'Big, brave and beautiful.' That was Michael Musillami's assessment of Fragile Forms when the smoke from the session cleared," writes journalist David R. Adler in the liner notes. I was with the guitarist in the studio in early March 2006, eager to digest his new batch of music. Fragile, not the first word you might choose to describe music so angular and assertive. But it's this very paradox that gives the work its vitality. It is full of grit and heedless of rules, but it has an internal coherence that only the most sensitive players could produce."
Critics have called Musillami's music honest, frequently surprising, and consistently exciting" (Ron Wynn, JazzTimes), full of ingenious interplay and heated improvisation" (Troy Collins, Cadence), and an irresistible combination of down-home intimacy and sense of adventure" (Ed Hazell, Boston Phoenix). The Hartford Courant's Richard Kamins summed up Musillami's inclusive sound, writing His own compositions mine not only the fertile vein of classic jazz but the outer reaches of creative music." With a series of recent recordings listed on best-of-the-year lists in a variety of publications, Musillami has earned notice as the versatile leader of groups ranging from duo to octet. In addition to the members of Dialect, his recent sidemen include Dave Ballou, Cameron Brown, Tom Christensen, Joe Fonda, Michael Sarin, George Schuller and Satoshi Takeishi among others.
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