JOIN USThe iconic jazz guitarist and composer Wayne Krantz has, over the years, redefined modern jazz with his unique brand of improvisation and his sense of complex rhythms and harmony.
Although he may appear personally understated, his musical output has been prodigious. With 10 albums, hundreds of performances around the world, a teaching gig at New York University, countless workshops worldwide, active collaboration with the virtual who’s who of jazz and a book thrown in, makes him a rather busy musician.
Following his heart
Born and raised in Oregon, US, the young Krantz grew up around a culture that included music. Talking about the early years, he says, “I grew up in a music-loving household, though nobody there was a musician. After enduring piano lessons by force for years as a kid, I discovered the guitar on my own.
The first time I knew I wanted to become a musician was while I was listening to a Sons of Champlin record called, coincidentally, Follow Your Heart. After that I never seriously questioned my direction.” With the early conviction of wanting to be a musician, Krantz went on to hone his skills at the world famous Berklee College of Music in Boston studying jazz guitar. Reminiscing on his inspiration from those days, Krantz says, “From my early days as a student to eventually being a performer and a teacher, I am inspired by musicians and painters whose work evolved fundamentally — The Beatles, Miles Davis, Pablo Picasso, Arturo Carmassi. John Coltrane did it. Jimi Hendrix would have, if he’d lived longer.”
After playing and recording with a wide variety of jazz artistes, Krantz released his first album Signals in 1991, that established him as an artiste to be reckoned with. The album featured a wide array of musicians such as Dennis Chambers, Don Alias and Anthony Jackson among others. He followed that up with Long to Be Loose in 1993. From there, he has released several albums which include Separate Cages, Greenwich Mean and Howie 61 to name a few. His latest album is Good Piranha Bad Piranha.
Krantz has collaborated extensively with jazz musicians from across the board. He has played with legendary jazz musicians from the older generation like Steely Dan, Michael Brecker, Billy Cobham, Chris Potter and David Binney and with new age wonders like Tal Wilkenfeld and Ranjit Bardot. His recent album Howie 61, a reference to Bob Dylan’s Highway 61, includes performances by James Genus, Vinnie Colaiuta, John Patitucci, Keith Carlock, Charley Drayton, Tal Wilkenfeld, Anton Fig, Yasushi Miura, Jeremy Stacey, Paul Stacey, Pino Palladino, Gabriela Anders, Kenny Wollesen, Nate Wood, Owen Biddle and Henry Hey.
On improvisation
Krantz has preferred the trio format comprising himself on the guitar with a bassist and a percussionist. After the first album, his next two featured bassist Lincoln Goines and drummer Zach Danziger. More recently, he played with the legendary bass guitarist Anthony Jackson and drummer Cliff Almond as the Wayne Krantz Trio.
Improvisation is the hallmark of Krantz so much so that he has even written a book on it called An Improviser’s OS. Speaking about improvisation, he says, “At this point, most of what we do is improvised. But there are composed parts to every song, too; those parts essentially define the song, though it can be defined loosely. The more we play it, the more we mutate it. Sometimes, the only remaining mutation is to play it exactly as written. So we play in the moment. That’s where all our decisions are made.”
On the jazzy journey so far, he recounts, “I now travel extensively both teaching and playing, which is quite exciting. It’s a joyous thing to be playing music and I’ve been lucky to experience that with some of the world’s great musicians. Playing and listening to music is an act of love — there can’t be anything better than that, for anyone.”
Krantz recently played in India after almost five years for the Black & White Moments in association with Counter Culture. Talking ahead of the trip, he said, “It’s great to be back after five long years, and am looking forward to seeing some new faces as well as the old ones. I think my fans are keenly aware of my mortality; it’s built right into all the improvising I do. Without the hype and marketing of the mainstream to influence them, their appreciation of what I’m doing is based purely on the music and its spirit. I find that profoundly moving. I’m grateful for it. I’m motivated by it to go on, and I think this tour will be awesome fun.”
His fans are hoping that mortality issues he speaks of may not come up any time soon and that they can enjoy several more years of the unique brand of Wayne Krantz jazz.