Michael Dessen Trio

Fluidly melding intricate composition, radically open improvisation and otherworldly electronic soundscapes, the music of the Michael Dessen Trio has been recognized with major awards and commissions from Chamber Music America, the Fromm Foundation, and New Music USA. Dessen’s trio music is designed for immersive, interactive performances: Elusive compositional structures shape the music, but unfold organically to feature the individual voice of each performer.


At the core of this approach is the telepathic connection Dessen has cultivated over the past decade with his trio bandmates Christopher Tordini (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums), two of the most in-demand virtuosos on the New York City jazz scene. As Bill Meyer wrote for Downbeat magazine, “These guys don’t just play together—they’re playing. This playfulness, as much as their fluid negotiations of Dessen’s jagged rhythms and elaborate melodies, is the spoonful of sugar that make these rigorous improvisations go down easy.”


Since its founding in 2005, Dessen‘s trio has released four albums on Clean Feed Records. The most recent CD, Somewhere In The Upstream (2018), is a concert-length work dedicated to Yusef Lateef, Dessen’s former teacher, that takes the form of a “scorestream” in which notations are displayed on screens for the improvisers to interpret, shifting unpredictably for each performance.