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Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell is a pianist and composer interested in the intersections of various strains of acoustic, electric, composed, and improvised new music. He currently composes for and leads several ensembles featuring many of the current foremost musicians and improvisers, including Tim Berne, Kim Cass, Kate Gentile, Ben Gerstein, Jon Irabagon, Travis Laplante, Ava Mendoza, Miles Okazaki, Ches Smith, Chris Speed, Tyshawn Sorey, Chris Tordini, Anna Webber, Dan Weiss. He is an anchor member of several significant creative music ensembles which integrate composed and improvised music, including Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, the Dave Douglas Quintet, John Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, Dan Weiss’s Starebaby, Jonathan Finlayson’s Sicilian Defense, Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse, Kate Gentile’s Mannequins, Mario Pavone’s Blue Dialect Trio, Anna Webber’s Simple Trio, Ches Smith’s We All Break, the Dave King Trio, and Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux. He is also among the core performers of John Zorn’s Bagatelles.

Musicians with whom he performs and has performed include Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls, the Darius Jones Quartet, Jon Irabagon, Michael Attias’ Spun Tree, Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth, John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet + 1, Ohad Talmor’s Grand Ensemble, JD Allen, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green’s Apex, Rez Abbasi’s Invocation, Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Ralph Alessi’s Baida Quartet, Dave King’s Indelicate duo, Amir ElSaffar, Marc Ducret, David Torn, Vernon Reid, Clarence Penn and Penn Station, Linda Oh, Rudy Royston, Allison Miller, Donny McCaslin, Brad Shepik, and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society.

He has taught extensively with the Brooklyn-based School for Improvisational Music, as well as at the New School, NYU, and the Siena Jazz Workshop. He is also a 2015 receipient of a Doris Duke Impact Award and a 2012 recipient of a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.

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Album Review

Jon Irabagon's Outright!: Recharge the Blade

Read "Recharge the Blade" reviewed by Mark Corroto


As with nearly all of saxophonist Jon Irabagon's music, the matter for debate is whether the listener needs to be as caffeinated as the musician. His brand of performance, going back two decades, has been one of constant motion and a bottomless cup of ideas. We heard this in Irabagon's contribution to the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, his I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues series, and his collaboration with Joe Fonda in Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor. ...

5
Album Review

Yuhan Su: Liberated Gesture

Read "Liberated Gesture" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


A remarkable feature of vibraphonist Yuhan Su's captivating fourth release as a leader, LIberated Gesture, is its cohesiveness and narrative quality. Even though only three tracks are part of a suite, common motifs and logical transitions interconnect all ten. This and the sublime balance between the emotional and the cerebral endows the work with its enchanting impressionism. Pianist Matt Mitchell sets an expectant mood on “Naked Swimmer" with his percussive and sparse chords. Mitchell, together with drummer Dan ...

10
Album Review

Matt Mitchell: Oblong Aplomb

Read "Oblong Aplomb" reviewed by John Sharpe


On Oblong Aplomb pianist Matt Mitchell pays homage to the drummers in his life. In a way, it can be seen as a follow-up to his debut Fiction (Pi Recordings, 2013). That album, a duet with stickman Ches Smith, originated from Mitchell's practice of warming up for gigs with Tim Berne's Snakeoil by running through a series of etudes he had written to warm up his pianistic muscles. Smith, a colleague in the band, began to play along and the ...

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Album Review

Trickster: Live in Brooklyn

Read "Live in Brooklyn" reviewed by Troy Dostert


If one is looking for an artist whose ambition and indefatigable spirit seemed destined to withstand the rigors of the Covid pandemic and its deleterious impact on the jazz community, guitarist Miles Okazaki could be near the top of the list. A prolific and well-recorded musician before 2020, he maintained a rigorously creative schedule after it as well, with four albums released between 2020 and 2022, not the least of which was Trickster's Dream (Pi Recordings, 2020), Okazaki's resilient reclamation ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Matt Mitchell, Mark Murphy, Gregg Bendian and Others

Read "Matt Mitchell, Mark Murphy, Gregg Bendian and Others" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This show features out-there music from Matt Mitchell and Janel Leppin, elastic vocals from Mark Murphy and June Tyson, and a tribute to comics creator Jack Kirby from percussionist Gregg Bendian. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Satoko Fujii Ma-Do “Ripple Mark" from Desert Ship (Not Two) 00:55 Dave Douglas “Whose Streets" from Marching Music (Greenleaf Music) 7:11 Host ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Matt Mitchell, Anti-Rubber Brain Factory & Nite Bjuti

Read "Matt Mitchell, Anti-Rubber Brain Factory & Nite Bjuti" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


Not much to say about Matt Mitchell, a true force in creative music. He continues to astound. He's returned to two earlier albums with different drummers on Oblong Aplomb, out on Out Of Your Head Records. It's a double, with Mitchell and Kate Gentile on one and Ches Smith on the second. French ensemble, Anti-Rubber Brain Factory, is one of the most unique groups in existence, and very unpredictable as their new release shows, while the trio Nite Bjuti is ...

Album Review

Dave Douglas: Songs Of Ascent Book 1 — Degrees

Read "Songs Of Ascent Book 1 — Degrees" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


La curiosità di Dave Douglas verso l'esplorazione, la scoperta, lo stimolo intellettivo, non si placa. Si focalizza, con inesauribile attenzione, su progetti sempre diversi. Così la sua musica, che poggia sempre su un motivo di ispirazione forte: di carattere musicale, poetico, artistico e spirituale in senso ampio. Tra gli altri, Mary Lou Williams, Wayne Shorter, Booker Little, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, hanno fornito negli anni passati al trombettista materiali, ma soprattutto motivi di riflessione dai quali partire con le proprie ...

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Event

Matt Mitchell Kicks Off Elysium Furnace Works' 2019 Season In Beacon, NY

Matt Mitchell Kicks Off Elysium Furnace Works' 2019 Season In Beacon, NY

Source: James Keepnews

The 2019 season for the Hudson Valley music series Elysium Furnace Works promises to be its most exciting yet. EFW is proud to launch this year's slate of concerts with one of the most remarkable and cutting-edge pianists and composers, Matt Mitchell. Hailed as “a pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary vanguard” by The New York Times, “smart and dazzling” by Philadelphia Magazine and “compelling, even startling two-handed abandon” by the Detroit Free Press, Matt ...

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Contest

Enter the "Matt Mitchell - Fiction" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Enter the "Matt Mitchell - Fiction" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Pi Recordings “Matt Mitchell - Fiction“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on October 28th. Click here to enter the contest

(Becoming a fan of Matt Mitchell at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at Pi Recordings About Fiction

Fiction is the highly anticipated debut recording from Matt Mitchell, one of the most in-demand pianists in ...

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“A pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary vanguard” – Nate Chinen, The New York Times
Mirco Ballabene
bass, acoustic

Photos

Concerts

May 4 Sat
May 7 Tue
Even Odds
Solar Myth
Philadelphia, PA

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Recharge the Blade

Irabbagast Records
2024

buy

Even Odds

Cygnus Recordings
2024

buy

Live in Brooklyn

Cygnus Recordings
2023

buy

Oblong Aplomb

Out Of Your Head Records
2023

buy

Liberated Gesture

Sunnyside Records
2023

buy

Thisness

Pi Recordings
2022

buy

Boiling Point

From: Boiling Point
By Matt Mitchell

Night

From: Intimate Strangers
By Matt Mitchell

Nomad

From: Nomad (Gordon Grdina)
By Matt Mitchell

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