Michael Weiss

Hello friends. HOMAGE releases this Friday, November 3 – download and physical CD. https://michaelweiss.bandcamp.com/album/homage Info: Michael Weiss has always had the ear of some of the most imposing soloists in jazz. The seasoned pianist has been a top-call sideman to a starry constellation of bandleaders during his career, from a 15-year tenure with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin to extensive tours, club dates, or recordings with George Coleman, Charles McPherson, Lou Donaldson, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson and many others. Among the many qualities that these jazz legends have responded to in Weiss’ conception is its aesthetic breadth and depth. His improvising and writing is rooted in bebop fundamentals but also expansive, reflecting contemporary approaches to melodic development, rhythmic and textural variety, and formal ingenuity. Above all, Weiss is a musician who communicates his own personal view of the world. His music pulsates with a strong emotional commitment and hard-won individuality. George Coleman, well-known as a saxophonist unwilling to suffer any musician who doesn’t meet the highest artistic standards, put it this way in 2022: “Michael is very inventive and creative, and he has been for a very long time. He’s harmonically adept and has a fantastic right hand. He’s gifted. He deserves more attention.” With Weiss’ sideman credentials well established, he has recently concentrated on honing his distinctive language with his own trio. In addition to club and festival work and touring, he has produced a growing series of recordings that document his sophisticated original compositions and inventive arrangements of off-the-beaten track repertoire and standards. Homage, which features Paul Sikivie on bass and Pete Van Nostrand on drums, finds the trusted piano veteran in exceptional form on his second outing for Cellar Live, following 2022’s well-received quartet album Persistence. Reviewing the latter in Jazz Times, Martin Johnson wrote that Weiss “is neither a revivalist nor a classicist, but a virtuoso who dives into harmonic textures and melodic structures in search of beauty and surprise.” Meanwhile, Ted Panken wrote in Downbeat, “Weiss merges old-school idiomatic particulars with progressive aesthetics.” On Homage, the program combines six Weiss originals, including the sparkling leadoff track “Un Petit Quelque Chose” (“a little something”), with eloquent, insightful, deeply swinging readings of “Lullaby of the Leaves,” “I’ll Remember April” and “Skylark.” Then there’s the uncommon and beguiling Clare Fischer composition “Suddenly,” not to mention an exuberant take of Charlie Parker’s lesser-known “An Oscar for Treadwell” included here “as a dedication to the great pianist and educator Barry Harris,” Weiss writes in his liner notes. “Barry left us not long ago after a fruitful and full life bringing the art of melody to listeners and students around the world. He was a close comrade for over 40 years and left an indelible mark on my musical personality.” There are other dedicatees as well, some quite specific, others less direct. “The Griffin” honors the late Chicago tenor great, Weiss’s stateside employer for 15 years, “short in stature but a giant ball of fire on the saxophone.” “We Love Horace,” for the dearly missed hardbop pioneer, is “one of those tunes that just flowed out in one pass,” Weiss says. “Upon reflection, the melody and detailing appear to have that Silverian flavor.” The quote of Silver’s “Doodlin’” that ends the piano solo is the chef’s kiss. Selections for Homage came about through what Weiss describes as “a leisurely process of tweaking and editing on the bandstand, the best laboratory for developing and refining ideas in organic fashion.” “I’ll Remember April,” for instance, cooled way down from its typical uptempo treatment, is particularly adventurous in its orchestration and harmonic reworking. As a result, improvising on the form becomes a new prospect, putting the trio’s subtle chemistry under a microscope. “A World Away,” though not intended as a tribute, reveals what is perhaps the unconscious influence of Bobby Hutcherson in its modern 6/8 groove, thorny chromaticism and majestic melody. “It’s a melancholy theme with two sections that eventually concludes on a bright note,” writes the pianist, who keeps the take concise and makes it count. “Hale-Bopp,” named for the comet discovered in 1995, is a kind of tribute to jazz itself, “a piece spun out of the bebop vernacular, but with a few harmonic twists,” says Weiss. The trio’s rhythmic precision is key on this intricate head, setting up a bright walking swing feel and a piano solo packed with edge-of-seat invention. “Pete continues the conversation with a perfect chorus,” Weiss writes, “demonstrating why he is one of the most in-demand drummers in New York today.” Weiss also singles out Sikivie’s leadoff bass solo on “Lullaby of the Leaves” for its “melodic ingenuity and solid beat.” “Homage,” with an elegant and darkly hued lyricism, “was originally composed as the second movement of a suite,” Weiss explains. “After trying a variety of rhythms, the bolero seemed to fit best. Except for one short solo section, it is entirely composed. While it’s not dedicated to anyone in particular, it feels like an homage nonetheless.” The same can be said for the album Homage as a whole, affording us one of the most intimate and sustained views of Michael Weiss’s artistry to date. What the Critics Say: “I love listening to pianist Michael Weiss. He has a jazz sound all his own.... It’s a feel and seasoning that comes from playing with hard bop masters. The playing is spectacular and supersized, with zero fat.” — Marc Myers, JAZZWAX Michael Weiss is a conscientious pianist with a firm foothold on modern jazz traditions.” — Nate Chinen, The New York Times “Through the years [Weiss has] matured into his own man within this rich genre, both as pianist and composer.” — Ira Gitler, Jazz Inside “Mr. Weiss has the charging, heavily rhythmic side of bebop playing under his fingers, and he can focus the intensity in a tune as well as any pianist in mainstream jazz.” — Ben Ratliff, The New York Times “Weiss is a nimble and inventive keyboard artist who couldn’t play an inelegant note if he wanted to.” — Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune “One of the most fluent and flexible pianists of his generation.” — Mark Stryker, BMI Music World “Combines the wonder of spontaneity with a workmanlike acknowledgment of his materials: art and craft in delightful balance.” — Neil Tesser, The Chicago Reader

