Tag: wayne krantz

Covers and the Transformative Power of Art

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Today it was announced that Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature.  Last weekend, Taylor Mac performed A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, in which he sang his version of Dylan’s A Hard Rain A-Gonna Fall, a response to the Stonewall Riots and their place in American history and culture.  Next week, Wayne Krantz will be performing his own covers of iconic songs at The Miraverse, hybridizing their pop-culture DNA with his own angular, progressive jazz.

In my book, the greatness of Dylan’s genius is not that it stands alone, but that it supports the work of other geniuses, such as Taylor Mac and Wayne Krantz.  Their ability to take the familiar and make us experience it completely new ways gives us insights, hopes, and confidence that we, too, can take our familiar selves and change the goddamn world.  That’s not only an exciting message, but it’s an empowering and transformative experience!

If you live anywhere in the RTP area, you can see what this all means for yourself by purchasing tickets for the event we are recording Oct 19th at 7pm at the studio from this eventbrite tickets link for the Wayne Krantz Undercover Pop Tour.  AbstractLogix (Wayne’s label) is running a special for their customers, so hit them up if you want their very special discount.

You can’t touch this… Continue reading “Covers and the Transformative Power of Art”

Wayne Krantz returns to The Miraverse

Wayne Krantz first visited The Miraverse February 15th, 2015 after receiving the All Clear from Jimmy Herring and others.  That night we recorded Wayne playing with long-time collaborator Keith Carlock on drums and Grammy-winning legend Anthony Jackson on bass.  And we have the video to prove it:

It was an incredible evening, listening to a mix of older songs as well as several new selections from his just-released album Good Piranha / Bad Piranha.  These new songs were an exploration of what might happen if Wayne used some well-known hooks as the kindling for his virtuoso pyrotechnics.  Songs like MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” and Ice Cube’s “Check Yo Self” never sounded so progressive!

So here’s the exciting news about Wayne’s return to The Miraverse on October 19, 2016:

Continue reading “Wayne Krantz returns to The Miraverse”

Wayne Krantz coming to the Miraverse, Feb 15 2015

Wayne Krantz playing his James Tyler guitar
Wayne Krantz, Premier Guitar

Guitar virtuoso and teacher Wayne Krantz and his trio are coming to the Miraverse February 15, 2015, and we are so excited!  I first learned about Wayne from the AbstractLogix catalog.  My love of the music created by John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Herring, and others of that sort predicted I would like Wayne’s music.  Not because he imitates them–he most certainly doesn’t!  But because he is as boldly original as they are, bringing together an exciting mix of classic and alien, funky and beautiful, harmonic and angular.  I bought the self-titled album Krantz Carlock Lefebvre and it spent weeks in the player as I listened to it over and over and over again.

When Wayne released a book (An Improviser’s OS), I found myself falling down a rabbit hole of nearly infinite complexity.  And infinitely beautiful.  And that’s how I learned that in addition to being a creative composer and master player, he is also a teacher.

So it is fitting, then, for him to come to the Miraverse both to play, and to teach…and you can attend his lessons and/or performances by clicking here.

Still reading?  Then here’s some more motivation to come…

Continue reading “Wayne Krantz coming to the Miraverse, Feb 15 2015”