“A Bigger Celebration” Album Trailer

Posted on July 16, 2013

Here’s a new trailer to announce the release of my tenth album, A Bigger Celebration. The record features Jerry Bergonzi on tenor sax, Bruce Gertz on bass, Richie Barshay (of Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock fame) on drums. Mark Zaleski is a special guest on alto and soprano sax.

A Bigger Celebration is available now. It’s my first album in three years. It’s also the first album on which I play electronic keyboards in addition to piano. There are lots of fun jazz tunes on the record, lots of pop-influenced pieces and even a couple of epic multi-part compositions.

The trailer was created by Adam Starr and Jean-Marc Le Doux.

Blog- Mid-July 2013

Posted on July 16, 2013

Hey everyone. It’s been a long time since the last blog…
But that’s because I have a whole bunch of gigantic announcements to make.

This fall, I’ll release my new album A Bigger Celebration, which features Jerry Bergonzi on tenor sax, Bruce Gertz on bass, Richie Barshay on drums, and special guest Mark Zaleski on alto and soprano saxes!

And tomorrow (yes, tomorrow, July 17), the album’s first SINGLE will be released on iTunes! It’s the title track from the album (“A Bigger Celebration”). You can be the first on your block to own it! Check it out HERE tomorrow.

A Bigger Celebration is my tenth album as a leader. It’s a fun and upbeat jazz album with a couple of pop-influenced tunes. Some of the songs’ titles include “A Fast Car In Summer” and “Power Pop.” A Bigger Celebration is also the first album on which I play electronic keyboards (on two tunes). And there are some epic multi-part compositions.

You can view my new YouTube trailer for the album right HERE.

Stay tuned for exciting news about the album release of A Bigger Celebration and our Fall CD Release Concerts!

All this info will be on my newly updated and redesigned website. In the meantime, I hope you can come to these two concerts:

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Thursday, July 25 – 6:00 PM. Beebe Library, Wakefield, MA – solo piano

Saturday, September 28 – 2:30 PM. Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival. Columbus Ave., Boston, MA – The Matt Savage Quartet with Bobby Watson. The quartet will feature the legendary Bobby Watson on alto sax, John Funkhouser on bass and Steve Silverstein on drums!

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Hope to see you very soon,

Matt

“A Bigger Celebration” (Live in Boston)

Posted on April 27, 2013

This is a fun song called “A Bigger Celebration.” It’s the title track from my 2013 studio album, which features Jerry Bergonzi, Bruce Gertz, Richie Barshay and Mark Zaleski. The video was recorded at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, MA on March 7, 2013. Bruce Gertz plays bass and Anthony Fung is on drums.

“Bebop” by Dizzy Gillespie (Live in Japan)

Posted on February 6, 2013

Here’s a video recorded while I was on tour in Japan. It’s a long jam on a famous jazz standard… Dizzy Gillespie’s “Bebop.”

This was recorded at Mrs. Dolphin jazz club in Osaka, Japan on August 31, 2012. Shota Ishikawa is on bass and Tatsuhiko Takeda plays drums.

The Making of “A Bigger Celebration” (Blog- January 2013)

Posted on January 23, 2013

Hey everyone. It’s Matt again.

I just recorded my new album. It’s called A Bigger Celebration, and it will be released this fall. This album is really upbeat and fun, with lots of melodic Latin-influenced tunes. It’s also ambitious; many of the songs are divided into multiple sections.

A Bigger Celebration was recorded over the course of three days at Futura Productions in Boston. The studio is basically one huge room. It used to be an old Masonic temple. It’s beautiful on the inside and the acoustics are fantastic. It felt so amazing to record a jazz album in such a space.

Boston jazz greats Jerry Bergonzi (tenor saxophone) and Bruce Gertz (bass) are on the record, along with drummer Richie Barshay (who has played with Herbie Hancock). Mark Zaleski, one of my good friends from Boston, is a special guest on alto and soprano saxophone.

This will be my tenth album and my first to include electronic keyboards. And if you haven’t guessed already, the theme is “having fun.” Lots of fun.

John Weston, the owner of the studio, supervised the recording and helped with engineering, along with 10-time Grammy winner, Tom Bates. Tom will mix the album. Grammy-nominated Jonathan Wyner is both producing and mastering the release. It’s wonderful to have Jonathan and Tom work on the audio for this album, as they did for my previous two albums.

