Biography
Brooklyn-based saxophonist Michael Eaton shapes a distinctly personal approach to jazz and its traditions through progressive experimentation infused with avant-garde influences. After studying at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, he relocated to Brooklyn in 2008 and swiftly built a presence across diverse performance contexts. His debut leader date, Individuation, appeared in 2014, with a follow-up from the same ensemble, Dialogical, arriving in 2019. Additional ventures soon emerged, among them the duo Symbiotique alongside guitarist and electronics musician Seth Andrew Davis, the quartet Second Nature that also included Davis, the duo Paraphrase with pianist Nicki Adams, and the free-jazz-meets-groove outfit Tenor Triage featuring saxophonists James Brandon Lewis and Sean Sonderegger. Extensive work with Adam Minkoff encompassed both a Stravinsky project and a series of Coltrane tribute concerts.
Born in Missouri’s Kansas City metropolitan area in 1981, Eaton earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington in 2004. His mentors included David Liebman, Eugene Rousseau, and Tim Timmons. He began teaching and spent several months in a cruise-ship showband before settling in Brooklyn in 2008, where he maintained an active teaching career that encompassed woodwind instruction at PS 126 Manhattan Academy of Technology from 2012 and at Church Street School of Music and Art from 2018, among other institutions.
The 2014 release of Individuation introduced his core quartet of bassist Daniel Ori, drummer Shareef Taher, and pianist Brad Whiteley, augmented by guests such as David Liebman. Parallel activity included membership in flutist Cheryl Pyle’s Beyond ensemble, which issued multiple live recordings; participation in trumpeter Kyle Quass’s free-improv collective Beneath the Paving Stones, heard on the 2016 EP Rise Against and album Darkness Made Light; and appearances on additional projects such as Doyle Bramhall II’s Rich Man (2016). Collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Adam Minkoff produced a rock-octet treatment of Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” first performed in 2013 and later documented on the 2018 album Til the End My Dear: Arrangements of Stravinsky; the pair also organized Coltrane tribute concerts in 2015 and 2017. Dialogical, the second Individuation album, followed in 2019 and featured guitarist Lionel Loueke as a guest, while the same year saw the debut release of Tenor Triage.
Subsequent years brought further explorations, particularly through partnerships with guitarist and electronics musician Seth Andrew Davis. Their duo Symbiotique issued a self-titled album in 2020 and The Maximal Effect in 2021; they also recorded the quartet album Ghost Tantras (2022) with Quass and Damon Smith. Another ensemble, Second Nature Ensemble, released its debut, Second Nature, in 2022. These and several Davis projects appeared on the Kansas City-based Mother Brain label. Eaton additionally recorded the duo album The Work of This Moment (2020) with Brad Whiteley, contributed to Lunch Purse’s free-improv set Don’t Mess with Lunch Purse (2023), and completed two duet albums with Nicki Adams—Paraphrase (2022) and The Transcendental (2024). The third Individuation recording, The Phenomenal, emerged in 2024 with trumpeters Dave Scott and Tim Hagans.
Born in Missouri’s Kansas City metropolitan area in 1981, Eaton earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington in 2004. His mentors included David Liebman, Eugene Rousseau, and Tim Timmons. He began teaching and spent several months in a cruise-ship showband before settling in Brooklyn in 2008, where he maintained an active teaching career that encompassed woodwind instruction at PS 126 Manhattan Academy of Technology from 2012 and at Church Street School of Music and Art from 2018, among other institutions.
The 2014 release of Individuation introduced his core quartet of bassist Daniel Ori, drummer Shareef Taher, and pianist Brad Whiteley, augmented by guests such as David Liebman. Parallel activity included membership in flutist Cheryl Pyle’s Beyond ensemble, which issued multiple live recordings; participation in trumpeter Kyle Quass’s free-improv collective Beneath the Paving Stones, heard on the 2016 EP Rise Against and album Darkness Made Light; and appearances on additional projects such as Doyle Bramhall II’s Rich Man (2016). Collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Adam Minkoff produced a rock-octet treatment of Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” first performed in 2013 and later documented on the 2018 album Til the End My Dear: Arrangements of Stravinsky; the pair also organized Coltrane tribute concerts in 2015 and 2017. Dialogical, the second Individuation album, followed in 2019 and featured guitarist Lionel Loueke as a guest, while the same year saw the debut release of Tenor Triage.
Subsequent years brought further explorations, particularly through partnerships with guitarist and electronics musician Seth Andrew Davis. Their duo Symbiotique issued a self-titled album in 2020 and The Maximal Effect in 2021; they also recorded the quartet album Ghost Tantras (2022) with Quass and Damon Smith. Another ensemble, Second Nature Ensemble, released its debut, Second Nature, in 2022. These and several Davis projects appeared on the Kansas City-based Mother Brain label. Eaton additionally recorded the duo album The Work of This Moment (2020) with Brad Whiteley, contributed to Lunch Purse’s free-improv set Don’t Mess with Lunch Purse (2023), and completed two duet albums with Nicki Adams—Paraphrase (2022) and The Transcendental (2024). The third Individuation recording, The Phenomenal, emerged in 2024 with trumpeters Dave Scott and Tim Hagans.
Albums
