Jazz Articles about Matt Mitchell

About Matt Mitchell

Album Review

Tim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10

Read "The Fantastic Mrs. 10" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 9, 2020

Imagine Tim Berne as the lead in the 1980's' American television series The A-Team, declaring: “I love it when a plan comes together!" He must return to that catchphrase every time his ensemble Snakeoil finishes a recording. After four outings on Manfred Eicher's ECM Records, the previous being Incidentals (2017), he moves his A-Team to Intakt Records. The Fantastic Mrs. 10 confirms this ensemble is on par with the saxophonist's other great band, Bloodcount, with Chris Speed, Jim Black, Michael ...

Album Review

Matt Mitchell: Phalanx Ambassadors

Read "Phalanx Ambassadors" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
September 2, 2019

Partiamo da “Phasic Haze Ramps." Perché con i suoi sedici minuti è il brano più lungo e occupa praticamente un terzo dell'intero album. Perché è il fulcro dell'incisione, l'esaltazione del modus operandi di Matt Mitchell, il centro nevralgico dal quale tutto parte e tutto ritorna. Sin dall'inizio sono coinvolti tutti gli strumenti. Che avanzano in punta di piedi, perlustrano lo spazio, intraprendono percorsi che a loro volta si aprono a nuove prospettive e a nuove esplorazioni. La ...

Radio & Podcasts

Satoko Fujii, Angles 9, Here’s to Us & More

by Maurice Hogue
July 10, 2019

I would never presume to know enough about music to compare two of the most brilliant pianists in jazz today: Matt Mitchell and Satoko Fujii. Feel free to go ahead and do that yourself. All I'll say is that they are both amazing and worthy of all the recognition that comes their way. Each has a new recording out and those get sampled in this episode. Mitchell's Phalanx Ambassador is as complicated and challenging (for his musicians as well as ...

Album Review

Matt Mitchell: Phalanx Ambassadors

Read "Phalanx Ambassadors" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
June 26, 2019

Pianist Matt Mitchell's music can be appreciated on a number of levels. It's remarkably cerebral, on the one hand, with a conceptual apparatus that sometimes verges on the impenetrable; yet there are also moments in which the many moving parts of his compositions come together in ways that are quite emotionally powerful. And then there's simply the element of wonder: the “how does he do it?" factor. Mitchell himself asserts that the music on Phalanx Ambassadors, his latest release, is ...

Album Review

Dustin Carlson: Air Ceremony

Read "Air Ceremony" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
April 25, 2019

Dando un'occhiata alla formazione troviamo Kate Gentile, batterista sempre più assidua in dischi e in gruppi importanti, Matt Mitchell, nome ormai affermato nel jazz che conta, qui impegnato al mitico Prophet 6, Nathaniel Morgan ed Eric Trudel ai sassofoni, Danny Gouker alla tromba, abituali frequentatori del jazz meno canonico, il bassista Adam Hopkins presenza attiva della nuova scena newyorchese e infine Dustin Carlson, chitarrista e compositore (tutti i brani portano la sua firma) dalla idee in perenne movimento. Come la ...

Multiple Reviews

Matt Mitchell, un pianoforte declinato al futuro

by Luca Canini
November 13, 2017

Se da un lato c'è Tim Berne che ti affida le chiavi del suo quartetto, e dall'altro Steve Coleman che al momento di mettere qualcuno davanti a una tastiera non esita a comporre il tuo numero, vuol dire che qualcosa di buono al pianoforte lo sai fare. Certo, poi serve anche altro per uscire definitivamente allo scoperto; servono idee, talento, c'è bisogno di una visione e di conferme. Magari sotto forma di un paio di dischi a tuo nome, di ...

Album Review

Matt Mitchell: Forage

Read "Forage" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 16, 2017

Alto saxophonist Tim Berne could have been called, at the dawn of the new millennium, the American artist least likely to join the ECM Records roster. The thought here was that Berne's relentless momentum and frequent agitation and flat out wild man brazenness wouldn't fit in well enough with the European impressionism/Nordic cool approach (a definite simplification of the way ECM rolls) to attract the attention of ECM Record's head Manfred Eicher. Then Berne appeared on guitarist David Torn's Prezens ...