Night Owl CD now available!To order or to contact Henry Winckel, email: quartertofour@ocsnet.net
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Also available on a number of download sites including iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.
"Night Owl" — From the first note emanating from the first track, listeners are taken away to a place where only sweet jazz lives. It is the kind of sound that makes you forget where you are — that makes you care about nothing else but the music.
Pianist Henry Winckel, in fulfilling a lifelong dream of developing and producing his own creation of original jazz, has brought to life music that touches your skin and caresses it.
It reaches gently into the mind and permeates the soul.
This jazz is not about sitting quietly in the background, or irritating listeners in a shout for attention. It’s smooth jazz that compels you to listen, regardless of your surroundings.
It started in January of 2006 as an idea for a solo piano album. But Winckel’s talent soon drew to his studio preeminent jazz musicians such as former Tower of Power saxophonist Paul Perez, bass guitarist Jimmy Haslip of the Yellowjackets, and a host of other top-notch players.
“I couldn’t have asked for a finer group of musicians than the ones who played on this album,” Winckel said.
Winckel is an award-winning composer who started playing piano at the age of 5. He studied classical music with various teachers for about 12 years, including two years with concert pianist Leah Effenbach.
At 17, his musical interest took a dramatic turn from Bach to blues. He began listening to albums of pianists such as Otis Spahn, Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, and used them to teach himself how to play blues and boogie-woogie.
A few years later, Winckel used that approach to teach himself jazz, incessantly playing the albums of Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis and Ray Bryant.
He also took every opportunity to catch live performances. He recalls the first time he heard Peterson play at a club in Century City.
"It was very humbling," he said. "My immediate reaction was to go home, turn my piano into kindling, and start chopping wood for a living."
During the ensuing years, Winckel honed his piano skills largely by working as a solo pianist. In the 1990s, he made three recordings. The first featured solo piano works by Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann; the second was Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, for which Winckel wrote the cadenzas; and the third was a solo album of original, instrumental music called Crystal Dawn.
In the late 1990s, Winckel started pursuing another of his interests — writing. After working as a freelance writer for about a year, he landed a job as a full-time reporter for The Porterville Recorder. During his six years at the paper, he became an award-winning journalist, garnering a number of regional, state and national awards.
His musical aspirations lay dormant until January of 2006.
"At the beginning of last year I just got the bug again,” he said.
Winckel gave up his reporting job and devoted himself solely to composing music. Within six months, word of his compositions began spreading from one musician to another. That’s how internationally-acclaimed bassist Jimmy Haslip, of Los Angeles, became part of the project.
Haslip, in a telephone interview, said he was working on another project when keyboard player Dennis Ham handed him a disc of Winckel’s music. Ham plays with Crosby Loggins, son of singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins.
”I listened to it and I was very impressed,” said Haslip. “What impressed me were the compositions — they were really top-notch — and the musicianship. The music was very complex, but melodic and soothing. I was listening just to listen.
And the music was well played. I didn’t know who was playing on the tracks, but whoever it was had a very high quality of musicianship.”
Perez said he was equally impressed when he first heard the music.
Winckel had composed and recorded all the piano, bass, drum and background parts using synthesized and sampled instruments. He emailed the mp3s to Perez, who then came up with melody lines and horn arrangements. Perez took a rough mix to Harvard University-trained music authority Doug Davis for his opinion.
“Doug called it an extraordinary project,” Perez said.
Davis, who is director of the annual Bakersfield Jazz Festival, subsequently invited Perez to perform the tunes at the 2007 festival. Perez, Winckel, bassist Glen Fong, drummer Jarred Pope, trombonist Ron Christian and keyboardist Zeke Victor opened the festival on May 11. "They and headliner Lee Ritenour were the two best acts at the festival," Davis said.
Winckel says Perez was largely responsible for shaping the overall sound of the album, and singlehandedly produced it. "Paul not only co-wrote seven of the 13 tunes, he brought in all the players," Winckel said. "It was his idea to bring Jimmy Haslip into the project."
Haslip is one of the most highly-regarded and sought-after talents in the music industry. He has played on more than 400 albums and produced 60.
Winckel offered to drive to Los Angeles and have Haslip recorded there, but Haslip said he likes to accommodate people, so he made the three-hour trip north to Winckel’s studio located in the Southern Sierra foothill community of Springville.
“Henry was very humble, gracious and hospitable,” Haslip said. “That’s another thing that entices me to work with people, especially when they have humility. I did five or six tracks in six or seven hours. The music just flowed. I had a great day. I don’t think he realizes what a nice experience it was for me to be there in Springville. I feel honored to be part of this.”
In March of 2007, one of the album’s tracks — "When Giacomo Learned To Swing" — garnered Winckel the "Outstanding Achievement in Songwriting Award" sponsored by the Great American Song Contest. With the debut of Night Owl, music lovers are certain to be captivated by the soul-touching excitement of some of the most melodious jazz to be produced in recent memory.
“Once people hear the album, they’re bound to become fans,” Haslip said. "The musicianship, music and compositions are superior. It stands alongside of anything that’s good out there."
By Anita Stackhouse-Hite
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