This recording, which was a finalist for The INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS Jazz Record of the year, has work from three of Zilber’s favorite NYC musicians, James Genus, Rodney Holmes (Brecker Brothers, Wayne Shorter, Santana) and Rachel Z, as well as the first ever recorded duets between Zilber and drumming virtuoso Steve Smith (Steps Ahead, Vital Information, Journey). This recording is in print, and available for your listening enjoyment.
Two Coasts by Michael Zilber was a Jazz Recording of the year Finalist for the 2001 Independent Music Awards.
On this third recording as a leader, saxophonist Michael Zilber addresses his own past and present with two separate bands – one from his current home base of San Francisco, the other from his past life in New York. TWO COASTS provides listeners with a rate opportunity to hear an artist interacting in two very different musical settings on equal footing. From his bold and brash, post-bop inspired New York-flavored tenor blowing, to spacious, stirring, zen-like restraint, Zilber goes deep with to conjure up spontaneous, heartfelt expression.
– Bill Milkowski/Jazz Times
Michael Zilber is one of the best musicians of his generation: A consummate composer and an improviser of the first order – David Liebman (Miles Davis)
Michael’s new CD sounds absolutely great. Wonderful playing and writing – Michael Brecker (8-time Grammy winner as jazz instrumentalist of the year) On Two Coasts, saxophonist-composer Michael Zilber gives the listener some original compositions that each carry a special jump and shout of joy about them! It is a meeting of east coast jazz and west coast jazz that will stay with the listener long after it has gone; it is haunting, melodic, something to savor and remember – Will Prosser (The Jazz Review)
There is a fierceness to Michael Zilber’s tenor lines, a kind of fire and authority one hears in the playing of Coltrane and his disciples like Brecker, Grossman, and Berg. And yet, he is capable of sublime lyricism on ballads, particularly when he is blowing soprano in the spirit of his mentor, Dave Liebman – Bill Milkowski (Downbeat Magazine)