Jazz Articles about Michael Bisio

About Michael Bisio

Interview

Michael Bisio: In His Own Words

by Mark Corroto
February 28, 2022

If you happen to be a liner note geek you probably have noticed the name Michael Bisio mentioned frequently on album sleeves. Whether the author is the session leader or analyst, the general consensus is the bassist is the cornerstone upon which great music is built. His playing allows a fellow musician to access not only other player's innovations, but also their own wellspring of creativity and imagination. The bassist was quite busy in 2021 with an abundance of albums ...

Album Review

Michael Bisio/Matthew Shipp: The Flow of Everything

Read "The Flow of Everything" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 2, 2022

In his definition of jazz, Wayne Shorter says “It's not...required to sound like jazz." It's a viewpoint to keep in mind when considering over-analysis of the bold activities of collaborators Michael Bisio and Matthew Shipp. Throughout their frequent partnerships, the pair have raised the bar on improvisation to a level that suggests an exceptional symbiotic form of structure. The relatively new Polish label Fundacja Słuchaj issues The Flow of Everything, Bisio and Shipp's third duo album and their first in ...

Album Review

Michael Bisio: Inimitable

Read "Inimitable" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 16, 2022

Bassist and composer Michael Bisio has appeared on more than one hundred recordings, including numerous appearances with Tomas Ulrich, Ivo Perelman, Joe McPhee, and a regular partnership with Matthew Shipp. More than a dozen of his albums feature the bassist as a leader or co-leader but only one, Travel Music (Self-produced, 2011) has been a solo project. More than ten years on, Bisio returns to that format with Inimitable on the South Korean label, Mung Records. The album's ...

Album Review

Michael Bisio - Kirk Knuffke - Fred Lonberg-Holm: The Art Spirit

Read "The Art Spirit" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
July 11, 2021

If you thought Requiem For A New York Slice (Iluso Records, 2019) from bassist Michael Bisio, cornetist Kirk Knuffke, and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm was a one-off recording, you were mistaken, and thankfully so. Interestingly enough, The Art Spirit was actually recorded a couple weeks before Requiem and it is the continuation of a beautiful relationship begun with the Bisio-Knuffke duo session Row For William O. (Relative Pitch Records, 2016). Housekeeping aside, these three musicians are making magic here.

Album Review

Michael Bisio / MMBC: MMBC Terma

Read "MMBC Terma" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 16, 2021

Among the side effects of the 2020-2021 pandemic has been the rediscovery of misplaced resources. The trio MMBC dug up the fourteen-year-old recording MMBC Terma, a collection of nine group compositions and improvisations. MMBC is an acronym condensing the initials of the players. Tenor saxophonist (and psychoanalyst) Michael Monhart and drummer Ben Chadabe are lightly-recorded; acclaimed bassist-composer Michael Bisio rounds out the group and is best known for his work with Matthew Shipp. The chronologically ordered tracks reveal ...

Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 3, 2021

Accomplished saxophonist Rich Halley has an easily recognizable style which is marked with his brassy, rough-hewn tone, innovative ideas and simmering passion. After starting his own Pine Eagle label, in 2010, Halley added eleven stimulating albums to his discography, featuring bassist Clyde Reed and his son, drummer Carson Halley. In 2019 Halley started fronting the equally distinctive Matthew Shipp Trio. The fiery and captivating The Shape of Things is the quartet's second collaboration and expands on the themes explored on ...

Album Review

Rich Halley: The Shape Of Things

Read "The Shape Of Things" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
December 13, 2020

One thing is certain when approaching a Rich Halley recording: it's likely that you will hear the history of the saxophone in his playing. He's as capable of filling the room with fractured sound as he is in gently ruminating over a haunting phrase, and bop licks are as common as noisy abstraction on his albums; indeed, one might find all of these traits within the same piece. On his latest, The Shape of Things, he's fortunate to have the ...