Jazz Articles about Michael Malis

About Michael Malis

Album Review

Michael Malis with Virago: From Darkness We Awaken

Read "From Darkness We Awaken" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
October 9, 2022

A ubiquitous presence in the Detroit improvised music community since the early 2010s, pianist Michael Malis has also become something of a sage in charting the emotional landscape of the Covid era. His 2020 release, Dualisms, presented a series of impressive duets which outlined the tensions between resilience and despondency. Now he has teamed up with Virago, a Detroit-based chamber quartet, for an even more intimate musical exploration of the possibilities for renewal which can be found amidst the darkest ...

Album Review

Michael Malis: Dualisms

Read "Dualisms" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
July 16, 2020

Detroit-based pianist Michael Malis has long been a part of his troubled city's fabled resurgence, and that legacy puts him in an ideal position to address the emotional polarities intrinsic to 2020. That unique mixture of despair and hope, anger and resilience, grief and joy, that so many have experienced in whipsaw fashion, seems ideally suited to musical engagement and, fortunately, Malis has provided just that with his latest release, Dualisms. But it is not just a compelling musical statement ...