Michael Dessen

Michael Dessen is a composer-improviser who performs on the slide trombone and computer. Active in a variety of ensembles as leader or collaborator, he creates music for improvisers and engages new technologies of telepresence and digital networking. His music has been praised by critics in numerous jazz and contemporary music publications, and recorded on labels such as Clean Feed, Cuneiform, and Circumvention. Dessen’s teachers include Yusef Lateef, George Lewis, and Anthony Davis, and he has also been schooled through extensive freelance experiences ranging from salsa bands to avant-garde new music ensembles. He has published writings on music and culture, and is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of California, San Diego. In 2006, he joined the music faculty of the University of California, Irvine, where he recently co-founded a new MFA emphasis in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT).

Slippages
Inspired by experiences with family members experiencing dementia and coma recovery, Slippages is a multifaceted meditation on the fluidity of our self-consciousness. More than expressing sadness or a loss of control, the piece moves through a range of emotional spaces seeking musical expression for those moments that function like hinges between disparate states of perception and experience. In musical terms, the piece explores the seductive power of texture and color to momentarily pull us out of the narrative directionality of melodic development.