Michael Walter White (24 May 1930 – 6 December 2016) was an American

jazz violin Jazz violin is the use of the violin or electric violin to improvise solo lines. Early jazz violinists included: Eddie South, who played violin with Jimmy Wade's Dixielanders in Chicago; Stuff Smith; and Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Joe Venuti ...

ist. White was born in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and grew up in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, taking up the violin when he was six years old. His initial career break occurred in 1965, when he played with the

John Handy John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor saxophone, tenor and baritone saxophone, baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and ...

Quintet at the

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...

, and subsequently recorded three

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s with Handy. White was among the first to play the violin in

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz, experimental jazz, or "new thing") is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through the late 1 ...

, and in the late 1960s became one of the first jazz violinists to play

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

fusion (with his band

The Fourth Way The Fourth Way is spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff's approach to human spiritual growth, developed and systematised by him over years of travel in the East (c. 1890 – 1912), and taught to followers in subsequent years. Gurdjieff's students ...

). During his career, he played with musicians such as

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

Prince Lasha William B. Lawsha, better known as Prince Lasha (), (September 10, 1929 – December 12, 2008) was an United States of America, American jazz alto saxophonist, flautist, baritone saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist and English horn player. Life a ...

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet from 1960 to 1965, and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA J ...

Eric Dolphy Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Primarily an alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist, Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain ...

Wes Montgomery John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a ...

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

Kenny Dorham McKinley Howard "Kenny" Dorham (August 30, 1924 – December 5, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and occasional singer. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention ...

Joe Henderson Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and very occasional flute player. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day an ...

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

, and Richard Davis. In early 2007, The Michael White Quintet's "Mechanical Man" won in the 6th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Jazz Song. White eventually settled in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. After a long period of obscurity, in the mid 1990s he was involved in a reunion of the Handy Quintet and recorded an album as co-leader with

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant ...

, ''Motion Pictures'' (1997). In 2006 White released the album ''Voices''. He died on December 6, 2016.

Discography

As leader

*1971: '' Spirit Dance'' ( Impulse!) *1972: ''

Pneuma ''Pneuma'' () is an ancient Greek word for "breathing, breath", and in a religious context for "spirit (animating force), spirit". It has various technical meanings for medical writers and philosophers of classical antiquity, particularly in rega ...

'' (Impulse!) *1973: '' The Land of Spirit and Light'' (Impulse!) *1974: '' Father Music, Mother Dance'' (Impulse!) *1974: ''

Go with the Flow "Go with the Flow" is a song by Queens of the Stone Age from the album ''Songs for the Deaf'', released as a single (music), single in 2003. It is the only single from the album to not feature Dave Grohl on drums, instead featuring Gene Trautmann ...

'' (Impulse!) *1978: ''The X Factor'' (

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...

) *1979: ''White Night'' (Elektra) *1997: ''Motion Pictures'' (Intuition) *2006: ''Voices'' (Izniz)

As sideman

With

*'' Recorded Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival'' (Columbia, 1966) *'' Projections'' (Columbia, 1968) With

*'' Never Get Out of These Blues Alive'' (ABC, 1972) *'' Free Beer and Chicken'' (ABC, 1974) With

*''The Fourth Way'' (

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

, 1969) *''The Sun and Moon Have Come Together'' (1970,

Harvest Records Harvest Records is a British-American record label belonging to Capitol Music Group, originally created by EMI in 1969. History Harvest Records was created by EMI in 1969 to market progressive rock music, and to compete with Philips' Vertigo ...

) *''Werewolf'' (Harvest, 1970) With

Sonny Simmons Huey "Sonny" Simmons (August 4, 1933 – April 6, 2021) was an American jazz musician. Biography Simmons was born on August 4, 1933, in Sicily Island, Louisiana. He grew up in Oakland, California, where he began playing the English horn. (Along ...

*''

Manhattan Egos ''Manhattan Egos'' is an album by saxophonist Sonny Simmons. It was recorded at Sierra Sound Studios in Berkeley, California on February 10, 1969, and was released on LP later that year by Arhoolie Records. On the album, Simmons is joined by trump ...

'' (

Arhoolie Arhoolie Records is an American small independent record label that was run by Chris Strachwitz and is based in El Cerrito, California, United States (it is actually located in Richmond Annex but has an El Cerrito postal address.) The label was ...

, 1969 & 2000) *'' Burning Spirits'' (Contemporary, 1971) With The Dead Science *'' Submariner'' (2003) *'' Bird Bones in the Bughouse'' (2004) With

*'' Thembi'' (Impulse!, 1971) *''

Elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

'' (Impulse!, 1973) *'' Message from Home'' (Verve, 1996) With

Alice Coltrane Alice Lucille Coltrane (' McLeod; August 27, 1937January 12, 2007), also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda () or simply Turiya, was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and Hindu spiritual leader. An accomplished pianist and one o ...

*'' John Coltrane: Infinity'' (1972) With

*'' Song for My Lady'' (1973) With

*'' The Elements'' (Milestone, 1973)

References

External links

Michael White Quintet official website
* Michael White— biography by Scott Yanow for AllMusic
Michael White
— biography at World Music Central {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Michael Free jazz violinists 1933 births 2016 deaths American jazz violinists American male violinists Impulse! Records artists Elektra Records artists Avant-garde jazz violinists Independent Music Awards winners American male jazz musicians The Fourth Way (band) members