Michael Marcus

Michael Marcus plays multiple reed instruments with a robust, resonant timbre and a phrasing approach that balances structural clarity with exploratory freedom, shaped by his immersion in both bop and free jazz idioms. Between 1977 and 1980 he traveled extensively alongside blues performers Bobby "Blue" Bland and Albert King. His first appearance on record came in 1982, when he contributed to Sonny Simmons and Billy Higgins' Backwoods Suite. Throughout the following ten years he remained active as a performer and student of jazz while based in New York, although almost none of that activity resulted in commercial releases. The 1992 album Under the Wire finally documented his work, assembling William Parker, Joseph Bowie, Ted Daniel, and Reggie Nicholson among its participants. He maintained a steady recording pace for the rest of the decade, issuing several projects under his own leadership. The earliest of these, 1994's Here At!, stands as the sole occasion on which Fred Hopkins appeared alongside either Denis Charles or William Parker. In 1995 SaxEmble issued an eponymous album that found Marcus performing with Frank Lowe, James Carter, and additional musicians. Two further Simmons-led sessions featuring Marcus appeared on CIMP in 1996. The following year Marcus joined pianist Jaki Byard for a tour whose results surfaced as the 1998 release Involution. Between 1998 and 1999 he also devoted time to crafting string arrangements for his own pieces. His 1999 album In the Center of It All initiated the first of two recorded meetings with organist Rahn Burton. Throughout the 1990s he additionally performed at numerous festivals across the United States and Europe. After 2000 he sustained an active schedule of concerts and sessions, co-leading a pair of Cosmosamatics albums with Simmons, appearing on Jemeel Moondoc's big-band recording Spirit House, and releasing his own projects Live in N.Y., Sunwheels, and the unaccompanied set Speakin' Out.