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Matt White

Dr. Matthew White is an Assistant Professor of Music at Coastal Carolina University. White holds a BM in Jazz Studies from the University of North Florida and an MMA and DMA in Studio Music and Jazz from the University of Miami Frost School of Music.

From 2004 through 2012, White was active as an educator and freelance musician in South Florida and Nashville, appearing on a number of recordings as a trumpeter, writer, and producer and backing numerous artists and ensembles. White was the featured soloist with the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Duffy Jackson Big Band, the South Florida Jazz Orchestra, the Gene Krupa Big Band, numerous orchestras, musicals, pop ensembles, and artists as diverse as: Bob Mintzer, Wycliffe Gordon, Kevin Mahogany, Arturo Sandoval, Rihanna, Paul Anka, Bruce Hornsby, Brian Setzer, Brad Paisley, Oscar DeLeon, Melinda Dolittle, and others in addition to leading his own ensemble, the Super Villain Jazz Band. He has appeared on live radio broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry, The Country Music Christmas Television Special, The Mavericks’ In Time PBS Special, and numerous major label recordings for commercial artists and corporations. White won Downbeat Student Music Awards in Best Jazz Soloist, Best Arrangement, and Best Original Song categories. In 2009 he was invited as an American jazz trumpet representative for the International Association of Schools of Jazz conference in Lucern, Switzerland and was a member of Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead residency in 2004. He has received recognition on NPR's All Things Considered, The Washington Post, and various musical publications.

In 2011, White published his dissertation research on Visualization in Jazz Improvisation, which was the first academic work to explore the connections between visual imagery, jazz improvisation, and musical perception among prominent improvisers.

In 2013, White released his first album as a leader, The Super Villian Jazz Band, on the Artists Recording Collective Label. Russ Musto of the New York Jazz Review and Downbeat said, “It heralds the arrival of a new major voice in jazz, one whose name belongs in the pantheon of its true heroes.”

Currently, White is working on a joint research project with Dr. Eric Crawford, “The St. Helena Island Spiritual Project,” which was selected as the initiative for CCU’s Edwards College Athenaeum Experiential Press. The Project focuses on the Spirituals and Culture of the Gullah people and will be presented as an Interactive Experience, Songbook, and various media projects.

Gear

NY Bach Trumpet Patrick Mouthpieces


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20
Album Review

Sofia Goodman: Secrets of the Shore

Read "Secrets of the Shore" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Secrets of the Shore, Nashville-based drummer Sophia Goodman's second album, is thematic, and its essential element is water. Goodman wrote or co-wrote the ten numbers, each of which is designed to induce in the listener's mind some aspect of water, from placid to turbulent, gentle to intense. As is true of all thematic enterprises, it rests with the listener to hear and appreciate what the composer has in mind. Goodman fares well in that respect, as her ...

3
Album Review

Matt White: The Super Villain Jazz Band

Read "The Super Villain Jazz Band" reviewed by Jeffrey Uhrich


In the midst of its long tradition as home of country music, Nashville is also home to a burgeoning and very vibrant jazz scene. Matt White and the musicians that comprise White's debut, The Super Villain Jazz Band, are proof that Nashville is generating world-class jazz musicians that can contend with any challengers from the east or west coast of the United States (and beyond). The Super Villain Jazz Band, is a collection of imaginative and deceptively complex compositions that ...

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7

Recording

Trumpeter/Composer Matt White & The Super Villain Jazz Band - "Worlds Wide" New Release - June 30

Trumpeter/Composer Matt White & The Super Villain Jazz Band - "Worlds Wide" New Release - June 30

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

—Downbeat Magazine (for The Super Villain Jazz Band) Trumpeter/Composer Matt White The Super Villain Jazz Band Worlds Wide New Release: June 30 Worlds Wide is the follow-up to trumpeter/composer Matt White's debut album, The Super Villain Jazz Band. In Worlds Wide, Matt reconvenes his jny: Nashville-based group to perform music inspired by places real and imaginary, from waterfalls and valleys to desolate planets, a desperate trip to rescue lost luggage, and music inspired by ...

Recording

"The Super Villain Jazz Band": CD Debut By Trumpeter/Composer Matt White

"The Super Villain Jazz Band": CD Debut By Trumpeter/Composer Matt White

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

The brilliant young trumpeter, composer, and educator Matt White steps out with a lively and compelling debut titled The Super Villain Jazz Band, to be released October 1 by Artists Recording Collective. A quintet/sextet effort recorded in Nashville, the album is a post-bop update that goes beyond the usual formulas with its restless sense of invention in through-composed settings. White’s collaborators on the date—tenor saxophonist Evan Cobb, alto saxophonist Don Aliquo, pianist Joe Davidian, bassist Jonathan Wires, and drummer Jim ...

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“It heralds the arrival of a new major voice in jazz, one whose name belongs in the pantheon of its true heroes.” - Russ Musto

“But trumpeter Matt White’s bright tone and forceful attack help Cobb achieve some of the intensity that characterized the music of Woody Shaw’s best groups.” - TheExaminer.com

“Nothing proved more rhythmically brash and invigorating than Matt White’s Like Woody, a tribute to jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw” - The Washington Post

Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Credentials/Background

Assistant Professor of Music - Coastal Carolina University -trumpet, jazz ensembles, improvisation, commercial music, recording technology Previously taught at: The Nashville Jazz Workshop Belmont University Vanderbilt University The University of Miami

Clinic/Workshop Information

Trumpet Performance Improvisation Visualization and Practice Strategies Writing for Media Recording Technology

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Secrets of the Shore

Joyous Records
2023

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The Super Villain...

Self Produced
2013

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Dying Will Be Easy

Clean Feed Records
2009

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Videos

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