On Glitched-On Bop, pianist Mark Micchelli deconstructs five iconic jazz and pop standards and reframes them as vehicles for electroacoustic improvisation. Micchelli's creative approaches to this material is consistently inventive and illuminating, demonstrating both his own fertile musical imagination as well as the indelible imprint the core jazz repertoire has made on so many musicians.
| # | Audio | Title/Composer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Time | 39:26 | ||
| 01 | Donnaleelannod | Donnaleelannod | 8:39 |
| 02 | Pemm Pemm Ican Pemmmm | Pemm Pemm Ican Pemmmm | 8:26 |
| 03 | Jjjjjjj (Satchidananda) | Jjjjjjj (Satchidananda) | 4:29 |
| 04 | EevVidIenDceEevNidCenEce | EevVidIenDceEevNidCenEce | 8:04 |
| 05 | Rollem Em Roll Em | Rollem Em Roll Em | 9:48 |
Pianist and composer Mark Micchelli reimagines selections from the jazz standard and pop repertoire on Glitched-On Bop, an electroacoustic deconstruction of five iconic tunes heard through the lens of his fertile creativity. The album’s title is a clever pun on Wendy Carlos’ 1968 release Switched on Bach, which presented Bach keyboard works performed on synthesizer and brought innovative electronic music technology to a wider audience. Micchelli twists the original melodies, uses timbral manipulation, harmonization, several compositional and electronic techniques, and a touch of humor, to shine new light on familiar material. Notable is that Micchelli recorded the album without overdubs, using instead a self-designed setup that allows him to realize a wide palette of sounds from his performance station.
Opening the album is Donnaleelannod, Micchelli’s take on the Charlie Parker classic and a favorite among virtuoso improvisers, “Donna Lee.” Micchelli doubles down on bebop’s permutation obsession by subjecting the melody to inversion, retrograde, and canonic treatment. The music heard in the intro reveals itself as a retrograde statement when the electronics play it back in reverse and the famous opening phrase of “Donna Lee” is heard. Traversing melodic fragmentation, exuberant stride style playing, and the use of the electronics providing a contrasting layer of sonic activity, Micchelli’s approach eschews the barn burner instrumental flex that often characterizes performances of the song. Instead he deconstructs it, unfolding like a fantasy, a discourse on a multi-layered dynamic between a piece of music and its collective evolution in the hands of multiple generations.
Pemm Pemm Ican Pemmmm is inspired by pianist Cecil Taylor’s “Pemmican,” from his 1982 album Garden. Unlike much of Taylor’s output, “Pemmican” is relatively transparent in its organization (written in AABA form) and more overtly lyrical than much of his playing. Micchelli preserves these elements, highlighting the neo-romantic approach in Taylor’s playing. Pemm Pemm Ican Pemm opens with a short electronic drum solo followed by an accumulating section built from staccato attacks that are grabbed by a delay effect, gradually adding more texture and contrasting timbres to build to a cathartic climax. Micchelli’s reimagining of Taylor’s pianism is thoughtful and heartfelt, enhanced by subtle commentary from the electronics. The piece returns to the dense, fleshed out texture from the opening for its peak, pushing Taylor’s poignant lyricism into a futuristic soundscape.
Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchidananda” is the jumping off point for Jjjjjjj (Satchidananda). Micchelli turns to the toy piano for this piece, building up loops between it and auxiliary percussion that evoke the drone in Coltrane’s original spiritual jazz setting. Bell sounds play a large role in the short piece, reinforcing a ritualistic character.
EevVidIenDceEevNidCenEce is based on Thelonious Monk’s complex and off-kilter “Evidence.” Micchelli chooses to focus on Monk’s melody as opposed to the notoriously thorny rhythm, zeroing in instead on the intervallic construction that is such a great example of Monk’s quirky genius. He eschews improvisation in this interpretation, instead exploring the pitch collections from Monk’s original. Micchelli opens the piece with a a syncopated percussive figure that is punctuated by disembodied gestures, before the acoustic piano enters with ominous, tolling pitches. In the middle of the piece, prepared piano notes echo like gongs and mechanistic trinkets before the towering pitches of Monk’s melody return in the bass register. The electronic percussion from the opening is heard in a recapitulation that features a dramatic series of piano arpeggios before an appropriately quixotic coda.
Rollem Em Roll Em is based on Mary Lou Williams’ boogie-woogie tune, “Roll ‘Em” but also but Conlon Nancarrow maximalist player piano works. Micchelli takes the opportunity to extrapolate the basic blues harmony in Williams’ original (I-IV-V) into ratios that play themselves out rhythmically in ways that are reminscent of Nancarrow's dizzying complexity (2:1, 3:2, and 4:3). He sets up an engaging dialogue between his live playing and loops captured and harmonized and manipulated by his electronic setup. Micchelli’s improvisations gradually become more abstract but the boogie-woogie bass line persists underneath until the piece experiences a break after the six minute mark, with both piano and electronics flying into a unhinged abandon. When Micchelli brings the bass line back, it is with the upper voice in polyrhythmic contrast, creating a kind of cubist view of multiple layers of boogie-woogie at once. The toy piano returns for the end of the piece, echoing a music box as it runs out of steam.
Mark Micchelli’s Glitched-On Bop approaches five pieces from the jazz and popular repertoire with just the right balance of reverence (for the tradition) and irreverence (in celebration of continued innovation). His custom built electroacoustic setup affords a great amount of flexibility to expand on the timbral and temporal basis of the music. Far from an album of straight ahead readings of standards, Micchelli has developed his own deeply personal forum for exploring these pieces on ever deeper levels.
