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Matt Lavelle

Matt Lavelle is a trumpet, flugelhorn, bass and alto clarinet player, and composer based in New York City. He began his music career with Hildred Humphries, a swing era veteran who played with Count Basie and Billie Holiday. He has played in ensembles led by Sabir Mateen since 2002. In 2005, Lavelle began study with Ornette Coleman. Lavelle was a member of the Bern Nix quartet from 2010-2017. Lavelle recorded with Giuseppi Logan in 2010. In 2011 Lavelle created the 12 Houses Orchestra. Lavelle records for Unseen Rain and has just released a record on the legendary ESP record label, a duo with Reggie Sylvester called Retrograde.

Lavelle has played and collaborated with Ornette Coleman, William Parker, Warren Smith, Henry Grimes, Eric Mingus, Sabir Mateen, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Jemeel Moondoc, Mat Maneri, Ras Moshe, Hilliard Greene, Steve Swell, Matana Roberts, Bern Nix, Jack DeSalvo, Charles Downs, Tom Cabrera, Francois Grillot, Giuseppi Logan, William Hooker and many others.

Lavelle published his first book, New York City Subway Drama and Beyond, in 2011. In 2013 he published a second book called The Jazz Musician’s Tarot Deck. Lavelle is also the author of the blog No Sound Left Behind.

Tags

27
Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projects—one dating back ten years—with some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to “all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...

5
Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


L'attività musicale di William Parker è stata copiosamente documentata da circa centocinquanta dischi, che spaziano in un caleidocopio di gruppi fondati dallo stesso contrabbassista, formazioni cooperative, omaggi, collaborazioni. Ma nessun singolo lavoro, fino a questo momento, aveva focalizzato l'attenzione su un ventaglio di ispirazioni così ampio e completo come si fa ora nei dieci CD del cofanetto The Music of William Parker—Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World. In questo lavoro monumentale, che viene ...

Album Review

Matt Lavelle's 12 Houses: Solidarity

Read "Solidarity" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Nato a Paterson, New Jersey, nel 1970, un passato accanto a William Parker e a quell'autentico reincarnato che fu qualche anno fa Giuseppi Logan, Matt Lavelle dirige in questo apprezzabile lavoro, inciso nel novembre 2014, un ensemble di sedici elementi che denota, in prima battuta, un approccio vagamente mingusiano (tutti di Lavelle i temi), con avvio piuttosto concitato e conseguente assolo di sax tenore. Appena dopo arriva tuttavia un interludio squisitamente cameristico flauto/vibrafono/contrabbasso archettato che scompagina una prima volta quel ...

Album Review

Matt Lavelle, John Pietaro: Harmolodic Monk

Read "Harmolodic Monk" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Un album il cui titolo evoca simultaneamente due grandi iconoclasti come Ornette Coleman e Thelonious Monk non può che incuriosire. Le composizioni, poi, rimandano tutte al secondo, mentre ornettiano (armolodico, appunto) dovrebbe essere il trattamento. Matt Lavelle, che con Ornette ha studiato (e ha pure suonato con Bern Nix, chitarrista del Prime Time), appare strumentalmente più ferrato sul clarinetto (che tiene banco prevalentemente nella prima parte del CD) rispetto a flicorno e cornetta (protagonisti per lo più ...

14
What is Jazz?

Jazz Meets Death

Read "Jazz Meets Death" reviewed by Matt Lavelle


There once was a great music. It was born in America and branded with the name Jazz. The music was later re-named madam Zzaj, by one of her lovers, the Duke. She grudgingly accepted the moniker of Jazz over the years. It was how she was bought and sold after all. Jazz had several intimate relationships over the years. Each one of these caused her to experience tremendous spiritual and emotional transformation. There was the great Armstrong, who raised her ...

13
Album Review

Matt Lavelle and John Pietaro: Harmolodic Monk

Read "Harmolodic Monk" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Every time it looks like all the gold has been mined from Thelonious Monk's music, somebody comes along to prove otherwise. Harmolodic Monk finds multi-instrumentalist Matt Lavelle and percussionist John Pietaro applying saxophone icon(oclast) Ornette Coleman's freeing philosophical ideal(s) to Monk's oft-performed music. To some, the resultant performances may seem far more complex than the originals, complete with mind-expanding abstractions, reductions, and alterations. To others, this music may be very simple to grasp. In truth, both viewpoints ...

9
Album Review

Matt Lavelle and John Pietaro: Harmolodic Monk

Read "Harmolodic Monk" reviewed by Florence Wetzel


In multi-instrumentalist Matt Lavelle's insightful blog, “That Fat Eb Feels Mahogany to Me," he discusses a challenge shared by many jazz musicians: “With people doing more and more repertoire projects to get work and for sheer love of that artist, I have been thinking about ways to explore the relationships between the kings without doing a straight cop. Playing obscure tunes is one thing, but there must be a way to look at their work from a new perspective."

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5

Recording

Matt Lavelle Supercharges 'The House Keeper' With Bari Master Claire Daly

Matt Lavelle Supercharges 'The House Keeper' With Bari Master Claire Daly

Source: Jack DeSalvo

About The House Keeper“One of my plans that DID work was expanding my quartet into a quintet with another horn player. When I discussed the idea with my big brother Jack DeSalvo, master guitarist, and producer at Unseen Rain Records, we agreed to ask the great Claire Daly, a good friend of mine and the anchor in my 12 Houses Orchestra to join us on baritone sax. Claire is like me in that we have jazz deep down in our ...

