Kurt Rosenwinkel

Born in Philadelphia to a musical family, Rosenwinkel began taking piano lessons when he was nine years old. When he was 12, he began studying jazz guitar. Rosenwinkel attended the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts alongside classmates including Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, and future Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. He studied at Berklee College of Music for two and a half years before leaving in his third year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time. After moving to Brooklyn, he began performing with Human Feel, Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band,[1] Joe Henderson, and the Brian Blade Fellowship.

In 1995 he won the Composer's Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and was signed by Verve. Since then, he has played and recorded as a leader and sideman with Mark Turner, Brad Mehldau, Joel Frahm, and Brian Blade. He collaborated with Q-Tip, who co-produced his studio album Heartcore that includes bassist Ben Street, drummer Jeff Ballard, and saxophonist Mark Turner. He played guitar on Q-Tip's albums The Renaissance and Kamaal/The Abstract.

Rosenwinkel in April 2010

In 2008 The Remedy was released, recorded with saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Eric Harland. On November 10, 2009, he released a trio recording, Standards Trio: Reflections, with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Eric Harland. On September 7, 2010, he released Kurt Rosenwinkel & OJM: Our Secret World and with OJM an 18-piece big band from Porto, Portugal. His album Star of Jupiter was recorded with pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner.[2] He is on the faculty at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler.

In 2016, Rosenwinkel formed the independent music label Heartcore Records and began producing as well as performing. He produced his eleventh album, Caipi (2017), and was a producer and guitarist on Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Pedro Martin's album Vox (2019).

Rosenwinkel's musical contributions have extended beyond jazz. He has been a member of the Crossroads Guitar Festival family since 2013, when he was invited by guitarist Eric Clapton to share the stage. Clapton appeared on Rosenwinkel's Caipi (2017), playing on the song “Little Dream”. Rosenwinkel played in a hip hop setting with Q-Tip on The Renaissance (2008) and Kamaal the Abstract (2009). He appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with The Roots, and collaborated with Domi and JD Beck.

Rosenwinkel's influences include John Coltrane, Bud Powell, David Bowie, Joe Henderson, Charlie Parker, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Tal Farlow, George Van Eps, Bill Frisell, John Scofield, and Alex Lifeson.[3]

The Jazz Book calls Rosenwinkel "a visionary composer, with an infinitely sensitive way of layering electronic sounds, borrowed from ambient music, dub, and drum and bass, and manipulating them intelligently."[1]

Rosenwinkel has played a D'Angelico New Yorker, a Sadowsky semi-hollow body, a Gibson ES-335, guitars made by Italian luthier Domenico Moffa, and a signature model made by Westville Guitars.

Rosenwinkel has used a variety of effects, including: Neunaber WET Stereo Reverb, Strymon Timeline, Strymon Mobius, Strymon Blue Sky Reverb, Strymon El Capistan dTape Echo, Digitech Vocalist, Thegigrig HumDinger, Rockett Allan Holdsworth, Empress ParaEQ, Pro Co RAT distortion, TC Electronic Nova Reverb, Lehle D. Loop Effect-loop/Switcher, Malekko Echo 600 Dark, Old World Audio 1960 Compressor, Electro-Harmonix HOG Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer, Eventide TimeFactor Delay, Xotic X-Blender Effects Loops, Empress Tremolo, Lehle Parallel line mixer, TC Electronic SCF stereo chorus flanger, and Boss Corporation OC-3 octave, Strymon Riverside, Eventide H9, EHX Pog 2, Source Audio EQ, among others.[4] He has also used a Lavalier lapel microphone fed into his guitar amplifier[5] that blends his vocalizing with his guitar.

• Official site
• Heartcore Records
• State of Mind - Conversation with Kurt Rosenwinkel - 2008
• Kurt Rosenwinkel articles on NPR Music
• Jazzfuel - Interview with Kurt Rosenwinkel - 2017