Kirk Knuffke
One of New York City's "Busiest Musicians" (NY Times) Cornetist Kirk Knuffke has been based in New York City since 2005. A largely self-taught musician, Kirk has also studied improvisation with great jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman, Art Lande and Ron Miles. He leads his own groups, including the Kirk Knuffke Quartet and trio, which play at venues across New york City including Le Poisson Rouge, Cornelia street cafe and The Iridium among others . As a leader or Co-leader Knuffke has 10 recordings for labels: Cleanfeed, SteepleChase, Not Two, Relative Pitch, and No Buisiness.
Kirk stays very busy as a member of the celebrated Matt Wilson Quartet, touring the US, performing and teaching. Recent concerts with Mr. Wilson brought Kirk to play at the New Port Jazz Festival and Jazz at the Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall with guest saxophonist Marshall Allen. The Matt Wilson Quartet plus John Medeski recorded a new CD for release in early 2014 on Palmetto Records. For 6 years Kirk enjoyed a fruitful and educational collaboration with the late Butch Morris resulting in 4 recordings and several European tours. As a sideman Knuffke also plays in The Mark Helias Quartet, the Andrew D’angelo Big Band, Josh Roseman’s Extended Constellations, The Jeff Davis Band, Ideal Bread, Brian Drye’s Bizingas Kenny Wollesen's Wollesonic, Allison Miller's Boom tic Boom, and Bill Goodwin’s Orntette. Kirk has also made appearances in venues outside the traditional New York jazz scene, including work with pop artist Josh Ritter on Sony Records.
Since arriving in New York, Kirk’s prolific work has included recordings and gigs with groups featuring, among others, Roswell Rudd, William Parker, Uri Caine, Myra Melford, Karl Berger, Jeff Lederer, Jamie Saft, Bob Stewart, John Tchicia, Graham Haynes, Mark Helias, Allison Miller, Vijay Iyer, Chris Speed, Jim Black, Tim Berne, Daniel Carter, Steve Swell, John Zorn, Tony Malaby, Dave Douglas, Billy Hart, Michael Formanek, Trevor Dunn, Angelica Sanchez, Joe Bonner, Chris Lightcap, Ted Nash, Steven Bernstein, and Mary Halvorson. Internationally, he has played with ensembles at jazz festivals in Saalfeldan Austria, Willisau Switzerland, The North Sea Jazz festival in Holland, The Moers festival as well as festival dates in Canada, Mexico, Italy and France.
“Big Wig” was Kirk's debut recording as a leader. Released in May of 2008 on Clean Feed Records, it was greeted with strong international reviews including the New York Times. Building on this success, in 2009, Kirk received a Jerome Foundation Composers grant though Roulette in New York City; the commissioned works of which were performed by a trio with Kenny Wollesen and Lisle Ellis. The recording of that concert, entitled “Chew Your Food”, is now available on No Busisness Records. His second Clean Feed CD entitled “Amnesia Brown” featured a trio with Kenny Wollesen and Doug Wieselman. After its release in February 2010, it received 4 stars in Downbeat Magazine, where it was reviewed by Peter Margasak stating, “Over the last couple years, New York trumpeter Kirk Knuffke has quietly emerged as one of the most exciting and flexible hornmen on the scene.”
In 2011, Kirk and pianist Jesse Stacken released “Orange was the Color”, a collection of music by Charles Mingus, on SteepleChase Records; Matt Wilson, Mary Halvorson and Kirk Knuffke came together to form the new collaborative trio “Sifter”, which was featured in the NYC Winter Jazz Festival; and Sifter recorded their debut CD,"Sifter" now available on Relative Pitch records. During 2011, Kirk also recorded steadily for several new records including: The Kirk Knuffke/Ted Brown quartet for SteepleChase records; another recording with Jesse Stacken entitled “Like A Tree”, this time joined by Kenny Wollesen on drums; duets with drummer Mike Pride for NotTwo Records in Poland; Other new projects for are the new Mark Helias Quartet with fellow sideman Tim Berne and Mark Ferber. Jeff Lederer's "Swing n Dix" with Bob Stewart and Matt Wilson is out now on little i music.
The Kirk Knuffke Quartet "Chorale" is now available on Steeplechase records(with Michael Formanek, Billy Hart and Russ Lossing), It was featured in the sunday New York Times, with times writer Nate Chinen saying it was "Excellent"
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