Photo by Napone Punyagupta
On April 27th, Playscape Recordings will release the Michael Musillami Trio’s Old Tea (PSR#091009), the fifth album from guitarist/composer Michael Musillami‘s acclaimed flagship ensemble featuring bassist Joe Fonda and George Schuller. It documents a book of 11 new compositions Musillami wrote in the months following the death of his son Evan in March 2009. The group will preview the music during three Northeast U.S. dates in February and tour Europe in late May and early June following its release.
“Evan and I shared a love of all good things, but especially a good cup of tea,” Musillami recalls. “We were told Old Tea (a Taiwanese form of Oolong known as Lao Cha) is considered the best of the best and in January 2009, with help from a student whose uncle is one of the few remaining traditional tea producers in Kaohsinug, we ordered some. It arrived in May, just weeks after Ev took his own life—a beautiful, brilliant kid of 29 years, he decided his physical time with us had come to an end. While composing this music, which is dedicated to him, I began every day by brewing a pot of Old Tea and toasting Evan. He and I never had the opportunity to drink it together, but it is my hope that this lost opportunity will resonate with others as they hear this music and perform familiar rituals with their own family.”
Old Tea is the Michael Musillami Trio’s first recording without additional musicians or special guests since its 2003 debut, Beijing, and the follow-up to last year’s From Seeds, which also featured Ralph Alessi, Marty Ehrlich and Matt Moran. Critics called the record “exceptional in all respects” (Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes) and “a marvelous new music recording of great depth and vision” (Michael G. Nastos, AllMusic.com), while also noting “the distinctiveness of Musillami’s compositions” (Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com) and “a tone that’s impossible not to love” (James Hale, DownBeat). AllAboutJazz-New York‘s Robert Iannapollo added, “From Seeds shows Musillami, Fonda and Schuller to be one of the finest working units in jazz today, with or without the ‘+3′.”
Musillami has worked extensively as a performer, bandleader/composer and educator for more than 25 years. In addition to his trio, which has actively toured and recorded since 2002, he has earned international acclaim as the leader of groups ranging from duo to octet featuring such prominent sidemen as Cameron Brown, Thomas Chapin, Mark Feldman, Drew Gress, Mario Pavone, Michael Sarin and Matt Wilson. He is also the longtime Director of Jazz Studies at The Hotchkiss School and founder/director of the highly respected independent label, Playscape Recordings, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009. Learn more at http://www.michaelmusillami.com