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Michael Vlatkovich

Michael Vlatkovich, trombonist, composer, and arranger, is one of the leading talents among Los Angeles improvisational players. Located on the West Coast since 1973, he is an emotionally charged performer, comfortable in a variety of jazz and world music styles. Vlatkovich has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe. His improvisionally free music expresses raw power and beauty in a minimally structured format. Michael tours extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Vlatkovich began studying music with the school band in the third grade. He distinguished himself in high school and was awarded a music scholarship to attend the St. Louis Institute of Music. Prior to his education at the Institute, Michael took part in an intensive six week workshop with internationally acclaimed saxophonist Oliver Nelson and guest soloists, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Roland Hanna, Ron Carter, and Phil Woods. Among his fellow students were Hamiett Bluett, Joe Bowie, Julius Hemphill, and Oliver Lake.

In addition to leading his own diverse imaginative ensembles, Vlatkovich has performed with a wide array of singers and instrumentalists including Peggy Lee, Brian Setzer, Ricky Lee Jones, Solomon Burke, Medesky, Martin, and Wood, Boingo, Don Preston, Bobby Bradford, Gerry Hemingway, Vinny Golia, Andrew Cryrlle, Rob Blakeslee, Rich Halley, among many others. The trombonist has also performed on sound tracks for a variety of television and film projects including The Mask, Jingle All The Way, and the critically acclaimed John Cassavette's film the Tempest.

In 1981, the composer formed Thankyou Records in order to document the truly unique forward thinking musical concepts and ideas of both himself and his music collaborators. These recordings have received critical acclaim in music publications and periodicals throughout the United States and Europe. Many of them have been selected for the lists of ten best jazz recordings.

Most recently the trombonist has been performing with his own ensembles, and co-leading Transvalue with poet Charles Britt. Vlatkovich is also a regular member of the Rich Halley 4 and the Bobby Bradford Motet.

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Album Review

Michael Vlatkovich 5 Winds: Five of Us

Read "Five of Us" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Ensemble (nello specifico quintetto) di soli fiati (non solo ance ma anche ottoni), come una volta era praticamente inaudito, dopo di che ci si sono misurati in diversi, e in tempi recenti quasi più nessuno: questa è la formazione a cui si rivolge il vulcanico trombonista losangelino Michael Vlatkovich per questo suo nuovo lavoro, peraltro inciso (a Toronto) nell'abbastanza lontano 2015. Vi trova posto una musica curata, parecchio scritta ma non per questo priva di singoli apporti in grado di ...

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Multiple Reviews

Michael Vlatkovich: Mortality & Myrnofant's Kiss

Read "Michael Vlatkovich: Mortality & Myrnofant's Kiss" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Michael Vlatkovich è un trombonista e compositore di St. Louis attivo dal 1973 a Los Angeles, parte di quella nicchia sperimentale presente dagli anni cinquanta nella West Coast. È membro regolare del Vinny Golia Large Ensemble e del Rob Blakeslee Quartet ma collabora anche con artisti di varie tendenze espressive: Bobby Bradford e Gerry Hemingway ma anche Solomon Burke, Ricky Lee Jones e Medeski, Martin & Wood. La sua recente attività discografica è documentata dall'etichetta pfMentum di Jeff Kaiser e ...

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Album Review

Michael Vlatkovich: Mortality

Read "Mortality" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Esteemed West Coast trombonist Michael Vlatkovich's second release with the large ensemble outfit Ensemblio, features a cast of largely, So. California artists including tuba performer Bill Roper and keyboardist Wayne Peet, who is also credited with the engineering duties on this pristinely recorded studio set. Nonetheless, Vlatkovich tosses more than just a few curveballs into the mix. The ensemble frequently subdivides into smaller factions during mini-motifs, but the program is an off-centered case study when considering how numerous ...

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Album Review

Michael Vlatkovich: Mortality

Read "Mortality" reviewed by Dave Wayne


Wow. Where to start? Apropos of its title, Mortality is huge. Vast. Complex. Quixotic. Musically, it's a mega-ambitious work that fuses operatic vocals, several styles of jazz, heavily-scored contemporary classical music and flat-out improvisational wailing in the most appealing ways possible. Interestingly, Michael Vlatkovich, a West Coast trombone virtuoso and composer / improvisor of considerable merit, is a guy who devotes considerable time to small group projects of various types--most notably tenor saxophonist Rich Halley's quartet--plus his own septet with ...

Album Review

Vlatko: Subjective Experience in a Commercial Free Zone

Read "Subjective Experience in a Commercial Free Zone" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Vlatko è il quartetto elettrico del vulcanico, iperattivo trombonista losangelino Michael Vlatkovich, qui ripreso in studio fra il marzo e l'aprile 2014. Vi alberga una rotonda visceralità, del resto tipica di Vlatkovich in un po' tutte le sue manifestazioni creative, per una musica piena e corporale, talora persino un po' sovrabbondante, più spesso egregiamente risolta entro i termini in fin dei conti fisiologici per un organico del genere. Il trombone del leader imperversa in ogni piega, ogni ...

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Album Review

Vlatko: Subjective Experience In A Commercial Free Zone

Read "Subjective Experience In A Commercial Free Zone" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


West Coast purveyor of novel jazz concepts, trombonist and shrewd improviser, Michael Vlatkovich skirts the perimeters of expressionistic jazz rock and most all things jazz related, featuring electric guitarist Tom McNalley's impressive, quirky off-kilter voicings and stinging expeditions. It's a production that's framed on the outside schema, as the leader's compositions present a brooding and flourishing set of circumstances, built upon layers, abstractions, and the requisite improvisational encounters. The lengthy album title duly implies that Vlatkovich is blending ...

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Multiple Reviews

Trombone x 4 (x 4)

Read "Trombone x 4 (x 4)" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Che ci sia un trombone a guidare la cosiddetta front line di un gruppo jazz, ammettiamolo, non è merce poi così usuale. Ci fa quindi piacere, amando particolarmente il suono rotondo, pieno, evocativo dello strumento, legare uno con l'altro quattro album che praticano tale formula, incisi e pubblicati nel giro di pochi mesi, tra la fine del 2013 e il marzo 2014, e tutti in quartetto, con tre strumenti ricorrenti e un quarto, invece, variabile. Multitudes Telepathic ...

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Recording

Dottie Grossman and Michael Vlatkovich Collaborate on Word and Music Project

Dottie Grossman and Michael Vlatkovich Collaborate on Word and Music Project

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Dottie Grossman puts together short prosaic poems dealing with Zen-like slices of everyday life, friendships and day-to-day reflections on it all. Michael Vlatkovich is a noted trombonist-bandleader in the avant improvisation realm. The two have collaborated on a CD project that alternates Dottie's short poems with equally short improvisations by Michael's quintet. Call and Response and Friends (pfMentum 060) is the intriguing result. Each segment lasts from one to two minutes, Dottie then quintet in alternation. The constantly refocused, straightforward ...

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Performance / Tour

Open Gate Presents: Michael Vlatkovich Trio and the George McMullen Trio

Open Gate Presents: Michael Vlatkovich Trio and the George McMullen Trio

Source: SoCal Creative Music

Open Gate Presents:Trombones! The Thirteen year of the the series.With Michael Vlatkovich Trio and the George McMullen Trio.Two of the best trombonists in LA with two kick-ass rhythm sections to back them up! Really not to be missed. Trombone gets a bad rap and is the butt of a lot of jokes...silliness. Come hear these masters play and have your attitude to The Bone altered forever!Sunday, March 7, 2010 7:00pm - ...

...Vlatkovich is the finest trombonist improvising today. Jazz Review

A brilliant and unique voice as both trombonist and composer... Alex Cline

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