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!"

In This Moment

Shot Through With Beauty makes top 10 of 2011 list, courtesy of Andrew Gilbert and KQED

Thanks so much to Andrew Gilbert and KQED San Francisco for naming Shot Through With Beauty as one of his 10 favorite Jazz CDs of 2011. John Stowell and I truly appreciate it! Here is Andrew's review:

Very nice review from The Jazz Times

Thanks to Jazz Times and Mike Joyce for the kind review of Shot Through With Beauty. Much appreciated...
http://jazztimes.com/articles/28628-shot-through-with-beauty-john-stowell-michael-zilber-quartet

It's been a while

And there are some very good personal reasons why, and I will share them soon, but in the meantime some political thoughts...

More News »

Projects


	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... Read more
	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... Read more
	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... Read more
	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 ... Read more
	The Zilber-Horvath-Shifflett-Lewis Quartet Formed four years ago at the request of Jazzschool Institute Director Susan Muscarella to be the group running the Advanced Summer Intensive as well as to represent the faculty as part of the... Read more
	Weather Wayne Back in the summer of 2010 my good friend from SFJAZZ, Mike Charlasch, asked me to put a group together as part of an SFJAZZ series at Amnesia in the Mission. I had a choice of Michael... Read more

On Carla »

Listen

A selection of some of Michael's recent work. Check out the projects and recordings to hear and see more.

Night Club, Billy Collins Project

Wabash 3, Stowell-Zilber

Come Around Go, Happy Hour

Changing Tranes, Crossroads

Manteca, Reimagined

Watch

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.

Letter To A Talented Young Bassist

This is an adaptation of an email exchange I had with a very gifted young bassist who played in one of my groups. I thought it would be of interest to any aspiring bassist. His name has been changed to ensure his anonymity. The following is his question (which took a lot of courage to ask) and my response, both of them edited to be more coherent than an email exchange and to protect the innocent.

10 Questions For Every Aspiring Jazz Musician

Here are some comments meant for any serious student of jazz, based on my years as a player and a teacher as well as drawing liberally from my talks with Dave Liebman.

Michael Zilber interviewed by Jerry Karp

This interview by freelance journalist Jerry Karp is the best and most comprehensive Michael has done. It is posted on Jerry’s website and was the basis for an excellent profile Jerry wrote about Michael for JazzWest.

Original article on Rocketwords