Blog- January 2012

Wow, it’s 2012 already… I can’t believe I’m turning 20 this year!

I’ve got two concerts and two radio interviews coming up. And they’re all major events…

On Wednesday, February 1st is my big Boston concert. It’s with bassist John Funkhouser and drummer Yoron Israel at the Regattabar (in the Charles Hotel) in Cambridge, MA. This concert marks our return to one of the Boston area’s greatest jazz clubs; we performed at the Regattabar in November 2010 for my Welcome Home CD Release Concert. We’ll be playing tunes from that album and from previous albums. And I’m premiering two brand-new tunes. It will be so much fun. Hope to see you all there! More info HERE.

I’m doing two radio interviews in the Boston area to support this concert. The first one is on Emerson College’s online radio station WECB, on Sunday, January 29 from 6-8 PM. It’s an interview and performance for the jazz radio show “Reeds and Deeds II,” hosted by Lydia Liebman. Lydia is a good friend of mine who also happens to be the daughter of the legendary jazz saxophonist Dave Liebman. The performance will be with some awesome Berklee musicians; Hoo Kim will be on bass, and Patrick Simard on drums. You can listen live online at: http://wecb.fm/ For archived performances and more info about the show, visit this website.

The second radio interview/performance will be on Worcester’s jazz radio station WICN (90.5 FM) on Monday, January 30 from 2-3 PM. The show is “Jazz New England” with Joe Zupan. You can listen to this interview live here.  I’ve been on WICN many times, and the station has been incredibly supportive of my music. Thank you WICN!

On March 3rd, I’m playing a totally different kind of gig. This one is in Elizabeth, IN (near Louisville, KY) at the “Imagine Awards,” a fundraiser for Rauch, Inc., an organization that runs a school for children with developmental disabilities. I’ll start off solo piano, but then I’ll be joined by none other than Jamey Aebersold! Jamey Aebersold, in case you don’t know, is a world-famous saxophonist, educator, and Louisville area native. He is best known for his series of Aebersold Play-A-Longs, a series of jazz play-along records that currently stands at 129 volumes. I have played along with Aebersold’s records since I was nine years old, so to play with “the man himself” is a great honor. And, I’ll be playing for an awesome organization and a great cause as well. For tickets, visit this website.

At the end of this month, I will head back to Boston to start the Spring 2012 semester at Berklee. This will be my sixth semester out of seven, so I’ll sort of be a third-year student and a senior at the same time. It will be my busiest semester (or at least my busiest undergraduate semester!) because it will have the most classes. Even though my last semester will be Fall 2012, I’m participating in the graduation ceremony this May.

I’m still on winter break right now and I’m going on a 3-day, 2-night ski trip to Vermont this month with some Berklee friends. I’m hoping for snow…

See you all sometime soon in this beautiful, not-so-apocalyptic year!
Matt