Jimmy's bio

Baby Jackson 1 (Xaloc 015) Released December 2004*

Jimmy Weinstein Group w/ Chris Cheek
Sound Emotion (GM 3036) Released October 1998 *
Nostalgia (Accurate 5009) Released September 1994 *

Renzi/Weinstein/Kamaguchi
Dream Life (Fresh Sound/New Talent 113) Released October 2001 *
Lines and Ballads (Fresh Sound/New Talent 065) Released November 1999 *

Matt Renzi/Jimmy Weinstein w/Ben Monder and Chris Higgins
Quartet (Fresh Sound/New Talent 045) Released September 1998 *

NAM w/ Ahmed Abdullah, Alex Harding and Masa Kamaguchi
Live at the Visions Festival (Trem Azul) Released January 2004 *
Actual Proof (CIMP 192) Released September 1999

Alex Harding w/ Chris Dahlgren and Jimmy Weinstein
Free Flow (CIMP 246) Released in December 2001

Carlberg/Kamaguchi/Weinstein
Prelude (Splasch cdh 839.2) released October 2002 *

Marco Tindiglia
Happy Jazz (Splasch) Released May 2001

Alex Stornello

StandHards (Philology) Released Spring 2003

Jacques Schwarz-Bart
Immersion (Fresh Sound/New Talent 057) Released in June 1999 *

RED w/ Oscar Noriega and Jeff Parker
Ad Hoc ism (Ad Hoc 001) Released in September 1996 *

Dahlia and the Llamas
Punk: Rock: Poetry (Baby Dark 001) Released June 2002
Various Recordings 2000/2001

Hitch_Hikers w/ Francesco Guaiana and Luca LoBianco
Released in January 2007

Rosario di Rosa Trio
Freedom (ABEAT) Released July 2008

* Produced by Jimmy Weinstein

jimmy weinstein biography

Drummer/composer, Jimmy Weinstein was born in Chicago, IL. he moved with his wandering family from Chicago to Europe, back to California and later to Spain. As a child he studied piano and cello. At age 13 he taught himself drums and guitar, and played in school bands and musicals. After finishing high school in Spain he went to England to pursue a career as a yacht designer, which eventually landed him a job in New York City where he began to study jazz, working as a designer by day and studying at the Drummer's Collective and Barry Harris' Jazz Cultural Theater by night. He also studied and played with bop saxophonist Clarence"C" Sharpe during that time. In 1986 he moved to Boston and attended Berklee, where he studied with Joe Hunt, Ed Tomassi, Fred Lipsius among others. Post Berklee he went on to study drum set technique with world renowned maestro, Alan Dawson. Later he played in small and large ensembles directed by Max Roach. Over the course of time, didactic encounters with Jaco Pastorious, Paul Bley, David Liebman, Yusef Lateef, Bob Brookmeyer, Peter Erskine, Bob Moses, Karl Berger, and Nasyr Abdul Al-khabyyr have had a major influence on him.

After completing a degree at Berklee, he was encouraged by Brookmeyer to "get a gig" by going out to play in the street. He took this advice very seriously and embarked on a 3 year experience of playing the streets of Cambridge, Boston and Brooklyn. This is how he developed his sound, and concept often spending 12 hours a day experimenting with diverse and unusual formations. Street bands frequently included Jeff Parker, Oscar Noriega, Andrew d'Angelo, Don Houge and guitarist Elie Massias with whom he formed his first band, Jimmy Weinstein Group with bassist Masa Kamaguchi and saxophonist Chris Cheek. In 1993 he moved back to New York, and recorded his group's first album, Nostalgia. The album was critically acclaimed in Downbeat, Jazz Times and other publications. Critic John Andrews called him a "restless, inventive drummer" and praised the album highly. Modern Drummer wrote "Weinstein successfully explores the noir-ish balance of dangling space and interaction". A follow-up recording Sound Emotion was produced by Gunther Schuller. As a development of his group and sound, this album featured mostly the leader's compositions. To date Weinstein has recorded over 20 albums as a leader or sideman, on labels which include, Fresh Sound, Clean Feed, CIMP, Accurate, Splasch, GM, and Philology

While re-based in Brooklyn, Weinstein cultivated experimental groups that performed in New York and toured Europe and Japan. In 1998 he co-founded the quartet, NAM with Ahmed Abdullah, Alex Harding and Masa Kamaguchi. New CD's have been released on Weinstein's own Xaloc Music featuring a quartet with Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura and Masa Kamaguchi titled This Ocean; Baby Jackson, a studio produced anonymous duo. A new trio CD with, Francesco Guaiana (guitar) and Luca Lo Bianco (bass), collectively known as Hitch_Hikers released in early 2007.

Other recording and touring projects are, Dahlia and the Llamas, Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora, Ben Monder, Matt Renzi, Alex Harding's Free Flow, Frank Carlberg and Christine Correa. Jimmy also led the experimental trio RED that featured New York reedman Oscar Noriega and Chicago based omni-dimensional guitarist Jeff Parker. Jimmy has also been working with guitar experimentalist Sten Hosfalt in a series of "free associated ensembles". Since 2002 Weinstein has been concentrating on developing Traveling School, with his wife vocalist Liliana Santon. The initiative collaborates with artists to perform workshops focused on improvisation as liberating vehicle. Every year they host the jazz workshop in Mallorca at Sa Pobla Jazz.

Weinstein has produced 5 albums for the Barcelona based Fresh Sound label including cd’s by pianist extraordinaire Roberta Piket and tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart in addition to his own undertakings, most notably with Renzi/Weinstein/Kamaguchi (RWK). The later receiving a myriad of stellar reviews including album of the year in 2000 from the Spanish publication Cuadernos de Jazz for their CD Lines and Ballads (FSNT 065). Weinstein has also composed scores for the independent feature films, Under The Bridge (1997) and Riding the Rails (1997).

The most recent projects include work with, Marcello Tonolo, Nicola Fazzini Quartet and Trio, Alfredo Ponissi and Stefano Solani, Rosario di Rosa (Cd Freedom 2008), Buckminster Fuller project 2008-2010, Venetian folk band Lagunaria.