Biography
Post-bop/hard bop instrumentalist Michael Weiss has expressed the desire to bring “a greater integration of composition and improvisation rather than the old head/solos/head format” to jazz, an outlook that shaped many of his recordings from the 1990s and 2000s. Although improvisation remained central to those releases, Weiss invested considerable energy in writing original material so that the albums would transcend mere “blowing dates,” positioning himself as a composer, bandleader, and arranger in addition to his role as a soloist. On both acoustic piano and electric keyboards, he draws from a range of pianistic sources that reviewers have traced to Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, and Chick Corea.
This Michael Weiss is distinct from the figure skater of the same name, born in Washington, DC, on August 2, 1976; the jazz musician arrived eighteen years earlier in Dallas, TX, on February 10, 1958. There he began classical piano lessons at age six, later enrolling at the Interlochen Academy in Michigan at fifteen and subsequently studying at Indiana University. While still in Indiana he worked as a sideman with local players including Al Kiger and Pookie Johnson, and after earning his degree in 1981 he relocated to New York City. His first significant opportunity came when singer Jon Hendricks employed him in the early 1980s, a period that also included regular appearances alongside tenor saxman Junior Cook at the Star Café. Additional sideman engagements over the years have encompassed Art Farmer, Gerry Mulligan, Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Tom Harrell, and Charles McPherson, among others. Weiss’s debut as a leader, Presenting Michael Weiss, appeared on the Swiss label Criss Cross Records in 1986; more than a decade passed before his follow-up, Power Station, surfaced on DIW in 1998. Between those projects he maintained an active schedule of sideman work, after which he issued his third album, Milestones, on Denmark’s SteepleChase imprint and his fourth, Soul Journey, on his own Sintra Records in 2003.
This Michael Weiss is distinct from the figure skater of the same name, born in Washington, DC, on August 2, 1976; the jazz musician arrived eighteen years earlier in Dallas, TX, on February 10, 1958. There he began classical piano lessons at age six, later enrolling at the Interlochen Academy in Michigan at fifteen and subsequently studying at Indiana University. While still in Indiana he worked as a sideman with local players including Al Kiger and Pookie Johnson, and after earning his degree in 1981 he relocated to New York City. His first significant opportunity came when singer Jon Hendricks employed him in the early 1980s, a period that also included regular appearances alongside tenor saxman Junior Cook at the Star Café. Additional sideman engagements over the years have encompassed Art Farmer, Gerry Mulligan, Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Tom Harrell, and Charles McPherson, among others. Weiss’s debut as a leader, Presenting Michael Weiss, appeared on the Swiss label Criss Cross Records in 1986; more than a decade passed before his follow-up, Power Station, surfaced on DIW in 1998. Between those projects he maintained an active schedule of sideman work, after which he issued his third album, Milestones, on Denmark’s SteepleChase imprint and his fourth, Soul Journey, on his own Sintra Records in 2003.
Albums
Singles
