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Matt Baker

Australian born Jazz Pianist Matt Baker leads a powerful trio in New York City where he has called home since 2010, performs regularly as a sideman at jazz venues including Birdland and The Blue Note, and in 2017 released his latest DVD album “Live at Birdland”. His sideman credits include engagements with guitar icon Bucky Pizzarelli, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm and vocalists Ann Hampton Callaway, Jennifer Holliday, Patti LaBelle, Veronica Swift (2015 Monk competition winner), Tierney Sutton, Arianna Neikrug (2015 Sarah Vaughan competition winner) and Judy Collins. Matt Baker was an award winner himself in the 2003 Montreux International Solo Jazz Piano competition and a semi-finalist in 2004 and 2005. A student of Taylor Eigsti’s since moving to New York, Matt watched Oscar Peterson perform live an entire week at the Blue Note, from which a friendship between the two formed in the remaining years of Peterson’s life. Baker has also studied with Mulgrew Miller, Benny Green, Jacky Terrasson, and Ella Fitzgerald’s life-long accompanist Paul Smith.

Performances, Store and more info: www.mattbaker.com.au

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88

Recording

Matt Baker - Underground (2011)

Matt Baker - Underground (2011)

Source: Something Else!

If pianist and composer Matt Baker's new recording has the tempo and feel of a jet-set traveler, there's a reason for that: Baker, an Australian native, has kept busy since moving to New York City in mid 2010—playing a series of well-received engagements at jazz venues like Smalls and the Zinc Bar, among others, having already performed at an impressive number of festivals (including a two-year stint as house band at Montreux) and concert halls from his home country and ...

76

Recording

Pianist/Composer Matt Baker Releases New CD Titled "Underground" (Featuring Gregory Hutchinson, Joe Sanders, Jeremy Pelt and Dayna Stephens)

Pianist/Composer Matt Baker Releases New CD Titled "Underground" (Featuring Gregory Hutchinson, Joe Sanders, Jeremy Pelt and Dayna Stephens)

Source: Two for the Show Media

"This Guy Can Play" —Herbie Hancock “Baker's piano is the axis around which it all resolves, with integrity and enjoyment." —Michael Foster, Canberra Times Australian / New York Jazz Pianist and Composer, Matt Baker has traveled far with his career, performing at festivals, clubs and concert halls in Australia, Europe, USA and the Pacific. He is now proud to call New York City his home, moving there in mid 2010. In March 2011, Baker recorded this new album in New ...

“… [The vocal tracks] showcase Baker as a wise curator and charming singer free of extraneous flourishes”. Bobby Reed, DOWNBEAT Magazine, June 2016 “He and his band sizzle on 14 songs, [and] showcase a vocal legend in the making along the lines of a more buoyant, fetchingly pure Chet Baker”. Carol Banks Weber, AXS.com, May 2016 “The Australian piano whiz..” Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Oct 2014 “Baker has a playful approach to melody, particularly on the standards that he interprets with Joe Sanders and Gregory Hutchinson.”

Shaun Brady, DOWNBEAT Magazine, March 2012 “Swings confidently..

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Underground

Self Produced
2011

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