March 22, 2024
Doors 7:30PM
Show: 8PM
$20/PWYC
Balance (Detroit) wsg Matthew Endahl
Balance
Balance is a collaborative duo between saxophonist Marcus Elliot and pianist Michael Malis. Called “two of Detroit’s most important young jazz musicians” by the Detroit Free Press, Elliot and Malis’ “intuitive improvisations” stand on the threshold of composed and improvised music, creating intimate portraits of musical expression that deal in the language of subtlety. In 2017, they released their eponymous debut record, which was praised by the Detroit Metro Times as “contemporary jazz of the highest order, a benchmark for where the genre can go.”
As a duo, they have performed at some of Detroit’s most stalwart cultural institutions, including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Library. They were named Artist-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Detroit for their 2017-2018 season. As part of that residency, they were presented in concert as part of CMSD’s brand new “Jazz Works” concert series. Additionally, they have partnered with CMSD in a new educational initiative which brings jazz to students in public schools utilizing an innovative merger of technology and live performance.
As individuals, they are bandleaders who have released critically acclaimed albums, composers who have had their music performed around the world, and sidemen who have performed with a wide variety of jazz luminaries, including Marcus Belgrave, Jimmy Cobb, Karriem Riggins, Mulgrew Miller, Robert Hurst, Talib Kweli, Tyshawn Sorey, William Hooker, and many others. They have performed around the world, both as leaders and as sidemen, at venues such as Birdland, The Kennedy Center, The Stone, The Yokohama Jazz Promenade, and The Detroit Jazz Festival.
https://www.instagram.com/
Matthew Endahl
Matthew (he/him, she/her) is a pianist, composer and educator, currently based in Guelph, ON. From 2013 to 2022 she lived in Nashville, TN where she played in groups led by Chester Thompson, Joel Frahm, Jeff Coffin, Dara Tucker, Rahsaan Barber, and many others. He has shared the stage with legendary figures like Jimmy Heath, Henry Grimes, David Liebman, Duffy Jackson, Jane Ira Bloom, Arthur Blythe, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Marcus Belgrave, Roger Humphries, Dave Douglas, Nicolas Bearde, and Karrin Allyson.
From 2003-2013, he lived and worked in Ann Arbor, MI where he was a student of Geri Allen, Ellen Rowe and Stephen Rush at the University of Michigan. She played with many groups, including the James Hughes/Jimmy Smith Quintet, Liquid Street, the Legendary Wings, and Ornamatik. She led her own group, Symbology (2006-2008) and was the leader of Canterbury House band Quartex (2009-2013).
In 2008 he was selected as a Bösendorfer Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition semi-finalist, and from 2008-2013, he was on the music faculty at Hillsdale College. Until 2022, she taught at Belmont University, Middle Tennessee State University, the Nashville Jazz Workshop. She is currently doing doctoral work in Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph.
https://www.instagram.com/
https://soundmansion.bandcamp.
