DAN WALL

During the 70s and 80s, Dan Wall cultivated a reputation as a proficient jazz pianist by playing and recording with luminaries like Steve Grossman, Eddie Gomez, Jeremy Steig, Joe Chambers, and Sheila Jordan. Trips back to his home town Atlanta saw him on the bandstand with everyone from Eddie Harris and Charlie Rouse to Lee Konitz and Al Cohn. He also recorded a piano album for the label Audiophile. When in 1992 guitarist John Abercrombie and drummer Adam Nussbaum asked him to join their new group on organ, Dan Wall began devoting much of his time to the Hammond B-3 adapting his sophisticated pianistic approach to it. His Larry Young-influenced, free-of-cliché organ playing can already be heard to good effect on several recordings by the current Abercrombie trio (on ECM).

"Off The Wall" is Wall's first album as an organ player in his own right presenting his groovy, yet daring approach to the instrument in a concentrated form. With old-time friends Karl Ratzer and Adam Nussbaum, Wall's trio challenges our preconceptions about jazz organ and enthralls us with uncompromised artistry. Here is a new voice on Hammond offering a new way to listen to the instrument! Beside, this heavy album spotlights such gripping soloists as Canadian trumpet player Ingrid Jensen and Austrian guitar hero Karl Ratzer who soon will come up with brand new albums of their own on ENJA.