Chasing Your Tail
The Matt Savage Trio |
Savage Records
When I was ten years old I spent much of my time, when not in the classroom,
playing football, kickball or baseball on the playground and dreaming (in
vain) of professional stardom. Young W.A. Mozart spent much of his time
composing and performing, and so, I assume, does wunderkind Matt
Savage, who has no doubt set the standard for ten-year-old pianists for
years to come. Chasing Your Tail is, believe it or not, the young
prodigy's third album as leader of his own trio (the first was recorded when
he was a mere lad of eight).
Even though he's
barely into double figures age-wise, Savage is no novelty act. The kid has
decent chops and can play. No, not yet as well as Oscar Peterson, Keith
Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones or other established poll-winners (even
though his mom and dad may think otherwise), but he's working on that and
apparently having a ball doing it. It's a kick hearing Matt tell the
audience at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, FL, in his high-pitched
little-boy voice that they are & quot;about to witness the world premiere of
four new songs" – all of which he composed. Actually, Savage wrote seven of
the ten numbers on his latest album, including the title selection. One of
them, the free-wheeling "All Jazzed Up," was the title of his second CD. The
others are "The Music Box," "Firecracker," "Forty-Seven," "El Fuego" and "Shufflin"
the Cards."
To show his
versatility and familiarity with more established works, Matt performs Billy
Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge," Johnny Green's "Body and Soul" and closes with
"My Favorite Things," which Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg would no doubt be
surprised to learn they wrote (but not as surprised as Rodgers and
Hammerstein!).
As usual, he is
accompanied by his regular (and full-grown) rhythm section, bassist John
Funkhouser and drummer Steve Silverstein, who are so accomplished they spend
a good deal of their time teaching others but don't seem at all
uncomfortable supporting a ten-year-old whiz kid. On the contrary, they seem
to relish the assignment, having traveled around the country and overseas
with Matt and performed on at least two of his albums (and probably all
three, but I don't have the first one at hand to verify the personnel).
Funkhouser is rock-steady, Silverstein sharp and nimble, especially with
brushes, which he uses often.
One thing Savage
does that other jazz musicians could learn from is talk to the audience,
using his exuberant voice and personality to let them know something about
each of his compositions. It's clear he enjoys doing that as well as
entertaining them at the keyboard. An ideal pairing for Matt's next album,
if it could be arranged, would be the Matt Savage Trio with special guest
Francesco Cafiso, the thirteen-year-old Italian alto saxophonist who has
been turning heads at festivals and concerts overseas. That would be
something to hear, but until then Chasing Your Tail should make
Savage's growing legion of fans quite happy and help strengthen his
reputation as the world's leading soon-to-be-eleven-year-old jazz pianist.
Contact:
Savage Records, P.O. Box 35, Francestown, NH 03043. Web site,
www.savagerecords.com
~
Jack Bowers
