Jazz Articles about Matt Ulery

About Matt Ulery

Album Review

Jeremy Cunningham: The Weather Up There

Read "The Weather Up There" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 22, 2020

The complex landscape of human emotions is still vastly uncharted, but every true work of art adds a little piece to the puzzle. This can be done in many ways, but it is rare that an album connects emotion with complex layers of memory, interpersonal relations, politics and societal structures. Nevertheless, this is what drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham's album does. In a statement, Cunningham explains the background: “I wrote The Weather Up There to confront the ...

Album Review

Matt Ulery: Delicate Charms

Read "Delicate Charms" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
December 27, 2019

Bassist Matt Ulery works in several groups with differing approaches to jazz and art music. Delicate Charms features a quintet which mixes the romantic lightness of European classical music, the slippery unpredictability of jazz and the thrusting rhythms of progressive rock through a singular combination of alto sax, violin and piano. The CD's opening track, “Coping" lays out the band's agenda. It starts with a slow, dignified theme played by saxophonist Greg Ward and violinist Zach Brock, over ...

Album Review

Matt Ulery: Delicate Charms

Read "Delicate Charms" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
December 11, 2019

Coming on the heels of 2019's outstanding trio outing Wonderment (Woolgathering Records) with violinist Zach Brock and drummer John Deitemyer, Delicate Charms is a four and a half star recording if ever one was. And it begins with a classical air, an almost chambered hush into which rush those last minute arrivals, each their own player in the “Coping" suite that emblematically ushers in bassist Matt Ulery's particularly distinctive work. Equal parts Charles Mingus ("Taciturn"), Paul Chambers, (his sense of ...

Album Review

Zach Brock / Matt Ulery / Jon Deitmeyer: Wonderment

Read "Wonderment" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 23, 2019

A bold, enticing recording, Wonderment vividly captures all the energy and creative frisson that seems to stream endlessly from three of modern music's leading creators, Grammy-winning violinist Zack Brock, in-demand bassist and Woolgathering Records founder Matt Ulery, and drummer Jon Deitmeyer. Having played together in Chicago's burgeoning jazz atmosphere since 2005, Wonderment is the trio's debut and one to remember beyond the inevitable best-of-2019 lists. Brock's dervish swooping swirls and lengthy high wails may be the lead instrument ...

Album Review

Matt Ulery's Loom/Large: Festival

by Vic Albani
December 19, 2016

Normalmente (e specialmente in Italia) quando un Ente culturale pubblico commissiona un lavoro ad un musicista il risultato è quasi sempre--per dirla con Totò -una vera ciofeca. A Chicago per fortuna, non è così e quindi Festival, nuovo lavoro del prolifico contrabbassista e tubista Matt Ulery già titolare di ben sei lavori discografici alle spalle, è davvero una festa per le orecchie. Il disco “promuove" se ce ne fosse stato bisogno il quintetto di Ulery (Loom) espanso in diversi brani ...

Album Review

Matt Ulery: In the Ivory

Read "In the Ivory" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
November 24, 2014

In the Ivory giunge a due anni di distanza dall'eccellente By a Little Light, album nel quale il contrabbassista di Chicago Matt Ulery riuniva alcuni membri del suo insieme cameristico Eight Blackbird e un piano trio di stampo jazzistico per un incisione affascinante e ricca di spunti significativi. Con qualche minima variazione viene riproposto lo stesso ensemble, con il leader impegnato nella messa a fuoco del suo mondo sonoro tutto particolare. Le due anime della formazione lungi dall'essere in competizione ...

Album Review

Matt Ulery: By a Little Light

Read "By a Little Light" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 25, 2012

Da qualche tempo a questa parte si va affermando una generazione di musicisti dalla prospettiva musicale decisamente indirizzata verso l'aspetto compositivo/organizzativo del fare musica. Che avvenga attraverso ensemble di stampo jazzistico (lo splendido Overseas IV di Eivind Opsvik ne è una recente testimonianza) o con formazioni dalle caratteristiche più vicine alla musica classica e contemporanea (è il caso di questo By a Little Light di Matt Ulery), poco importa. Il comune denominatore non è quello di fornire l'ennesima ricetta sulle ...