guitar 2

MoonJune Records
2021

buy

Fractal Guitar 2 -...

MoonJune Records
2021

buy

In the Arctic...

Rune Grammofon
2020

buy

Mudang Rock

Fractal Music
2018

buy

Videos

Similar

Ornette Coleman
saxophone, alto
John Zorn
saxophone, alto
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor
Nels Cline
guitar, electric
Evan Parker
saxophone, soprano
Soft Machine
band / ensemble / orchestra
Hugh Hopper
bass, electric
Sonny Sharrock
guitar, electric

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.