In 1992, he appeared on Jack Wright's CD Thaw, playing in a sextet. This ensemble blurred the idioms of jazz and contemporary improvisation. The Instrument Panel played a type of free improvisation that puts musical components such as texture, dynamics, space and noise on equal footing with rhythm, melody, and harmony. They released the CD The Green Fire Bull in 1996. Michael released a solo cd, Stream of Consciousness, on the spring garden music label, in summer 2000.
Music is noise.
He moved to Denver from Portland OR several years ago for musical reasons-to study at Denver U. and private study with Ron Miles. He plays with his own trio, with Fred Hess, well-known woodwind player about town, and in the Respirator Sextet. The latter presents music based on the ideas of Marcel Duchamp. Continuously on tour, or organizing the next one, he has been called the Johnny Appleseed of free improvisation. For twenty years he has been doing this kind of music exclusively, and his audiences still can be counted on a couple hands.