Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Michael Wolff Trio - POSTPONED
Michael has been advised not to travel by air due to the current coronavirus situation. He looks forward to rescheduling this performance as soon as it is possible.
$20 General Admission
Pianist-composer Michael Wolff is thrilled to be performing and recording again, having gone through a trying process of physical and mental rehabilitation, during a four-year battle with a rare cancer. At one point, as Wolff was being cared for by his wife, the award-winning actress, director and writer Polly Draper, a doctor asked her if she’d signed a Do Not Resuscitate order. Through the haze of drugs and debilitating illness, Wolff interjected. Lifting his head up, he growled: “Resuscitate me!”
“I guess it just wasn’t my time,” he recalls today, chuckling.
Indeed, Wolff had plenty more life to live and music to make—including Bounce, his radiant Sunnyside piano-trio album featuring bassist Ben Allison and drummer Allan Mednard. Now completely free of cancer (and cancer medications), Wolff has seen his personal and creative outlook transform in the profound way that occurs only in those who have been, as the pianist puts it, “to the brink and back.” “My view of life, art and music has changed, developed, matured, widened and focused simultaneously,” says Wolff, who continued to practice and compose diligently throughout his fight. “I savor every day, every view, every person I love and every note I can play and hear.”
Bounce certainly bears out Wolff’s newfound appreciation for life’s lucid, unpretentious joys. “A lot of my priorities changed,” he says. “With my music, I still want it to be exciting, but I also really want everything to sound beautiful.” The essential component of that beauty lies in the pianist’s writing and arranging, which is at once inventive and evocative of your favorite jazz LPs. But an equally crucial reason why Swirl sounds so buoyant and brilliant is the rapport shared among the trio-mates—comfortable and flowing yet full of musical risk-taking, and always interactive. “I like to play with people I love; that’s really important to me,” Wolff says. “That vibe needs to be up there on the bandstand.” When it clicks, Wolff adds, the duties of a bandleader can feel effortless: “Having a group to me is like casting a movie: If you have the right people, you don’t have to say much. You just kind of do the work.” michaelwolff.com
A veteran bassist who has established a strong reputation over the years from his sideman work on both the New York City and San Francisco Bay Area jazz scenes, Peter Barshay has performed with such jazz luminaries as Kenny Barron, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Werner, Shirley Horn, Woody Shaw, Pharoah Sanders, Blue Mitchell, Tony Williams, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Johnny Griffin and Bobby McFerrin.
Barshay’s numerous appearances at clubs and jazz festivals have taken him around the world, helping to establish his reputation as a solid, reliable bassist. Having soaked up a lifetime of sounds on both coasts -- everything from salsa and straight ahead to funk-fusion, avant garde and music derived from the Afro-Cuban and Brazilian traditions -- he brings a wealth of experience to the musical table.
Jason Lewis graduated from the classical percussion program at San Jose State University, under the direction of Tony Cirone of the San Francisco Symphony, with a B.A. in music. Mr. Lewis has taught privately in the bay area, coached at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, has performed clinics at schools throughout the San Jose area, and is currently a lecturer in the Jazz Studies Department at San Jose State University.
He has played with a variety of talented musicians including; John Stowell, Gary Burton, Gil Goldstein, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Bob Sheppard, Steve Rodby, Paul McCandles, Norma Winstone, Larry Coryell, Darol Anger, Regina Carter, Johnny Frigo, James Carter, John Handy, Anton Schwartz, Mark Levine, Peter Apfelbaum, Paul Nagel, and Kurt Elling. Mr. Lewis has also performed with the San Jose Symphony and the San Jose Civic Light Opera.
Besides playing throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with many groups, Mr. Lewis has toured and recorded with Boz Scaggs, Michael Brook, Djivan Gasparyan, Ann Dyer and Taylor Eigsti. He can be heard on numerous recordings as well as TV (Spark on PBS), Video Game (Godfather 2) and Movie Soundtracks (Affliction, Albino Alligator, Ratatouille-”Our Friend the Rat”) and has appeared on Late Night with Conan O Brian (with Boz Scaggs).