DATE: THURSDAy, APRIL 6
TIME: 7:30 P.M.
TICKETS: $20 ($15 FOR stuDENTS/SENIORS)
This double-set night presents the return to Sound It Out of a series favorite: alto saxophonist Michaël Attias, who will be celebrating the release of his first solo album, échos la nuit. Some of Michaël’s initial solo performances — on alto and piano, virtually simultaneously — were at Greenwich House as part of Sound It Out. In addition to his opening solo set, Michaël will close the night by leading his ace Quartet with Kris Davis (piano), Sean Conly (double-bass) and Satoshi Takeishi (drums).
Michaël has earned a reputation as one of the most questing and keenly collaborative figures on the 21st-century New York jazz scene, with a background and outlook that makes “him an emphatically cosmopolitan saxophonist and composer,” according to The New York Times. Migrations spanning North Africa, the Middle East, Western Europe and the American Midwest ultimately brought Michaël in 1994 to New York City, where he continues to pursue his muse as improviser, composer and leader of multiple bands. On alto saxophone, he offers a tone of piquant lyricism, while his compositions are serpentine and darkly alluring, with melodies fit to charm snakes; the rhythms offer surprise at every turn, the textures as sensual as night. The Village Voice described Michaël’s music-making this way: “perpetually shifting tunes, richness of timbre and a singular personality – you can almost see his music expanding and contracting.”
As a leader, Michaël has released seven critically acclaimed albums, including Nerve Dance, the 2017 Clean Feed debut of the Michaël Attias Quartet, with Aruán Ortiz, John Hébert and Nasheet Waits. With Renku, his longstanding trio with John Hébert and Satoshi Takeishi, the saxophonist recorded Live in Greenwich Village over a two-night stand in the Sound It Out series at Greenwich House, with the album released in 2016 via Clean Feed. As a sideman, Michaël has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Anthony Braxton, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, Anthony Coleman and Tony Malaby, among others. In April 2019, he will release échos la nuit via the Brooklyn label Out of Your Head Records.
