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A New Orleans native whose father taught him blues on piano before he began classical lessons at age eight, Michael also grew up in Memphis and Berkeley, California, getting his first significant professional gig when he was 19 from Latin jazz vibist Cal Tjader. He made his recording debut with Cannonball Adderley in 1975, and has worked extensively with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Christian McBride and many others including the late Warren Zevon and singer Nancy Wilson, for whom he wrote orchestral arrangements and conducted more than 25 major symphony orchestras during world-wide tours. His five-and-a-half year stint as Musical Director of the "Arsenio Hall Show" heightened his visibility and gave him the occasion to meet his wife, actress and writer/director Polly Draper.

Wolff's own band Impure Thoughts, launched in 2000, is an infectious improvising ensemble, richly percussive thanks to Indian tabla player Badal Roy, drummer Mike Clark (of the Headhunters) and electric bassist John B. Williams, all of whom appear on Love and Destruction, Wolff's latest record and first release on Wrong Records.

His growing body of movie soundtracks includes The Tic Code (2000), a feature film with the late actor-dancer Gregory Hines that was semi-autobiographical in its depiction of Tourette's Syndrome, which Wolff copes with. Wolff is producer, and Draper writer-director of the upcoming Nickelodeon series The Naked Brothers Band, starring their sons Nat, 12, and Alex, 9 (Wolff will appear regularly as the boys' "hapless, accordion-playing dad"). Wolff produced his first music video for Love and Destruction on the plaintive "Underwater," shooting on-location in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Career Timeline:

1972–1974
Toured with Cal Tjader

1974–1975
Became member of Airto Moreira and Flora Purim Fingers band

1975
Became last pianist for the Cannonball Adderley Quintet

1976
Became Member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra 1976–1978
Toured with Sonny Rollins' band

1977
Started first professional band "Answering Service" with Alex Foster

1978–1983
Music Director, pianist, arranger and vocalist for Nancy Wilson

1989–1994
Musical Director, bandleader Arsenio Hall Show

1995
Started trio with Christian McBride and Tony Williams

1999
Started Impure Thoughts band with Alex Foster, Badal Roy, John B. Williams, Victor Jones, Frank Colon

1998
Produced and acted in the indepedent film The Tic Code produced soundtrack, directed by wife Polly Draper

2003
Wrote score for independent film Made Up directed by Tony Shaloub

2004
Release of Dangerous Vision Co-star, producer, musical producer for independent film The Naked Brothers Band directed by Polly Draper

2006
Release of Love and Destruction   I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace) You should create your own MySpace Layouts like me by using nUCLEArcENTURy.COM's MySpace Profile Editor!