Jazz Pianist Michael Wolff Plays New York In January And February

On the heels of two sold-out concerts at Snug Harbor in New Orleans, acclaimed jazz pianist Michael Wolff is set to take New York by storm in January and February, with ten nights of shows and multiple performances featuring high profile, eclectic band line-ups.

On January 12th and 19th, Wolff and renowned saxophonist Alex Foster will headline ZINC BAR in the West Village for six sets over two Wednesday nights. Wolff and Foster (widely recognized as the alto saxophonist in the Saturday Night Live band for the past two decades,) will be joined by Jeff ‘Tain' Watts on drums for 1/12, and by Victor Jones on drums on 1/19. More guest artists will be announced soon.

ZINC BAR
ALEX FOSTER/Michael Wolff and Guests
82 West 3rd Street
January 12th, January 19th
3 sets each night, beginning at 9:30pm
Tickets $10 at the bar
http://www.zincbar.com/homepage <http://www.zincbar.com/homepage>
212-477-ZINC

In February, Wolff will return to a familiar haunt, his beloved KNICKERBOCKER BAR and GRILL, for a month-long weekend residency featuring some of the most storied artists in jazz. For each multi-show weekend gig, Wolff intends to use a different trio line-up: on 2/4 & 2/5, Wolff will be joined by Chip Jackson on bass, and the legendary Mike Clark on drums; On 2/11 & 2/12, Ben Wolfe on bass and Carl Allen on drums; on 2/18 & 2/19, Peter Barshay on bass and Mike Clark on drums; and finally, on 2/25 & 2/26, Uganna Okegwo on bass and Akira Tana on drums.

Wolff has great respect for all these artists...drummer Carl Allen runs the Jazz program at Julliard; Ben Wolfe is a long-time performer with Harry Connick Jr; drummer Mike Clark is a member of the legendary Headhunters, a solo artist in his own right, and a familiar face at Wolff gigs; Peter Barshay and Akira Tana (formerly of Tana/Reid) are known to Wolff from the Bay Area; and Uganna Okegwo and Chip Jackson are long-time Wolff band members.

KNICKERBOCKER
Michael Wolff - Month-Long Weekend Residency
Multiple Trio Line-Ups
33 University Place
February 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th
More info: http://knickerbockerbarandgrill.com/home.html
212-228-8490

Read the amazing article about Michael Wolff from New Orleans Times-Picayune:

New Orleans Times-Picayune
By Keith Spera 11/12/10
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010/11/michael_wolff_colors_his_jazz.html

Michael Wolff Colors his Jazz Piano with Shades of Blue

Michael Wolff's stock in trade is the jazz piano. But as the instructor for the R&B ensemble at The New School in New York, he required prospective students to play either B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone" or Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" during auditions. As the class progressed, students showcased everything from Otis Redding to Michelle N'degeocello.
"It makes me see how everything is connected," Wolff said this week. "With jazz, a lot of people get pretty far away from the blues. Which is fine. But we ought to remember where it really started out. Jazz is based on the blues."
Even the sophisticated harmonics of Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," he notes, is based on a 12-bar blues. To that point, he's written music for his jazz trio to perform with orchestras that is clearly colored by the blues. And his sets of late have contained jazz arrangements of several blues songs - including "The Thrill Is Gone" - alongside jazz classics.

"I started looking at all these Coltrane tunes, Sonny Rollins and Miles (Davis) tunes, and going back to the real-blues blues tunes. It's all related, and it's fun to concentrate on that. I like mixing that in. I've always had the bluesy thing in my playing."

It will be evident Saturday, Nov. 13 when Wolff performs at Snug Harbor, backed by drummer Mike Clark, a longtime collaborator best known as a member of the Headhunters, plus local bassist Jim Singleton and saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr.
Wolff is well-versed in New Orleans. His mother grew up in the city, his father attended Tulane Medical School and he lived here briefly as a child. Even after his family moved away, he spent summers in New Orleans with his Aunt Nita and Uncle Sig. Along the way, he sat in with trumpeter Al Hirt's big band and immersed himself in the city's music.
At 19, he became a professional musician. He spent 14 years on the road with Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Rollins. During five years as singer Nancy Wilson's musical director, Wolff often logged two-week residencies at the old Fairmont Hotel's Blue Room. The likes of Muhammad Ali would show up at gigs.

Wolff spent his off hours at Tyler's on Magazine Street, hanging with and listening to Singleton, guitarist Steve Masakowski, drummer Johnny Vidacovich, singer Leigh "Little Queenie" Harris and saxophonist James Rivers. He eventually quit the road and, starting in 1989, worked as the musical director of "The Arsenio Hall Show" for its five-year run.

More recently, he's focused on his solo career, touring in Europe and at select jazz clubs in the United States. Wolff and his wife, actress Polly Draper, are also raising another generation of entertainers. Their now teenage sons, Nat and Alex, starred as young musicians in the Nickelodeon show "The Naked Brothers Band," in which Wolff also appeared. They have since moved on to fresh acting and musical projects.

Wolff's varied interests include working with trumpeter Franz Hackl to combine Austrian folk melodies with jazz chords. They plan to make an album of their collaboration this month, and tour with it next summer. Wolff will also record a live album with his trio in Europe this spring.
"I feel like that's the essence of my playing. In the studio, I get a little more self-conscious. It's best live. I just fling it out there."

The title track of his 2009 solo album, "Joe's Strut," draws on the influence of New Orleans. "I got to put a little of that Professor Longhair/James Booker stuff in there."

Back in the day, he saw both piano legends perform. Booker, especially, blew him away.
"I couldn't believe the guy. He was like a combination of Professor Longhair and McCoy Tyner. He played totally New Orleans style, but he could play so hip harmonically, and pentatonic, and really outside.

"What a mix that guy was. I thought he was really, really great. He was totally true to ‘Junco Partner' and all that stuff, but then he would harmonically take it wherever he wanted to go."

That, Wolff says, "is kind of my approach. I love sophisticated harmony, and I love the bluesiness."
He'll likely flash plenty of both on Saturday at Snug Harbor, "one of the greatest jazz clubs out there." WitH Clark, Singleton and Harrison, the bluesiness "is in there. But everybody wants to push the envelope harmonically and rhythmically, and see where we're going to go.

"I don't know exactly what it will be like. We'll have the basic structure of the tune, play, and see where it goes. To me, that's the fun. I like to live in the moment, on the edge of my seat, where I don't know what's happening."

Wolff performed a Residency at Knickerbocker last year as well. Read the feature in The Villager/Downtown News:
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_367/villageresident.html

 

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