Old Friends, New Conversations: Daniel Koulack Brings Musical Worlds Together
Daniel Koulack has spent a career moving between folk, jazz, klezmer and roots music. This Sunday, he brings longtime friends Marilyn Lerner, Ken Whiteley and David Wall together at Jazz at the Fort Garry Hotel for a concert shaped by decades of shared musical history.
Winnipeg multi-instrumentalist Daniel Koulack has built a career moving between folk, jazz, klezmer, roots music and improvisation. Hear him with Marilyn Lerner, Ken Whiteley and David Wall at Jazz at the Fort Garry Hotel on Sunday, October 18.
🎧 Listen Along: Daniel Koulack has curated a playlist that reflects the wide musical world he comes from — folk, jazz, klezmer, roots music and beyond. Listen for the connections between traditions, the influence of longtime collaborators, and the kind of musical curiosity that has shaped his career. Listen to Daniel Koulack Selects on Spotify»
Ask Daniel Koulack what kind of music he plays and he doesn’t spend much time trying to narrow it down.
“I play all kinds of music,” he says. “I started out with folk music and I played the banjo, but then later on played the bass and played klezmer music and jazz music. I got to play with some great, wonderful African musicians — just all kinds of different music.”
That openness has been a constant throughout Koulack’s career as a bassist, banjo player, composer, arranger and producer. His work has moved through old-time music, klezmer, jazz, western swing, African music and other traditions, often shaped by the musicians he has encountered along the way.
His earliest musical influence came at home. Koulack’s parents had moved from New York and were part of the American folk revival, with music by Pete Seeger among the first sounds he remembers hearing.
“That was my baby music,” he says.
The banjo became central to Koulack’s musical life, but living far from the places where old-time banjo traditions were most established gave him room to develop his own approach.
“I ended up hooking up with different musicians in Winnipeg, so it’s a sort of Winnipeg style banjo.”
“My banjo music comes out of old-time banjo tradition,” he explains. “That’s where the instrument came from and so that’s where it’s rooted, but then it sort of went in different directions.”
Those directions were shaped in Winnipeg.
Pianist and composer Marilyn Lerner is known for adventurous work across jazz, klezmer, classical and improvised music. Winnipeg audiences may remember her from her years in the city, including time with Papa Mambo and collaborations with local artists like Larry Roy.
“I ended up hooking up with different musicians in Winnipeg, so it’s a sort of Winnipeg style banjo.”
Koulack sees something similar in the work of Winnipeg banjo players Leonard Podolak and Allison de Groot. All three began with established traditions but developed distinct musical voices through the communities and collaborators around them.
That same exchange between traditions is at the centre of Koulack’s upcoming performance at Jazz at the Fort Garry Hotel, where he will be joined by pianist Marilyn Lerner, singer and composer David Wall, and roots musician Ken Whiteley.
The connections among them stretch back decades.
Lerner spent several years as an important part of Winnipeg’s music scene, performing jazz while also exploring Cuban music, klezmer and improvisation. Near the end of her time in Winnipeg, she and Koulack formed a group that approached Jewish and Eastern European music with a more contemporary musical language.
That group also included Wall, whom Koulack had known since junior high school in Toronto. Wall later became known as one of the lead singers of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, while his wider career has encompassed blues, roots music, jazz, film composition and Yiddish song.
Singer and composer David Wall has travelled a wide musical road — from fronting the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir to jazz, film composition and Yiddish song. He’s also been making music with Ken Whiteley for nearly 50 years.
“He’s a very, very special musician,” Koulack says.
The connection with Whiteley goes back just as far — and began in the classroom. When Koulack was in Grade 8 in Toronto, Whiteley was his music teacher. The following year, Whiteley taught Wall.
David and Ken have now been making music together for close to 50 years.
Koulack describes Whiteley simply as “the real deal,” pointing to a career spanning folk, blues, gospel, roots music, production and collaborations across the Canadian music landscape. Whiteley was also among the performers at the first Winnipeg Folk Festival, another link to a musical community that helped shape Koulack himself.
Although Sunday’s concert is being presented under Koulack’s name, he sees his own role primarily as supporting the three visiting artists.
“The show is going to be really the three of them,” he says. “I’ll be accompanying on bass. I’ll just pull out my banjo for a couple of tunes.”
The concert came together because Lerner, Wall and Whiteley were already travelling to Winnipeg for another event Koulack is presenting on Saturday. With all three musicians in town, Koulack and Jazz Winnipeg Artistic Director Zachary Rushing saw an opportunity to give them more room to play.
“Since they’re in town, it would be a shame not to have them play at length,” Koulack says.
Veteran Canadian roots musician Ken Whiteley has spent decades moving between folk, blues, gospel, songwriting and production. He played the first Winnipeg Folk Festival, was also Daniel Koulack’s Grade 8 music teacher — and later taught David Wall the following year.
The result will bring jazz, folk, blues, klezmer, Yiddish song and improvisation into the same room, drawing on the relationships among musicians who have known one another for years but don’t often have the opportunity to perform together.
For Koulack, that kind of exchange is also what makes live music worth seeking out.
“We forget about how nice it is to share an experience,” he says. “When the music hits an emotion and everybody’s feeling it, there’s something about being in the room with other people.”
Koulack especially values the atmosphere of The Club Room, where an attentive audience allows musicians to work with more subtlety.
“When people are listening, it lets the musicians play in a nuanced way,” he says. “You can’t always play in that way.”
That attention becomes particularly important with jazz and improvised music, where the performance is shaped in real time.
“Jazz, of course, and improvised music is special because it allows for more interplay,” Koulack says. “Not just with the other musicians, but I think with the audience as well.”
“When people are listening, it lets the musicians play in a nuanced way. You can’t always play in that way.”
For Koulack, Jazz Winnipeg plays an important role in making those encounters possible, both by supporting local musicians and by bringing artists to the city that audiences might not otherwise get the chance to hear.
Sunday’s concert brings both ideas together: longtime musical relationships, different traditions, and an audience invited into the conversation.
Or, as Koulack puts it: “It’s going to be a really, really fun night. If you can make it, come on out.”
Help Make More Musical Encounters Possible
Daniel Koulack sees live music as a shared experience — one shaped by the musicians, the audience, and the chance to hear something you might not encounter anywhere else.
“Jazz Winnipeg is really working at supporting live music and supporting Winnipeg musicians in their creative endeavours,” he says, “and giving people a chance to hear music that they otherwise simply wouldn’t be able to hear here in Winnipeg.”
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