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Matt Lund

Guitarist, Composer, and Music Educator

About Me

Matt Lund is a Christian, Husband, Musician, and Educator.

As a musician, Mr. Lund is a performer, recording artist, songwriter, composer, and arranger. He is primarily an electric guitar player, but also plays acoustic, classical, and pedal steel guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drum set, and sings. He has experience playing pop, rock, jazz, fusion, blues, funk, folk, classical, country, bluegrass, and metal. Mr. Lund has released six recordings: Rescued Souls (original christian rock and worship; 2015), The Lund McVey Group (original jazz and fusion quintet; 2014), Axe Of God (original instrumental metal and progressive rock; 2014), The Lund McVey Group: Live at The Walnut House (2010), The Lund Clements Churchill Trio (fusion originals and covers featuring bassist Bill Clements and drummer Marc Churchill; 2007), and Matt Lund: Works (compositions for various chamber ensembles with a folk, jazz, world music sound; 2006). He has performed with many acclaimed musicians including Jeff Coffin, Greg Osby, Danny Baker, Stephon Harris, Tom Harrell, Snooky Young, Narada Michael Walden, Don Aliquo, Jamey Simmons, and Clay Jenkins.

Mr. Lund received a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 1999 from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where he studied classical guitar with Miles Kusik and composition with Dr. Larry Smith, and performed in the Kalamazoo College Jazz Big Band. While living in Kalamazoo he performed, recorded, composed, and arranged in many original and cover bands, including Burning Tent Revival (original rock), Lovey Howl (pop/rock/dance covers), The Lund Clements Churchill Trio (jazz and fusion standards and originals), Six Demon Bag (improvised music), The Tumblers (americana/folk/country covers and originals), and The Undercats (progressive rock/fusion originals), as well as in pit bands and cabarets, duos with vocalists, and solo jazz and classical guitar. Mr. Lund presented three concerts of original music for chamber ensemble called Music by Matt Lund, The 2nd Summer Concert, and the CD release performance of Matt Lund: Works. He also received two grants from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo to fund his musical projects. In 2008, Mr. Lund received a Master of Arts in Jazz Studies from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He studied with Paul Abrams, Shawn Purcell, Jamey Simmons, and Don Aliquo, performed with the MTSU Jazz Ensemble 1 and the MTSU Graduate Jazz Combo, and worked as a graduate assistant in the jazz department. Since receiving his degree, Mr. Lund has been a highly sought after sideman for performances and recording sessions and as a worship leader and worship band member and producer, and has been a member of bands Stealing Seasons, Palladium, and The Japanese Cowboys. He is now active in The Lund McVey Group, The Time Raiders, Rescued Souls, and Axe Of God.

As an educator, Mr. Lund taught guitar lessons at Broughton Music Center in Kalamazoo, and at The Music Center of South Central Michigan in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was also adjunct faculty at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, where he was an instructor of private guitar lessons. Mr. Lund is currently adjunct faculty at MTSU, where he directs the Commercial Music Ensembles and teaches Jazz Guitar Private Instruction and Introduction to Music, and is an instructor of guitar lessons and camps at Gene Ford Music in Brentwood, Tennessee, and at the Middle Tennessee Arts Academy in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Personal Statement: I believe art is a blessing and gift from God, and is important as a glorification of Him, but also as an expression of one's self and a form of communication. I consider expression and communication between people to be essential to our development, coexistence, and happiness. Playing music and guitar are my personal modes of making art, and my calling from God, and I have chosen to make this my career. I also feel called to teach and I believe that passing on what I have learned has made me a better musician and has given others a chance to begin learning about music and guitar and their path to God. The continuing effort to develop myself, my faith, and my artistry, has become my purpose in life and has led me to a feeling of joy, peace, fulfillment, and excitement for the glory of God and His creations!

My Jazz Story

I love jazz because it is style of music that has many important aspects such as writing or composing great songs with hooks as well as developed sections, high levels of playing and facility on instruments and with all the scales and chords of the jazz language, and intense interaction between members of a group especially during improvised sections. I was first exposed to jazz in college after starting out listening to and playing rock, metal, and progressive rock (I play guitar). While rock will always be my first musical love, jazz spoke to me immediately and I began to listen and try to learn to play it myself. This is somewhat common but the first jazz record that I heard was "Kind Of Blue" by Miles Davis. I still love this album and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to start listening to jazz. I love Miles's writing and his minimalistic approach to improvising. I also heard Joe Pass and was blown away by what he could do with the same strings and frets that I had because my early attempts to play jazz sounded nowhere near as good as he did! I think Joe Pass is one of the greatest jazz guitarists ever. It wasn't until I had been a professional musician and teacher for a few years that I realized that in order to fully understand jazz I would have to intensely study it. With the help of Matt Warnock, who is a great jazz guitarist and teacher, I was accepted into graduate school as a jazz guitar major and eventually (I hope) took my place as a professional jazz guitarist and instructor. It was a long journey because I have found jazz and jazz guitar to sort of be the opposite of playing in other styles in terms of tone, chord voicings, use of scales, and rhythmic feel. Plus, there is a huge amount of vocabulary that goes into the jazz language and that just takes a lot of time and energy to absorb and become fluent with. I love jazz more now than I ever have before because exploring it and doing it myself has brought it into my musical heart and soul. I started a band called The Lund McVey Group that plays standards and also my original tunes and performing and recording with this group has become one of the great joys of my life. My advice to new listeners would be to know that jazz has a lot to do with the individual performers and what they have to say with their music and their playing. This is true of any music but in jazz there is so much personalization through interpretation and improvisation that each musician's personality cannot help but be a main part of what they do. So I guess just remember that listening to jazz is like getting to know a person: it takes time and a commitment to listen to what they are saying and to be open to being changed by who they are.