Jazz Articles about Mike Dillon

Mike Dillon, Chick Corea, Milt Jackson and More

by Joe Dimino
November 1, 2020

This week we start with the music of veteran vibraphonist Mike Dillon, who just returned to Kansas City, and has a released a new album Rosewood. We also spotlight new music from Nicholas Krolak, Bartosz Hadala, Dann Zinn and Joe Fiedler. We give a birthday shoutout to the legendary Terry Gibbs and say good-bye to Eddie Van Halen who had a solid jazz history. Dig the music. Playlist Mike Dillon “Tiki Bird Whistle" Rosewood (Royal Potato Family) 00:00 ...

Mike Dillon: Rosewood

by Doug Collette
July 22, 2020

Texas-born Mike Dillon moves in as many different directions as his varied skills allow. Witness his work with, among others, Garage A Trois, Critters Buggin' and Nolatet. Yet none of his adventures are as satisfying as when he adheres to his niche as vibraphonist/percussionist, so Rosewood makes a suitable companion piece to the similarly conceived and executed Functioning Broke (Royal Potato Family, 2016). As a matter of fact, Rosewood is almost a direct extension of that album. A ...

Mike Dillon: Functioning Broke

by Doug Collette
July 3, 2016

As idiosyncratic as Mike Dillon's work has been with Critters Buggin' and Garage a Trois, it's well-nigh impossible not to fall under the spell of the music he creates all by himself on Functioning Broke. A deep dream-like quality emanates from his musicianship, most resonant in the warm glow of vibes that open “Half Right" and continues virtually unabated for the course of this unfortunately abbreviated (thirty-five minutes plus), right down to the similarly insinuating sounds of Indian percussion on ...

Mike Dillon: Band of Outsiders

by Dave Wayne
November 12, 2014

There are so many different ways to rebel in life, and Mike Dillon has done them all. Or so it seems, if the music on Band of Outsiders is any indication. Dillon is that rare musician who can take tropes from any number of disparate musical worlds-metal and Brazilian samba school for example-mash them together and create something truly fresh and new. He's a first rate drummer and an equally fine mallet percussionist. Here, he's mostly rocking the electric vibes ...

Mike Dillon: Rhythm Method

by Mike Chamberlain
August 12, 2013

Percussionist/vibraphonist/bandleader Mike Dillon's music defies easy categorization. It's been called “punk jazz," a term that describes working methods--do it yourself, find your own voice--more than actual sounds.Dillon sports a wide-ranging musical résumé. He has led or has been a member of outfits such as Critters Buggin, Les Claypool's Fancy Band, The Dead Kenny G's, Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle, and Garage a Trois. He led Billy Goat in Dallas, Malachy Papers in Kansas City, and Hairy Apes BMX in ...

Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle: Battery Milk

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
April 19, 2007

Vibraphonist Mike Dillon has a very good idea (which is much more than is needed to make a record these days). Dillon's idea is to make a kind of distorted around the edges, loud, vibes-based funk-rock. Perhaps the finest example on this, his début recording, is “Broc's Last Stand." It's the presence of the vibes that sets Dillon's idea apart from other more pedestrian funk-rock experiments, tracing a line that connects us back to, say, the Milt Jackson Quintet's April ...

Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle: Battery Milk

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 12, 2007

Vibes player and bandleader Dillon explains the concept behind his genre-mashing Go-Go Jungle ensemble this way: “I wanted to write some blues heads like Milt Jackson might have written had he grown up listening to Led Zeppelin, and play them over a go-go groove.

Right from the opening “Go-Go's Theme you can tell that Dillon is hell bent on merging the improvisational, jazz vibraphone tradition with the aggressive attack of his personal skull-crushing, hard rock favorites such ...