At home in a variety of musical environments and having performed for years with well-known North American musicians such as Red Holloway, Houston Person, Jon Sass, Keith Copeland or his own long-standing Hammond trio We Three (featuring Dan Kostelnik and Scott Neumann) as well as with European “Jazz Masters” such as Tony Lakatos, Thomas Stabenow, Luciano Biondini or Vienna Art Orchestra leader Mathias Rüegg, guitarist Michael Arlt has also gained first-hand experience with top musicians from the Latin music world. For example, in collaboration with the trio of Brazilian drumming legend Portinho - with Itaiguara Brandao and Klaus Mueller -, the Spanish percussion wizard José Cortijo, singer Maria de Fatima from Portugal, Argentina's Gustavo Bergalli, trumpet, and the Cuban saxophone and world music virtuoso Paquito D'Rivera.
As a bandleader, accompanist or guest soloist, Michael Arlt's guitar sounds can be heard on more than 40 CDs ranging from jazz to Latin to pop, from solo guitar to big band.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES AND PUBLICATIONS
Michael Arlt is a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg and has taught at a number of jazz workshops, including at the Berklee College of Music. Arlt's versatile discography as a bandleader, accompanist and guest soloist includes more than 20 recordings to date.
TESTIMONIALS
»As you listen to this music, you will hear how he has captured the essence of this jazz style through it's many players and how his efforts make a formidable contribution to the continuum.«
“Michael Arlt is an outstanding jazz guitarist, as his new CD impressively demonstrates. (...) But he doesn't simply copy here, because the Würzburg native improvises his own lines. And he does so in a stylistically confident and convincing manner. (...) Highly recommended!”
“... outstanding original compositions by the leader. ... plays with the original melody, quotes, varies, composes off the cuff, jazz improvisation a la carte.”