Pianism from the September 2003 issue DEANNA WITKOWSKI Wide Open Window (Khaeon) Remember the name Deanna Witkowski. The 31-year-old New Yorker is not far from jazz stardom with her keyboard techniques, her mastery of exotic time signatures, her imaginative composing and arranging (much of her writing includes sacred music) and her wordless vocalizing. The latter is most impressive on Wide Open Window (Khaeon), her second CD as leader. The title tune is a blues-drenched jazz waltz, allowing for clever interplay between piano and Donny McCaslin's tenor. She takes Cole Porter's "From This Moment On" over a slow Latin beat, blending her voice with McCaslin's soprano sax. The way-up samba "A Rare Appearance" blends wordless voice again, this time with tenor sax. Her blazing straightahead technique comes through on Porter's "Just One of Those Things," with great support from bassist Jonathan Paul and drummer Tom Hipskind. She cleverly fashions bookends from a Chopin etude for a solo version of "You and the Night and the Music," and ends in a heavenly mood, singing "Sanctus," from one of her jazz masses. Remember her name. -Harvey Siders

Program Highlights: Week of November 26, 2003 - Deanna Witkowski Thirty-one year old composer, pianist, and vocalist, Deanna Witkowski is an amazing talent. This young artist on the rise plays music full of surprises, and her talents have received acclaim, recently winning the 2002 Great American Jazz Piano Competition. Classically trained, Deanna also admires the great works of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hammerstein, and infuses the standards with her own creative style for unique interpretations. She solos on "Wonderful Guy," before joining Marian on "Shadow of Your Smile."

March 2003 By David R. Adler Recommended Discs: * Deanna Witkowski, Wide Open Window (Khaeon) * Chris Lightcap, Bigmouth (Fresh Sound/New Talent) * Brad Shepik, Drip (Knitting Factory) * Jim McNeely Trio, In This Moment (Stunt) * Uri Caine, Concerto Koln: Diabelli Variations (Winter & Winter) * Irvin Mayfield/Gordon Parks, Half Past Autumn Suite (Basin Street)

Feb. 23, 2003 -- It was her third try, but Deanna Witkowski finally landed first place in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition last October. She took top honors with her rendition of "You and the Night and the Music" by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. In a journal entry on her website, Witkowski describes what it was like to perform the ballad in Jacksonville, Fla., that fall evening: "This arrangement, which takes a Chopin etude and fuses it with the jazz tune, is something that just kind of takes over once I start playing it. I really felt the energy of the audience -- almost breathing with me -- as I played." As she demonstrates in a Weekend Edition Sunday visit to NPR's Studio 4A, Witkowski's influences don't stop with classical and jazz. She also draws upon the standards of Cole Porter (playing his "All Through the Night"), Latin rhythms (she was recruited into a salsa band while attending grad school in Chicago) and a bit of blues in the style of the eclectic pianist Mary Lou Williams. Witkowski tells NPR's Liane Hansen why she dedicated the title song of her soon-to-be released CD, Wide Open Window (Khaeon), to Williams. "I just tried to reflect in this tune Mary Lou's spirit of just being really adventurous. The melody's kind of bluesy but again the harmonic progression snakes around quite a bit and so it seems to just sort of take off in a lot of different directions whenever we play it. It's a window on something different whenever we try it." Witkowski opens her 4A performance with the percussive Chick Corea-style "A Rare Appearance," which she wrote as a homework assignment while studying with Brazilian drummer Vanderlei Pereira. "He wanted us to write something in this typical Brazilian rhythm called baião. So this is what I wrote for class." Witkowski took the lesson in a different direction, though. "I think he liked the tune, but I don't think it's what he had in mind," she says and laughs.

Modern Drummer November 2003

Wide Open Window Deanna Witkowski | Khaeon KWM 200303 Deanna Witkowski pulls it open wide on this, her second album after 2000's Having To Ask -- and if anything, it proves she has abundant talent as a pianist and as a writer. Witkowski sets her path with an accent on lyricism. Even when she deconstructs the melody, there is a sense of time and space and beauty. Add her sense of harmony, and she places the music in constant flow. Witkowski pulls in several standards with an emphasis on Cole Porter in addition to her own compositions. She makes a mark as an accomplished interpreter, giving the established pieces a welcome, new color. The pull is immediate as she gets off in a free-flowing yet emphatic structure of “All Through The Night” which she shapes in tantalizing tempo switches. Her wordless vocalizing on “From This Moment On” in tandem with McCaslin’s soprano is almost hymnal, the lyrical impact compelling. Speaking in terms of hymns, “Sanctus,” which she wrote, swings joyously and appropriately in praise of God. Her solo reading of “You And The Night And The Music” is delectable and true to the core. With her own pen Witkowski brings the soft sashay of a Latin rhythm into “New August Tune,” featuring McCaslin breathing the lifeblood through his warm tenor. And on “A Rare Appearance,” he pushes the boundaries without flooding the cove. Witkowski daubs the tune with an airy vocal and opens up the melody with romps and whorls as Paul and Hipskind swirl beneath feeding the impetus. Wide Open Window makes for an enjoyable musical journey. –Jerry D’Souza

