Michael Wolff is one of those rare jazz artists who feels like living history without ever sounding like a museum piece. A virtuoso pianist whose career stretches back to the early 1970s with Cal Tjader, he’s shared stages and studios with Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson, Christian McBride, and countless other giants. Beyond the keys, he’s a composer, bandleader, educator at NYU, and bestselling author whose memoir On That Note weaves together a remarkable life marked by music, Tourette Syndrome, and a hard-won battle against a rare blood cancer—all told with his signature wry humor.

In this conversation, Wolff is as warm, candid, and insightful as ever. We talk about the distinct magic of each venue, the thrill (and risk) of letting the music lead the way night after night, what it means to carry the legacy of Bill Evans, why live club dates still matter in 2026, and exactly what a first-time listener can expect when they walk into Birdland.

Michael, hello! Thank you for taking the time. Great to talk to you on the eve of your shows — Snug Harbor, then three nights at Birdland Theater. Tight schedule. Let’s start right there. April nineteenth — New Orleans, Snug Harbor, a duo format with Mike Clark. A month later — New York, Birdland, a full quartet with Camille Thurman, Darrell Green, and Andy McKee. Two cities, two completely different lineups, different energy in the room. Are you deliberately placing them this close together to make those formats collide head-on, or did the calendar just fall into place on its own?

The way my New Orleans gig at Snug Harbor April. 19 and my Birdland run in NYC  May 15, 16, and 17 come together is pure luck. I was in touch with both clubs and it happened they had these dates available that worked with my schedule.  I love both of these venues and the people who book and own them, so i can’t wait to play at both places. 

Snug Harbor tickets: https://snugjazz.com/tm-event/michael-wolff-mike-clark-expedition/

Birdland Theater tickets: https://www.birdlandjazz.com/tm-event/michael-wolff-quartet-6/

Snug Harbor is a legendary venue — it has its own particular smell, its own particular crowd, its own particular New Orleans right outside the wall. You and Mike Clark in a trio setting — minimum instruments, maximum exposure. What are you looking for in that specific room that New York is physically incapable of giving you?

The one thing Snug Harbor has that other venues don’t have is New Orleans.  The vibe of the people who own and work at the club, the audiences, and the sound on the stage are all singular to this one venue.  I love playing at Snug and love hanging with all my relatives and musician friends i’ve known forever in New Orleans. The piano at Snug is bright and powerful and the stage has a great sound.  Mike Clark and James Singleton. and I have all been playing together for years. So this will be an exciting and loose and creative and rewarding experience for us and the audience.

At Birdland you’re coming out with a quartet, and Camille Thurman is in it — saxophone and vocals in one person. When you were assembling this exact lineup for these exact three nights, what was the starting point — a sound you were already hearing inside your head, or specific people around whom the sound built itself?

When I was offered the dates at Birdland I realized it was an opportunity to play with Camille Thurmand and Darrell Green again.  I was so lucky to play with both of them a few years ago when they were touring a Burt Bacharach musical performance.  I had met Camille when she sat in with bassist Ben Allison and me at Mezzrow. She is one of the most talented and soulful musicians I’ve ever heard and had the opportunity to work with. Her singing is exciting and warm as is her saxophone playing . she is a master.  I started playing with Darrell Green on drums quite a few years ago and am blown away by his feel and musicality.  He swings and stirs up the music whenever necessary. He is interactive and  Thrilling.  Our bassist for that gig, Andy Mckee and I have been playing together for decades in various configurations.  He always lays down the time and plays fantastic lines utilizing advanced harmonic concepts.  All three of these amazing musicians are also some of the sweetest human beings I have ever met.

Three nights in a row at the same club, two sets per evening — six performances total. By the third night the band plays in a completely different way than it did on the first. Do you map that drift out in advance, chart a course across the sets, or do you let go and watch where the music drags everyone by Saturday?

I never plan on where the music will ultimately take us and the audience.  We have a structure to our compositions and to our set order.  But once we get going all bets are off.  It’s. like, One Two Three Go!!!!!!!  I count it off and away we go.  Set after set and night after night the music and the audience move us into the direction that they want to go.

You’ve shared a stage with Sonny Rollins, with Cannonball Adderley, you’ve conducted symphony orchestras — and yet you keep coming back to clubs that hold a hundred and fifty people. What happens between you and the audience at a distance of five meters from the front row that makes you book Birdland again?

I love to play at Birdland.  I usually play at the downstairs theater.  It seats around one hundred people and is almost always sold out.  The room has excellent acoustics on stage and in the audience.  We are so close to the audience we can feel their reaction at every turn.  And they can catch every subtle move we make on our instruments and every look we give to each other.  Birdland is the ultimate in creating an atmosphere of a magical concert combined with complete intimacy.  

Sunny Day came out six months ago. Typically, artists bring a fresh album on the road and play it front to back. Are you planning to build your Birdland sets around the new material, or has the album already been released into the wild and lives separately from the concert program?

I will be playing music from my new release, Sunny Day, as well as music from my previous release, Memoir.  I’ll also play some music that Camille Thurman likes to sing and maybe we will do one or two pieces that Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley recorded.  They are two of my favorite former gigs as a sideman.

Literally a week before Snug Harbor, you were the Artist in Residence at the Bill Evans Jazz Festival in Hammond. Evans is a pianist who changed the very notion of touch on the keys. When you’re invited to play under his name, do you feel the weight of that legacy on you right there on stage, or does all of it vanish by the time you hit the first chord?

 I felt the weight of Bill Evans looking over my shoulder when I considered recording the album, A Letter to Bill Evans with Mike Clark drums and Leon Dorsey. It is a joint production the three of us recorded.  I put it off for a few years, but after the pandemic I decided I should play and record any music I love.  I can only play like me so ultimately I didn’t feel pressure to match Bill Evans.  He was an innovator I could never imitate.  And performing at the Bill Evans Jazz Fest in Hammond Louisiana is the same situation .  I will  give some lectures also and describe how helpful Bill Evans was to me when I was in my twenties. But again,when I perform  I will play the way I play Bill was an idol of mine and a mentor, so I feel I carry on his legacy by trying to express myself in my music.

You teach at NYU, and your students surely ask: why a live concert, why a club, why physical presence? What do you tell them now, in 2026, when you yourself have an actual Birdland with an actual audience coming up in a couple of weeks?

I believe playing live is the ultimate in allowing a musician to express him or herself.  It exists in the moment and there is no consequence .  I love to let loose and try things that are beyond me when I play live. .     It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake or play something you didn’t mean.  It’s all an experiment.  Hopefully a glorious experiment.

Your biography includes a memoir, television scores, a concerto for piano and string quartet — but right now you’re heading out to play live jazz in clubs. Out of all your roles — pianist, author, educator, bandleader — which one walks onto the stage first when you sit down at the piano at Snug Harbor?

When I sit down at the piano at Snug Harbor in New Orleans I am the same as I was when I was sixteen and playing local clubs in the SF Bay Area. I’m a musician who is trying to find the magic.   I use beginner’s mind. I’m somewhat a blank slate. I am affected by the piano, the musicians I’m playing. with, the sound of the room, the audience, what I had for dinner, etrc etc.   What I have done in my life and what I hope to do will hopefully disappear when I am performing on stage.

Final question, Michael. Someone who has never seen you live is reading this interview right now and thinking: go or skip. Birdland, May, seven in the evening or half past nine. What will they hear if they show up?

When people come to hear and see us at Birdland May 15 through 18, they will see four musicians and friends having the time  of their lives. We will be playing. compositions we love, playing our hearts out , and doing our best to make  sure every sound comes from our souls.

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