Michael Wolff

Born in Victorville, California on July 31, 1952, Michael Wolff is a jazz pianist best known as the band leader on The Arsenio Hall Show (from 1989 to 1994) and as the co-star of his sons’ Nickelodeon television series The Naked Brothers Band (2007-2009). Born in Victorville, California, he was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, then moved to Memphis, Tennessee, before finally settling in Berkeley, California. He began studying classical piano at the age of eight, switching to drums when he was 12. He switched back to piano when he was attending Berkeley High School and continued playing while enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1972, he left college and joined jazz vibraphonist/percussionist Cal Tjader’s band. After several years, he joined Cannonball Adderley’s band in 1975 before working with a wide array of artists including Warren Zevon, Bobby McFerrin, Frank Sinatra, Jean-Luc Ponty, and many others. Beginning in 1978, Michael Wolff served as jazz singer Nancy Wilson’s music director. Discovered by actor/comedian Arsenio Hall, he was hired as the band leader on Hall’s talk show and held that position during the show’s entire run from 1989 to 1994. He released his self-titled debut album in 1993, followed by Jumpstart (1995), 2AM (1996), and Portraiture (1998). He wrote the scores for several films including The Tic Code (2000) before he became the music supervisor, co-producer and co-star with his sons Nat and Alex in The Naked Brothers Band, a television series on the Nickelodeon network. Michael Wolff’s nearly came to a halt in 2015 when it seemed as if he was finally losing his battle with cancer. Thankfully, he bounced back and released his album Swirl in 2019.

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