Deanna Witkowski- Wide Open Window Ms. Witkowski's pronounced imagination on her second CD as a leader reminds me of how often I change my mind about a long-ago McCoy Tyner trio performance of Thelonious Monk's "Ruby, My Dear" - sorry, I forget what 1980s Prestige Records session it was but I know it wasn't SUPERTRIOS - anyway, in that arrangement Tyner threw so many grace notes in his playing of the theme, it was as if he was trying to make of it a Maurice Ravel melody. Sometimes I dig it, other times I'm like, "It's what Monk left out that made that tune, man!" Well, there's a similar rhapsodic sense of pure invention to be heard in WIDE OPEN WINDOW: you have to be in the mood for much of this CD, but if you are, it'll hook you and never let you go. Other times you may, "Hmmmm, I don't know" For example, Cole Porter's "All Through The Night" gets a slightly-up-tempo Bill Evans-like treatment with a modal feel, keeping my eyebrows at 12 o'clock high; it's ingenious and it proves that there's very little Ms. Witkowski can't do. It's just a question of whether you want to hear Porter's classic weeper reimagined to this extent. Tom Hipskind's drums are especially fluent here, matching Witkowski 16th note for 16th note. Other members of this well-rounded band include Don McCaslin (saxophones) and Jonathan Paul (bass); I think Paul may be a bit undermiked but he backs the group with a delicious tone and no small presence, particularly on the blues-flavored title track. Ms. W. seldom fails to find hidden tonal depths wherever she chooses to look: even Rodgers and Hammerstein's delightfully corny "A Wonderful Guy" starts off with a quiet, meditative reading with an undercurrent of near-religious joy. So McCaslin's throaty jump out of the gate once the rhythm section kicks the piece into gear is a surprise of near Cannonball Adderly-like fervor. Very nice surprise, as long as one is receptive. Elsewhere the force of Ms. Witkowski's argument is undeniable and simply has to be admired, or what do you listen to Jazz for, anyway? A solo "You and the Night and the Music" has the perfect diction of a Beethoven sonata. The closing "Sanctus," a more direct ecclesiastical statement, is the Christian prayer set to glowing accompaniment, deriving from a mass written when Ms. W. was music director for an obviously very hip Episcopal church in Manhattan. I like her singing, it's natural and affecting and breathy: exactly what the music called for. And Porter's "Just One Of Those Things" has the melody stripped off and the undercarriage exposed (you have to look again at the CD listing to see what song this really is) but no one can argue with the facility with which Ms. W. completely takes the song's chords apart and reassembles them in the break. Paul's bass solo thereafter is simply ferocious, and the trading of 4s before the coda is also not done just because we're following the tradition slavishly. It's done because it was supposed to be. Art is not necessarily something about which we decide what we think and then go on to something else, and never change our minds about it. It will hit us at different times in different ways. WIDE OPEN WINDOW will refuse to allow you to file it away and forget about. It’s too different and too vital. Bravo, Ms. Witkowski. - Ken Egbert

6/13/2003 JAZZ NOTES Recommended new CDs: Deanna Witkowski: ''Wide Open Window'' (Khaeon) - Backed by saxophonist, bass, and drums, Witkowski takes us on an exuberant ride through some originals and standards, all of it lively and original. - Steve Greenlee

Willamette Week Week of September 7, 2005 Deanna Witkowski Trio [JAZZ] Pianist Deanna Witkowski is a sparkling talent who ably negotiates the divide between cool, introspective deliberation-think Bill Evans-and busting-at-the-seams exuberance, à la Chick Corea. Witkowski's grasp of Latin music is especially sharp, courtesy of studies with Cuban piano master Chucho Valdés. It permeates her attack and sense of pulse. With impressive technique and wide emotional compass, the 32-year-old is crafting an engaging, idiosyncratic style that fuses jazz, Afro-Cuban, and classical and sacred musics to great effect. -TIM DUROCHE

