Jazz Articles about Michael Wolff

Michael Wolff: Live at Vitellos

by Dan Bilawsky
March 1, 2021

As time stretches the fabric of reality, what with venues closed or operating under incredibly restrictive mandates since March of 2020, it's starting to feel like it's been a decade since we've been able to gather in the quiets of a club to take in a rapturous set of music. So it's only fitting that this ten-year-old gem should drop into the world at this juncture, giving pause to bemoan what's been lost and appreciate a music found.

Tony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 27, 2019

The translation of “Adam" from Hebrew--from which the surname Adamo springs--means from the “ground" or “soil." It also derives from the Hebrew word for red, a la “red clay." Perhaps that is why any work from Tony Adamo is rare earth--gritty, and flaming crimson. Was Out Jazz Zone Mad Adamo's latest, his first for Ropeadope, is all of those things and more.Adamo is the Heavyweight Champion of “hipspokenword," wherein lingo meets vocalizing at the corner of jazz and ...

Tony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad

by Chris M. Slawecki
January 15, 2019

Some African cultures preserved their history not by the written but by the spoken word, kept by oral cultural historians known as griots. On Was Out Jazz Zone Mad, vocalist Tony Adamo aspires to serve in this same role, as a verbal historian of both official and unofficial African-American jazz and blues culture. This type of jazz jive might wear quickly thin but Adamo writes about jazz and jazz musicians with such detailed intimacy and vision that his words snap, ...

Michael Wolff: Swirl

by Peter J. Hoetjes
January 1, 2019

"This new album is the culmination of my transformation after being to the brink and back," states Michael Wolff. At one point during 2015, Wolff, then deep into his four-year battle with a rare form of cancer, fell comatose. His prognosis left little hope yet, with a stubborn willpower, the pianist fought off the disease. After months of physical and mental rehabilitation, he was ready to approach music again with a new trio. This trio would ...

Michael Wolff: Half Moon Bay, CA, September 23, 2012

by Bill Leikam
October 20, 2012

Michael WolffTribute to Cal TjaderDouglas Beach HouseHalf Moon Bay, CASeptember 23, 2012Early in the week prior to this performance, the Douglas Beach House was already nearly sold out and yet, when the doors opened that Sunday afternoon, people still clamored to get in to hear some of vibraphonist Cal Tjader's original band members--one of whom was Michael Wolff, musical director for the show and a unique pianist.Wolff said, “I met Cal ...

Michael Wolff: The Art of Communication

by Todd S. Jenkins
November 8, 2007

The idea of music as communication is as old as music itself, and has become just about as clichéd as some of its referents. Igor Stravinsky once opined that music was powerless to communicate anything. And, truth be told, the number of active instrumentalists who can successfully communicate thoughts, feelings, concepts and dogmas without words is significantly smaller than the number of those who believe they can. Even many vocalists and lyricists aren't as adept at getting things across as ...

Michael Wolff: Impure Thoughts On Hold

by Todd S. Jenkins
September 3, 2007

Pianist Michael Wolff has some of the most expansive vision of anyone working in jazz today. Born in the California High Desert, raised in New Orleans and now making his home in Manhattan, the well-traveled, big-eared Wolff is never short on surprises for his listeners. With his dazzling Impure Thoughts ensemble on hiatus, Wolff's two current albums up the ante beyond that band's extraordinary work.

Michael Wolff Jazz, Jazz, Jazz Wrong Records 2007