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In this episode, we will cover East Coast Love Affair by Kurt Rosen Winkle, which is his debut album released in 1996 under the Fresh Sound New Talents label. Kurt Rosen Winkle. In case you're not familiar with him, he's a revered guitarist and composer known for his modern and exciting approach to jazz. He's a player that, in effect, never sat still, and he's constantly finding new ways to grow and new paths to explore.
He was born into a very musical family in 1970, in Philadelphia, and he started playing piano at a very young age and became very proficient at the piano. Later than Kurt picked up the guitar around age 12, and it became his primary instrument shortly after. Apart from these instruments, Kurt also plays bass and drums as well. So, as we said earlier, he's never really sad still.
He was serious about music from a very young age, and then studied at the Philadelphia Performing Art High School, together with names such as Christian McBride, Joe Different, Jesko and Questlove, and later Kurt studied for two years at Berklee College. And this is where he met the legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton, of course, who invited Kurt to join him on his tour.
And the rest, as they say, is history. His debut album, East Coast Love Affair, was recorded live at the now famous Smalls Jazz Club in New York. Kurt on guitar, Avishai Cohen on bass and George Rossy on drums delight our ears with adventurous interpretation of jazz standards, as well as two original compositions by Kurt. This album, together with his next release Into It, would serve to give Kurt Rose and winkles his well-deserved notoriety and to later be signed by Verve Record and get his name on the international stage.
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The album cut straight to the Chase and starts with the title track. East Coast Love Affair Kurt rules and winkles own composition. It is a slow and pensive tune with very interesting harmony, which makes it really fun to play as a guitarist. His control and use of space is impressive, especially considering that this is at the start of his career, so even then he already had a very mature sound.
What I love about his interpretation of this tune are his sudden, fast runs that go in different directions, although many of them never arrive to their destinations, quote unquote. The mere journey he takes to the listener on is worth it, and it's one of the things I admire the most about Kurt's playing. It's his boldness and unapologetic and apologizing exploration.
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Next step is ultimate and Laurence's all or nothing at all famous standard. Rosanne Winkle seems to have drawn inspiration from Coltrane's 1962 version of the tune, as it starts with a piano vamp similar to what Kurt plays, and is also played with a straight eight feels. In this tune, we can listen to one of the musical resources Kurt is most fascinated with, so it's triads.
This might sound simple, but triads can be used in very complex ways by interpolating them over seemingly unrelated chords. Most of the time, this results in highlighting different extensions and alterations on specific chords and because our ears are so used to recognizing triads. This resource musical resource can be exploited to great effect. Let's listen.
Then Kurt shows his love for Thelonious Monk by playing two of his compositions on this album. The first one to appear being Pinaka famous ballad You Know. It was written by monk as a homage, an homage to the Baroness banana Car Rothschild, and this tune is the most concise of the album. And Curt really shows his dexterity in navigating complex harmonies.
His solo is extremely lyrical and logical, which is an impressive feat considering the amount of key changes in this tune.
On John Coltrane's Lazy Bird. Rosa Winkel shows off his rhythmic capabilities. The tune is played with a samba inspired feel. Kind of, and it makes it feel like a lot lighter than the original swing version. This frees up the space for Kurt to experiment with polyrhythmic and almost out of time ideas, if you will. Throughout his solo, he plays bursts of fast, polyrhythmic ideas, interweave with long eight note phrases.
Guitarists are usually criticized for never leaving space. You know, at the end of the day, we don't need to breathe in the instruments in order to keep playing like a saxophonist or a brass player does. But if your phrasing and rhythmic sense is as strong as curt here, I would say just go for it.
Hey, everyone, just a quick break here. If you're loving this episode and you want to elevate your own. Just our skills. reach out to us. We've gathered thousands of guitarists and becoming accomplished jazzers beyond their wildest dreams. So check the link in the description or visit Jazz Guitar Lessons dot net to get started today. Okay, now back to the episode and now's the time for the second monkey tune on this album.
And it's the feature round about midnight or around midnight. This is a magnificent rendition by this group. What struck me the most about this version is the freedom with which Kurt plays the head out. I must admit, the Latin vampire, the very end of the tune is a bit out of place in my opinion. It's a traditional it's a classic outro, but still.
But is is very brave for someone to play so freely with such a famous melody like this one. And apart from the previously mentioned vamp, Kurt does it with so much respect and love for the tune, he's able to channel so much intensity and emotion, and it makes for a fantastic and surprising ending to this great classic.
And finally, the last song on the album is B Blues, a Kurt Russell Winkle original. It has somewhat of a dark and yet uplifting vibe. That's such a clue closing tune really nicely. It reminds me of Sam Rivers Beatrice in some ways, and the laid back feel of the drums make the tunes float in a fantastic way. Kurt is the only one that takes a solo in the soon, and it is filled with triadic ideas once again and interesting melodic tangents.
A detail that stands out in the more open sections before returning to the head, and it departs from the jazz realm for a bit, letting us inside Kurt's rock and alt influences. It's a really short and sweet taste of the places Kurt would later explore in future releases.
If you are interested in exploring more of Kurt's material, I would recommend checking out the second release into it, as well as his pivotal recording is the next Step. Other acclaimed albums released under the Verve label are the enemies of the energy and hardcore left on the collaborative side, and he has great material with Paul Motian and Mark Turner.
And finally, in a really interesting record, I would encourage you to check out this KP score IP released in 2017. On this album, Kurt plays every instrument and it's a very intimate and unique record. I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into Kurt Rules and Winkle debut album. It's always interesting to gain some perspective of the journey of the player and go back to their origins.
In this record, we listened to Kurt's eagerness to give form to his personal sound, and we got a chance to see some foreshadowing of the different directions that Kurt would go on. Eventually, his restless personality would lead him to stretch even further his interpretation of jazz and generate original work that would fuze rock, jazz, Brazilian music and more.
Kurt is still very much active as a performer to this day and composer, so we can't wait to see what direction he takes next.
