Over the past four years, Michael McNeill has become an integral part of the thriving creative music scene in Buffalo. His imaginative piano playing has found a home alongside jazz players ranging from Maynard Ferguson-alumnus Bruce Johnstone (on Kelly Bucheger’s House of Relics) to local underground hero Steve Baczkowski, and he has developed a personal voice on the harmonium in crossover ensembles led by percussionist Ravi Padmanabha. McNeill performs composed music with the Wooden Cities New Music Collective, co-leads a jazz quintet with the polymath drummer John Bacon, and has collaborated with trumpet legend Paul Smoker on projects of standards and of original compositions.
He also composes for, plays with, and facilitates the New Buffalo Jazz Octet, an ensemble made up of “…a veritable who’s who list of killer regional jazz players…” (Buffalo News).
Passageways, McNeill’s debut CD as a leader, features renowned improvisers Ken Filiano (bass) and Phil Haynes (drums) on a program of original compositions.
Ken Filiano performs throughout the world, playing and recording with leading artists in jazz, spontaneous improvisation, classical, world/ethnic, and interdisciplinary performance, fusing the rich traditions of the double bass with his own seemingly limitless inventiveness. Ken's solo bass CD “subvenire” (NineWinds) received widespread critical praise. For this and numerous other recordings, Ken has been called a “creative virtuoso,” a “master of technique” . . . “a paradigm of that type of artist. . . who can play anything in any context and make it work, simply because he puts the music first and leaves peripheral considerations behind.” Ken composes for his quartet with Michael Attias, Tony Malaby, and Michael T.A. Thomspon; a collective with Attias and Tomas Ulrich; and for his decades-long collaborations with Steve Adams and Vinny Golia. His prolific output also includes performances and/or recordings with artists including Bobby Bradford, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Roy Campbell, John Carter, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Connie Crothers, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Lou Grassi, Phil Haynes, Jason Hwang, Joseph Jarman, Sheila Jordan, Joe Labarbera, Joelle Leandre, Warne Marsh, Dom Minasi, Butch Morris, Barre Phillips, Don Preston, Herb Robertson, Roswell Rudd, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Paul Smoker, Kenny Wessel, and Andrea Wolper.
A 20 year veteran New York based artist, beginning in 1983, Phil Haynes is featured on more than 50 LP and CD releases by numerous American and European record labels. Haynes’ debut, The Paul Smoker Trio’s QB with Anthony Braxton, was named the #1 recording of 1985 by esteemed critic Kevin Whitehead. The international media have compared his drumming to masters Jack DeJohnette, Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones, and his compositions to Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, Charles Mingus and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In addition to the critically acclaimed three recordings for Enja Records by the composers’ collective Joint Venture (with Smoker, Ellery Eskelin, and Drew Gress), Haynes’ diverse and distinctive recordings as a leader include: Continuum (violinist Mark Feldman’s jazz debut); the ground breaking and iconic ensemble 4 Horns & What?; his recording of jazz standards, A Couch in Brooklyn (featuring Israeli born pianist Micu Narununsky and bassist Drew Gress); The Hammond Insurgency with B-3 organ virtuoso Jeff Palmer; Free Country’s trilogy of Americana with cellist/vocalist Hank Roberts, as well as his singular solo drum-set recording entitled Sanctuary.
Haynes performs regularly throughout Pennsylvania with legendary Harrisburg pianist Steve Rudolph, The Zeropoint Jazz Orchestra, as well as The Hammond Brothers – with organist Steve Adams and guest performers such as David Liebman, Herb Robertson, Paul Smoker, Tim Warfield, and Jim Yanda. CD releases in 2013 include an album of duets with Dave Liebman, a trio record with Liebman and bassist Drew Gress, a Hammond Brothers album, and duo and quartet albums with trumpeter Paul Smoker.