Wolf
Soup...? Bob Nieske explains that "I had a
friend named Sharon Wolf. You'd look in her
refrigerator and think there was nothing to eat, but she
could always make a great soup out of stuff you'd never
think of putting together. So I wrote a song called
'Wolf Soup' — I recorded it with Jimmy Giuffre on his
Soul Note album Quasar (voted Modern Jazz Record
of the Year by Jazz Hot magazine) — and later
saw how the concept fit the personalities in the
band. Everyone is a complete individual, but you put
them all together and you get something, um,
nourishing." According to writer Kevin
Whitehead, Wolf Soup is "good for you, based on
unexpected choices, a merging of diverse flavors and
tastes...from Charlie Haden to Sidney Bechet: that's the
kind of soup we're in."
New England bassist Nieske is the
founder, leader and composer of Wolf Soup. Best
known for his participation in the Jimmy Giuffre Quartet
— with whom he toured Europe frequently and recorded
three albums on Soul Note — Nieske has also recorded or
performed with Duke Robillard, George Russell and the
Living Time Orchestra, Alan Dawson, Orange Then Blue,
Larry Coryell, The Either Orchestra, Ronnie Earl, Eartha
Kitt, Dakota Staton and Herb Pomeroy. He is also the
winner of the 1994 Jazz Composers Alliance Jazz
Composition Contest and a 1990 Boston Music Awards nominee
for outstanding bassist.
Other unique ingredients in this recipe
are the influential guitarist Jon Damian, effervescent
drummer Nat Mugavero and the uniquely symbiotic saxophone
work of Tom Hall and Jimmy Cameron.
These are not lions, these are
wolves. Hear their howl!
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"...something different."
—Jimmy
Giuffre
"...grace and a
lyrical touch."
—Nat Hentoff
"...a very
personal harmonic universe."
—Russ Gershon
(of The Either Orchestra)
"Inventive
& marvelously precise."
—Jazz
Magazine
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