Bill Evans Jazz Festival / LAJE State Jazz Festival
April 13 – 18, 2026
Columbia Theatre, Hammond, LA
Festival Registration link coming soon!
Pianist and composer Michael Wolff made his recording debut with Cal Tjader in the mid 70’s and went on to play and record with Airto and Flora Purim, Cannonball Adderly, Sonny Rollins, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and Nancy Wilson. He has performed with and conducted over 25 symphony orchestras worldwide. For five years in the 90s Michael was band leader and musical director of the Arsenio Hall television show.
He has released twenty-one recordings to critical and popular acclaim. His album, Jumpstart, with Christian McBride and Tony Williams, won the Gold Disk Award in Japan. In 2012 Wolff formed a new band, Wolff & Clark Expedition, with drummer Mike Clark. Their first album, Wolff & Clark Expedition, was released in 2013 on Random Act Records and quickly rose to the top of the jazz charts. Their second album, Wolff & Clark Expedition 2, rose to the top five on the jazz charts and remained there for over three months.
Michael also performs with his new trio featuring Ben Allison on bass and Alan Mednard on drums. As a Yamaha/Bösendorfer artist, he has been recording and performing in conjunction with jazz radio station WBGO at the Yamaha Piano Salon in New York City, where his new trio recorded their first album live. That album, Swirl, was released in 2019 on Sunnyside Records and went to #1 at Jazz Week. Their second album, Bounce, was released in 2020 and went to #5. Their most recent album Memoir, released in 2024 reached #12.
He has composed the scores to many film and television projects, including Made Up, The Tic Code, Dark Angel, Who’s the Man, and The Naked Brothers Band. Most recently Michael wrote the score for the new Polly Draper film, Stella’s Last Weekend. His compositions include a concerto for jazz piano trio and string quartet titled Pandemia.
Michael’s memoir, On That Note: A Memoir of Jazz, Tics, and Survival is now a bestseller on Amazon.com.
Wolff is currently an adjunct professor in the music department at New York University. His newest album, Sunny Day, will be released September 12, 2025 on Sunnyside Records.
