While you may have never heard his name, you've almost certainly heard his music. Michael Silverman is one of the most streamed and downloaded instrumentalists in the world, with over six billion streams on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon. His classical recordings can be heard in hundreds of televisions during film productions, including "The Good Wife," "Two and a Half Men" and "American Horror Story."
He and his brother Rob Silverman have built an empire in the instrumental music world when they founded
Autumn Hill Records in 2007, streaming over three million tracks daily in a variety of styles, ranging from classical to new age to world music. With 14 number one albums on iTunes in the US, and countless others on charts around the world,
Autumn Hill Records has become a leader in instrumental music.
When Michael's friend
Jeff Lorber asked to collaborate on a contemporary jazz album, Silverman was thrilled at the opportunity. Lorber is not only a musical legend, but recently won a Grammy Award for his most recent album, Prototype. In the world of contemporary jazz, no one is more prolific and omnipresent on the charts as a band leader, a composer and a producer of so many of his fellow artists. He is responsible for much of the current sound of the genre, bringing new elements of what he incorporates from pop and R&B hits into the cutting edge of jazz, and has been doing so for more than four decades.
The collaboration of Lorber's amazing production and writing skills, blended with Silverman's classical and New Age melodic sensibilities combined to create an inspired collection of new pieces entitled Human Spirit, scheduled for release on July 15, 2020 via
Autumn Hill Records. Listen to the album's first single here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOIrff-l7Lo
"I was very excited to try this new way of working, since I have never collaborated with another composer like this," says Silverman. "Jeff's music has always been a huge inspiration for me as I was coming up, so it ended up working out wonderfully. He and I bounced one inspiration after another back and forth, and the album fell together very organically. It was truly amazing and one of the best musical experiences of my life!"
"I'm really proud of the work I did with Michael Silverman on Human
Spirit because it's something really different and special for me," Lorber explains. "I love the melodies and classical-inspired themes that Michael came up with for these songs. To me it feels like something that will stand the test of time.
"I hope people discover this record because there's something really unique going on here that differentiates this project. Michael suggested that we get
Vinnie Colaiuta to play on a number of these songs and I think that was a great idea - he really supports the track in a sensitive and musical way. I think there's a calmness and peacefulness here that's needed in these troubling times, and I believe that repeated listening will reveal some real depth and soulfulness."
Additional musicians on the album include a who's who of instrumental jazz: bassist
Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets,
Jeff Lorber Fusion), drummer Colaiuta (Frank Zappa, Sting), drummer
Gary Novak (Chick Corea), guitar legend Michael Thompson (Eric Clapton, Seal, Quincy Jones), pianist David Benoit, guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr., and Michael's brother, top-selling drummer and world percussionist Rob Silverman.
Michael Silverman was raised in University City, an inner-ring suburb of the city of St. Louis. Known locally as U City, the neighborhood has produced many internationally known musicians.
"The heart of U City is called the Loop," recalls Silverman. "It had all the ingredients necessary to cultivate musical artists: a blues club, rock clubs, reggae, jam sessions, street performers and artists of every kind, an old music store where we all bought pre-owned instruments, a record store called Vintage Vinyl where we got cheap used records. A third of the world-renowned St. Louis
Symphony lived in the neighborhood, so there were a bunch of classical kids at school, along with the state's best jazz ensemble.
"Every kid on my street played music. There was a drum set in practically every basement. My brother, Rob, was the hot shot drummer in town, and he encouraged me to play keyboards. He was so supportive that he saved up several hundred dollars at his job at Burger King to buy me a keyboard so I could play in his band with much older kids. That was life-changing, and we still perform together to this day."
Order link for Human Spirit:
https://music.apple.com/mt/album/human-spirit-feat-jeff-lorber/1514063452
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