Another Shore, Another Country: West Coast Trip

Hi friends,

Reaching out to share with you some exciting performances of some of my favorite music:

Two performances of my song cycle, Another Shore, Another Country, featuring the poetry of canonic Hellenic diaspora poet C.P. Cavafy. We’ll also play some classics by Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, and others, in a program we call Out of Place, Out of Time, which looks at diasporic dispositions more broadly.

Featuring Ellie Falaris Ganelin (flute, mastermind), Constantine Novotny (baritone, charms) and myself (piano, dots and lines), and presented by the Kombos Collective.

Both of these shows will take place later this week in California, and actually represent my West Coast debut. I’m immensely excited about them. If you’re in the area - or know anyone in the area - please come, or send your friends my way.

P.S.: for the Michigan people, we’ll be doing a modified version of this program at The Alluvion in Traverse City on March 21. We’ll do the song cycle, and Ellie will have some incredible guest musicians with her from Washington D.C. and London to do a Rebetiko set. It’s going to be very special. Check that out here.

P.P.S. - if I see you at any of these shows, you’ll have early access to something that hasn’t been announced yet. Can’t tell you what. I’ve already said too much.

Stay healthy, stay human. Love to you all.

-Michael

New Release - Retreat - Out Now!

Hello friends! Exciting news!

Today, I have the honor of sharing a new work with you all:

Retreat

a long-form musical meditation
co-composed and performed by myself and Zara Teicher
Available now as a cassette tape and digital download via Low Versions
I hope you’ll take some time to retreat with us.
Dive in below:

Retreat is the product of a long-standing creative conversation between myself and Zara Teicher. Whenever we make music together, we tend to find ourselves in the headspace of losing ourselves in something greater. So when we were given the opportunity to develop a piece in Detroit’s St. Anthony Cathedral — a historic landmark dating to 1902 with a gorgeous Möller pipe organ — we retreated fully into our normative state. Zara plays French Horn (she was conservatory trained) from the choir loft, and moves through the space to perform on harmonium and melodica as well. I played the organ, piano, and melodica. The result is an 80 minute through-composed performance that is lush, overwhelming, and full of heart. I’m so happy to share it with you.

The performance was produced through my currently-on-hiatus concert series Other Tones (poster below). We had the sense that we might only get one chance to do this performance, so we had filmmaker Christian Lathers capture it on film (still image above). We’ve been releasing clips on social media, and maybe we’ll put out the whole video soon. Chad Morgan-Sterenberg recorded, mixed, and mastered the audio. Later on, Isaac Helsen from Low Versions stepped in and offered to release it through his label.

Last weekend, we screened the whole film at Moondog Cafe for a listening party. It was such a joy to bring people together to listen to the music. Thanks to Moondog for hosting us, and thanks to everyone who came to share the space with us.

I wrote these words in November of 2023 as program notes to the performance of Retreat. They continue to resonate with me as a guiding light for what this piece represents:

Retreat asks the performers and audience to disappear into long expanses of sound, forgoing their sense of self to welcome spacious and dense vibrations. The 4 movements – “Resign”, “Realign”, “Reseed/Recede”, and “Repeat” – converge to offer a blueprint for giving up oneself to something larger – an ocean of sound, within which desire might fade away. It also asks us to consider the many meanings of a retreat – perhaps a withdrawing into oneself, perhaps a place of meditation, or perhaps the reversal of a military invasion.

So — thank you for reading, and thank you for listening. If you’re so inclined, come retreat with us into this ocean of sound. Give up, withdraw, reverse, resign — and we’ll dream up the impossible, together, on the other side of it all.

With love,
Michael

Late Summer - Detroit, Ontario, Beyond

Hi everyone —

Popping in to give you all a quick update, before the summer officially expires and our lives turn inward again. First, some upcoming performances:

My standing jazz quintet, Hear No Evil, begins a three-day residency at Detroit’s legendary Cliff Bell’s tomorrow night. We’ll be there all weekend. If you’re in Detroit, we’d love to see you there.

These shows are in preparation for a new recording — we go into the studio in early September. Be on the lookout for that record in the near future.

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Other Upcoming Shows

Here’s a comprehensive list of upcoming shows, in Michigan and beyond.

Aug 21-23
Cliff Bell’s (Detroit) - Hear No Evil

Aug 30
Motor City Wine (Detroit) - Hear No Evil (Detroit Jazz Festival After Hours Jam Session)

Sept 12
Guelph Jazz Festival (Guelph ON) - Balance

Sept 19
Motor City Wine (Detroit) - Hear No Evil

Sept 27
Ann Arbor Jazz Festival - Kenji Lee

Sept 28
Venue TBA - Retreat Record Release Show

Oct 3
Noce (Des Moines IA) - Hanna Marks

Oct 10
Edgefest (Ann Arbor) - w. Salim Washington, Adam Shead, Carolyn Jesvala

Oct 17
Motor City Wine (Detroit) - Hear No Evil

Other News

Quick hitters!

