Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Matt Savage Trio: Chasing Your Tail

135

The Matt Savage Trio: Chasing Your Tail

By

View read count
The Matt Savage Trio: Chasing Your Tail
When I was ten years old I spent much of my time, when not in the classroom, playing football, kickball or baseball on the playground and dreaming (in vain) of professional stardom. Young W.A. Mozart spent much of his time composing and performing, and so, I assume, does wunderkind Matt Savage, who has no doubt set the standard for ten-year-old pianists for years to come. Chasing Your Tail is, believe it or not, the young prodigy's third album as leader of his own trio (the first was recorded when he was a mere lad of eight).

Even though he's barely into double figures age-wise, Savage is no novelty act. The kid has decent chops and can play. No, not yet as well as Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones or other established poll-winners (even though his mom and dad may think otherwise), but he's working on that and apparently having a ball doing it. It's a kick hearing Matt tell the audience at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, FL, in his high-pitched little-boy voice that they are & quot;about to witness the world premiere of four new songs" – all of which he composed. Actually, Savage wrote seven of the ten numbers on his latest album, including the title selection. One of them, the free-wheeling "All Jazzed Up," was the title of his second CD. The others are "The Music Box," "Firecracker," "Forty-Seven," "El Fuego" and "Shufflin" the Cards."

To show his versatility and familiarity with more established works, Matt performs Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge," Johnny Green's "Body and Soul" and closes with "My Favorite Things," which Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg would no doubt be surprised to learn they wrote (but not as surprised as Rodgers and Hammerstein!).

As usual, he is accompanied by his regular (and full-grown) rhythm section, bassist John Funkhouser and drummer Steve Silverstein, who are so accomplished they spend a good deal of their time teaching others but don't seem at all uncomfortable supporting a ten-year-old whiz kid. On the contrary, they seem to relish the assignment, having traveled around the country and overseas with Matt and performed on at least two of his albums (and probably all three, but I don't have the first one at hand to verify the personnel). Funkhouser is rock-steady, Silverstein sharp and nimble, especially with brushes, which he uses often.

One thing Savage does that other jazz musicians could learn from is talk to the audience, using his exuberant voice and personality to let them know something about each of his compositions. It's clear he enjoys doing that as well as entertaining them at the keyboard. An ideal pairing for Matt's next album, if it could be arranged, would be the Matt Savage Trio with special guest Francesco Cafiso, the thirteen-year-old Italian alto saxophonist who has been turning heads at festivals and concerts overseas. That would be something to hear, but until then Chasing Your Tail should make Savage's growing legion of fans quite happy and help strengthen his reputation as the world's leading soon-to-be-eleven-year-old jazz pianist.

Contact: Savage Records, P.O. Box 35, Francestown, NH 03043. Web site, www.savagerecords.com

Track Listing

All Jazzed Up; The Music Box; Firecracker; Chelsea Bridge; Chasing Your Tail; Forty-Seven; El Fuego; Body and Soul; Shufflin? the Cards; My Favorite Things (57:09).

Personnel

Matt Savage, piano; John Funkhouser, bass; Steve Silverstein, drums.

Album information

Title: Chasing Your Tail | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Savage Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.