Saxophonist Michael Shults has been praised for his "strong, imaginative" improvisations (DownBeat Magazine) and "fresh and intelligent musical ideas" (The Pitch). A first-call musician on the Kansas City jazz scene for nearly a decade, Shults remains an active performer with Forward (a contemporary original jazz quintet), the New Jazz Order Big Band, his own quartets and quintets and the Kansas City Generations Sextet, whose debut album Acknowledgement, celebrating the music of Kansas City jazz icons Pat Metheny, Bobby Watson and Ahmad Aladeen. Acknowledgement reached as high as #8 on the CMJ Jazz Charts, and spent several weeks on the Jazzweek Radio Airplay charts as well.
Equally adept as a concert saxophonist, Shults has been praised for his "jaw-dropping" and "authoritative" technique (Bill Brownlee of the Kansas City Star) and has performed by invitation at the College Band Director's National Association conference, the North American Saxophone Alliance biennial conference and the University of Iowa Festival for New Music.
Dr. Shults is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he teaches applied jazz and classical saxophone, saxophone quartets, jazz combos and jazz improvisation.