• Constantine Novotny and I recorded my song cycle, Another Shore, Another Country (based on the poetry of C.P. Cavafy) in August at The Alluvion in Traverse City. The sessions were engineered by Nick Nagurka, who did a brilliant job (and who I hadn’t seen since college.) I’m insanely proud of what we accomplished and I can’t wait for this music to come out!

• I’m starting a new gig in the Fall — I’ll be Adjunct Professor of Jazz Piano at Bowling Green State University this semester. I’m looking forward to working with the students there.

• I’m making a commitment to audiobooks in my upcoming weeks of lots of driving. What’s a great novel I should listen to?

That’s all for now. Thanks, as always, for your continued support. Hope to see you around the way.

Peace,

-Michael

Solo Shows This Week

Hey Friends,

I’ve got a few exciting solo shows coming up. If you’re in Ann Arbor, Detroit, or Chicago, I’d love to see you out there.

ANN ARBOR

TONIGHT!
Friday June 6
Third Place Music Festival
Canterbury House
9:00pm
With Northwood Improvisers

DETROIT

Sunday June 8
Feedback Loop
Moondog Cafe
3:00pm
With Sophiyah E. and Aya Sekine
Tickets at the door

CHICAGO

Thursday June 12
Improvised Music Series
Elastic Arts
8:30pm (8:00pm doors)
With Stomachs (Mabel Kwan, Carol Genetti, Nick Meryhew, Bill Harris)
Tickets at the door

Also:

This is the summer of recordings. I’ve got 5 (!) recording projects in different phases of the recording pipeline at this moment. One or two of them should be out by the end of the summer. So watch this space for updates.

Stay well, and drop me a line to let me know how you’re doing.

Blessings,

Michael

Exciting April and May Concerts

Hey friends,

Dropping in briefly to share three great gigs coming up in the next few weeks. I’ll be in Chicago, Traverse City, and Detroit. If you’re around any of these places, I’d love to see you. All this music is very near my heart and I’m thrilled to have some chances to share it.

Out of Time, Out of Place

a look at displacement and self-discovery through the eyes of artists in the Hellenic diaspora.

Friday April 25
7:00pm CST
PianoForte Gallery, Chicago IL
FREE, but RSVP Required

In Person and Live Stream

Michael Malis - piano, compositions
Constantine Novotny - voice
Ellie Falaris Ganelin - flute, arrangements

This concert is made possible by the generous support of the Charles C. Condes Trust, The Greek Women’s University Club, and Hellenic Museum of Michigan. It is presented under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in Chicago.

Saturday April 26
7:00pm EST
The Alluvion, Traverse City MI
$30 in advance, $35 at the door

Hellenic-American artists Michael Malis (piano), Constantine Novotny (baritone) and Ellie Falaris Ganelin (flute) explore these concepts through the convergence of music and poetry. The cornerstone of the program is Malis’s original song cycle Another Shore, Another Country set to the poetry of C.P. Cavafy, commissioned by ProMusica Detroit and premiered in February 2024. Cavafy, who lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt, is the quintessential voice of the Greek diaspora and a prominent figure among 20th-century poets. 

Through Ganelin’s and Malis’s own arrangements, the trio performs songs of love and longing by Greek idols Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis. These masterful colleagues born the same year (1925) each brought a new vision and prominence to Hellenic music through the radio in their homeland and in film worldwide. Also on the program is “6 Short Pieces” for solo flutes by Athens-based composer Constantine Lignos.

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Hear No Evil in Boston-Edison

Saturday May 3
6:00pm Dinner
7:00pm Music
$65 (tickets include dinner and music)
Boston-Edison, Detroit in a historic private residence — location revealed after purchase.

Michael Malis - piano
Jaribu Shahid - bass
Jonathan Barahal Taylor - drums
Stephen Grady - saxophones
Zekkereya El-magharbel - trombone

Boston-Edison’s House Concerts series is entering its 16th year — long before house concerts were trendy. Spearheaded by Michelle May, these concerts are unlike any others. Those local to Detroit know the reputation of the Boston-Edison neighborhood — some of Detroit’s most stunning architecture is here, including the famed Barry Gordy, S.S. Kresge, and Henry Ford houses. The only way to find out where we’re playing is to get a ticket! Hope to see you there.

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I’ve got a busy summer ahead — some solo shows, a release with my friend Zara Teicher, and some more Hear No Evil shows are all on the docket. I’ve also got a reading list a mile long, a solo record that I’m excruciatingly close to finishing, and the burning desire to write new music. I’ll check back in to keep you updated on the happenings. But for now — please stay safe out here, and take care of each other.

Thanks for everything,

Michael