CRITIC’S CHOICE November 21, 2003 DEANNA WITKOWSKI-DONNY McCASLIN QUARTET Since moving to New York six years ago, former Chicagoan Deanna Witkowski has continued to turn heads with a tough, wiry, and dynamic piano style; her shy demeanor and unassuming, girlish vocals only accentuate the effect. After twice reaching the finals of the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, she took first place in the 2002 edition, and her second release, this year's Wide Open Window (Khaeon), documents a considerable leap from her self-produced debut: her playing has more power, and her treatment of material reveals a new depth of texture. The album features the quartet she'll appear with this week, which includes Chicagoans Jonathan Paul on bass and Tom Hipskind on drums, and terrific New York saxophonist Donny McCaslin. Whenever Witkowski returns to Chicago, she fills her dance card right up; this five-day visit includes a college date, a club date, an in-store, two church gigs, and a free downtown concert. --NEIL TESSER

Key players to look out for - Mays, Levine and Witkowski Discovery: a young pianist who has gotten her chops together, and is prepared to take liberties with the Latin jazz and standards tradition. Deanna Witkowski's recent "Wide Open Window" (Khaeon), confirms her as an original voice on jazz piano. If you thought "Just One of Those Things" was just one of those testosterone-fuelled workouts that jazz musicians perform at Mach 2 speed, think again: Witkowski and pals lend a fresh interpretation to the hardy perennial. Deanna restates and reinvents the head of the tune and then swings and swings and swings! Like a tanked-up triple-turbine engine, bassist Jonathan Paul and hip skinsman Tom Hipskind carry the tune well beyond the Mach 3 mark. However, Deanna has been bitten hard by the Latin bug. The ease with with she composes and plays tunes drawing on the Baiao and Afro-Cuban grooves ("A Rare Appearance", "New August Tune"), reflects her extensive studies with Hilario Duran, Chucho valdez and Vanderlei Pereira. Witkowski's mastery of the ballad form and her knack for intriguing contrapuntal subtlety, finds expression on the elegant "You and The Night and The Music", braiding together Chopin's Op. 10 no.6 with a jazz classic. Donny McCaslin's sonorous sax playing graces a couple of the tracks and he is heard to great effect on the title track ("Wide Open Window") - a Monk-ish delight which showcases the talents of all sidemen. Take a bow Deanna. A fine CD! -John Stevenson

Deanna Witkowski | Wide Open Window New York pianist/singer/composer Deanna Witkowski is perhaps the leading protégé of the famous Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. That alone should make most folks stand up and take notice. Her Khaeon Records debut, Wide Open Window, should make the remainder rise. Her music potently reveals the influence of Valdés, but this influence in no way smothers Witkowski’s considerable talent. The very talented bassist Jonathan Paul and drummer Tom Hipskind support Witkowski on this outing. Saxophonist of the hour Donny McCaslin provides reeds. The music is decidedly Latin-based without being overtly so. The opening piece, Cole Porter’s "All Through the Night" is like a martini with a splash of tequila instead of vermouth: heady, auspicious, and in-your-face. The pianist wants the listener’s attention and gets it right up front. This is not the only Cole Porter song on the disc. She also adds a lengthy investigation of "From This Moment On" and a brisk "Just One of Those Things." These songs in particular illuminate the brilliant control and discipline of Witkowski and her crack rhythm section. The latter shows Paul’s solo chops in a bright light, complemented by drummer Hipskind trading eights with the pianist. Sprinkled among the standards are Witkowski’s piquant originals, all brimming with enthusiasm and invention. "New August Tune" features McCaslin’s certain American sound against a humid Latin backdrop. Witkowski closes her disc with her interpretation of the modern Sanctus from the Roman Catholic Mass, which she capably sings. I usually start my year-end best of list early and Witkowski’s Wide Open Window will be the first one there for 2003. It is a true joy to hear musicianship of such rarified quality. Everything is exceptional about this recording: the rhythm support, the repertoire, the compositions, and most of all, Deanna Witkowski. –C. Michael Bailey

Jazz CDs, June 2003

Deanna Witkowski - Wide Open Window Deanna is 31, winner of last year’s Great American Jazz Piano Competition, and will be Marian McParland’s guest on Piano Jazz this September on NPR. Witkowski evidences a natural and unforced style about her tone and phrasing and a willingness to leave some spaces in the music. She also loves Cole Porter and selected three of his tunes for this album. Half to the tracks here are her own songs. One emulates Brazilian style, Sanctus is from a jazz mass she composed for a Manhattan church (part of many liturgical works she has written), and the album’s title tune is a classy blues number dedicated to the late jazz giant Mary Lou Williams. We have an important new talent here for sure.

