After a decade-long hiatus from recording, award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Michelle Pollace [poh-LAH-chi] is back. Her latest singles blend jazz sensibility, Latin and Brazilian rhythms, and electronic elements. These songs not only mark her return to releasing original music after needing to focus on her son’s educational needs, it also marks a shift in her evolving sound. Michelle’s musical journey spans decades and includes such diverse projects as a Lou Harrison’s renown Gamelan Si Betty (Gamelan/modern classical orchestra) and a collaboration with Abel Zarate (former Malo guitarist and cowriter of the hit “Suavecito”) to release Soul Redemption in 2005 as the world-fusion Latin jazz group Zarate Pollace Project. She is most known as composer and leader of her small-combo Latin Jazz band and her widely acclaimed 2013 album New Beginning. Michelle was awarded a composer’s grant by San Jose Jazz in 2023, and the composition she created, “Alone Together,” appears on her soon-to-be-released EP I'm Just Happy to Be Here, an electronic music affair that veers into future jazz, broken beat, and house territory.