Matt Mitchell - mattmitchell.us - a musical microcosm

2012-02-07T15:06:00.005-05:00

Hello friends and family.

I have some news to share. Today marks the worldwide release on ECM records of Tim Berne's Snakeoil, featuring Oscar Noriega - clarinet and bass clarinet, myself on piano, and Ches Smith playing drums, congas, timpani, gongs, and other percussion. In addition to playing piano I co-composed the tune "Yield" with Tim. This band is the exact same band that used to be called Los Totopos.

We are soon going to tour the US and Europe. You can find dates here:

http://www.screwgunrecords.com/page_b.php?pageid=concerts

Also at the Screwgun site, you can hear excerpts from the record, purchase the record, and also purchase scores of the tunes we play on the record:

http://www.screwgunrecords.com/records.php?pageid=records&record=snakeoil

http://www.screwgunrecords.com/scores.php?pageid=scores

The record has also been reviewed many times already. Here are several of the reviews:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/arts/music/a-new-album-from-paul-mccartney.html [below the McCartney review]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/02/tim-berne-snakeoil-review

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41326

http://www1.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41305

http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2012/02/tim-berne-snake-oil-ecm-2012.html

http://londonjazz.blogspot.com/2012/02/cd-review-tim-berne-snakeoil.html

http://www.allmusic.com/album/snakeoil-r2352112/review

http://www.criticaljazz.com/2012/02/tim-berne-snakeoil-ecm-2012.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2012/0203/1224311139141.html

http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=12252

Between the two Snakeoil tours, on March 7, I will be playing at Cornelia St Cafe. I'll be playing two sets - one at 8:30 with my duo with Ches Smith, and one at 10 with Fourth Floor, my duo with Dan Weiss. I've wanted to play double shows with these two duos for a while now so I'm excited to finally do the first one.

http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com/Performances.asp?sdate=3/7/2012&from_cal=0

That covers most of my activity for the next couple months. This past month I played several concerts with Quinsin Nachoff's new group Flux, which also includes Dave Binney and Kenny Wolleson. This group recorded this past weekend as well.

Another exciting thing is that Fourth Floor just recorded our first album a couple weeks ago. We played 3 tunes by each of us. We're really excited with how it turned out.

That should do it! Thanks for reading, and please let me know if you'd like to be removed from this list.

best wishes,

-m

2011-11-27T15:00:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone.

There are several new bits of information emanating from my particular corner of the music universe:

I did a lengthy interview with Jason Crane of The Jazz Session. You can listen to it here:

http://thejazzsession.com/2011/11/07/the-jazz-session-322-matt-mitchell/

What is The Beautiful?, the album by John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet +1 plus Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann, is receiving widespread positive reviews, including 4.5 stars in Down Beat magazine - this review is included at the bottom of this email.

Also, I have one final round of 2011 gigs about which to tell. All gigs are in NYC, and all are at the Stone unless otherwise indicated:

Nov 30 at SEEDS (617 Vanderbilt in Brooklyn)

10 pm
Duo with Ches Smith

DECEMBER 1—14 at The Stone
SCREWGUN
CURATED BY TIM BERNE

12/1 Thursday

10 pm
The Music of Marc Ducret
Tim Berne (sax) Marc Ducret (guitar) Ches Smith (drums) Matt Mitchell (piano)

12/2 Friday
10 pm
The Music of Tim Berne
Tim Berne (sax) Marc Ducret (guitar) Ches Smith (drums) Matt Mitchell (piano)

12/3 Saturday

10 pm
The Music of Tim Berne and Marc Ducret
Tim Berne (sax) Ralph Alessi (trumpet) Marc Ducret (guitar) Ches Smith (drums) Matt Mitchell (piano)

12/7 Wednesday at BARBES

8pm
duo with Dave King

12/8 Thursday

10 pm
Totopos
Tim Berne (sax) Oscar Noriega (sax) Matt Mitchell (piano) Ches Smith (drums)

12/9 Friday

10 pm
Totopos
Tim Berne (sax) Oscar Noriega (sax) Matt Mitchell (piano) Ches Smith (drums)

12/10 Saturday
10 pm
Totopos
Tim Berne (sax) Oscar Noriega (sax) Matt Mitchell (piano) Ches Smith (drums) with special guest Trevor Dunn (bass)

