Michael Gregory Trio

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Bezanson Recital Hall   8:00 pm
$12 general, $7 students

Michael Gregory has successfully straddled the pop and improvised music worlds since the beginning of his career in the 1970s. "Gregory has that rare combination of virtuosity and versatility, able to play the guitar whiz...then slip easily into hugely commercial cuts," writes Q Magazine. "Michael Gregory is, quite simply, the business." A long-time resident of the Pioneer Valley, Michael Gregory was born in New Haven, in 1953. Visionary trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith opened him up to creative music, and he began collaborations with Smith, as well as pianist Anthony Davis, and saxophonists Julius Hemphill, David Murray and Oliver Lake. During this period, Gregory produced a series of outstanding recordings, including "Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square", "Karmonic Suite", "Gifts" and "Heart and Center". "By the time (Gregory) was twenty-one he was already one of the most original jazz guitarists to emerge since the sixties," writes Rolling Stone magazine. To fans who know him through 'situation X", or more recent pop recordings like "RED" and "Towards the Sun", this concert of improvised music will be a revelation.
Gregory will be joined by Pheeroan akLaff, drums, and Mark Helias, bass.