Michael David Weiss is a jazz pianist and composer best known for his fifteen year association with saxophonist Johnny Griffin

Johnny Griffin

John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...

.

Weiss studied at Interlochen Academy

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Interlochen Center for the Arts is a privately owned, 1,200 acre arts education institution in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly 15 miles southwest of Traverse City...

 and Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, after which he moved to New York.

He has forged a solid reputation accompanying jazz luminaries such as Art Farmer

Art Farmer

Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...

, Charles McPherson, Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton

Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...

, George Coleman

George Coleman

George Edward Coleman is an American hard bop saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, known chiefly for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s.-Biography:...

, the Heath Brothers

Heath Brothers

The Heath Brothers was an American jazz group, formed in 1975 by the brothers Jimmy , Percy , and Albert "Tootie" Heath ; and pianist Stanley Cowell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tony Purrone and Jimmy's son Mtume joined the group later...

, the Jazztet, Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...

, Pepper Adams

Pepper Adams

Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III was a jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 43 pieces, was the leader on twenty albums, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman.-Biography:...

, Bill Hardman

Bill Hardman

William Franklin Hardman, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop.-Biography:...

, Junior Cook

Junior Cook

Herman "Junior" Cook was a hard bop tenor saxophone player.-Biography:Cook was born in Pensacola, Florida. After playing with Dizzy Gillespie in 1958, Cook gained some fame for his longtime membership in the Horace Silver Quintet ; when he and Blue Mitchell left that band, Cook played in...

, Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

 and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

In 2000 he was the grand prize winner in the BMI/Thelonious Monk Institute

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education-oriented organization co-founded in 1986 by the family of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R...

's Composers Competition. In 1989, he won second prize in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and in 2002, Weiss received a composition commission from Chamber Music America. Jazz Times says Weiss "writes with thought-provoking originality".

As a soloist and bandleader, Weiss has been featured on television and radio programs such as CBS News Nightwatch, Live from Lincoln Center

Live from Lincoln Center

Live From Lincoln Center is an ongoing series of musical performances produced by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with Thirteen/WNET in New York City....

, Jazzset, Piano Jazz

Piano Jazz

Piano Jazz is a weekly one hour radio show produced and distributed by National Public Radio. It began on June 4, 1978 and has always been hosted by jazz pianist Marian McPartland. It is the longest running cultural program on NPR. The show features a single guest, and usually consists of about an...

, and the Jazz Piano Christmas Special. In addition to performing, composing and recording, Michael Weiss has been committed to jazz education throughout his career. His fourth recording as a leader, Soul Journey, features nine original compositions composed for septet. In October, 2006, Weiss debuted as a leader at the Village Vanguard

Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...

.

As leader

• Presenting Michael Weiss (1986, Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz is a Dutch jazz record label, specializing in American jazz.Criss Cross was founded in 1980 by Gerry Teekens, a drummer and German professor. The label, which releases about 20 albums per year, is noted for its simple, block-color cover art...
  
  )
  1. "My Melancholy Baby
     My Melancholy Baby
     "My Melancholy Baby" is a popular song published in 1912 and first sung publicly by William Frawley. The music was written by Ernie Burnett, the lyrics by George A...
     
     " (Ernie Burnett, George A. Norton)
  2. "Après Vous"
  3. "Enigma" (J. J. Johnson)
  4. "B.G.O." (Tom Kirkpatrick)
  5. "Riverbed" (Joe Zawinul
     Joe Zawinul
     Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...
     
     )
  6. "Gallop's Gallop" (Thelonious Monk
     Thelonious Monk
     Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
     
     )
  7. "La Villa" (Kenny Dorham
     Kenny Dorham
     McKinley Howard Dorham was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer born in Fairfield, Texas. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did...
     
     )

  Michael Weiss - piano

  Piano

  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

  
  , Tom Kirkpatrick - trumpet

  Trumpet

  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

  
  , Ralph LaLama - tenor sax

  Tenor saxophone

  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

  
  , Ray Drummond

  Ray Drummond

  Ray Drummond is a jazz bassist and teacher. He also has an MBA from Stanford University, hence his linkage to the Stanford Jazz Workshop...

  
   - bass

  Double bass

  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  
  , Kenny Washington

  Kenny Washington (musician)

  Kenny Washington is a jazz drummer born in Staten Island, New York.He studied at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts...

  
   - drums

  Drum kit

  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  
  

• Power Station (1998, DIW
  DIW Records
  DIW Records is a Japanese record label. It is a subsidiary label of Disc Union and specializes in jazz and avant garde music. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn.-Discography:...
  