12/11 Sunday

10 pm
Matt Mitchell—Central Chain
Tim Berne (saxophone) Oscar Noriega (bass clarinet) Mary Halvorson (guitar) John Hebert (bass) Tomas Fujiwara (drums) Matt Mitchell (piano)

12/13 Tuesday
8 pm
Matt Mitchell and Dan Weiss
Matt Mitchell (piano) Dan Weiss (drums)

10 pm
Herb Robertson with Ben Gerstein, Matt Mitchell, Dan Weiss and Tim Berne
Herb Robertson (trumpet) Ben Gerstein (trombone) Matt Mitchell (piano) Dan Weiss (drums) Tim Berne (sax)

and finally...

December 16 and 17

The Claudia Quintet +1 plus a very special guest @ CORNELIA STREET CAFE
9 and 10:30 pm both nights

Sure, telling you who the special guest is would be possible, but curtailing the urge is more appropriate at this juncture.

Thank you for reading. Lots of exciting things around the corner in 2012!

Happy Holidays,

-m

November 7, 2011
The Claudia Quintet +1: What Is The Beautiful?

By John Murph, for DownBeat, December 2011

John Hollenbeck continues to astound as a composer, prone to value accessibility as much he does adventure, on the fascinating What Is The Beautiful? As on the previous Claudia Quintet disc, Royal Toast, Hollenbeck extends the lineup with a "+1." But it's sort of misleading; it should read "+3," because in addition to Matt Mitchell, who takes over the piano chair left by Gary Versace, vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kurt Elling contribute invaluably.

The singers play a crucial role on this album, becuase it's Kenneth Patchen's pioneering poetry that serves as its launching pad. Patchen's legacy adds another level of intrigue, given his relative obscurity. But his prescient works paved the way for the Beat generation and of the fusion of jazz and poetry. Commissioned by the University of Rochester as part of an exhibition commemorating what would have been Patchen's 100th birthday, Hollenbeck recruited Elling to read some of Patchen's work before he composed the music. Hints of overdubs are remarkably absent, because the ensemble couches Elling's recitations beautifully -- as on the opening "Showtime/23rd Street Runs Into Heaven," on which Drew Gress' emphatic bass shadow dances in perfect unison to Elling's effective reading. As Gress' bass lines develop into a bouncy swing alongside Hollenbeck's streamlined yet propulsive drumming, Mitchell and vibraphonist coalesce intertwining lines underneath the voice before saxophonist Speed then later accordionist Ted Reichman comes in to reprise the parallel dance as Grew, Mitchell and Moran did prior. The overall effect is mesmerizing.

Elling's gift for interpreting spoken word is made all the more apparent in his ability to affect different characters. On "Showtime," he genuinely sounds like an old-school television voiceover talent and on "Opening the Window," his deliberate, slightly slurred delivery deftly evokes the craggy, inebriated shut in of the poem's protagonist. His most gripping performance is on "The Bloodhounds" (originally titled "Nice Day For A Lynching") on which he expresses the horrors of watching a black man being lynched amongst a gaggle of laughing white men.

On other occasions, Patchen's prose comes to life via Bleckmann's ethereal singing. Bleckmann is particularly bewitching on "The Snow Is Deep On The Ground" on which his otherworldly crooning is swept afloat by the rolling, counterpointing melodies and rhythms of piano, vibraphone, accordion and bass. Bleckmann finds an emotional gateway on "Do Me That Love" and on "Limpidity Of Silences," Bleckmann shows his flair for extreme dynamics as he whispers the words at an excruciating pianissimo without losing its rhythmic vitality.

While Hollenbeck employs virtuoso drumming in full service of his compositions, a closer listen reveals him to be a sparkling rhythmic engine, capable to driving the ensemble with supple grace. His drumming gets plenty spotlight however on "Mates for Life," on which his shuffling brush work duets magically with Moran's prancing improvisational lines.
Four and a half stars: * * * * 1/2

NY Times article, new music, new gigs, newly

2011-10-07T15:44:00.012-04:00

Hello and thanks for coming to my website.

