Interview: Michael Weiss

I love listening to pianist Michael Weiss. He has a jazz sound all his own that reminds me of the 1980s. It's a feel and seasoning that comes from playing with hard bop masters. His mid-tempo playing is reminiscent of Horace Silver's precise pecking and moody chord voicings, but with Michael's own flavor stirred in. On up-tempo numbers, Michael's hands fly along and retain Silver's soulful precision. When I hear him play, I'm taken back to the nights I first heard him at Barry Harris's Jazz Cultural Theatre in the 1980s. The music was astonishing.

Today, Michael releases Persistence (Cellar Live), featuring tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist Paul Gill and drummer Pete Van Nostrand. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in July 2021, the album includes four originals by Michael—Persistence, Second Thoughts, Après Vous and Birthday Blues. Also on the album is Jimmy Van Heusen's Only the Lonely, Fats Waller's Jitterbug Waltz, Thelonious Monk's Epistrophy and Antonio Carlos Jobim's Once I Loved. There's a glorious intensity with this group that sounds both urgent and relaxed. No wasted chords or notes—everything played is there for a reason and counts. You'll find Persistence (Cellar Live) here and at streaming platforms. 

I recently caught up with Michael for a Q&A interview:

JazzWax: Who most inspired your early love of music at home?

Michael Weiss: My mother was responsible for my piano lessons starting at age 6. I grew up in Dallas listening to the Beatles and was able to pick stuff out from albums on the piano. At 13, I was given a Farfisa organ that I played in my garage bands. In June 1972, I saw a triple bill of John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Doctor John and the Allman Brothers Band at the Dallas Memorial Coliseum. Then over the summer before I started high school, I attended the Interlochen Music Camp in Interlochen, Mich., where I saw Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton.

JW: What artists were you exposed to in high school?

MW: From the start in high school, I studied music four hours a day, including playing in the school's big band. We played lots of Thad Jones arrangements. Also, the pop and jazz coming out at the time on FM radio and at record stores was high quality: Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Return to Forever, Headhunters, Weather Report and others. When I started buying albums, I transcribed solos and wrote arrangements for our school’s big band. There wasn't much live jazz in Dallas, but I was able to hear Red Garland at the Arandis Club, and I would sit in with saxophonist Marchel Ivery at the Recovery Room. Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus also came through town.

JW: Who was your big early influences?

MW: Thanks to the recommendation of a teacher, my first jazz LP was Horace Silver's Blowin' the Blues Away. I met Horace at the Monk Piano Competition in 1989. He was one of the judges. By then I had already worked in a band co-led by his alumni—Junior Cook and Bill Hardman. Coincidentally, at the time of the Monk competition, I was playing a three-week stint at New York's Sweet Basil with the Art Farmer/Clifford Jordan Quintet—two more Horace alumni. Horace definitely influenced me as a player, composer and arranger in equal doses. Thad's writing also had an impact.

JW: Which albums mattered most to you?

MW: In high school, some of the first records I was immersed in included John Coltrane’s Blue Trane, Miles Davis's Four & More, Joe Farrell's Moon Germs, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra’s Central Park North, Chick Corea's Light as a Feather and Return to Forever's Hymn to the Seventh Galaxy, Weather Report's Mysterious Traveler, McCoy Tyner's Sama Layuca and Elvin Jones's Genesis.

JW: Why did you attend Indiana University?

MW: Indiana had a well-established jazz program and the largest music school in the country. I was motivated to forge my own path of research through records. I didn't have a mentor or guru, so records were my strongest influence. I was fortunate to work with many veterans in the area like saxophonists Pookie Johnson and Jimmy Coe, trumpeter Al Kiger, and drummers Benny Barth, Ron Enyard and Harold Cardwell. I heard everyone who came through the area on tour, and I visited New York at every opportunity. After graduation, I moved to New York.

JW: When did you meet tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin?

