Michael Wolff Trio - Softly As A Morning Sunrise

Albums [1995] 2AM [1995] Jumpstart! [1998] Portraiture [2000] The Tic Code Soundtrack [2000] Impure Thoughts [2001] Intoxicate [2003] Christmas Moods [2004] Dangerous Vision [2006] Love & Destruction [2007] jazz, JAZZ, jazz [Live] Various Recording Live Dates 07 Nov 07 Iridium, New York 14 Nov 07 Nighttown, Cleaveland Heights, OH 15 Nov 07 Nighttown, Cleaveland Heights, OH 16 Nov 07 Jazz Kitchen, Indianapolis, IN 17 Nov 07 Murphy's Place, Toledo, OH 23 Nov 07 Snug Harbor, New Orleans, LA 24 Nov 07 Snug Harbor, New Orleans, LA 11 Jan 08 APAP Showcase, NY Hilton, NY 22 Feb 08 The Blue Room, Kansas City, KS 23 Feb 08 Sheldon Concert Hall-St.Louis,MO Trivia In traditional Jazz Trio, which consists of a Piano, Bass, and Drums, the name of the group always fall on the piano player. In this case, the piano player is Michael Wolff. Download Here are some songs worth checking out (free): Papa Was a Rolling Stone Bells Footnotes [1] Listed as "Special Limited Edition - Autographed by Michael" on the official website store.

Michael Wolff Trio - Softly As A Morning Sunrise

2 comments

This is my first real Jazz CD review, it's for the Michael Wolff Trio. Since I normally like to do a little research on the artists we feature, I was shocked to find out that Michael Wolff was the bandleader for the Arsenio Hall Show!

That's such a flashback, I can remember Arsenio doing that 'hoo hoo hoo' thing and that "Things that Makes You go 'Hmmmm'" segment (which I think he stole from C&C Music Factory).

I guess I have never paid attention to the music people on those shows, but on retrospect, all the great talk show hosts had kind of a presence with their music bandleaders. For instance, David Letterman and Paul Shaffer, Conan O'Brien and Max Weinberg, Jay Leno and Branford Marsalis (actually I think it's now changed to Kevin Eubanks).

So anyway, Michael Wolff have gone a long way since the days on Arsenio Hall, he's released 10 albums. His latest CD, for a limited time, comes autographed^[1] with a short story about how and why the album was made.

Here is an excerpt of the letter:

This music was recorded in 2001, right after my band, Impure Thoughts had completed recording all the music for our CD, Intoxicate. We finished early, and we had an additional full day booked at the studio. I asked Victor and John B. to come back and record, just to have some fun. The sound was already the way we wanted since we'd been recording in that studio for the previous four days.

(...)

To me, this CD represents what I love best about making Jazz -- playing wonderful, evocative material on the spot with great musical collaborators -- unplanned, unrehearsed, by the seat-of-the-pants. The music led us; we didn't lead the music. All we had to do was get out of the way and play straight ahead and strive for tone.

Most of the songs were traditional jazz standard and all three long time jazz musicians already knew how to play all the songs. There was one song that Michael Wolff didn't know how to play, "Cry Me a River", but he quickly picked up the song as soon as he was shown the basic keys.

"Softly as the Morning Sunrise" is my favorite song off the album because of the strong piano lead, which is maintained throughout the song.

 September 4, 2007 7:44 AM  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com www.michaelwolff.com