There were a lot of those. What the hell?

1991 Birdland, NYC The Song is You Countdown

That's got to be John Guerin on drums on the funk tracks.

Be sure to stop by and say hello Justin.

Opening tune, opening night stream from Smoke: https://www.facebook.com/smokejazznyc/videos/145121881922133

We had a good week last week at Smoke. https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/357142721_10159895642357371_3648061111507355283_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=103&cb=99be929b-59f725be&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=ou_4Z3yye90AX_m76jJ&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=00_AfBwntr7veTM77bN56GuaQMZcAWlhq0DC10MGPC0MWuoTg&oe=64AB0841

The bassist Gerald Cannon is quite prolific. https://www.cannonmusicnart.com/gbasscleffgmailcom

When I recorded N.Y. Cats (SteepleChase) with Ronnie he was cranky at the rehearsal or session, don't remember which. But it was a momentary snit fit and he was cool after that. Don't even remember what got under his skin. Passionate guy, that's all. On the Mingus Epitaph tour Ronnie and George Adams were two of the chillest in the band.

Jimmy told me that he and Trane would assign themselves particular Bird solos to transcribe and share with each other.

I'll be working with George, Russell Malone, Willie Jones and Vince Dupont at Smoke, June 29-July 2.

That's likely. You could go to Skyline from anywhere in the city - either half the day or full time.

Didn't know about that. Having gone to Skyline 1973-1976 I never heard his name mentioned there. However I came across this: "In the late 1940s he moved back to Texas and taught school in Wichita Falls until 1955, when he settled in Dallas. There he held a teaching position at Oliver Wendell Holmes High School until his retirement in 1976. Hardee gave his last performance at the Nice Jazz Festival in France in 1975. He died in Dallas on May 18, 1984."

Great to see you Kevin. Thanks for braving the frigid weather. Glad you enjoyed the music.

Thanks!

Martin Milgrim posts here as MartyJazz

Martin Milgrim can do it. He has no formal musical training, never played an instrument but identified every tune I soloed over, - standards, bebop tunes, didn't matter.

January 24-28: Frank Wess Octet Tribute Band @Birdland, NYC with Rufus Reid, Dennis Mackrel, Steve Davis, Scott Robinson, Bill Easley, Mike Rodriguez February 3: Michael Weiss Quartet @Side Door, Old Lyme, CT with Eric Alexander, Vince Dupont, Pete Van Nostrand February 4: Michael Weiss Trio @Scullers, Boston, MA with Vince Dupont, Pete Van Nostrand February 5: Michael Weiss Trio @Django, NYC with Clovis Nicholas, Pete Van Nostrand

That’s my phone’s ringtone.

Thanks Gheorghe. That melody Lou plays at the end is not Wee. It's something else.

Spoke to Lou yesterday. He sounded good. He's coming up to NYC on Monday for a birthday event at Dizzy's. A cassette I was just listening to had something left at the end of the tape that must have been recorded over earlier. I recognized it as a gig in NJ from 1986 of Lou, Al Harewood and myself. Just a snippet, but a moment preserved... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL6ZC0TxGHw

https://youtu.be/AiOZkqbE78o Uploaded from a cassette I've had since the mid 1980s. FWIW Doesn't sound anything like Hank Mobley. More corroboration on Robin Kelly's date of June 10, 1955: https://ctva.biz/US/TalkShow/TonightShow_1954-55_SteveAllen_s1.htm

Lou Donaldson played an unaccompanied "Thanks For the Memory" at Johnny Griffin's memorial. Carol Sloane singing "Isn't It a Pity" accompanied by Roland Hanna at Tommy Flanagan's memorial. I played at a lot of memorial services but a couple stand out: playing "Easy to Remember" with Joe Wilder, Buster Williams, and Tootie Heath at Percy Heath's memorial at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and playing "Saturn" at John Gilmore's.