MW: I heard Griff in Indianapolis and Ann Arbor around 1978, but I actually met him in 1985 when he hired me for a gig in Boston. I played a few more nights with him at the Vanguard in 1986 and officially joined his band in 1987. We toured pretty much every year up to 2005, when Johnny stopped coming to the U.S. [from his home in France].

JW: What was Griffin like?

MW: Griff was wonderful. He had an ebullient personality and was fun to be around, on and off the bandstand.

JW: Did you also play with Eddie “Lockjaw’ Davis?

MW: Unfortunately I never did. But on my first tour with Griff, [tenor saxophonist] Joe Henderson joined us for two weeks. Each saxophonist played with the rhythm section and then joined together for a song or two at the end of the set. Playing with Joe and his repertoire was a great experience.

JW: What was recording on Georgie Fame's Cool Cat Blues like?

MW: We recorded it live in the studio in New York. Ben Sidran produced. Steve Gadd was on that along with Jon Hendricks. It went smooth and efficiently. A few takes and done.

JW: What do you remember about Barry Harris’s Jazz Cultural Theatre in New York during the 1980s?

MW: The club was exactly that—a cultural theater. I have nice memories of working there with the Junior Cook/Bill Hardman Quintet, which included bassist Walter Booker and drummer Leroy Williams. And I remember a gig there with Junior, Jo Jones Jr. and Larry Gales. Barry had two grand pianos and one night I was sparring with Walter Davis Jr. on Parisian Thoroughfare. It was a TKO for me. Nica [jazz benefactor Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter] was there and paid me a nice compliment. After the set, I introduced myself. With that long cigarette holder dangling from her mouth, she said in her British accent, “Oh, you're a muthafuckah."

JW: Was your Milestones album with bassist Paul Gill and drummer Joe Farnsworth in 1998 a turning point for you?

MW: I don't think so. It was my first trio album, though. I'm going to do another one next year. Every recording is a milestone of sorts, no pun intended. Other recordings I’ve made felt more significant for me, the ones with my compositions.

JW: You were on the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra in the 2000s. What was special about it?

MW: Playing Thad's music is so rewarding, just to sit in the middle of that genius world of tonal organization. I relish the creative possibilities the role of the piano in the big band uniquely presents, as accompanist and commentator.” And the VJO's book [of arrangements] has a lot of piano solos. Opening some of Thad's arrangements with a few choruses of piano trio was rewarding. I had a nice relationship with Roland Hanna over the years, and his stamp on the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra was indelible.

JW: Was your Finger Poppin'—A Tribute to Horace Silver run at New York's Iridium in May 2009 ever recorded?

MW: I had a week at the club with trumpeter Tom Harrell in the band. Then we played the Detroit Jazz Festival with trumpeter Randy Brecker. I selected some goodies from Horace's book like Enchantment and Moonrays, which Art Farmer had me transcribe for his group with Clifford Jordan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t recorded.

JW: With the recent passing of trombonist and composer-arranger Slide Hampton, what was it like playing and touring with him?

MW: Slide was very serious about his art and craft. I think he had just one mission in life—to be as good a musician as he could be. It's not like he was without a sense of humor, but he lived to play and write. I think he was just as happy to practice as to perform. That’s dedication. I first played with Slide pretty early on in my career, in New York, and it was an exhilarating experience. Slide played with such creative and rhythmic fortitude and clarity, it was intense and so inspiring. He was a trombone virtuoso and a virtuoso of improvisation, so he transcended the instrument's limitations, unparalleled to this day. JW: Tell me about your new album.

MW: Persistence, my fifth album as a leader, is out today. As I'm sure you mentioned at the top, I'm joined by Eric Alexander, Paul Gill and Pete Van Nostrand. I have a long history with these fine musicians, and they all took care of business. This was my first time back at Rudy Van Gelder's studio since Rudy recorded my debut date on Criss Cross in 1986. To celebrate, I revisited one track from that record, Après Vous and updated it. I always put a lot of thought and TLC into the repertoire and arrangements. But also, I think the feeling and mood of each song is faithfully captured here. The recording represents how we related to the music and each other on that day. I hope the listeners will be stimulated.