Jazz Articles about Matt Piet

About Matt Piet

Album Review

In the notes that accompany this remarkable new album from Chicago improv pianist Matt Piet, he writes that he ..."needed to learn how to give again." With remarkable frankness, Piet describes a kind of breakdown in 2018. After years of mental health challenges and substance abuse (his words), it was the passing of another great avant-gardist that tipped the balance. “The death of Cecil Taylor impacted me in ways I had not anticipated," writes Piet. “I was proud ...

Album Review

Matt Piet: (pentimento)

Read "(pentimento)" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 21, 2021

It goes without saying that 2020, year one of the global pandemic, was oppressive and overwhelming at times. Nearly everyone in their individual isolation came to recognize what has been lost and, hopefully, identify the resilience of the human spirit. One could argue the hardest hit were musicians, where touring and performing for an audience, and even recording opportunities were unavailable. But there is always hope, and that resilience cannot be suppressed. Exhibit #1 is (pentimento) by Chicago improvising artist ...

Album Review

Matt Piet & His Disorganization: Rummage Out

Read "Rummage Out" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 10, 2018

Perhaps it was pianist Matt Piet's appearances with esteemed reedman Dave Rempis on the co-operative Hit The Ground Running (Aerophonic, 2016) which first started to garner him attention, but he is certainly beginning to gain a reputation in his own right, a trend which can only be furthered by the release of Rummage Out. Piet set aside his classical studies to focus on jazz during his stint at Berklee College of Music and, since his return to his native Chicago ...

Album Review

Matt Piet & His Disorganization: Rummage Out

Read "Rummage Out" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 17, 2018

Appena ventottenne ma già con un numero considerevole di incisioni a suo nome (o cofirmate), il pianista chicagoano Matt Piet dirige in questo bell'album un quartetto bassless che si sbizzarrisce in due soli ampi brani totalmente improvvisati (live al Constellation il 26 maggio 2017). L'avvio è magro e cameristico, col clima che si fa però via via sempre più esplicito e aperto man mano che passano i minuti, facendo fra l'altro leva su interventi solistici assai ispirati. ...

Album Review

Dave Rempis / Matt Piet / Tim Daisy: Throw Tomatoes

Read "Throw Tomatoes" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 26, 2018

There is something about the trio recording Throw Tomatoes that brings to mind the distinction between yin and yang. Not that there is a clear difference between the two, as in yang yoga and yin yoga, where the same movement can be either (to a degree) and both. In music, a classically trained musician would be considered more yang than yin and an improvisational one, such as Ornette Coleman with his violin performances, more yin. With musicians such ...

Album Review

Matt Piet: Of Sound Mind

Read "Of Sound Mind" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
September 30, 2016

Pianist Matt Piet is most definitely a thinking man's player, roughly on a par with Ron Stabinsky (see Free For One), but with less notoriety (at least for now). Appearing as a member of the cooperative group Four Letter Words on Blow, he seemed to drive the music with a strong, clear musical personality. Of Sound Mind is his recording debut as a leader, and is intended as a major statement of intent. The instrumentation is that of ...