Michael Wolff Trio

Michael Wolff Trio

@ The Irishtown Bend Taproom. Behind the Market Garden Brewery and the West Side Market - under the giant BEER sign!!  
1849 W. 24th St.  Cleveland, Ohio
(216) 373-0700

The Irishtown Bend Tap Room has several varieties of award winning beers (fresh from the brewery) and wine.  For dinner before or after the concert we'd suggest the Market Garden Brewery in front on W. 25th. You can make reservations for dinner by calling: (216) 621-4000 or at www.marketgardenbrewery.com

Pianist Extraordinaire from NYC/LA plays music from his new CD "Memoir". and more Live @ Irishtown Bend Tap Room @ MGB!

Featuring:
Michael Wolff-Piano/Keys
Kip Reed-Bass
Steve Renko-Drums

Michael Wolff is a renowned jazz pianist, composer and bandleader known for his virtuoso performances and innovative style. After leaving music school early to join the Latin-jazz great Cal Tjader’s band in the early ’70s, he spent the next two decades gigging and recording extensively. Wolff can be heard on over 21 recordings with a veritable hall of fame ranging from Tjader to Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson, Sheila E, Christian McBride, Tony Williams, and more. During this time, he even mingled with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Duke Ellington Band and the Count Basie Orchestra.

In addition to appearances at esteemed global venues such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Birdland, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Snug Harbor and Mezzrow, Wolff has performed with and conducted over 25 symphony orchestras worldwide including The Dallas Symphony, The Berlin Radio Orchestra, and The Atlanta Symphony.

Wolff became a part of pop culture in 1989, when he began a five-year tenure as the musical director of the  Arsenio Hall’s groundbreaking late-night talk show. This journey led to him accompanying saxophonist and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton, as well as backing musical giants including Ray Charles, B.B. King, Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Al Green, James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lee Lewis and Warren Zevon. He also served as musical director for Nancy Wilson.

In the summer of 2015, a grueling four-year battle with a rare form of blood cancer had the pianist-composer on the ropes and flat on his back. He fell into a coma in the lobby of a New York hospital, where the prognosis quickly moved from doubtful to death’s door. At one point, the doctor asked his wife, award-winning actress, director and writer Polly Draper, if she’d signed a Do Not Resuscitate order. Through the haze of drugs and debilitating illness, Wolff lifted his head up and growled: “Resuscitate me!”

His sons Nat and Alex, in the midst of their ascent as two of the most talented actors of their generation, returned home to be with their father to comfort him. They played guitars and sang at his bedside, tapping into the sweet, winsome gifts that had made the Wolffs a famous musical family nearly a decade earlier, via the hit Nickelodeon TV series The Naked Brothers Band. “I guess it just wasn’t my time,” he laughs today, “So now everybody’s flying free, which is great.”

Wolff is a recipient of the BMI Music Award, the winner of the Gold Disc Award in Japan, and the recipient of the Hamptons International Film Festival’s award for best film score for The Tic Code. He has composed the scores Made Up, Dark Angel, Who’s the Man, and The Naked Brothers Band. Most recently Michael wrote the score for the new Polly Draper film, Stella’s Last Weekend.

In addition to working as a clinician, Wolff currently serves on the faculty at New York University’s Jazz Studies program. 

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