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About Hendrik Meurkens
Instrument: Harmonica
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar ToHendrik Meurkens: The Jazz Meurkengers
by Edward Blanco
When one thinks of the jazz harmonica, two names immediately come to mind, the late great Toots Thielemans and the incomparable Hendrik Meurkens whose new project The Jazz Meurkengers fully captures Meurkens' desire to produce a new and exciting swinging jazz album. While Meurkens learned to play the vibraphone first at the age of sixteen growing up in Germany and still does quite well, it is the harmonica that has become his preferred instrument of choice and the one he ...
read moreHendrik Meurkens: The Jazz Meurkengers
by Pierre Giroux
Harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens brought together an outstanding group of musicians in The Jazz Meurkengers, which is a swinging tribute to the allure of hard-bop jazz. Supported by the resourceful and highly adaptable rhythm section of pianist Steve Ash, bassist Chris Berger and drummer Andy Watson, the band was augmented by the impeccable guitarist Ed Cherry on four tracks and bebop tenor saxophonist Nick Hampton on four different tracks giving the ensemble the energy, creativity, and reverence of the jazz ...
read moreJudy Whitmore: Come Fly with Me
by Jack Bowers
When the multi-talented Judy Whitmore sings “Come Fly with Me," it is an invitation that is almost impossible to resist, especially as the lovely and charming vocalist is also a pilot who is licensed to fly anything from jets to seaplanes to hot air balloons. On her latest album, backed by a big band and twenty-six member string section with arrangements by Hollywood top gun Chris Walden, Whitmore beckons listeners to fly with her to romantic places around the world ...
read moreRuss Spiegel: Caribbean Blue
by Jack Bowers
Pleasant music with ample color and variety--that's an apt description of Caribbean Blue, the latest albulm from California-bred, Florida-based guitarist Russ Spiegel, who has surrounded himself with world-class musicians and given them rein to canvass ten of his generally engaging compositions and bring them admirably to life. While everything on offer is respectable, it is the album's midsection--tracks 3-8--that rise above the others and lend the session much of its vitality and charm. After harmonica virtuoso Hendrik ...
read moreHendrik Meurkens and the WDR Big Band: Samba Jazz Odyssey
by Jack Bowers
One could probably count the number of big-band albums featuring a harmonica player on the fingers of one hand and leave some unused. Only one other springs to mind here, and it was released so many years ago that the names have long since been forgotten. And so it is indeed a genuine pleasure to hear the virtuosic Hendrik Meurkens performing with one of the world's foremost large ensembles, Cologne, Germany's exemplary WDR Big Band. More than ...
read moreHendrik Meurkens: Samba Jazz Odyssey
by Edward Blanco
One of the leading proponents of bossa nova and samba in the jazz world, New York-based chromatic harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens continues his love affair with Brazilian music with the big band sound of Samba Jazz Odyssey, his seventh release on the ZOHO record label. This time Meurkens is joined by the world-renown WDR Big Band from Cologne, Germany where the maestro and ensemble record nine tracks and seven of his most popular compositions arranged by Grammy-nominated conductor Michael Phillip ...
read moreJorge Garcia: Dedicated to You
by Jack Bowers
Gigi Gryce's turbo-charged “Minority," which opens Cuban-born guitarist Jorge Garcia's Dedicated to You, serves as a reminder of how much talent the world lost when alto saxophonist Richie Cole died in May 2020. And if that weren't enough to persuade any doubters, the vibrant “This One's for Richie" (based, appropriately, on the standard “There Will Never Be Another You") readily affirms that opinion. While, alas, those are the only tracks on which Cole performs, they alone make the album well ...
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