Welcome
No matter how you look at it, in whatever genre he chooses, SF-based Jazz Saxophonist Michael Zilber is, as Downbeat and Grammy winning and nominated legend David Liebman says,"simply one of the best composers and players around anywhere. Period!"
News
Hi all,
Life is unpredictable, but I hope to be able to keep this news section fairly fresh and up to date, perhaps through RSS feed. A lot is happening or very much in the works as I write this.
First and foremost, the music perhaps nearest and dearest to my heart recently, the Billy Collins project will be doing a series of three major concerts in the Bay Area coming up on May 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The three shows at at three of my absolute favorite places to play in the Bay: May 2nd at the Jazzschool in Berkeley at 8PM, Sunday May 3 at Pete Douglas' wonderful Bach Dynamite in Half Moon Bay and Monday May 4 at Yoshi's SF, my first time ever at the SF Yoshi's. (I have probably played the Oakland Yoshi's in it's various incarnations at least 30 times as a leader and a sideman.) I truly loved writing the music for the Collins Project, deeply inspired by Billy's words, and you can watch a couple of performances of it here. There is really only one singer I know of who can pull off these songs: Ann Arbor's Andy Kirshner, and fortunately, we were able to bring him out for this, to join the wonderful rhythm section of John R Burr, John Shifflett and Jason Lewis. I will do (or have done, depending when you read this) an interview on KCSM about it on Tuesday, April 28th, which is posted here.
Projects
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Billy Collins Project A true labor of love for Zilber, the project features eleven poems by Billy Collins, America’s most beloved and widely known poet, set to music for voice, sax, piano, bass and drums. Andy... |
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Happy Hour A true collective, Happy Hour is made up of 5 of the top jazz musicians in the Bay Area, all leaders in their own right. Erik Jekabson on trumpet, John Gove on Trombone, Peter Barshay on bass and... |
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Stowell-Zilber Guitar great John Stowell has joined forces with Michael to record originals and renditions of songs by Kenny Wheeler and John Scofield, as well as off the beaten track standards. Joined by the... |
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The Brecker-Shorter Project Formed as a group doing a tribute concert to Michael Brecker and Wayne Shorter, the 2 pre-eminent jazz saxophonists of the past 40 years, the group is one of which Michael Zilber says “there... |
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The Jazzschool Institute for Developing Artists and Audiences at Yoshi's I am honored that Jazzschool Director Susan Muscarella has asked me to teach composition, saxophone and jazz ensembles as part of the new ... |
Listen
A selection of some of Michael's recent work. Check out the projects and recordings to hear and see more.
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Watch
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Two videos: first the Brecker-Shorter Project, then the Billy Collins Project, both recorded live at Yoshi's. Look for more on the projects page.
Writings
From time to time Michael writes articles and other pieces — mostly about music and musicianship, occasionally on other topics.