Today, October 7, there is an article by Ben Ratliff in the New York Times called "New Pilots at the Keyboard" in which he writes about four younger jazz pianists who are playing a great deal around New York: Fabian Almazan, Kris Davis, David Virelles, and me. I feel honored to appear both in the New York Times and in the company of such great pianists. You can read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/arts/music/four-young-pianists-on-the-rise-in-the-jazz-scene.html?_r=1&ref=music

Today is also notable for me finally putting up some new music on my 'Music Samples' page. There's a good 90 minutes up there now, including some very recent performances as well as some of slightly older vintage. I hope you enjoy listening to them. Please let me know what you think!

on October 28 of this month I'm debuting a new band called Normal Remarkable Persons. We'll be playing the piece that is mentioned in the above article. The band will include Travis Laplante - tenor saxophone, Herb Robertson - trumpet, Tyshawn Sorey - drums, and me. There will also be a possible 5th 'mystery' member if 'circumstances' 'allow'. This will be at 10 pm at the Douglass St Music Collective in Brooklyn. The pianists Jesse Stacken and Landon Knoblock will be presenting bands earlier in the evening and I highly recommend coming for the whole thing.

other upcoming performances:

October 21 and 22
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble plays the music of Kenny Wheeler at the Jazz Standard [NY]
sets at 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 pm each night

November 10
Jamie Baum Septet at Symphony Space [NY] at 7:30 pm

November 11
Tim Berne's Los Totopos at the Stone [NY] at 10 pm

November 18-20
Claudia Quintet +1 +Theo Bleckmann mini tour
11/18 - The Stone 10 pm [NY]
11/19 - The Art Alliance 8 pm [Phila]
11/20 - An Die Musik 7 pm [B-more]

Lastly but certainly not leastly, I'm pleased to tell you that I'm part of the latest Claudia Quintet recording, entitled What is the Beautiful? It features the classic Claudia Quintet lineup with me added, and the great vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kurt Elling singing and reciting, respectively, settings of the poet Kenneth Patchen. Some of my favorite compositions of John's are on this record and I'm very proud to be a part of it. It will be released October 11 on Cuneiform Records, which you can find here: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/

that should do it for now. talk to you again just before December, when Tim Berne is curating the Stone!

thanks for reading.

-m

update - 11 July 2011

2011-07-11T16:10:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone,

It has been an extremely busy time for me during the interval since my last update. I toured the US West Coast with John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble in early March, continental Europe in early April with Mr. Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet + 1, and Australia in May and June, first with Quinsin Nachoff's Forward Motion and then with Tim Berne's Los Totopos. To top it all off, I just returned from a very fun tour of jazz festivals in Canada and Europe with Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green's Apex.

While my musical activity for the next couple months will be mainly NYC-centric, there still will be a lot going on:

- This Friday, July 15, I'm returning to Cornelia St. Cafe with my sextet, Central Chain. We packed the house back in February and of course hope to do so once again! This time we'll play two sets, at 9 and 10:30 pm.

from the Cornelia St website: http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com/list2010c.asp?sdate=7/15/2011&from_cal=0
Critic's Pick in Time Out New York: http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/1625907/matt-mitchells-central-chain

- The next day I play at Barbes with Matt Bauder's Day in Pictures: http://www.mattbauder.net/calendar.html

- On July 22 I play again with Darius Jones's quartet, at IBeam: http://ibeambrooklyn.com/calendar/

- I will be playing two sets at Cornelia once again on the 30th of July in a trio with Tim Berne and Dan Weiss:

http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com/downstairs/list2010c.asp?sdate=7/27/2011&from_cal=0

To top it all off, I will once again be a core faculty member at SIM [www.schoolforimprov.org]. I will be teaching with my friends Ralph Alessi, Chris Lightcap, and Tom Rainey at the Brooklyn branch of Long Island University from July 25 through 29, with a faculty concert at the Jazz Gallery on July 27.

There are a few exciting things in August as well.

first up in the month I will be playing again with Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green's Apex at the Newport Jazz Festival. It could without saying that I'm excited for this, though it seems that I've said just that: http://www.newportjazzfest.net/index.php?pID=321&artist=192

On August 14, I play in Lisbon, Portugal, with the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble as part of Jazz Em Agosto: http://www.kadmusarts.com/festivals/2032.html

Finally, on August 17 at 8 pm I will play at Barbes again, this time as part of a new duo with Dave King, drummer of the Bad Plus, Happy Apple, Dave King Trucking Co., etc.! We will be playing primarily music from Dave's frighteningly cool 'solo' CD Indelicate, on which he plays drums AND piano. I will be playing Dave's insane piano parts, hopefully with an appropriate level of sanity intact.

and that's all for now! thanks so much for reading. One of these days before too long I'll actually 'blog' about 'something' other than 'gigs'.

peace,

-mm

2011-02-13T11:06:00.003-05:00

Hi there.

