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Michael Adkins

Tenor saxophonist Michael Adkins has performed in a variety of settings, including work with the late Paul Motian and Alvin Fielder; Adkins most recent release is Flaneur, on HatHut.

About Me

MICHAEL ADKINS, a critically regarded jazz saxophonist and composer raised at Lake Huron’s juncture with the St. Clair River, has traveled between Ontario, Michigan, New York, Boston, New York, the Mississippi Delta, and New Orleans. Adkins’ work has been strongly influenced by musical relationships with drummers: a critically applauded recording and performances with Ian Froman; performances and two acclaimed recordings with Paul Motian; and five years of almost continuous creative association and performances with the late Alvin Fielder, who summarized Adkins playing in three words: “He can swing.” Fielder, a founding member of the Black Arts Music Society and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, himself traveled from his natal Meridian to New Orleans, Houston, Chicago, New York, and the world as a stellar improviser before returning to Jackson; Fielder’s musical contributions, dedication to jazz artistry, and devotion to the contributions of his family to African American civil rights and music remain legendary. For Adkins, he was a friend and mentor non pareil. Most recently, Adkins has worked with Ra Kalam Bob Moses at New England Conservatory. Adkins’ latest recording release, Michael Adkins Quartet Flaneur, on HATHUT records, has gained considerable acclaim: Cadence magazine includes the recording in its 2019 top ten critics’ poll. Stuart Boomer calls Flaneur “a work as profoundly elegiac as any a Canadian musician has produced.” Julian Aunos, in CitizenJazz, observes, “La musique est là, lumineuse, douce, et envoûtante. Pas tout à fait des ballades mais pas encore up-tempos. Entre-deux.” And Jazziz critic Jakob Baekgaard calls it “a gift out of nowhere.” Flaneur features the late Paul Motian on drums, Russ Lossing on piano, and Larry Grenadier on bass; it was recorded shortly after the HATHUT release of the Michael Adkins Quartet Rotator, also featuring Motian and Lossing, with John Hébert on bass. Rotator was selected as WIRE Magazine’s 2008 Jazz&Improv Album of the year, with Brian Morton calling it, “the best hour of contemporary jazz I've heard this year.” Adkins’ first CD release, Infotation, featuring Froman on drums and Hébert on bass, appeared on indie-label Semblance Records in 2005, a decade before the term would surface in engineering circles as an attraction between patterns of information, given correspondence between energy and information. More telling is Marc Corroto’s All About Jazz observation: “When an artist like Michael Adkins releases a disc like Infotation, no alarms go off. He doesn't perform with a DJ or invite a guest vocalist. He just plays eight original tracks with his trio.” You might want to listen.