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Matt Ulery

Chicago based bassist/composer and bandleader, Matt Ulery, has developed an instantly recognizable sound. Known for his sweeping lyricism, unconventional phrase structures, and expressionistic emotionalism, Ulery’s music is informed by the entire spectrum of jazz, classical, rock, pop, and folk– specifically American, South American, Balkan, and other European folk styles. He performs not only on upright and electric bass, but doubles on tuba. Ulery is the leader of his own groups, Loom, By a Little Light, and a member, among others, of Eastern Blok, and the Grazyna Auguscik Group. Ulery has released 5 albums of all original music under his name including his most recent release of a double album on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music record label in June 2012.

Ulery earned a Master of Music degree at Depaul University and Bachelors degree in music composition at The Chicago College of Performing at Roosevelt University and has played in bands with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Phil Markowitz, Fareed Haque, Howard Levy, Patricia Barber, Goran Ivanovic, Jeff Parker, Zach Brock, and many others.

When not touring parts of the U.S. and Europe, Matt appears regularly in the Chicago area music venues and has played performed with his groups at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Millennium Park Pritzker Pavillion, Chicago Cultural Center, The Krannert Center, Blues Alley, Jazz Showcase, The Metro and countless other fine music listening rooms.

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21
Album Review

Arman Sangalang: Quartet

Read "Quartet" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Arman Sangalang, still in his mid-20s, makes his recording debut with Quartet, wherein his talented four-member ensemble uses delicate textures and shadings in lieu of heated fire and brimstone to amplify its even-tempered musical purpose. That was clearly Sangalang's idea, as he wrote all save one of the album's ten by and large tranquil themes (chaperoning the lone standard, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's “Polka Dots and Moonbeams"). Sangalang's unaccompanied intro to that ...

4
Album Review

Matt Ulery: Mannerist

Read "Mannerist" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


There is a lilting magic to the music of Mannerist that is hard to deny or find fault with. The “Bridge" starts and the whole day changes, eliciting, perhaps, a feeling of being lighter on the feet, lighter in spirit and, most importantly, lighter in the head. Suddenly all the information they want you to swallow goes away and its just you and the music. It is a beautiful thing. It is something bassist/composer/bandleader Matt Ulery sets out to do ...

6
Album Review

Matt Ulery's Delicate Charms: Live at the Green Mill

Read "Live at the Green Mill" reviewed by Troy Dostert


One of the central figures of Chicago's thriving jazz scene, bassist Matt Ulery has cultivated fruitful relationships with a core of compatriots who embody the grit and beauty of the music coming out of the Windy City. He maintains a host of projects, one of the foremost being Delicate Charms, a group that released its self-titled debut in 2019 on Woolgathering Records; alto saxophonist Greg Ward, pianist Rob Clearfield, drummer Quin Kirchner and violinist Zach Brock assist Ulery in creating ...

6
Album Review

Chad McCullough: Forward

Read "Forward" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Trumpeter Chad McCullough has an identifiable sound—his striking, bold tonality, and his penchant for stark contrasts compositionally. His previous four releases on Origin Records, featured artists encountered during his tenure in the Pacific Northwest. His association with drummer and Origin founder, John Bishop, resulted in the formation of his quartet with Belgian pianist Bram Weijters. In two releases, Urban Nightingale (Origin, 2011), and Imaginary Sketches (Origin, 2011) he established a cerebral, pastoral sound of intriguing melodies presented in storyline fashion. ...

9
Album Review

Chad McCullough: Forward

Read "Forward" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Since his excellent recording debut under his own name, 2009's Dark Wood, Dark Water (Origin Records), trumpeter Chad McCullough has co-led a handful of forward-leaning discs with Belgian pianist Bram Weijters and one with Slovakian pianist Michal Vanoucek, in addition his work as sideman and his contributions to a few leaderless ensemble sets. Forward is just his second outing with his name on the album cover as the sole leader. His is a consistently strong catalog, but McCullough ...

2
Album Review

Matt Ulery: Delicate Charms

Read "Delicate Charms" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Nuovo album del contrabbassista chicagoano Matt Ulery, che riunisce in quintetto alcuni suoi frequenti collaboratori per realizzare un lavoro di brillante e articolato jazz moderno. La formazione vede il leader affiancato dal pianista Rob Clearfield e dal batterista Quin Kirchner, mentre la front line è composta dal sax contralto di Greg Ward e dal violino di Zach Brock, che con Ulery ha recentemente pubblicato l'ottimo Wonderment. L'ora abbondante di musica, tutta del contrabbassista, si suddivide in sette brani ...

1
Album Review

Zach Brock, Matt Ulery, Jon Deitemyer: Wonderment

Read "Wonderment" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Trio classico, ma con la particolarità di avere un violino come prima voce, questa formazione raccoglie tre musicisti che collaborano in varie forme da quindici anni e che operano in modo totalmente paritetico, a cominciare dalla titolarità dei dodici brani, composti quattro a testa. Dei tre il violinista Zach Brock è probabilmente il più noto, in virtù del suo esser parte (ancorché in modo non continuativo) degli acclamati Snarky Puppy, ma il contrabbassista Matt Ulery e il batterista ...

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Contest

Enter the "Matt Ulery - Wake an Echo" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Enter the "Matt Ulery - Wake an Echo" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Greenleaf Music “Matt Ulery - Wake an Echo“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on August 19th. Click here to enter the contest

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

Good luck! Your Friends at Greenleaf Music About Wake an Echo

With his 2012 release By A Little Light, Chicago bassist and composer Matt ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Marco Benevento, John Scofield Trio, Matt Ulery's Loom Trio, Bett Butler, and More

Jazz This Week: Marco Benevento, John Scofield Trio, Matt Ulery's Loom Trio, Bett Butler, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

There's lots of jazz and creative music going on this weekend in and around St. Louis, including visits from a New York keyboardist, a Chicago bassist, a singer from Texas, and the return of one of the top guitarists in electric jazz. Let's go the highlights... Tonight, keyboard player Marco Benevento brings his trio to the Old Rock House, with the Mike Dillon Band opening. (Given that Dillon also is the percussionist in Garage A Trois, which also includes Benevento, ...

Performance / Tour

Matt Ulery's Loom Trio to Perform Friday, September 28 at Saint Louis Art Museum

Matt Ulery's Loom Trio to Perform Friday, September 28 at Saint Louis Art Museum

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Chicago bassist and composer Matt Ulery is bringing his group LOOM Trio to St. Louis to perform at 7:00 p.m. Friday, September 28 in the Grigg Gallery of the Saint Louis Art Museum. According to the news release sent out by the museum, the gig also will feature members of the Chicago-based new music group eighth blackbird, five of whom were part of the nine-piece ensemble on Ulery's most recent album By A Little Light. The concert is part of ...

Photos

Concerts

Apr 11 Thu

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Mannerist

Woolgathering Records
2023

buy

Cachito

Self Produced
2023

buy

Quartet

Calligram Records
2023

buy

Live at the Green Mill

Woolgathering Records
2021

buy

The Weather Up There

Northern Spy Records
2020

buy

Dave Miller

Tompkins Square
2020

buy

Deep Moraine

From: Dave Miller
By Matt Ulery

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