I just wanted to quickly mention that my sextet, Central Chain, will be making it's NYC debut tonight, February 13, at Cornelia St Cafe. I hope you Philadelphia/NYC-area locals can make it! Doors open at 8:30 pm and we start no later than 9, and we'll play 2 different sets of music. Cover is $10 and there is a $10 drink minimum.

the band:

Tim Berne, alto saxophone
Oscar Noriega, bass clarinet
Mary Halvorson, guitar
John Hebert, bass
Tomas Fujiwara, drums

the press:

NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/arts/music/11jazz.html?_r=3&ref=music
A nice blurb from Jim Macnie in the Village Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com/events/matt-mitchells-central-chain-2365428/
and a Critic's Pick in Time Out NY: http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/886819/matt-mitchells-central-chain

the venue: http://corneliastreetcafe.com/downstairs/performances.asp

Also coming up this week, two more critic's picks from Time Out NY

Background Music at Korzo 11pm 2/15: http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/887181/background-music-kirk-knuffke-trio
and the debut of my duo with Dan Weiss at Barbes 2/16: http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/886673/weissmitchell-duo

finally, on 2/19 I fly to Columbus, OH for a gig with Rez Abbasi's Invocation: http://www.wexarts.org/pa/index.php?eventid=5257
I just got back from a 2-night run at the Rex in Toronto with this band [with Jon Maharaj and Damion Reid playing bass and drums, respectively] that was explosively fun.

other recent things...recording and European tour with Tim Berne's Los Totopos happened in January, West Coast tour with John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble coming up March 1-8, European tour with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet April 1-9, some gigs with Shane Endsley's Music Band this month and in April...and sometime in there I'm making a new electronics record.

thanks for reading! if you would like to be removed from the list, just hit reply and tell me.

peace,

-mm

late July update

2010-07-26T14:26:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone. Hope summer is going ok [or winter for the sub-equator folk amongst you]...

I have a few interesting gigs coming up the next few weeks:

Friday 7/30 - 8:30 pm

Darius Jones Quartet
me, Trevor Dunn, and Ches Smith
Roulette - 20 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand Streets).
Reservations/Tickets: 212.219.8242
$15: General Admission
$10: Students, Under 30s & Seniors, Harvestworks & DTW members
FREE: Roulette Members

I've been getting together with Darius a good deal during the past several months and I'm very excited for this gig!

From August 2 through 6 I'll be participating once again as a core faculty member for the Brooklyn based School for Improvised Music. As per usual there will be a faculty concert that week. These concerts [and the workshop itself] are always very fun, I'm sure this one will be no different.

Wednesday 8/4 - 8:30 pm

SIM Faculty Concert
Ralph Alessi, Tim Berne, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver, and me
58N6 Media Labs
58 North 6th St
Brooklyn NY 11211

L train to Bedford
$10 donation

Sunday 8/8 - 1 pm

Brad Shepik's Human Activity Quintet
Caramoor Festival
Brad Shepik, Ralph Alessi, Drew Gress, Tom Rainey, and me

Always fun to play with this group!

Tuesday 8/17 - 9:30 pm
Tim Berne's Los Totopos [Tim, Oscar Noriega, Ches Smith and me]
Korzo [667 5th Ave in Brooklyn]

We had a great run of gigs in June and it will be great to hit it again at one of my new favorite places to play.

and finally, an interesting bit of news...it was brought to my attention that I am one of the piano nominees for the 2010 Downbeat Reader's poll. While I have some issues with such polls [many glaring omissions on several instruments, for one thing] it nonetheless is fun to see my name alongside friends whom I admire deeply [Aaron Parks, Craig Taborn] and legends who I've listened to my whole life [Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett]. Thank you to whoever made that happen! If you're at all inclined to check out the poll you can find it at www.downbeat.com.

thanks for reading!

peace,

-mm

June update

2010-06-03T16:30:00.004-04:00

Hello, everyone.

I have many fun and interesting performances coming this month, the details of which I want to share with you.

The backbone of my activity this month is the 'Invasion of Privacy' tour with Tim Berne's Los Totopos [which also includes Oscar Noriega and Ches Smith]. Specifics are below, and you can also find them at www.screwgunrecords.com, along with 3 10-14 minute live recordings of Los Totopos from last fall.

All gigs are in NYC unless otherwise noted.

June 8 - 10 pm at the Stone
Oscar Noriega
also with Ingrid Laubrock, John Hebert, and Tom Rainey

I've been playing a lot with Oscar both in Los Totopos and my band [which also includes John], but this will be my first time with him as the leader. Very excited.

June 11 - 9 pm in Philadelphia at Moonstone, presented by Lucky Old Souls
Waveform Razorback with Doug Hirlinger and Ben Gerstein

Doug, Ben and I play together from time to time and this time we're playing a set of Doug's forward-looking compositions. Love playing with these guys. I'll be playing keyboard/electronics.

June 13 - at Le Poisson Rouge - part of the Undead Jazz Fest
10:20pm – with John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble
11:20pm – with Tim Berne’s Los Totopos

I'll be playing two sets in a row as part of the first ever Undead Jazz Fest. Very convenient!

June 14 - 10 pm at 45 Bleecker
with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet

We'll also be playing at WBGO earlier that day. I went to Europe and Australia with Claudia the past few months and I'm certainly looking forward to playing more with them.

June 15 - 8 pm at IBeam
with Tim Berne's Los Totopos

Brian Drye's Bizingas plays after us.

June 16 - 8 pm at the Stone
with Tim Berne's Los Totopos

June 21 - 9:30 pm at Local 269 - part of Vision Festival XV
with Tim Berne's Lowest Common Denominator

This will include Herb Robertson and Dan Weiss. I'll be playing electronics/laptop on this gig [NOT guitar as was posted on the interwebs several weeks back...]. This will be my first time playing with Herb and I'm pumped.

June 22 - 9:30 at Korzo
2 sets with Tim Berne's Los Totopos

June 24 - 8 pm at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, presented by Ars Nova Workshop
2 sets with Tim Berne's Los Totopos

June 25 - 8/9:30 pm in Baltimore at An Die Musik
2 sets with Tim Berne's Los Totopos.

and finally...

June 30 - 9 pm at IBeam
duo with Tim Berne

Craig Taborn will play solo at 8 pm - I highly recommend coming to see his set as well.

That should do it. I just want to add that the debut gig of Central Chain on April 13 went incredibly well and was extremely well received. I had a great time and am super grateful for my band: Tim Berne, Oscar Noriega, Mary Halvorson, John Hebert and Tomas Fujiwara. We'll definitely be playing more and I'll definitely be writing a lot more for the band. You'll of course be the first to hear about any new performances...

Thanks and I hope to see you at one or more of the above gigs this month!

best wishes,

-mm

gigs update

2010-01-26T16:27:00.010-05:00

several cool things coming up, gig wise. to wit:

2/6 - Philadelphia, PA - Ortlieb's with Doug Hirlinger, Tarus Mateen, and Darius Jones.

We're stoked to add Darius to the trio.

2/26 - Bloomington, IN at IU Jacobs School of Music - clinic and concert with Brad Shepik's Human Activity Quintet

For this concert Human Activity will be Brad Shepik, Ralph Alessi, Matt Pavolka, Mike Sarin, and myself.

IU is one of my alma maters - I'm really excited to go back and play there, I haven't been to Bloomington since 1996!

3/4-12 - Europe tour with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet.

3/5 - Antwerpen, Belgium - De Singel
3/6 - Braga, Portugal - Teatro Circo
3/9 - Vienna, Austria - Porgy and Bess
3/10 - London, UK - The Vortex
3/12 - Birmingham, UK - Harmonic Festival

Claudia for this tour is John Hollenbeck, Drew Gress, Ted Reichman, Chris Speed, and Tim Collins. plus me.

4/13 - Philadelphia, PA - The Philadelphia Art Alliance - Matt Mitchell's Central Chain.

this is the band of mine I've been talking about: Tim Berne, Oscar Noriega, Mary Halvorson, John Hebert, and Tomas Fujiwara. Rehearsals have been going great so far, I'm feeling great about it. I've been allowing myself to write some crazy music and everyone's nailing it! This will be part of the Ars Nova Workshop series.

4/28 - Philadelphia, PA - The Rotunda - with Inzinzac, performing to Melies short movies.

This may be the first time I've played live music for a film, so this should be a treat, not least because I'll be playing with these great musicians - Inzinzac is Alban Bailly, Dan Scofield, and Eli Litwin.

5/5-12 - Australia tour with the Claudia Quintet

5/6 and 8 - Melbourne, AU - Melbourne Jazz Festival
5/10 and 12 - Sydney, AU

I'm extremely excited to go to Australia with Claudia. For this tour Claudia will be John Hollenbeck, Drew Gress, Ted Reichman, Chris Speed, and me.

Last but not least - head on over, if you're so inclined, to www.screwgunrecords.com to hear 3 new, long audio chunks of me playing piano with Tim Berne's Los Totopos, taken from several of our gigs this past fall.

I think that's it for the moment, so for the moment, good day.

-mm

update 12/2/09

2009-12-02T14:44:00.002-05:00

it has been a long time since I've written here. So here is what's happening over the next few weeks [sent out to my email list]:

Hello everybody!

I have a number of things happening within the next month or so centered around the east coast that I wanted to mention. Organized by city...

in NYC:

12/3 - with Tim Berne's Los Totopos at IBeam - 168 7th St in Brooklyn. 9 pm, probably two sets
12/23 - with Los Totopos at Barbes - 9th st/6th Ave in Brooklyn. 8 pm, probably one long set
1/7/10 - Los Totopos at the Jazz Gallery - 290 Hudson St. in Manhattan. Sets at 9 and 10:30.

For the 12/23 date I'll be playing Wurlitzer, the other two will be acoustic. We've done it both ways now, it seems to work nicely either way.

in Philadelphia:

12/12 - with Tim Berne at Ars Nova Workshop - Philadelphia Art Alliance - 251 S 18th St. 8 pm, 2 sets

For the first set I'm playing a solo piano set of Tim Berne's compositions. I've been preparing for this set for about a year now!
The second set I'll be playing with Tim Berne's Adobe Probe, which for this gig will be Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Shane Endsley, Marc Ducret, Michael Formanek, Dan Weiss, and me.

You can read an interview David Adler did with Tim and me here: http://pmpmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/tim_berne_matt_mitchell/

12/19 - with Darius Jones, Tarus Mateen, and Doug Hirlinger at Ortlieb's Jazz Haus - 847 N 3rd St

very excited to add my new friend Darius Jones to the trio with Tarus and Doug!

and finally, closing out the month and year in Boston:

12/31 - with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet at Emmanual Church Boston "First Night" Event
set times:
9:00 PM - 9:45 PM , 10:15 PM - 11:00 PM
http://www.firstnight.org/FirstNight2010/Events/Evening.aspx

I'm very excited to play with the Claudia Quintet for the first time! Trevor Dunn will also be joining the band for this gig.

On tap for the new year is the debut of my new group, which is a sextet consisting of Tim Berne [alto AND bari!], Oscar Noriega [bass clarinet], Mary Halvorson, John Hebert, and Tomas Fujiwara. I feel very fortunate to have these amazing musicians playing my music! Our first gig will be April 13, 2010. I have a couple other projects in the works too - I'll let them out of the bag when it's time...

That should do it for now. Have a great holiday season! Please let me know if you want me to remove your name from my list.

best wishes,

-mm

longtimenoblahg

2009-06-23T09:47:00.004-04:00

lots of exciting stuff these days.

Had my first rehearsal with a new, as-yet-nameless band last week, formed specifically to try some new music of mine. The personnel is

Tim Berne - alto
Oscar Noriega - bass clarinet
Mary Halvorson - guitar
Chris Lightcap - bass
Tomas Fujiwara - drums
me - piano

needless to say - though I'll say it anyway - I'm very excited, both to have a band at all and to have one full of such amazing musicians who are willing to play some strange music.

Speaking of Tim Berne, Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus blog has a really long, really great interview with him here:

part one: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/06/interview-with-tim-berne-part-one.html

part two: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/06/interview-with-tim-berne-part-2.html

the end of part two includes a mention of Adobe Probe [the Berne band I'm a part of] as well as a link to a video of me playing his piece Huevos Expanded at my solo gig at The Stone this past January.

gigs: next one is this coming Sunday, 6/28, at the Saratoga Jazz Festival with Ralph Alessi's band, which will also include Tony Malaby, John Hebert and Mark Ferber. Also I recently played Ortlieb's with Tarus Mateen and Doug Hirlinger, which was a huge amount of fun, easily the most fun I've ever had playing standards.

tillnextthyme.

-mm

2009-01-22T18:36:00.002-05:00

solo concert last night went great. My brother Andrew videotaped it, if it turned out then chunks will surface web-ly.

I'm now on Twitter, my handle is 'mattmitchellus' [like this site, minus the www and the dots]. Come and twit with me if you're so inclined.

Very glad to relax for a minute and get cooking on the 'puter.

now it's time for Home Movies, though.

-mm

January

2009-01-14T18:58:00.003-05:00

happeigh noo yere!

so the Adobe Probe gig @ the Stone 1-10-09 went off great. The place was packed, the energy was up, and the band felt great. I feel very lucky to be and have been a part of this! Met all sorts of people, was just a great time.

There's audience-recorded excerpt of the first tune, 'duck', at the Facebook page for Screwgun Records: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Screwgun-Records/52797520319

Also great fun was the previous night - I got a semi-last minute chance to play with Shane Endsley at the Jazz Gallery. Shane, of course [if you read my previous post] is in Adobe Probe with me, and we also attended Eastman together. He's an insanely great musician, both as a trumpet player and as a drummer. This was our first time playing together in about 10 years with him playing trumpet, so it was a treat. We played 5 of his tunes - also in the band were Chris Speed [also in Adobe Probe], Brad Shepik, Todd Sickafoose, and Ches Smith. So it was a great band.

Next up is my solo gig, back at the Stone, on January 21st. I play at 10 pm. I'm going to play an unrecorded piece of Tim Berne's, plus an Andrew Hill tune, I'm leaning towards 'Dedication' from Point of Departure. Please come on out!

http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php

Other than that, work will resume on a couple different recordings of electronic material, one 'beat' oriented, one most definitely not so. and I hope to write a book of ['improvising'] ensemble music this year as well.

thanks for reading!

new music

2008-12-01T21:32:00.002-05:00

in the midst of an insane fall. Lots of exciting things happening, though. waded through apocalyptic traffic to play an awesome gig with Brad Shepik at the Puffin Foundation in Teaneck NJ last Saturday. We played music from Brad's soon to be released album "Human Activity". Also playing were Ralph Alessi, Drew Gress, and Tom Rainey.

next up is another gig at SciFi Philly @ Gojjo with Doug Hirlinger, on 12/14. The two of us will be playing music by Tim Berne, stuff from the Hard Cell/Science Friction/Big Satan books. This will be a nice prelude to a gig with Tim Berne himself at The Stone on 1/10/09. The band is called Adobe Probe, as is one of the tunes. The new stuff is fantastic, at least it is if you begin from the premise that his music is generally fantastic; I certainly do. Super excited about the band too: in addition to Tim and me, there's also Chris Speed, Shane Endsley, Mary Halvorson, John Hebert, and Gerald Cleaver.

In the midst of that there will also be the first week of the Big Ears residency with John Hollenbeck. I've done a little blogging over there, in addition to posting some music. www.bigearsphilly.com

To top it all off, I'm playing again at The Stone 11 days later [1/21], this time solo piano. Gonna try some new things. More on all of this later.

Also, there's new music on the page! An excerpt from my blowing tune Salvo, and three noisy electronic things. I hope you like them, please let me know what you think.

first laptop

2008-04-30T21:59:00.003-04:00

so, a few nights ago, 4/28/08, specifically, I played my first ever laptop show, as the first of three very different sets at a Bowerbird show at the Gallery at the Gershman YMCA in Philadelphia. I'd originally been gearing up for a piano set, but it turned out the piano wasn't obtainable, so I got a chance to finally get a solo set together. So, I gathered some acoustic guitar junk samples and rock some Zebra synth over it, and voila. In retro I wish I'd set the master volume a touch louder, but it was a smallish room and the main set, which turned out to be the fantastic trio of Nate Wooley/Sean Meehan/Carl Ludwig Huebsch, I figured [correctly] was going to be super minimal and quiet, so i initially erred on the slightly lower side of volume. Also playing was an extremely cool duo of Tim Albro and Dan Cappechi, very unique and inspring, nice melodic guitar shards with Oxley-inspired percussion.

all in all, a great night, a great communal feel, at least for me. thanks to Dustin Hurt for having me on the show, and to Ian Fraser for taking the above picture and sending it to me. BTW, missing from the picture, above my head and to the left, was a big sign reading 'AIDS'. As you might surmise from the ones you can make out in the above photo, the gallery at the time was filled with photos of AIDS orphans, children with AIDS and rehabilitated child soldiers, all from Africa [like a dipshit, I don't remember exactly where]. Very depressing and perspective inducing.

I'm lucky as shit, ultimately.

to Poland and back

2008-04-07T16:26:00.003-04:00

So, this past week I was in Katowice, Poland as a SIM faculty member. SIM stands for School for Improvised Music http://www.schoolforimprov.org/, it's run by my friend Ralph Alessi, who was also there. Also also there was Ravi Coltrane, Brad Shepik, Mark Helias, and Jim Black. Except for Ralph, these are all musicians I had played with only a little bit [Ravi] or not at all [the rest] before this past week; including Ralph, these are all some seriously amazing musicians of whom I've been a fan for a long time. So, the week was a total blast. We played two concerts, each of which featured 6 tunes, one by each group member. And there were of course some jam session moments which were also hilarious and fun. I averaged at most 5 hours a night of sleep, and we taught a good deal of the day every day as well, so it was exhausting when coupled with the transatlantic flights and connections and so forth. Then, to top it all off, a nice old lady inadvertently stole my bag back after I arrived in NYC. She did bring it back to Aer Lingus, who are shipping it to me today.

Yes, I had pierogies, which were delicious. Plus, Polish vodka - Zubrowka!

So, now I'm back and recovered. Pictures were taken, not by me, but as soon as I can coax any out of the ether I'll post some.

allrighty. I'll be getting to some new stuff soon, to begin the cycle of new postings.

Mad Dog! Mad Dog! http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink10324.html

-mm

more newness

2008-03-24T12:30:00.003-04:00

So, as you can see, there've been a couple more changes to the site. For one, there's a permanent link to my MySpace page to the right [your right] of this post. There's a bunch of music up there that for the most part will not be up here. The amount of intersection of between this site and that one will probably fluctuate.

Also, you now can contact me through this site. Simply click on 'Contact' and send me your info. You are not required to fill in every field. For instance, you don't have to fill in your phone number. It probably would make sense to at least put in your email address, though, if you want to be put on the list or to leave me the option of writing you back. But, if leaving an anonymous drive-by is your style too, that's fine! I welcome contact!

BTW, when showing the new page with the new pieces on it to my wife, I played her the 'bibliotics' piece at the bottom of the page. after about 20 seconds, she said, 'I want to play with Lite-Brite!' Remember Lite-Brite?

yeah, she's hilarious.

talk to ya later.

-mm

new music samples

2008-03-19T21:08:00.002-04:00

Hey, m'yall. Six, countemsix new downloads, at long last. These draw exclusively from my electroacoustic rucksack. I'm glad to have a workflow that now allows me to more frequently share this stuff with everyone, because there's a bunch of it, yes there is.

There's a point a couple minutes into 'stain caucus' when some really high frequencies don't quite make it past the lossy gestapo. Please forgive. It's a longish piece and therefore a tad cumbersome to have there in full lossless format, but I really like it and decided to upload it despite that couple seconds or so of teeny compromise. Who knows, maybe I'll get just pissed off enough about it in a few days that I'll just upload the big one anyway, bandwidth be damned.

Anyway, thanks for listening and checking it out. Any feedback is welcome.

also, please be aware that I now have a myspace music page, with some different material than here. it's at: http://www.myspace.com/matthewtilymitchell

Thanks!

hi

2008-03-16T19:55:00.002-04:00

So, new/old website. in the coming days I'll tighten up some things that will serve as new music downloads. nearly 2 years is enough time for the old stuff, I think. It's certainly not that there's a lack of material, that's for damn sure, so I hope to pick up the pace.

Thanks, and come back!

Lorem Ipsum

2008-03-15T17:47:00.001-04:00

The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s

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Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC

"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?"

Hello World.

2008-03-15T15:48:00.002-04:00