Wayne Krantz
Encyclopedia
Wayne Krantz is an American jazz fusion
guitarist
. He has played with top artists such as Steely Dan
, Michael Brecker
, Billy Cobham
, and others, but is most active as a solo performer.
, Leni Stern
, Anthony Jackson, and others. However, in 1992, he formed a trio
with bassist
Lincoln Goines
and drummer
Zach Danziger, and recorded two albums with them; Long To Be Loose, in 1993, and a live album, 2 Drink Minimum, in 1995. In doing so, he began to play periodically at the 55 Bar
, a diverse and premier jazz club in New York City
. In 1996, Krantz released an acoustic
album with Leni Stern
, dubbed Separate Cages. Wayne formed a new trio in 1997, consisting of his ferocious guitar
skills, complemented by Tim Lefebvre on electric bass
and Keith Carlock
on drum
s, new sounds that would change his music's style drastically. On June 28, 2007, Krantz played his final regular Thursday night gig at NYC's 55 Bar. In an announcement by Krantz to his mailing list notifying his fans of the change, he stated a desire to move towards a "louder thing" requiring "bigger rooms, with stages and sound systems to pull it off."
Krantz's first three solo albums were released on the jazz
label, Enja Records
, which was at the time also home to frequent collaborator Leni Stern
. However, Krantz's last three albums, 1999's Greenwich Mean, 2003's Your Basic Live, and 2007's "Your Basic Live '06" were both released from Wayne's private website. Like 2 Drink Minimum, these two albums both are excerpts of various sets at the 55 Bar. These two albums also include more use of effects pedals, and are more unscripted and improvised
than the previous three, implying Wayne's tendency towards nonconformism on and off the stage. He contributed to Steely Dan
co-founder Donald Fagen
's newest release, Morph the Cat
, and participated in touring with Fagen's band in early 2006. In another rare sideman role, Krantz is featured on tenor saxophonist Chris Potter
's 2006 release, "Underground."
Wayne Krantz signed with record label
Abstract Logix to release his first studio record in over fifteen years. Krantz Carlock Lefebvre (2009) features the core trio of Keith Carlock on drums, Tim Lefebvre on bass, and Wayne on guitar.
commonly associated with fusion guitar. Within several years, however, his sound became more organic, featuring analog
effects such as overdrive, wah-wah, and a Moogerfooger
ring modulator. For amplification, Krantz has used both Fender Deluxe Reverb
and, more recently, Marshall amplifiers
for a heavier sound.
. Together they live in New York City with their daughter Marley.
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
. He has played with top artists such as Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
, Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
, and others, but is most active as a solo performer.
Biography
Krantz released his first album, Signals, in 1990, sporting an array of recognized jazz musicians such as Dennis ChambersDennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, George Duke, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, Greg Howe, and many others. Despite a lack of formal training, Chambers has become well known among...
, Leni Stern
Leni Stern
Leni Stern is an electric guitarist, and singer. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and taking on the guitar age of eleven...
, Anthony Jackson, and others. However, in 1992, he formed a trio
Power trio
A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...
with bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Lincoln Goines
Lincoln Goines
Lincoln Goines is a double bassist and bass guitarist originally from Oakland, California.A mainstay of the New York City jazz/Latin/studio scene since the early 1980s and noted for his versatility and fluid style, Goines' extensive career includes performance credits as sideman to: Sonny Rollins,...
and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Zach Danziger, and recorded two albums with them; Long To Be Loose, in 1993, and a live album, 2 Drink Minimum, in 1995. In doing so, he began to play periodically at the 55 Bar
55 Bar
55 Bar is a jazz club in New York City located at 55 Christopher Street.-History:The 55 Bar has been around since 1919. It was originally a speakeasy during Prohibition....
, a diverse and premier jazz club in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1996, Krantz released an acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
album with Leni Stern
Leni Stern
Leni Stern is an electric guitarist, and singer. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and taking on the guitar age of eleven...
, dubbed Separate Cages. Wayne formed a new trio in 1997, consisting of his ferocious guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
skills, complemented by Tim Lefebvre on electric bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and Keith Carlock
Keith Carlock
Keith Carlock is an American drummer originally from Clinton, Mississippi. He currently resides in New York City, NY. He has recorded and/or toured with musicians that include Sting, John Mayer, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Diana Ross, Faith Hill, The Blues Brothers Band,...
on drum
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
s, new sounds that would change his music's style drastically. On June 28, 2007, Krantz played his final regular Thursday night gig at NYC's 55 Bar. In an announcement by Krantz to his mailing list notifying his fans of the change, he stated a desire to move towards a "louder thing" requiring "bigger rooms, with stages and sound systems to pull it off."