This recording is the most intense studio recording I’ve ever done. I wrote over 20 songs for the album, so I had to select which ones to record. All the tunes are hard to play and some of them are lengthy.

So I’d like to thank the musicians for their amazing interpretations of the songs, Jonathan for his guidance and attention to every detail and the engineers for their incredible knowledge of audio. This will be an awesome record because of everyone’s contributions. It’s exciting to hear my compositions come to life.

Matt

Blog- December 2012

Posted on December 5, 2012

Blog- December 2012

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you are well.

I have a new YouTube video of an original called “Power Pop.” This video was recorded live in Japan. You can watch it by clicking HERE.

My last concert of the year will be on December 19 in Cambridge, MA. It’s going to be a very special concert, as I’ll explain in this blog. I hope you can come!

So now it’s time to make a really big announcement.

It’s been over two years since the release of my last album, Welcome Home (2010). Since then, I have been doing lots of touring in many different countries. And I’ve written a whole bunch of new songs and performed many of them live.

But I can’t keep these new songs hidden forever.

I’m recording a new album in January 2013 that will be released in the fall of 2013! I’ve never gone into the studio with this much material before.

The album will be a very upbeat release, with lots of exciting grooves. Some of the pieces are really simple and catchy, but others are extremely intricate. I’ve also written some extended compositions.

The band will be a quartet featuring tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi and bassist Bruce Gertz (two giants of the Boston jazz scene), along with drummer Richie Barshay (who has toured with Herbie Hancock’s quartet). It’s truly an honor to play with these amazing musicians. There will also be a special guest joining the band for a couple of quintet songs.

As with my other albums, the new release will be mostly originals.

The rest is a secret, but let’s just say that the new album is going to be totally fun.

On December 19, 2012, you can preview the album live in concert. This special performance will be at the Lilypad in Cambridge, MA from 8 to 9:30 PM. Yes, it will be with Jerry Bergonzi, Bruce Gertz and Richie Barshay. We’ll play all original compositions, some of which even I have never performed in concert.

December 19 is also my very last day of Berklee classes, so this concert will be a graduation celebration.

Then, in the winter of 2013, I’ll record the album, tour and prepare my audition pieces for graduate school. It will be nice to take a break for a few months after Berklee… but it won’t really be a break, as things are only going to accelerate next year with the release of the album and entering graduate school (in Fall 2013).

I have to study for finals now, but I will see you soon.

Happy Holidays.

Matt

“Power Pop” (New song, Live in Japan)

Posted on December 4, 2012

This is a new song of mine called “Power Pop.” It’s on my new album, A Bigger Celebration. The video was recorded at Chuka Hall in Kobe, Japan on September 1, 2012. Shota Ishikawa is on bass and Tatsuhiko Takeda is on drums.

Blog- November 2012

Posted on November 5, 2012

My last semester at Berklee College of Music is in full swing (no pun intended) right now. Midterms week is over, but I have tour dates and final projects planned for my last two months. The official “finale” to the semester will be on November 19, when I play my senior recital with a whole bunch of Berklee friends. And I just announced two special new concerts in December. It’s the crazy life…

Since my last newsletter I had the privilege of opening for the band Spyro Gyra (October 26) in Connecticut. This was a somewhat last minute opportunity but a great one. One of my professors, vibraphonist Dave Samuels, was performing with the group, so it was nice to see him there.

I also did two autism fundraiser events: New York City (The Genius of Autism) on October 22 and Cleveland (Milestones 10th Anniversary) on November 3. The Cleveland fundraiser was a wonderful event, and it was sort of like a mini family reunion, as my grandmother and cousins were there (they are involved with the charity). And the New York gala was a huge celebration featuring performances from some of the world’s most talented people with autism: artists Stephen Wiltshire and Amanda LaMunyon, singers Talina and Carly Ryan, animator Dani Bowman, and others. They are all amazing people; you should check them out!

I’ll be spending most of this month preparing for two significant upcoming concerts…

On November 17, I’m playing my first full-scale classical concert, in Jaffrey, NH. I’ll perform Debussy’s Six Epigraphes Antiques in a duet with flautist Laura Gilbert, followed by a solo piano improvisation that will function as a sort of jazz homage to the Impressionists. The gig will be a fundraiser for Electric Earth Concerts and Music for the Mountain. For more info, visit this website.

