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| Michael Musillami: Big Plans For May Guitarist Michael Musillami and his longstanding trio, featuring bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller, will perform four live dates in the Northeast this May before entering the studio to record their third CD with special guest, violinist Mark Feldman. Feldman will perform with the group on two of the May gigs and all of the tracks on its forthcoming CD, which will feature new Musillami originals written specifically for this four-piece ensemble. "I've felt a strong connection to Mark's playing since I heard him on Thomas Chapin's 1996 release Haywire (Knitting Factory), " Musillami explains. "Mark played right beside Thomas and his performance was amazing. Ever since, that record has inspired both my writing and my playing, as has Mark's work with Tim Berne. I've always wanted to add that edge Mark brought to Haywire to one of my groups, and our schedules finally made room to perform and record together this spring. We're also planning live dates in Europe for February 2008." Musillami is known as "a superior guitarist" (DownBeat), "one of the more imaginative guitarists in jazz" (Signal to Noise) and "a modern-day jazz master" (Edmonton Journal). Critics have noted that his distinctive original compositions "mine not only the fertile vein of classic jazz but the outer reaches of creative music" (Hartford Courant), calling his music "honest, frequently surprising, and consistently exciting" (JazzTimes). He previously recorded with his trio on 2003's Beijing and 2005's Dachau, both on his acclaimed Playscape Recordings label. His most recent CD is 2006's Fragile Forms, the debut release from his group, Michael Musillami's Dialect, featuring pianist Peter Madsen, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Matt Wilson. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |