chris wong in sync

Mike Zilber

As far as I know, no one has written a thorough history of jazz in Vancouver. It should be done not only to document the accomplishments of musicians who had a long-term impact on our scene, but also to note the contributions of many others who played here before moving elsewhere.

I realized how my memory of the latter has faded while interviewing Mike Zilber. The Vancouver-born saxophonist was detailing his jazz journey of more than 20 years from here to Boston, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area when I asked how he connected with Dave Liebman, the great but under appreciated sax player. A quote from the American appears on the back sleeve of Zilber’s third album, Two Coasts. Liebman called Zilber "one of the best-equipped musicians of his generation."

It turns out that Zilber got a Canada Council grant to study with Liebman in the mid-’80s. They eventually played some gigs together and Liebman helped Zilber get his first record deal. I piped in that I saw his mentor perform at the Classical Joint in Gastown. Zilber said he played with Liebman at the Joint. Sure enough, I looked in my clippings file and found a review of the performance that I wrote for The Ubyssey in 1984. It said that Liebman was no "clone" of saxophone icon John Coltrane, and that Zilber was also trying to create a style outside of Coltrane’s shadow. "He is not quite there, but watch for his creative playing in the future," I wrote.

Zilber has in fact gone on to lead a very creative jazz life, as both a player and educator. After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, he moved to New York, where Zilber held his own on the bandstand with forceful musicians like Liebman and Dave Douglas. About eight years ago, he accepted a teaching position at Los Medanos College in Pittsburgh, California near San Francisco.

On the phone from his home in Albany, a town next to Berkeley, Zilber explains why he went for the college job. "It’s a tough, tough life being a jazz musician, even at the highest level. The pay is not that good and the life is very uncertain, so you tend to be confronted with these choices. You either live in uncertainty and poverty or you have to take a lot of gigs playing music you don’t necessarily believe in just to pay the rent. I didn’t feel like making either one of those an option."

Zilber, who also teaches at The Jazz School in Berkeley, strongly believes in the value of jazz education. He says working full-time as an educator hasn’t detracted from his still-active life as a musician. "I only have to play music I completely believe in. So I wouldn’t have thought this, but it actually helped my music tremendously."

Two Coasts, recorded with separate rhythm sections from San Francisco and New York, conveys Zilber’s big, bold tenor and soprano sax sound, his vital improvising and the 40-year-old’s imaginative composing style. His next release will consist of deconstructions of jazz standards. A big band that he leads, Creative Artists and Musicians Alliance (CARMA), will also record a disc.

At the du Maurier International Jazz Festival, Zilber will co-lead a quartet with guitarist André Bush. The group, which includes bassist John Shifflet and drummer Scott Amendola, opens for David Sanchez June 29 at the Vogue Theatre. The quartet also plays June 30 at the CBC Jazz Café and July 1 at Performance Works. The band will give a free workshop June 29 at Tom Lee Music Hall.

After graduating from high school, Zilber played in the Vancouver scene for only about a year before he "got out of Dodge," as he puts it. But it’s a special feeling for Zilber to perform in his hometown, where several people substantially influenced his passion for jazz. One such person was trombonist Dave Robbins, who led the Vancouver Community College big band that Zilber played in. "He was a huge influence on me, just in terms of teaching me stuff had to swing and we all had to bow down to Duke Ellington."

Another influence was Alan Matheson, who introduced Zilber to gems from the trumpeter/pianist’s enormous record collection, ranging from music by Jelly Roll Morton to Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis. "It was a life changing experience listening to that. Just to realize how amazing this music is."

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