– Dan Lippel
Produced by Mark Micchelli
Recorded without overdubs in August 2024 at Stage MK, Pittsburgh, PA
Mixed by Mark Micchelli and Alex Lough
Mastered by Alex Lough
Mark Micchelli considers his new album “Glitched-On Bop” to be a spiritual successor to “Switched-On Bach,” a 1968 album by Wendy Carlos that was the first to use synthesizers to create classical music.
“‘Glitched-On Bop’ is a jazz piano record with layers of electronic processing piled on top. All of the music was performed in a single take and all of the electronics were performed live,” he said. “There are no overdubs and only a small bit of post-processing. So while it took a lot of time to get the software working up to my standards, there’s still plenty of rawness and spontaneity in the music since I’m never exactly sure how the electronics are going to respond to my input at any given moment.”
The new album, released July 18 on New Focus Recordings, performs an electroacoustic deconstruction of five jazz and pop songs by Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Cecil Taylor and Alice Coltrane, as well as Pittsburgh’s Mary Lou Williams, whose “Roll ’Em” serves as an inspiration.
“Pittsburgh was 100% the reason for choosing that piece. In preparation for my move to Pittsburgh in fall 2019, I decided to better familiarize myself with Mary Lou Williams’ discography,” he said. “Williams’ career spanned a huge swath of jazz history — from big band to bebop to that one (ill-fated) record with Cecil Taylor — and her polystylistic flexibility is something I look up to and strive to emulate in my own playing. As for ‘Roll ’Em,’ I just find it immensely joyful. I transcribed it almost immediately after hearing it for the first time, and the next thing I knew I’d integrated it into my ‘Glitched-On Bop’ set.”
Micchelli, who completed his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh last year and taught at Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Community College of Allegheny County last semester, used the jazz standards as a launching point for his album.
“In jazz, to revere the original material is to change it. Doing a note-for-note imitation of another musician is borderline disrespectful,” he said. “I wanted to capture the overall vibe of the originals, but I was primarily interested in exploring my own ideas using quotation as a springboard.”
When it comes to live performances, Micchelli finds different perspectives as a spectator and as a participant.
“As an audience member, I like to watch musicians think. What decisions are they making? What challenges are they trying to overcome? What do I expect they’re about to do, and how will they surprise me?” he said. “When I’m on stage, I probably shouldn’t say this, but it’s almost like the audience isn’t there. I’m usually wrapped up in my own thoughts or enjoying the interactions between my bandmates. I love that people come to see me play, but my ‘zone’ onstage isn’t all that different from how I feel in rehearsal or in the practice room. The music takes me somewhere else.”
Micchelli filled in TribLive on what else we should know about his music:
Musician: Mark Micchelli (Piano, toy piano, percussion, electronics)
Founding story: I’ve been immersed in jazz music since I was a child, but in college, I ended up majoring in computer science. This record emerges from the combination of those two interests: what would it sound like if I used my programming chops to write software I could improvise with? I first started toying with this idea in 2018, and it took seven long years to get it just right.
For fans of: Jazz piano from Art Tatum to Cecil Taylor.
Influences: All five of the musicians whose music I feature on this album have deeply influenced my personal style: Charlie Parker, Cecil Taylor, Alice Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Mary Lou Williams. While this record leans more “out” than “in” (largely due to the electronics), I hope my respect for all aspects of the jazz tradition shines through. Besides the musicians featured on the record, I’ve also borrowed my rhythmic approach from Conlon Nancarrow, my music-theoretical approach from George Russell, my electronics-processing approach from Sam Pluta, my piano preparation approach from Denman Maroney and my piano-plus-extras approach from Shoko Nagai.
Releases: While this record is for piano+electronics solo, I’ve been in a piano+electronics duo since 2017 called Teeth and Metals. My duo partner, Alex Lough, helped to mix and master this album. Our online discography can be found on Bandcamp. I’ll be releasing my first record with my noisy fusion band, Mai Khôi & the Dissidents, on Ropeadope Records in March 2026. That band is already planning to record our follow-up album, heading into the studio in just a couple weeks.
Next shows: Mostly out-of-town. … In mid-August, I’ll be doing a workshop performance of a new opera cooking show with Mai Khôi at Madhura Studios in Brooklyn. Then, in the fall, I’ll be touring with the Cleveland-based jazz/Italian folk band Alla Boara throughout Michigan and Ohio. My next Pittsburgh gig is on Oct. 2, when I’ll be playing with the Pittsburgh Composers Quartet (me, Ben Opie, Patrick Breiner, and Adam Kantz) as part of the Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival.
How to find him: I keep an up-to-date calendar on my website, markmicchelli.net, and he also has a YouTube channel.
Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: Mai Khôi & the Dissidents — This is a bit of self-promotion since Khôi and I run this group together (and since Khôi and I got married back in January!) But Khôi’s story is incredible and more important than ever given the dramatic rise of fascism here and around the globe.
Precipice Community Band — Antonio Croes, Ava Lintz and George Heid III form the core trio, but they often expand to an eclectic nine-piece. I’m consistently impressed by Antonio’s desire to continually reinvent the band’s approach to the idiom, and they’re top-notch players to boot.
Pittsburgh Sound Preserve — Not a band, but an ever-growing network of experimental musicians based in Pittsburgh. They sponsor a fortnightly free improv jam session at Bantha Tea Bar (every other Monday), as well as monthly concert series at Bantha (second Sunday) and the Government Center (third Thursday).
Favorite pizza shop: Spak Brothers, which is right in my neighborhood. Go-tos are ricotta+meatball or pickle pizza.
— Mike Palm, 7.28.2025
New Focus Recordings is an artist-led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
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