Michael Weiss has been a leading pianist and composer in jazz spaces for over 30 years. He’s returning to Sculler’s Jazz Club with his trio on March 15th. Before the show, he sat down with the hosts of Jazz on 89.7, Al Davis and Va Lynda Robinson.

Va Lynda Robinson: Michael, talk to me about your experience playing in Boston and at Scullers.

Michael Weiss: My first time playing at Scullers, I brought up the saxophonist Junior Cook.

Al Davis: All right, that’s a heavy weight! 

Michael Weiss: I kind of cut my teeth with Junior in my first five or six years in New York, playing quite regularly. It was fitting that I brought Junior up to Boston, who did spend some time living in Boston and teaching at Berklee, I think in the late 60s, early 70s.

Al Davis: That’s correct, that’s correct.

Michael Weiss: And then the next time I came up to Scullers was a couple of years ago leading a trio. And so this is our return appearance. But I also played a number of times at the Regattabar, several times with Johnny Griffin, and also Art Farmer, and I went to Berklee for a summer as a 16 year old. That was my first time in Boston, and the extent of my Boston history.

Al Davis: You also played with some other heavyweights too, man. George Coleman and Lou Donaldson…

Michael Weiss: I mean, that’s kind of the reason why I came to New York. I aspired to play with people like that. And it turned out to be kind of a dream come true because my first experience playing with notable names like that was with Junior Cook. We had a jam session we played every week for a couple of years, and then I also joined his quintet, and we toured Europe and went around quite a bit. And then from that, Lou Donaldson heard me playing with Junior, and he began hiring me. There’s just no substitute for that kind of experience.

What’s great about playing with all those guys is they have just huge personalities, not only musical personalities, but their whole persona. They embody what jazz is supposed to be all about, which is about celebrating one’s individuality. Each of those soloists has their own needs far as accompaniment goes. To accompany, the word “comp” means “accompany,” but it also means “complement.” So there’s a lot of creative opportunity as an accompanist as well as being a soloist. Having to follow a solo by any one of those people, it’s really such a great inspiration. They really tell a story in their solo. And so when they finish their story, I get to step up to the podium and tell my story.

Al Davis: There you go. So, Michael, I want to ask, you’re coming in on the 15th. The Scullers’ show is at 7 p.m. What is the audience gonna hear?

Michael Weiss: I’m going to play a few selections from my latest recording “Homage” on the Cellar Live label.

Al Davis: And it’ll be a trio setting?

Michael Weiss: I have a phenomenal young bassist. I think he’s 23 years old, named Joey Ranieri from Chicago, and he’s just a firebrand. He’s amazing. And Pete Van Nostrand is joining me on drums.

Va Lynda Robinson: How did you get started in music?

Michael Weiss: I think it was my mother’s idea to give me piano lessons when I was around six years old, and I never looked back. So I was taking classical piano lessons, just six, but at the same time, The Beatles were hot. And so I was listening to all the pop music of the day, and, and I figured out that I could find the notes and the chords on the piano by ear. So I was already developing a penchant for just going to the piano and messing around and finding things by ear. I didn’t discover jazz until I was 15, but once I had that initial exposure, I was all in.

Va Lynda Robinson: In the early 90s, Michael, you turned more focus to compositions and composing. Tell me a little bit about that.

Michael Weiss:  It’s funny, but I didn’t really take my composing very seriously until around the mid 90s. There was a new young crop of very talented players in town around that time that I began writing for, and there’s nothing better than the laboratory of gigs to bring your music to life. But one of the biggest kind of “lightbulb” moments for me was hearing Wayne Shorter’s group in the mid '90s after the record “High Life” came out. I was, of course, a big fan of his period with Miles in the 60s as a composer, and with Weather Report. But one of my Indiana buddies had been working with Wayne, Jim Beard, who passed away unfortunately, last year. So I went to the gig and I saw this music on the piano, and they played a rearrangement of Wayne Shorter’s tune “Children of the Night,” which he had written for the Jazz Messengers back in the day. And I saw pages after pages of notes on the piano part, and I was just blown away by the compositional depth and all the detail.

Because I play a lot of classical music at home, and I gravitate towards the composers whose harmony is similar to the kind of things I play in jazz, but I always thought of my interest in classical music, and jazz, and my upbringing with rock music as being in kind of separate worlds. But Wayne Shorter showed me how to put it all together without any artificial barriers of genre, style or this and that. The skies opened up in terms of possibilities composing wise. Then when the Thelonious Monk Institute had a composition competition some years later I submitted one of my compositions, not really thinking anything about it. And then I got a call that I won, and they said, “Why don’t we have Wayne present you with the prize?” That was at the Kennedy Center in 2000, so I got to spend a lot of time with Wayne. This is a very long winded answer to your question!

Al Davis: That’s okay! 

Michael Weiss: But my interest in composition really expanded tremendously. He’s rubbed off on me as much as any pianist has.

Al Davis: This is great. This has been wonderful talking to you, Michael. We’re looking forward to seeing you on the 15th, Sculler’s Jazz Club, at 7:00.

Michael Weiss: Thanks! I hope we have a nice full house. That inspires us and makes us play even better.

Michael Weiss performs at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston on March 15th. His latest album is “Homage.”