Reviews

JazzTimes “échos la nuit” review

June 10, 2019 With a sound that gives off an after-hours feel and a command of his instrument that is both majestic and gritty, cultivated over a ballooning catalog, alto saxophonist Michaël Attias has long been a major player on the cutting-edge jazz scene. 2017’s superb Nerve Dance, credited to the Michaël Attias Quartet, manifested a…

Citizen Jazz “échos la nuit” review

June 2, 2019 Saxophone et piano, deux instruments et un solo. Michael Attias publie aujourd’hui un travail qu’il mène depuis 2006 dans lequel il joue à la fois des deux instruments. De manière concomitante d’ailleurs puisqu’il ne s’agit pas d’utiliser les possibilités d’un studio et du réenregistrement mais plutôt d’envisager le piano comme matrice harmonique et mélodique aux…

London Jazz News “échos la nuit” review

May 16, 2019 This feels like an album which should inspire poetry, rather than a review. Michaël Attias’ first solo album is an incredibly beautiful, patient, delicately unfurling recording, an intimate duo for alto saxophone and piano played by one person simultaneously.  Attias explores a variety of approaches to the combination of sax and piano.…

Downtown Music Gallery “échos la nuit” review

April 5, 2019 New York is filled with dozens (hundreds?) of sax players who continue to evolve and thrive, no matter how much recognition they get or deserve. Every week, the pool or ocean of strong saxists & composers gets deeper. Michaël Attias is one of those gifted players and composers who I’ve been following…

New York Times “échos la nuit” review

April 4, 2019 On Friday, Attias will release “échos la nuit”, an album of slow, ruminative solo recordings on which he plays both the alto saxophone (his primary instrument) and the piano. Hearing these 12 tracks is like inspecting the mysterious line drawings of a beloved artist. Sometimes you’ll almost discern the contour of a landscape or…

All About Jazz “échos la nuit” review

April 3, 2019 In the early days of Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s career, there were critics who viewed the blind man with three instruments hanging from his neck—two to be played simultaneously—as posturing. Then they heard him play. Forty years later, and filtered through the influence of four continents, Michael Attias takes up the task of improvising on two…

Music And More “échos la nuit” review

April 2, 2019 Michaël Attias is very impressive on this album, playing both alto saxophone and piano simultaneously, with no overdubs. He is performing everything on the album live and the music is completely improvised. The reverberation of the room and the resonance of the piano strings also set a sympathetic environment for this ambitious…

Take Five (WBGO) “échos la nuit” review

March 31, 2019 Alto saxophonist Michaël Attias has earned respect at the helm of several first-rate bands. But on his new release — échos la nuit, releasing Friday on the independent label Out Of Your Head — he pares down to a solo format, for the first time on record. In this respect, he’s joining a lineage…

JazzTimes “Nerve Dance” review

July 14, 2017 Saxophonist-composer Michaël Attias has studied and played with two masters of structure and space, Anthony Braxton and Paul Motian. To the extent he is a traditionalist, Attias reveres Bird, Coltrane and Ornette not for their place in the firmament, but for their willingness to take risks. On Nerve Dance, Attias has assembled…

Citizen Jazz “Nerve Dance” review

July 9, 2017 Cosmopolite à plus d’un titre (israélien d’origine, ayant vécu en France et vivant aux Etats-Unis), le saxophoniste Michaël Attias est de ceux qui, au sein de la bouillonnante scène new-yorkaise, se portent garants de la continuité d’un jazz historique qu’il renouvelle à sa manière, sans heurt ni violence. A la tête d’un quartet dans…

London Jazz News “Nerve Dance” review

May 28, 2017 Alto saxophonist and composer Michaël Attias has released a series of albums in the past few years showing a deeply personal and creative voice, with bands including Renku (his trio with John Hébert and Satoshi Takeishi) and Spun Tree (with Ralph Alessi, Matt Mitchell, Sean Conly and Tom Rainey). Nerve Dance is the first release from…

Step Tempest “Nerve Dance” review

May 1, 2017 One often feels the need to put labels on music, especially to “understand” the intentions of the composer and performers.  If you take a close look at “Nerve Dance” (Clean Feed Records), the new release from the Michaël Attias Quartet, you see an ensemble makeup that has been central to jazz since the…

Jazz Magazine “Nerve Dance” review

April 2017 Né en Israël de parents marocains, élevé à Paris puis à Minneapolis, citoyen de New York, ce pluri-saxophoniste disciple de Lee Konitz et Anthony Braxton, partenaire de Paul Motian, Anthony Coleman, Tony Malaby ou Kris Davis, Michaël Attias est aussi l’un des piliers du label libertaire portugais Clean Feed. Pour ce sixième album,…

‘Bird Is Like Shakespeare’: Downbeat Player’s Feature

April 2017 On one of his previous Clean Feed albums, 2012’s Spun Tree (with trumpeter Ralph Alessi, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Sean Conly and drummer Tom Rainey), alto saxophonist Michaël Attias took a deliberately through-composed approach on exacting pieces like “Ghost Practice,” “Subway Fish Knit” and the knotty title track, each brimming with polyphony. His…

