Jazz Articles about Michael Musillami

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Michael Musillami's Dialect: Fragile Forms

by AAJ Italy Staff
December 29, 2006

Non è ancora molto noto da noi, ma il chitarrista Musillami è seguito con interesse dalla critica americana da tempo, che lo elogia grazie per il suo stile che sintetizza i tanti generi ascoltati in un modo personalissimo. Il musicista californiano trae ispirazione dai grandi come Baker, Davis, Coltrane e Evans, ma ha un occhio di riguardo per Grant Green e per le sonorità tipiche del suo sound. Infatti il soul jazz è una delle sue scelte primarie che lo ...

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Michael Musillami: Fragile Forms

by Troy Collins
September 5, 2006

Fragile Forms is the debut of Dialect, Michael Musillami's new all-star quartet. The undersung guitarist, well-known for his adventurous and highly consistent Playscape Recordings label, recruited an impressive array of talent for this session. Musillami's previous recording, 2005's muscular Dachau (Playscape), featured his core trio with a few invited guests, including pianist Peter Madsen, who also appears here. Where Dachau was dominated by bristling energy, Fragile Forms, while not as delicate as its title suggests, is a far more measured ...

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Michael Musillami Trio: Dachau

by Renato Wardle
February 5, 2006

The cult of youth has poisoned the world of music. Pop culture would have “instant artists shine momentarily, and then disappear quietly into the “where are they now category before they lose their baby teeth. In spite of this, seasoned musicians continue to move forward, breaking boundaries and defying the international fetishism of youth.

Michael Musillami is one such visionary musician. On Dachau, his veteran trio, augmented on several tracks to a quartet, quintet or sextet, fuses a ...

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Michael Musillami Trio: Dachau

by Elliott Simon
November 11, 2005

In the wake of its strong premiere effort, Beijing (Playscape, 2000), the Michael Musillami Trio continues its globetrotting, turning to Germany for inspiration to produce its sophomore offering, Dachau. While the opening “Dresden and the title piece itself conjure up some of the 20th century's worst horrors, the music is wonderfully uplifting and powerfully creative. Musillami's signature guitar sound, a mix of catchy odd-metered melodies with intriguing chords, dovetails remarkably with Joe Fonda's bass lines, while drummer George Schuller disdains ...

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Michael Musillami Trio: Dachau

by Paul Olson
September 28, 2005

There's nothing new about a jazz guitar trio, or, for that matter, a jazz guitar trio augmented with piano and horns. That said, guitarist Michael Musillami has done something truly innovative with this format on Dachau. Musillami, bassist Joe Fonda, and drummer George Schuller--augmented on four of the album's seven tracks with various combinations of tenor saxophonist Tom Christensen, pianist Peter Madsen, and trumpeter Dave Ballou--have created a work that, in a truly novel fashion, fuses composed material and free ...

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Michael Musillami Trio: Dachau

by John Kelman
September 26, 2005

The intrepid Playscape Recordings imprint, founded at the turn of the century by guitarist Michael Musillami, has been responsible for a small but consistent catalogue of releases that constantly look for new ways to combine forward-thinking compositional form with a more exploratory aesthetic. Working with a relatively small core group of veteran players, the label has already made a mark on jazz. Albums like woodwind multi-instrumentalist Tom Christensen's remarkable New York School and percussionist George Schuller's imaginative rethinking of Miles ...

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Michael Musillami Trio: Dachau

by Jerry D'Souza
September 2, 2005

One of the significant moments for the Michael Musillami Trio came when the group played in Dachau, Germany in November, 2004. At that time, says Musillami, they were “elevated to a new level. That plateau is still evident on this recording, made possible by several factors, including shared empathy and each player's strength as a musician.

The writing on Dachau moves from swing to free elements and builds a strong emotional scale within those parameters. A pronounced joy ...