Michel just completed his new CD “Shot Through with Beauty” with the John Stowall Michel Zilber Quartet. In addition he was just at Piedmont Piano in Oakland with his trio. Come here what he has to say about all his projects and fun stuff that is going on.
From his bio:
Michael Zilber, whom jazz legend Dave Liebman calls “one of the best composers and players around anywhere, period!” was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. He moved to Boston in his late teens and to New York City in his early twenties. He has performed and/or recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Smith, Sonny Stitt, Liebman, Miroslav Vitous, Bob Berg, Eddie Henderson, Fareed Haque, Geoff Keezer, Donald Harrison, John Handy, Dave Douglas, Rachel Z, James Genus, Rodney Holmes, John Stowell and Barry Finnerty, among many others.
His current recordings and working groups include the Origin Records releases “Shot Through With Beauty” a co-led quartet with guitar great John Stowell and “The Billy Collins Project. Eleven on Turning Ten, settings of eleven poems by the American Poet Laureate, both of which have received much critical acclaim and radio airplay. As well, there is a CD nearing release with the all-star Bay Area Jazz Collective known as Happy Hour. Zilber is also a member of the Jazzschool Institute quartet, the first faculty group to represent the Jazzschool Institute. He also heads up Weather Wayne, a group of leading Bay Area musicians dedicated to honoring the music of Waye Shorter’s electric period from 1969-1999. Last but not least, Zilber has just begun a project called Mikey Z and the Midlife Crisis, a band playing heartfelt and quirky singer-songwriter originals he has written in the spirit of Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello. John Lennon, Randy Newman and other skeptical idealists.