139

Recording

Matt Lavelle - Goodbye New York, Hello World (Musicnow, 2011)

Matt Lavelle - Goodbye New York, Hello World (Musicnow, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Trumpeter and bass clarinetist Matt Lavelle was once a prolific and thoughtful contributor to the Brilliant Corners jazz blog, along with the man who helped bring the nearly forgotten free jazz legend Giuseppi Logan back into the limelight. He has been quiet of late, but whatever he has been doing, it's done wonders and allowed him to produce an excellent album.

Lavelle plays quite an arsenal of instruments: bass and alto clarinets, cornet, trumpet, flugelhorn and is joined by Francois ...

144

Performance / Tour

University of the Streets' Curated Concert Series: May is curated by Matt Lavelle

University of the Streets' Curated Concert  Series: May is curated by Matt Lavelle

Source: Chris Rich

130 East 7th Street, (cor. of Ave. A), New York, NY 10009 (212) 254-9300 All Concerts are performed in the Muhammad Salahuddeen Memorial Jazz Theatre, 2nd Floor 05/01/2011 $15. / just music & videos: $10 11:30 am-2:30pm Children under 12-FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH “SONGS AND DREAMS AND THINGS WITH WINGS" featuring vocalists GALE SADDY, OKARU LOVE LACE, with pianist Roman Ivanoff, preceded by historical jazz film screenings. 05/02/2011 8:00pm $10. ...

102

Opinion

Music from the Future. Matt Lavelle.

Music from the Future. Matt Lavelle.

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog

I often refer to the Spiritual side of Jazz and in particular,.free Jazz,.no less than like a preacher on the pulpit.Some folks consider a spiritual perspective on music an excuse to just play wild and free with no real focus and or maybe no real skill.How much skill do you need to engage any music from a spiritual perspective? Which music is closer to God,.John Coltrane's Interstellar Space or somebody singing Amazing Grace down at the Church? I feel that ...

102

Opinion

The Night Jazz Became Itself,..By Matt Lavelle.

The Night Jazz Became Itself,..By Matt Lavelle.

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog

A few months ago,.Giuseppi Logan called me up and said,."man,.we have to work,.I can't get any work,.I'm broke man." Giuseppi is under the impression that we can make enough money playing music to have our rent paid,and and enough food in our stomachs so that they stop growling at us.I had exhausted all my limited options,.and now started to understand that Brother G has just not been received back even close to how brother Grimes was a few years ago.Giuseppi ...

121

Opinion

The Unison. Matt Lavelle.

The Unison. Matt Lavelle.

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog

I'm not an expert on Alice Coltrane and her music,.but I do know that her music has reached out to me in the last few years,and acted as a guide in some way about how to process the relationship of spirit to music.Her music after Trane made the transition fascinates me,and I intend to listen to all of it at some point.That's the kind of box set we need these days if you ask me.Musing on the relationship ...

353

Opinion

Welcome to 21st Century Jazz. Matt Lavelle.

Welcome to 21st Century Jazz. Matt Lavelle.

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog

One thing it's taken me 20 years to learn is that the Trumpet is a FEELING.To really unlock it's secrets you have to feel the sound that comes through it.My relationship with the horn is that sometimes there's feelings I MUST confront.I walked into a club the other day with a burning in my chest that had been building for several hours,.(no,.not heart burn).It's a feeling that MUST be released.The great trumpet players were caught live doing this,.often when they ...

104

Radio

The Jazz Session #160: Matt Lavelle

The Jazz Session #160: Matt Lavelle

Source: Michael Ricci


74

Event

"This is Our Music" Series Returns to Brooklyn on May 14 with Knucklebean, Matt Lavelle's Tenor Tree and the Matthew Silberman Group!

"This is Our Music" Series Returns to Brooklyn on May 14 with Knucklebean, Matt Lavelle's Tenor Tree and the Matthew Silberman Group!

Source: All About Jazz

One and all are invited to attend this month's edition of “This Is Our Music," set to feature Knucklebean, Matt Lavelle's Tenor Tree and the Matthew Silberman Group on May 14 at the Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. That's three exciting groups for only $10. Could life get any better than this? Doors are at 8PM, and the show starts at 8:30PM. The schedule is as follows: 8PM - Doors 8:30PM - Matt Lavelle's Tenor Tree: Matt Lavelle (bass ...

128

Performance / Tour

Vision Club Saturday, January 22-7:30pm Matt Lavelle's Espiritu + 9pm Jemeel Moondoc Trio

Vision Club Saturday, January 22-7:30pm Matt Lavelle's Espiritu + 9pm Jemeel Moondoc Trio

Source: All About Jazz

A R T S F O R A R T 508 East 6th Street #3, NYC 10009 11 January 11, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: The Vision Festival / www.visionfestival.org PRESS Contact: Jim Eigo [email protected] / 845.986.1677 Saturday, January 22, 2005 VISION CLUB At Clemente Soto Velez LES Gallery 107 Suffolk St. at Rivington Matt Lavelle's Espiritu, 7:30pm Jemeel Moondoc Trio, 9pm 7:30pm Matt Lavelle's Espiritu Matt Lavelle trumpet/bass-clarinet, Ras Moshe tenor and alto, Francois Grillot & Todd Nicholson bass, Jackson ...

Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Please contact me via email if interested in private lessons for trumpet or Bass-Clarinet.

Clinic/Workshop Information

I teach a course called "the nature of spirituality in sound",.which deals with the direct relationships between sound,the world,and meta-physical reality..please contact via email for more information.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The House Keeper

Unseen Rain Records
2023

buy

Migration of Silence...

Centering Records / AUM Fidelity
2021

buy

The Big Picture

Bandcamp
2020

buy

The Sideline

From: Hope
By Matt Lavelle

Videos

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