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| Michael Weiss Trio at Bargemusic Pianist and composer Michael Weiss performs with his trio at Bargemusic on July 26. Joining Weiss will be bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Bryson Kern. Bargemusic is located at Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge. Michael Weiss has long been known as a musician's musician - a fluent and flexible pianist whose mercurial improvisations and sensitive musicianship have earned him a place in bands and on recordings led by an imposing list of veteran jazz greats, including Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson, Wynton Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, George Coleman, Frank Wess, Slide Hampton, Charles McPherson, and many others. Throughout his twenty five year career in New York, Weiss has also maintained a presence as a bandleader, headlining at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, Stanford Jazz Festival, Smithsonian Institution, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's jazz series and NPR's “Jazzset.” In New York he's led bands at the Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Bradley's, Jazz Gallery, Smoke, and most notably the Village Vanguard. Reviewing the debut of his quintet at the Vanguard in 2006, New York Times critic Nate Chinen praised Weiss' composing, playing and bandleading skills, noting that “he demonstrated a strong sense of leadership and organization.” Chinen also wrote that Weiss was “a confident and sometimes sparkling presence on piano” and that his playing exhibited “sensitivity and logic, along with crisp control.” For the last decade Weiss has focused his performances almost exclusively on his compositions. In 2000, Weiss was awarded the BMI/Monk Institute Composers Competition grandprize, presented to him by Wayne Shorter for his piece, “El Camino,” which appears on Weiss' fourth CD, Soul Journey. With influences as varied as Scriabin and Szymanowski to Shorter, Weiss' compositions focus on extended forms, thematic development and attention to detail. Says Weiss, “a greater integration of composition and improvisation is crucial to keeping jazz moving forward. The solo after solo bit on the same chord changes is becoming a worn out model. This doesn't mean giving up on jazz's foundations. I'm interested in incorporating improvised solos within a piece like characters in a play or perhaps as the narrator between scenes. I'm always looking for ways in which to expand my material.” In 2003 Weiss was a recipient of the Doris Duke/Chamber Music America New Works grant, for which he wrote the suite “Three Doors.” write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |