Blog- December 2013

Blog- December 2013

“A Live Celebration” advance MP3 albums available now

CD available January 14, 2014!

I am very pleased to announce that I am releasing a limited-edition companion album to A Bigger Celebration this January.  It’s called A Live Celebration: Kobe, Japan.  This live album was recorded in Kobe during my first tour of Japan back in 2012.  It’s a trio album with bassist (and fellow Berklee alumnus) Shota Ishikawa and drummer Tatsuhiko Takeda.  I wrote all the tunes, and there are two brand-new compositions on the album (“We Are Alive” and the three-part “Session Suite”).  The rest of the songs are from A Bigger Celebration and Welcome Home.

Grammy-nominated Jonathan Wyner engineered the audio, and Dai Murata coordinated the whole tour/live album process.  Dai also made the album art, which includes many photos from the tour.

The CD won’t be released until January 14, but if you preorder the album now (on my website, for $20), you’ll get an advance MP3 copy of the album for free!  Click here to visit my online store.

A Live Celebration is definitely one of my major projects right now, but it’s not the only one.  I just finished work on a documentary film score; it’s the score for Sound of Redemption, an upcoming film about the life of jazz alto saxophonist Frank Morgan.  I composed the score and also performed on most of the tracks.  I’ll let you know more details as things progress.

I’m also heading toward finals week of my first semester as a graduate student at Manhattan School of Music.  I have some very large projects but they’re going smoothly so far.  It’s been such an exciting experience living in New York.  There are so many hidden sights in every corner of this city, and each of the five boroughs has its own unique identity.

And, I’m also continuing my A Bigger Celebration CD release tour, with three more tour dates:

Saturday, December 7, 2013 – 8 and 10 PM (2 shows).  Chris’ Jazz Café, Philadelphia, PA with Ben Flocks, Lee Smith, and Dan Monaghan

Saturday, December 21, 2013 – 8 and 9:30 PM (2 shows).  An Die Musik Live!, Baltimore, MD with Tim Green, James King, and Nasar Abadey

Monday, January 6, 2014 – 7 and 9 PM (2 shows).  JAZZIZ Nightlife, Boca Raton, FL with Gary Thomas (bass) and Michael Piolet (drums)

Hopefully I’ll see you soon.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year 2014,

Matt