One of the idiom’s most lyrical interpreters and composers, pianist Kenny Werner will be on stage with a stellar quintet at the Jazz Standard in Manhattan, June 14-16. More often heard with his trio, Werner’s Quintet—including Chris Potter (sax), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Scott Colley (bass) and Brian Blade (drums)-- will be featuring new original music.

A child prodigy, Kenny Werner was born in Brooklyn and joined a children’s song and dance group at age four. At age 11, he recorded a single with a fifteen-piece orchestra and played stride piano on television. Still in high school, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music, later becoming a classical piano major. His interest in improvisation led him to the jazz program at the Berklee School of Music. In the late 1970s, he began recording, appearing on Charles Mingus’ “Something Like a Bird.” In the 1980s, Werner toured with Archie Shepp and the Mel Lewis Orchestra, worked in duo formats with Rufus Reid, Ray Drummond, and Jaki Byard, and performed solo concerts in Europe and New York. Three National Endowment of the Arts grants helped further his career as a composer and enabled him to present his compositions at Symphony Space in New York. He also wrote compositions for the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, which later became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. With Ratzo Harris and Tom Rainey, Werner spent 14 years experimenting with trio formats, and in the 1990s, this format became his main focus. Bob Blumenthal (Boston Globe) noted that Werner’s ensemble “has provided an ever-evolving definition of the spontaneity that remains at the heart of jazz... unsurpassed as a working trio.”

Over the years, Kenny Werner has performed and/or recorded with such luminaries as Bob Brookmeyer, Ron Carter, Joe Williams, Chico Freeman, Sonny Fortune, Peter Erskine, John Abercrombie, Bobby McFerrin, Lee Konitz, Billy Hart, Marian McPartland, Joe Henderson, Tom Harrell, Gunther Schuller, Ed Blackwell, Paul Motian, John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette, Eddie Gomez, Dave Holland, Charlie Haden, Chris Potter, and Joe Lovano.

Kenny Werner is one of the most active educators in jazz today. He joined the faculty of the New School's jazz department in New York City in 1987, and gives clinics at many universities in the United States and abroad, as well as conducting private lessons. Now on the faculty of New York University, Werner has published many articles and books on music theory and performance. These days, in addition to teaching, he often plays in duet with Toots Thielemans and performs his own music, mostly with his current trio (Ari Hoenig on drums and Johannes Wiedenmueller on bass) or with jazz orchestra and other large ensembles. And despite a list of successful studio recordings, the success of Form & Fantasy (Double Time Records, 2001), a live trio date from The Sunset Cafe in Paris, led him to decide “never to record a trio in the studio again. It just doesn’t tell the story of the kind of great things that happen spontaneously on the bandstand when we have the resonance of people listening and watching.”

As for the new “dream band,” it is hard to imagine a more innovative team: Chris Potter has amassed a long list of awards and accolades in his 34 years: the IAJE Young Talent award for saxophone at age 12; named Presidential Scholar, Down Beat’s top high school jazz instrumentalist and winner of the Hennessey Jazz Search and Zoot Sims scholarships to study jazz at The New School for Social Research upon graduation from high school; finalist, 1991 Thelonious Monk Institute tenor sax competition; 1999 Grammy Award nominee; youngest recipient of Denmark’s 2000 Jazzpar Prize. His list of recordings as sideman to the stars (e.g., Joanne Brackeen, Kenny Werner, Marian McPartland, Steely Dan, Dave Holland, Dave Douglas) as well as leader in his own right, is equally staggering. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi freelanced in his native San Francisco Bay Area as a classical player before attending the California Institute for the Arts, where he studied with Charlie Haden and James Newton and received a B.F.A. degree in jazz trumpet performance and a M.F.A. degree in jazz bass performance. After playing with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra in LA, he moved on to New York where he has worked with Ravi Coltrane, Fred Hersch, Ron Carter, Tim Berne, Steve Coleman, Sam Rivers, Don Byron, and Uri Caine. Veteran bassist Scott Colley has been the pulse for such legends as Jim Hall, Andrew Hill, and Herbie Hancock. The LA native cut his performance teeth playing duos with Jimmy Rowles before enrolling at the California Institute for the Arts where he studied with Charlie Haden. Named bass Talent Deserving Wider Recognition by Down Beat critics in 2002, Colley has experienced considerable acclaim in recent years for his skills as composer and bandleader. Drummer Brian Blade grew up in Shreveport, LA, where he first studied violin before switching to drums. Moving to New Orleans for college at Loyola University, he was mentored by Ellis Marsalis and Dixie drum masters Johnny Vidacovich and Herlin Riley. His chops have grown as he has worked in diverse musical settings, from Joshua Redman and Kenny Garrett to Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and Joni Mitchell, as well as his own acclaimed Brian Blade Fellowship.

There will be nothing “standard” about this quintet, and Kenny Werner’s compositions are always interesting. This will not be bop as usual! Catch the Kenny Werner Quintet at the Jazz Standard, June 14-16, two sets each night at 7:30 and 9:30 pm. Visit www.jazzstandard.com; for more on Kenny Werner, visit www.kennywerner.com

“I want to continue to lose myself more and more in the bliss of music," says Kenny Werner. "Not only do I benefit from the intoxication, but the audience resonates with their own bliss. In this way, the music wakes us all to who we really are."

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