The Kasey Knudsen - Harvey Wainapel Quartet

Kasey Knudsen, saxophone. Harvey Wainapel, saxophone. John Wiitala, bass. Jon Arkin, drums. $20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob. Students $10; kids free. For reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733   Kasey Knudsen and Harvey Wainapel, highly accomplished saxophonists acclaimed for their work in diverse genres and their mastery of the full range of wind instruments, join forces across generations in this new quartet setting with equally talented and experienced colleagues, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Jon Arkin, to perform a thoughtfully selected repertoire that works well in a “chordless” setting, without piano or guitar — music that’s at once accessible and fascinating in its complexity. These four jazz musicians have long been mutual admirers and frequent collaborators while traveling individual paths in their careers. They've developed a unique quartet that they're excited to bring to Bird & Beckett in its public debut. Harvey Wainapel, the senior partner in this group, pursued foundational studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 1970s and proceeded to refine his skills across multiple European settings, among them a stint as lead alto and featured soloist in the Frankfurt-based German Radio Big Band. Returning to the United States, he spent ten months on the road with Ray Charles before making the Bay Area his base in 1982. Harvey went on to collaborate with McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Johnny Coles and Billy Hart. His debut as a leader, At Home/On the Road, a post-bop session exploring compositions by the likes of Woody Shaw, Sam Rivers, and Wayne Shorter, appeared in 1994; and in 1996 he released the album Ambrosia: The Music of Kenny Barron, cut in Europe with both the Dutch National Orchestra and a Brazilian octet. He joined Joe Lovano’s ensemble for touring engagements in 1996, and has played in all manner of jazz settings to this day. But his devotion to Brazilian music, presaged by the work on Ambrosia with Barron's Brazilian-influenced compositions, has developed and deepened profoundly in the past thirty years and justly predominates in the perception of his musical identity among his adoring fan base. He has made annual months-long sojourns to Brazil since the year 2000 disrupted only by the great whatsit in 2020 and has worked with a bazillion Brazilian masters. Read Harvey's bio and listen to samples of his music on his website here. You'll be floored and delighted.   Kasey Knudsen, about half Harvey's age, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music in 2002. As a composer, Knudsen has received commissions and grants from San Jose Jazz’s New Works Festival, InterMusic SF, Intersection for the Arts, de Young Museum, and the California Jazz Conservatory Emerging Artist Series. An avant garde musician of high repute with a love of the jazz canon, she leads many combos of her own devising and co-leads groups including the Schimscheimer Family Trio, the Holly Martins, and the Klaxon Mutant Allstars. Kasey has collaborated extensively with many of the Bay Area’s most distinctive musical voices, including  performances throughout the United States and Europe with Tune-Yards; international tours and festivals with Fred Frith; and performances with Charlie Hunter, Scott Amendola, Erik Jekabson, Circus Bella, Ben Goldberg, the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, Ian Carey, Beth Schenck, and many others. In a review of a 2018 SFJazz Hotplate focus on Joe Henderson's 1965 post-bop lp "In and Out" which Kasey led with a quintet that including Henry Hung on trumpet, Michael Coleman on piano, John Wiitala on bass and Jon Arkin on drums, she was lauded and been described as “one of the region’s most esteemed saxophonists” by Andrew Gilbert in San Francisco Classical Voice.  John Wiitala, a native East Bay denizen, from Richmond, started his musical studies in his high school years at the East Bay Center For the Performing Arts, and continued later at Lan…