  )
  1. "Power Station"
  2. "Atlantis"
  3. "Orient Express"
  4. "Soul Journey"
  5. "Some Other Spring" (Arthur Herzog, Jr., Irene Kitchings)
  6. "Alone Together
     Alone Together (song)
     "Alone Together" is a song composed by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Flying Colors in 1932 by Jean Sargent....
     
     " (Howard Dietz
     Howard Dietz
     Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...
     
     , Arthur Schwartz
     Arthur Schwartz
     Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...
     
     )
  7. "Badlands"
  8. "Mountain Man"

  Michael Weiss - piano, Eric Alexander - tenor sax, John Webber - bass, Joe Farnsworth

  Joe Farnsworth

  Joseph Allen "Joe" Farnsworth is an American jazz drummer.Farnsworth was one of five sons born to trumpeter and bandleader Roger Farnsworth; one of Joe Farnsworth's brothers played saxophone in Ray Charles's band. He attended High School in Jakarta International School in Jakarta, Indonesia...

  
   - drums

• Milestones (2000, SteepleChase
  SteepleChase Records
  SteepleChase Records is a jazz record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time...
  
  )
  1. "Milestones" (John Lewis
     John Lewis (pianist)
     John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...
     
     )
  2. "Wave
     Wave (song)
     "Wave" is a song written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Recorded as an instrumental on Jobim's 1967 album of the same name, English lyrics were added by Jobim for a November 11, 1969 recording by Frank Sinatra, released on his 1970 album Sinatra & Company...
     
     " (Antonio Carlos Jobim
     Antônio Carlos Jobim
     Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
     
     )
  3. "Walter Davis Ascending" (Jackie McLean
     Jackie McLean
     John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
     
     )
  4. "Just One of Those Things
     Just One of Those Things (song)
     "Just One of Those Things" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for the 1935 musical Jubilee.The song was later featured in two Doris Day musical films, Lullaby of Broadway and Young at Heart .-Influence in popular culture:...
     
     " (Cole Porter
     Cole Porter
     Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
     
     )
  5. "Little Melonae" (McLean)
  6. "Buffalo" (Dorham)
  7. "Like Someone in Love
     Like Someone in Love
     Like Someone in Love is an album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with a studio orchestra arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol...
     
     " (Johnny Burke
     Johnny Burke
     Johnny Burke was a Newfoundland songwriter and musician. He was nicknamed the 'Bard of Prescott Street'. He wrote many popular songs that artists in the 1930s and 1940s released.Popular songs by Burke include:* The Night Paddy Murphy Died...
     
     , Jimmy Van Heusen)
  8. "Love for Sale" (Porter)
  9. "Stella by Starlight
     Stella By Starlight
     "Stella by Starlight" is a jazz standard written by Victor Young and featured in The Uninvited, a 1944 film released by Paramount Pictures. Originally played in the film as an instrumental theme song without lyrics, it was turned over to Ned Washington, who wrote the lyrics for it in 1946...
     
     " (Ned Washington
     Ned Washington
     Ned Washington was an American lyricist.-Biography:Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962...
     
     , Victor Young
     Victor Young
     Victor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
     
     )

  Michael Weiss - piano, Paul Gill - bass, Joe Farnsworth - drums

• Soul Journey (2003, Sintra)
  1. "Optimism"
  2. "El Camino"
  3. "Soul Journey"
  4. "Orient Express"
  5. "Atlantis"
  6. "The Prophecy"
  7. "The Cheshire Cat"
  8. "La Ventana"
  9. "Second Thoughts"

  Michael Weiss - piano & Fender Rhodes

  Rhodes piano

  The Rhodes piano is an electro-mechanical piano, invented by Harold Rhodes during the fifties and later manufactured in a number of models, first in collaboration with Fender and after 1965 by CBS....

  
  , Ryan Kisor

  Ryan Kisor

  Ryan Kisor is an American jazz trumpeter.A native of Sioux City, Iowa, Kisor learned trumpet from his father Larry Kisor and started playing in a local dance band at age ten. Kisor began classical trumpet lessons at age 12, met Clark Terry when he was 15 , and played with all-star high school bands...

  
   - trumpet & flugelhorn

  Flugelhorn

  The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...

  
  , Steve Davis

  Steve Davis (trombonist)

  Steve Davis is an American jazz trombonist who plays hard bop, post-bop, and standards. His primary influences are J. J. Johnson, Curtis Fuller, Slide Hampton, Jackie McLean, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Cedar Walton, McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane.Davis was raised in...