Then, on November 19, I’ll play my senior recital at Berklee. This will be the grand finale celebration of my 3 ½ years at Berklee as a Performance Major. My original trio, with bassist John Funkhouser (who, by the way, is also a Berklee professor) and drummer Steve Silverstein, will be featured. I will also lead student groups, featuring saxophonists Erena Terakubo and Dmitry Semenov, vocalist Courtney Swain, guitarist Javier Rosario, bassist Hoo Kim and drummer Anthony Fung. The repertoire for our concert is totally secret, so you’ll have to come to the show to find out what we’ll play. The recital is at lunchtime on Monday, November 19, from 1-2 PM at 921 Boylston St., Boston. More info HERE.

And finally, on December 19, I’m playing a special concert with Boston-area jazz greats Jerry Bergonzi (tenor sax) and Bruce Gertz (bass) and New York drummer Richie Barshay. The concert will be held at the Lily Pad in Cambridge, MA: http://www.lily-pad.net/. Don’t miss that one!

Then there’s vacation and a trip with Berklee friends. There will be something different each day of the last two months of 2012. It’s going to be ridiculous.

But then things will settle down in 2013, so that I can focus on a really big project…

Matt

Monterey Jazz Festival (Blog- October 2012)

Posted on October 29, 2012

Photo copyright 2012 Berklee College of Music.

As I write this now, it’s Columbus Day weekend. I just finished the first month of my last semester at Berklee, and I’m doing lots of touring as well. In two months, I’ll finish my undergraduate studies and get my bachelor’s degree. But next year, things will accelerate again, as I plan to enter graduate school in the fall of 2013. Yes, I’ll still play gigs. So it’s going to be intense, but fun.

Last month (September), I went to California to play four concerts with the Berklee Monterey Sextet, a group consisting entirely of Berklee students. I co-led the group with alto saxophonist Erena Terakubo, who is a good friend of mine and who has already made a name for herself in Japan. Nick Frenay played trumpet, John Egizi was on trombone, Hoo Kim played bass, and Anthony Fung was the drummer. Ayinde Webb, who is a first-semester student on a full scholarship, was the special guest drummer on a couple of songs at each of the four concerts.

We played four concerts in three days, so we really got to develop our sound as a band. And we each contributed our own original compositions, which created a really nice “collective” atmosphere. The first gig was at the Lesher Arts Center in Walnut Creek, for 7th and 8th grade music students. So you know what that means… screaming tweens. The kids posed for high-fives with all the band members, and took photos on their school buses as they left for classes. It was fun. That night, we played at a house party at this amazing house on top of a hill in Alamo. And finally, we played two packed concerts at one of America’s great jazz festivals, the Monterey Jazz Festival in the seaside town of Monterey. The festival is on the county fairgrounds, and many of the stages are in fair buildings. So it’s sort of indoors and outdoors at the same time, which is really nice. It was truly a great honor to play at such a prestigious place.

On September 29, I performed for the SAGE Crossing Foundation, which runs a farm that employs adults with autism. The fundraiser was at the Collings Foundation Museum, which is a large airplane and car museum in an old hangar in the woods of Stow, MA. So it was a fun gig for a wonderful cause.

Now I’m starting my fall touring schedule. My next three concerts are major autism fundraiser events: Halifax, Nova Scotia on October 20, New York City (at The Edison Ballroom) on October 22 and Cleveland, OH on November 3.

On November 17, I’ll play my first full-scale classical concert (Debussy’s Six Epigraphes Antiques) in Jaffrey, NH. And the biggest gig of all is on November 19th. That is my Senior Recital at Berklee. I have a huge event planned with lots of amazing students and faculty. I hope many of you can attend. It’s free. I’m doing lots of preparation for these concerts right now.

On top of all this, I’m making audition tapes for graduate schools, attending concerts, seeing my family during breaks, and just hanging out with my friends. And I’m planning some large projects as well. I’m at an important turning point in my life right now and it’s been wonderful so far. I hope to see you very soon at any one of these events.

Matt

Matt Savage- “Spain” by Chick Corea (Live in Spain)

Posted on October 14, 2012

This video of Chick Corea’s famous tune was from my second gig at Heineken Jazzaldia, an amazing jazz festival in San Sebastian, Spain. This concert was a solo piano gig at Club Victoria Eugenia in the Victoria Eugenia Theatre.