Krantz's first three solo albums were released on the jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
label, Enja Records
Enja Records
Enja Records is a German jazz record label based in Munich, Germany. It was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971....
, which was at the time also home to frequent collaborator Leni Stern
Leni Stern
Leni Stern is an electric guitarist, and singer. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and taking on the guitar age of eleven...
. However, Krantz's last three albums, 1999's Greenwich Mean, 2003's Your Basic Live, and 2007's "Your Basic Live '06" were both released from Wayne's private website. Like 2 Drink Minimum, these two albums both are excerpts of various sets at the 55 Bar. These two albums also include more use of effects pedals, and are more unscripted and improvised
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
than the previous three, implying Wayne's tendency towards nonconformism on and off the stage. He contributed to Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
co-founder Donald Fagen
Donald Fagen
Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, lead singer, and the principal songwriter of the rock band Steely Dan ....
's newest release, Morph the Cat
Morph the Cat
Morph the Cat is a Grammy Award-winning 2006 album by Donald Fagen, his first solo release since 1993. The nine-track album was released in the US on March 14, 2006....
, and participated in touring with Fagen's band in early 2006. In another rare sideman role, Krantz is featured on tenor saxophonist Chris Potter
Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
's 2006 release, "Underground."
Wayne Krantz signed with record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Abstract Logix to release his first studio record in over fifteen years. Krantz Carlock Lefebvre (2009) features the core trio of Keith Carlock on drums, Tim Lefebvre on bass, and Wayne on guitar.
Equipment/Sound
Krantz is most identified with a Stratocaster-type electric guitar. Recently he has played a model manufactured by Tyler Guitars. Earlier releases such as "Signals" feature a chorus effectChorus effect
In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
commonly associated with fusion guitar. Within several years, however, his sound became more organic, featuring analog
Analog signal
An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. It differs from a digital signal in terms of small fluctuations in the signal which are...
effects such as overdrive, wah-wah, and a Moogerfooger
Moogerfooger
moogerfooger is the trademark for a series of analog effects pedals manufactured by Moog Music. There are currently five different pedals produced, however one of these models is designed for processing control voltages rather than audio signal...
ring modulator. For amplification, Krantz has used both Fender Deluxe Reverb
Fender Deluxe Reverb
The Fender Deluxe Reverb is a guitar amplifier made originally by Fender Musical Instruments, and now by Fender. The Deluxe Reverb is a 22-watt tube amplifier , powered by a pair of 7408/6V6GT power tubes, one GZ34/5AR4 rectifier tube, four 7025/12AX7 preamp tubes, and two 6201/12AT7 tubes driving...
and, more recently, Marshall amplifiers
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
for a heavier sound.
Personal life
On May 22, 2004, Krantz married smooth jazz vocalist Gabriela AndersGabriela Anders
Gabriela Anders is an Argentine singer and pianist, specializing in soul, jazz and Latin. Her debut album was Wanting from 1998, including tracks as "You Know What It's Like", "Wanting" and "I'll Be Loving You"...
. Together they live in New York City with their daughter Marley.
Discography
- Signals (1990)
- Long To Be LooseLong To Be LooseLong To Be Loose is the second solo album released by jazz fusion guitarist, Wayne Krantz. It was the first album to feature his first trio, consisting of Lincoln Goines at electric bass, Zach Danziger at drums, and Krantz himself at guitar...
(1993) - 2 Drink Minimum2 Drink Minimum2 Drink Minimum is the third solo album released by jazz fusion guitarist, Wayne Krantz. It is the first live album released by him, and includes a lot of improvisation and freer techniques than his first two albums. It also includes more use of effects pedals, and implies Wayne's future styles...
(1995) - Separate Cages (1996) (w/ Leni SternLeni SternLeni Stern is an electric guitarist, and singer. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and taking on the guitar age of eleven...
) - Greenwich Mean (1999)
- Your Basic Live (2003)
- Transformation (2007)
- Your Basic Live '06 (2007)
- Krantz Carlock Lefebvre (2009)
External links
- Official Website
- Official Label Website
- [ Wayne Krantz Overview] – from Allmusic
- Wayne's World (from Steely Dan official website)
- Smooth Vibes
- Gabriela Anders Official Website