A Rootsy Ramble: Michael Wolff Gets Back to His Southern Roots

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ALTHOUGH PIANIST/COMPOSER MICHAEL WOLFF dedicates the title track of his latest disc, "Joe's Strut," to late jazz-fusion keyboardist Joe Zawinul, the disc is more about his return to his Southern roots.

Having grown up in New Orleans with a father from Mississippi, the first tune Wolff learned to play was "St. Louis Blues" when he was only 4 years old. He soon began absorbing the songs of New Orleans pianists such as Professor Longhair and James Booker.

So, after a three-decade career that included being the music director for "The Arsenio Hall Show" Wolff began to reflect on getting older and his past.

"My mother died this year; that kind of made me think differently," Wolff says. "I'm now thinking, 'Where am I really connecting? What really connects me to the music?' In some ways, I'm seeing jazz in a different light now — really more as a language. I was always trying to push it and feel intellectually obligated to be hip or above it all. Now, I just play whatever is inside me. I'm just going to acknowledge the language that it is and try to express myself within that language but not limit myself. I try to walk that line of having modern dissonant chords, which I really like, but also a certain bluesy warmth."

As for a nifty tie-in with Zawinul, Wolff says that it was his walk that reminded him of Professor Longhair and Booker. Zawinul also became a mentor for Wolff back in the mid '70s, when Wolff played piano for legendary alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. Once, Wolff asked Zawinul for pointers on how to accompany Cannonball.

"With Cannonball, we would be playing a tune in C and he would be in G# or something like that. He was very bluesy, so it didn't sound as outside as other people, but he would really play outside the chord notes and tone. I remember asking Joe, and he said, 'I don't know, but if you figure it out, please call me back, because I never figured that out.'"

» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; Sat., Oct. 24, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., $25; 202-467-4600, Kennedy-center.org. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)

Written by Express contributor John Murph
Photo courtesy Seth Cohen PR