Michaël Attias
Michaël Attias 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 Attias to New York City in 1994, where he continues to pursue his muse as improviser, composer and leader of multiple bands. On the alto saxophone, Attias offers a tone of piquant lyricism, while his sound on the baritone horn blends fluency with grit. 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 has described Attias’ 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, he has released seven critically-acclaimed albums, most recently the 2017 Clean Feed debut of the Michaël Attias Quartet, Nerve Dance, with Aruán Ortiz, John Hébert, and Nasheet Waits. As a sideman, he has performed and recorded for such luminaries as Anthony Braxton, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, Anthony Coleman, Tony Malaby, and countless others. In April 2019, he will release his first solo album, échos la nuit, on the Brooklyn label Out of Your Head Records.
Appears on:
OOYH 003: Michaël Attias - échos la nuit
OOYH 025: Michaël Attias - Quartet Music Vol. I: LuMiSong