  
   - trombone

  Trombone

  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

  
  ,

  Steve Wilson

  Steve Wilson (jazz musician)

  Steve Wilson is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist.-Biography:As a teenager, he played in various rhythm and blues and funk bands. After a year accompanying singer Stephanie Mills, he attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he majored in music. In 1987 he moved to New...

  
   - alto sax

  Alto saxophone

  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

  
  , Paul Gill - bass, Joe Farnsworth - drums, Daniel Sadownick - percussion

  Percussion instrument

  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

  
  

All titles by Michael Weiss except as indicated.

As sideman

• Johnny Griffin
  Johnny Griffin
  John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
  
   Take My Hand (1988, Who's Who of Jazz)
• Johnny Griffin The Cat (1990, Antilles
  Antilles Records
  Antilles Records was an American record label that was a subsidiary of Island Records.Its jazz catalog is now managed by Verve Records.-Discography:*1001 Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity 1981*1002 Biréli Lagrène- Routes To Django 1980...
  
  )
• Georgie Fame
  Georgie Fame
  Georgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
  
   Cool Cat Blues (1991, Blue Moon / Bean Bag Entertainment)
• Nathan Page The Other Page (1991, Hugo's Music)
• Johnny Griffin Dance of Passion (1992, Antilles)
• Charles McPherson
  Charles McPherson (musician)
  Charles McPherson is an American jazz alto saxophonist born in Joplin, Missouri and raised in Detroit, Michigan, most notable for his work from 1960-1972 with Charles Mingus....
  
   First Flight Out (1994, Arabesque
  Arabesque Records
  Arabesque Records is an American classical and jazz record label.Arabesque began as a classical music subsidiary of the Caedmon company. In 1988, Marvin Reiss and Ward Botsford bought the company, turning it into an independent, and continued releasing classical until 1992, when it switched focuses...
  
  )
• Various Artists An NPR Jazz Piano Christmas (1996, NPR
  NPR
  NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
  
   Classics)
• Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra Big Band Treasures Live (1997, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
  Folkways Records
  Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
  
  )
• Ronnie Cuber
  Ronnie Cuber
  Ronnie Cuber is a jazz saxophonist. He has also played in Latin, pop, rock and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he has also played tenor sax, soprano sax and flute, the latter on an album by Eddie Palmieri. As a leader, Cuber is known for hard bop and Latin jazz...
  
   N.Y.C.ats (1997, SteepleChase
  SteepleChase Records
  SteepleChase Records is a jazz record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time...
  
  )
• Doug Raney
  Doug Raney
  Doug Raney is an American jazz guitarist. He is the son of Jimmy Raney.Raney began his career in his father's band, with Al Haig, at the age of 18. He later played in a duo with his father...
  
   Back in New York (1997, SteepleChase)
• Johnny Griffin & Steve Grossman Johnny Griffin & Steve Grossman Quintet (2000, Dreyfus
  Disques Dreyfus
  Disques Dreyfus is a record label which is currently home to artists such as Klement Julienne. Jean Michel Jarre was part of the label for more than 20 years.Francis Dreyfus founded Disque Dreyfus in 1985...
  
  )
• Louis Smith
  Louis Smith (musician)
  Louis Smith is an American jazz trumpeter.While studying at the University of Michigan, he played with visiting musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thad Jones and Billy Mitchell, before going on to play with Sonny Stitt, Count Basie and Al McKibbon, Cannonball Adderley, Percy Heath,...
  
   The Bopsmith (2001, SteepleChase)
• Eszter Balint
  Eszter Balint
  Eszter Balint is a singer, songwriter, violinist, and actress. She first emerged as a child member of the avant-garde Squat Theatre troupe before making her cinematic debut in 1984 in director Jim Jarmusch's independent film Stranger Than Paradise...
  
   Mud (2004, Bar/None
  Bar/None Records
  Bar/None Records is an independent record label based in Hoboken, New Jersey.-Early history:Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986. Having previously worked in pirate radio and booked and promoted bands in his native Ireland, Prendergast moved to Hoboken in 1982 and started Pier Platters...
  
  )
• Frank Wess
  Frank Wess
  Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...
  
   Body and Soul (2005, Grave News)
• Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard (2008, Planet Arts)
• Frank Wess Once Is Not Enough (2009, Labeth Music)
• Dick Oatts
  Dick Oatts
  Richard "Dick" Oatts is a jazz saxophonist from Jefferson, Iowa. He became interested in saxophone due to his father Jack Oatts. To this day he still plays on the same Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone his father gave to him. He began his professional career in Minneapolis in 1972 and in 1977 he joined...
  
  Two Hearts (2010, SteepleChase)

External links

• MichaelWeiss.info - Official website