Performances

Arun Luthra is one of New York’s premier saxophonists, an award-winning composer, and an exponent of konnakol–the Carnatic (South Indian classical) music art form of vocalizing rhythms. As the leader of his Konnakol Jazz Project, he is one of the small group of American musicians of South Asian heritage who have continued to explore the possibilities of fusing jazz with elements of Indian classical music, as well as drawing from the myriad cultures and traditions which he embodies, to create a vibrant new sound and style.

Luthra has performed with his Konnakol Jazz Project across the United States as well as in Japan, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and South America. He is a D’Addario Woodwinds artist, and endorses the ReedGeek reed tool.

Johannes Wallmann is a pianist and composer, recording artist on Shifting Paradigm Records and Fresh Sound New Talent Records, a Yamaha Piano artist, and the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Wallmann has performed extensively as a bandleader and as a sideman in local, national, and international venues.

Born 1974 in Germany, Johannes Wallmann was raised on Canada’s Vancouver Island. He studied jazz piano and composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston (B.M., 1995) and at New York University (M.A., 1997; Ph.D., 2010), while winning numerous national music competitions and scholarships, as well as two Canada Council artist grants. After moving to New York City in 1995, he quickly established himself as a versatile and in-demand sideman in a wide-range of musical styles.

Wallmann taught at New York University (1996-2007) and the New School (2003-2007) before relocating to Oakland to lead the jazz studies program at California State University East Bay. He joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music as the inaugural holder of the John and Carolyn Peterson Chair in Jazz Studies in 2012. At UW, he spearheaded the development of UW’s jazz studies program, which launched in 2014, and won the Division of the Arts’ Emily Mead Baldwin award in 2019. In 2021, he was named an H.I. Romnes Fellow.

Wallmann has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including several national tours with the Dennis Mitcheltree Quartet, and performances at Massey Hall (Toronto), Carnegie (Weill Recital) Hall, Merkin Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Conservatory, Renee Weiler Hall, Steinway Hall (New York City), the Hong Kong Coliseum (HK), Pacific Coliseum (Vancouver), SkyReach Center (Edmonton), the Taj Mahal (Atlantic City), and in major jazz clubs throughout North America and Germany (Birdland, The Blue Note, the 55 Bar, Yoshis, The Rex, the Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill, The Green Mill, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, The Jazz Estate, The Jazz Gallery, Café Coda, and many more). Wallmann has recorded or performed with trumpeters Ingrid Jensen, Brian Lynch, Ralph Alessi, and Russ Johnson; saxophonists Gary Bartz, Seamus Blake, Phil Dwyer, Dayna Stephens, Pete Yellin, Dennis Mitcheltree, and Russ Nolan; tubaists Howard Johnson and Marcus Rojas; guitarist Gilad Hekselman; vibraphonist Christian Tamburr; bassists Jeff Andrews, Matt Penman, Sean Conly and Martin Wind; drummers Danny Gottlieb, Tim Horner, Jeff Hirshfield, Terry Clark and Donald Bailey; jazz singers Kevin Mahogany and Jackie Allen; operatic tenor Dr. Francois Clemmons and the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble; Four Other Brothers (IL); the Billings Symphony Orchestra and Canto-pop star Faye Wong.

Wallmann has recorded ten critically acclaimed CDs as a leader: The Johannes Wallmann Quartet (1997), Alphabeticity (2003), Minor Prophets (2007), The Coasts (2010), The Town Musicians (2015), Always Something (2015), Love Wins (2018), Day and Night (2018), Elegy for an Undiscovered Species (2021), and Precarious Towers (2022). His most recent release is collaborative album with the Precarious Towers quintet entitled Ten Stories (2023).

Wallmann’s 2015 quintet album, The Town Musicians (Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT-469), was named an Editors’ Pick by DownBeat Magazine, which called Wallmann “a remarkable pianist and composer…his evocative compositions are brimming with melodic cogency and rhythmic pull,” and called the album a “stunning collage of jazz styles and genres” and “a harmonious album from a lifetime of diverse sounds and experiences.” Midwest Record called The Town Musicians “a sizzling session of sitting down jazz” and “music that meets on the corner of complex and accessible,” and the UK’s Jazz Journal wrote, “If I were responsible for an album as good as this, I’d be shouting about it.”

Wallmann’s 2018 album Love Wins (Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT-538), which the pianist co-composed with hip-hop/jazz/spoken-word lyricist Rob Dz documents and celebrates the marriage equality trials in Wisconsin and the ideas of love, longing, acceptance, and social justice. Love Wins was named “Our First Best Albums of 2018 (So Far) recipient” by Something Else! The UK’s Jazz Journal wrote, “Wallmann makes a septet sound like something much larger, as big as his subject, maybe. Love Wins is as musically challenging as it is socially, and deserves to be heard on both counts.” And the Wisconsin Gazette named Love Wins, “One of the most interesting and accomplished jazz albums to come out in recent years. Love Wins has taken the uniquely American art form to the next step of its creative journey.”

On Day and Night, Wallmann’s 2019 release on Shifting Paradigm Records, Wallmann revisits musical connections established over more than two decades in the jazz world. The album, which DownBeat describes as a “nuanced set of tunes balanced in perfect dynamics, […] meant to be sipped and savored from beginning to end,” features the pianist leading an intergenerational quintet of long-time musical associates Dayna Stephens, saxophones; Brian Lynch, trumpet; Matt Pavolka, bass; and Colin Stranahan, drums on original compositions and re-imagined jazz standards.

Wallmann’s 2021 release, Elegy for an Undiscovered Species (Shifting Paradigm Records), features trumpeter Ingrid Jensen (member of jazz super group ARTEMIS, first-choice soloist for the bands of Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue, bandleader, and Dean of Jazz Arts at Manhattan School of Music), tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens (winner, “Rising Star—Tenor Saxophone,” DownBeat Critics Poll), drummer Allison Miller (bandleader/recording artist, and drummer with Ani DiFranco and Natalie Merchant), Madison bassist Nick Moran, and a 14-piece string orchestra. Elegy was named a “Best of 2021” album by DownBeat magazine, “Best of Jazz on Bandcamp, June 2021,” a “Top 10 Album of 2021” by Culture Currents, and a “Top 20 Madison Record of 2021” by Tone Madison.

Wallmann’s latest album as a leader, Precarious Towers, features a high-octane Midwest all-star quintet of alto saxophonist Sharel Cassity (Chicago), vibraphonist Mitchell Shiner and drummer Devin Drobka (both Milwaukee), bassist John Christensen (Madison) and Wallmann. Towers was named a “Best of 2022 Album” by Something Else! and a “Best of Bandcamp, June 2022” album. The Milwaukee’s Shepherd’s Express writes: “Wallmann rises to precipitous heights in his 10th album, Precarious Towers, proving his ability to create a concept album, with extra-musical aspects streaming gracefully throughout.”

Following the initial album and a string of concerts, the Precarious Towers group morphed into a collaborative quintet, with each of the members contributing compositions to their follow-up album Ten Stories (2023, Shifting Paradigm). Something Else! calls Ten Stories “a mesmerizing jazz album that showcases the exceptional talent of an ensemble named after one of my favorite jazz releases of 2022 by Johannes Wallmann. Together, Precarious Towers raises an already high bar with each band member swinging for the fences.”