The Michael Malis Trio is a forward looking, compositionally motivated improvising ensemble based in Detroit, Michigan. The trio’s debut album, “Lifted from the No of All Nothing” (Polyfold) features all original compositions by Malis and was called “as good as any debut recording anywhere in 2015” (Detroit Free Press). The music includes elements of free improvisation, as well as moments of highly detailed, through composed material, with a thread of jazz informed language running through the entire album.

Consisting of pianist Michael Malis, bassist Ben Rolston, and drummer Stephen Boegehold, the group performs weekly at Cliff Bell’s, a club in downtown Detroit, either as a trio or as the rhythm section of the Marcus Elliot Quartet, featuring saxophonist Marcus Elliot. This standing engagement has served as an incubator for the band’s original music.

Exuberant, buoyant, and thoughtful, the Michael Malis Trio is soulful and complex, groovy and abstract, compositional and improvisational. Inspiration comes from a variety of sources, including many of the archetypal figures of the jazz pianist-composer tradition, such as Andrew Hill, Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor, and Bud Powell. The band is also influenced by the great paragons of Detroit’s own musical legacy, including Marcus Belgrave, Geri Allen, Robert Hurst, Jaribu Shahid, and Vincent York, all of whom members of the trio have performed and/or studied with.

http://www.michaelmalis.com/

http://michaelmalistrio.bandcamp.com/