Matt Greenwood: Daybreak

Writing about guitarist Matt Greenwood's debut album, Atlas (Self-Produced, 2023), one All About Jazz reviewer wrote, "Expect a great deal more from Matt Greenwood." The Zimbabwe-born artist begins the fulfillment of those expectations with his sophomore outing, Daybreak, moving forward on the sweeping luminosity and atmospheric world-building of his debut.

Ambient textures, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt, paint spacious backdrops for eight off Greenwood's engaging compositions, plus his take on Claude Debussy's "La Damoiselle Élue." As it was on Atlas, the guitarist certainly uses post-recording session studio embellishments to add depth and color to his sound, much in the manner of the work of Daniel Lanois. He makes his guitar sing in many voices as he crafts orchestral soundscapings. On an uninformed listen, it is possible to think he has slipped a horn into the mix of the set's opener, "Beneath Balancing Boulders."

The best albums contain a cohesive mood and atmosphere from first track to last. Though Greenwood's music includes influences from rock, ambient and modern jazz, his overall statement holds together thematically with mesmerizing intimacy, the way pianist Tord Gustavsen's always alluring piano trio albums play out.

If soundtracks are in Greenwood's future, his artistry seems tailor-made for a cruise-control drive in a well-maintained car through a flat desert under a wide, black, star-studded sky, the wash of the Milky Way spread out behind the bright pinpoint lights of a million suns, silent Joshua trees standing sentinel across the landscape to the distant horizons.