Take Five (WBGO) “Nerve Dance” review

March 12, 2017 On his new album, Nerve Dance, the alto saxophonist and composer Michaël Attias strikes a precarious balance between instinct and intellect. He has just the right partners for such a task: pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist John Hébert and drummer Nasheet Waits, brilliant musicians who know how to complicate any hard-and-fast distinction between “outside”…

‘In The Fuzzy Space’: Irish Times “Nerve Dance” review

March 9, 2017 The old division between “free” and structured music takes a battering on Michaël Attias’s sixth release as leader. The New York alto saxophonist’s compositions may evince detailed harmonic and rhythmic structures, with clearly “intended” consequences, but they are first and foremost a set of instructions for setting his talented quartet free. Pianist Aruán…

The Observer “Nerve Dance” review

March 3, 2017 Jazz has been a cornerstone of Northern New Jersey for nearly as long as the art form has been I existence. In 2017, the region continues to exhibit its creative aptitude in full force thanks to saxophonist/composer Michaël Attias.  Recorded in Paramus, a town known more for its malls than its music scene,…

All About Jazz “Nerve Dance” review

March 2, 2017 Methodical design, rough-and-tumble play, and thoughtful exchange are often viewed as mutually exclusive concepts in jazz. Saxophonist Michaël Attias’ Nerve Dance, however, obliterates that line of thinking and any potential obstacles that could separate those realms. This is a work that’s cultured, contumacious, and conversational in nature. It’s principled art unbound.  Nerve Dance introduces…

NYC Jazz Record “Nerve Dance” review

March 2017 Nerve Dance presents alto saxophonist Michaël Attias’ latest group, a quartet with frequent co-workers John Hébert (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) along with a newcomer, Cuban-born pianist Aruán Ortiz. It’s a remarkably tight-knit band. In part, that’s based on certain common values and sources. One is Andrew Hill: Hébert and Waits worked with the…

Jazzword “Renku: Live in Greenwich Village” (+ Jean-Brice Godet’s “Mujô”) review

September 16, 2016 Like a high-quality electronic product manufactured by the Panasonic Corporation, the career of alto saxophonist Michaël Attias has always involved being slightly ahead of his time. Israeli-born, the reedist followed what has now become a common career trajectory, by moving back-and-forth from the US to Paris, where he first recorded, before setting…

Freddie Free Jazz “Renku: Live in Greenwich Village” review

May 16, 2016 Sous ce nom insolite, «Renku», nom que s’est approprié un collectif new-yorkais apparemment méconnu, se cachent en réalité trois musiciens bourrés de talent: Michaël Attias (saxophone alto), John Hébert (contrebasse) et Satoshi Takeishi (batterie). Cette désignation, «Renku», est en fait dérivée d’un style propre à la poésie japonaise, laquelle pose comme règle…

Citizen Jazz “Renku: Live in Greenwich Village” review

March 1, 2016 D’origine israélienne, souvent passé par la France où il a étudié et travaillé, Michaël Attias se fait entendre dans de nombreux groupes aux USA, et son trio «Renku» n’en est pas à son premier essai, toujours soutenu par le label Clean Feed de Pedro Costa. Ici capté «live» à la Greenwich House…

Citizen Jazz “Renku: Live in Greenwich Village” review

March 1, 2016 D’origine israélienne, souvent passé par la France où il a étudié et travaillé, Michaël Attias se fait entendre dans de nombreux groupes aux USA, et son trio « Renku » n’en est pas à son premier essai, toujours soutenu par le label Clean Feed de Pedro Costa. Ici capté « live » à la Greenwich House Music School,…

‘Disque Choc’: Jazz Magazine “Spun Tree” review

April 2013 Avec une intégrité qui force le respect, le label portugais [Clean Feed] continue de défendre une ligne éditoriale exigeante, ouverte à tous les possibles de l’improvisation et de l’avant-garde, le tout enregistré et édité avec le plus grand soin, et dans un esprit du perpétuel renouvellement. Nous commencerons néanmoins cette chronique avec un…

Point of Departure “Spun Tree” review

December 6, 2012 Spun Tree is Michaël Attias’ first studio recording in six years and the first to revisit the elaborate ensemble writing featured on Credo (Clean Feed), which was made in 1999 but unreleased until 2006, a year after Renku, his Clean Feed debut. Intriguingly, it is also the only album in the multi-instrumentalist’s varied discography to feature…

All About Jazz “Ghost Practice” (from “Spun Tree”) review

December 2, 2012 Saxophonist Michaël Attias seldom rests on his laurels. Always aligning with a superlative support structure, each of his solo outings offer a fluctuating refresher course on routes previously navigated. With nouveau ideologies in place, Attias’ expansive cache of weaponry once again comes to the forefront. The band skirts between introspection, aggression, and…

JazzReview “Renku in Coimbra” review

February 8, 2010 A renku is a form of Japanese poetry that originated over one thousand years ago.  Here, superfine and somewhat under-recognized saxophonist Michaël Attias uses the renku as an interactive jazz frontier with his crack rhythm section.  The musicians have performed on and off since 2003.  Unsurprisingly, their intuition and synergy looms rather…

JazzTimes “RENKU” review

December 1, 2005 To call Michaël Attias a cosmopolitan would hardly do him justice. The saxophonist was born in Israel to Moroccan parents, and divided his formative years between France and the Midwest. Although he cut his teeth in Paris with the Monkish group Four in One, he has lived in New York for over…