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A true labor of love for Zilber (described by jazz great Dave Liebman as "one of the best composers and players around anywhere:  Period!), the project features eleven poems by Billy Collins, America's most beloved and widely known poet, set to music for voice, sax, piano, bass and drums.   Andy Kirshner, an astonishing singer who mixes, pop, soul and traces of Johnny Hartman in his voice, gives perfect realization to the settings.

Michael observes that "in many ways, this project gave me the ideal opportunity to draw from all of the musical sources which have shaped me. Since the whole point was to realize Billy's amazing words as truthfully as I could, letting the story of the poems guide me, I felt comfortable drawing, within the same song, from everything in my quiver, pop, jazz, folk, contemporary classical, blues.  I also was thrilled that the musicians and Andy were such great but unaffected musicians, able to make what was really very tricky music seem almost folk and pop-like in approach.  I have never been more proud of a project."

While generally the jazz and poetry worlds don't tend to mix outside of some regrettable bongos playing behind arrhythmic poets,  Michael is hopeful that this project will draw an entirely new audience to both the Collins poems and his music.  It is music that will appeal to jazz lovers, poetry lovers and simply lovers of good songs alike.  In addition to Kirshner, Zilber is joined on this by John R Burr on Piano and the Bay Area's leading rhythm team, bassist John Shifflett and drummer Jason Lewis.

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