- John Henry

June 2003 Deanna Witkowski - Wide Open Window A lot of good things have happened to Deanna Witkowski since she recorded her debut, Having to Ask, in 1997. She won the 2002 Great American Jazz Piano Competition in October, and she was the subject of a lengthy interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition a few weeks ago. In March, she taped a segment of Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland, which NPR will broadcast next Fall. She’s poised, it would seem, for jazz stardom. Witkowski recorded Having to Ask when she was 26, but she was already a confident and resourceful player. Her melodies were fresh and spontaneous, and while she paid homage on occasion to pianists like Bill Evans or Chick Corea, she never relied on them or anyone else for her sound. On Wide Open Window, her second disc, she has further developed her already impressive technical skills and broadened her emotional reach. Cole Porter’s "All Through the Night" opens Wide Open Window audaciously. Witkowski plays the tune with breathtaking energy and spins out a seemingly endless series of variations on Porter’s melody. She also slyly introduces a Latin rhythm into the arrangement, demonstrating her exquisite feel for unusual time signatures. Witkowski’s interest in Latin jazz led her to study with jazz pianists Chucho Valdés and Hilario Duran and with percussionist Bobby Sanabria. She also spent some time in Kenya and South Africa and absorbed the rhythms of the music in those countries. As a result, her music shows a tremendous ease with complex rhythms. "A Rare Appearance" is an upbeat tune that Witkowski wrote as an assignment for a class she took with Brazilian percussionist Vanderlei Pereira. He told her the tune did not follow the traditional pattern of the baiao rhythm -- the goal of the assignment -- but she says, "I liked how it came out anyway!" The song highlights one of the most striking aspects of Witkowski’s artistry: She writes melodies that are memorable and likable without being cloying. It’s also one of three tracks that feature her wonderfully light, airy vocals. Wide Open Window doesn’t use exotic rhythms on every tune. The title track, which Witkowski dedicates to Mary Lou Williams, is the most blues influenced composition she’s recorded so far. She begins the song by hanging close to the beat, injecting at several points some witty, Monk-like accents with her left hand. As the song builds, her rhythmic curiosity comes into play. She fragments the beat and comes at it from different angles, especially in her exchanges with the other players on the track: Jonathan Paul on bass, Tom Hipskind on drums, and Donny McCaslin on tenor.

Wide Open Window (p. 2) Witkowski wrote half the tunes on Wide Open Window and she chose five standards -- three of them by Cole Porter -- to fill out the disc. Each of the songs gives her the chance to explore music rhythmically, harmonically, and emotionally. I never sensed that on Having to Ask Witkowski ever fell back on technique or that she hesitated to plunge full force into any of her improvisations. But on Wide Open Window she brings an added urgency and range to her playing. She was clearly confident on her first disc. Here she cuts loose in a way that seems to me utterly brave, allowing her talent and inspiration to flow without limit. To state it plainly, she tears it up. Her accompanists are with her at every step. Paul and Hipskind play live with her regularly and appeared on Having To Ask. Hipskind is a loose-limbed and powerful drummer whose cymbal work is a highlight of the disc. Throughout Witkowski’s solos, Hipskind’s cymbal and snare drum accents push her along, exhorting her to go further. Paul also gives her firm rhythmic support and plays some wonderful melody lines that harmonize effectively with Witkowski’s. Donny McCaslin joins Witkowski’s trio on half the tracks and he displays a strong sense of melody and, on the tracks that call for it, a forceful grittiness. He does a tremendous public service on an arrangement of Cole Porter’s "From This Moment On" by reclaiming the soprano sax from the smooth-jazz hucksters who have so dominated the instrument for the last decade. Witkowski brings out the best in the other musicians on the disc, but she also seems to evoke a spirit of generosity among them. Even when all the players are firing at full force, they never play over each other. Each of them works to underscore the others’ strengths. As she did on her debut, Witkowski conveys a message of hope and beauty on Wide Open Window. She has added an occasional edginess and dissonance to her writing and playing, particularly on a composition like "New August Tune," where she and McCaslin trade melodies that have a slightly dark hue to them. Yet she always returns to a feeling of optimism. Witkowski acknowledges life’s difficulties -- this isn’t light jazz -- but she doesn’t linger on them. Her music embraces life in its complexity. With Wide Open Window, Deanna Witkowski becomes more than a jazz musician of great promise. She is now a pianist who clearly has a lot on her mind and she is determined to express it with skill and conviction. With her formidable talent, there’s virtually no limit to what she can play. -Joseph Taylor

Arts and Entertainment Guide- August 22, 2003 Keys to Heaven: A strong classical music grounding and studies with such renowned jazz players as Chucho Valdés and Fred Hersch no doubt have helped Deanna Witkowski develop her impressive fluency as a jazz pianist. But the lyricism and rhythmic assurance of her playing and the clarity of her compositions seem as much the gifts of a natural. –Marty Hughley