Matt Merewitz

Since: 2003 | Location: New York City | Page Views: 23,029

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About Me

Matt Merewitz is a music publicist with specialties in new media and traditional print/radio/television. He is a former freelance music journalist and radio broadcaster.

Originally from the Washington, DC Metro area, Matt Merewitz been involved in jazz in some form since the tender age of 14. The jazz spark for me came in middle school when he began taking saxophone lessons with Jim Carroll, an alumnus of the Woody Herman Orchestra and at the time, member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. A concert by that ensemble playing the music of Miles Davis and Gil Evans (conducted by NEA Jazz Master and noted jazz educator David Baker), inspired him to stick with jazz through middle school, high school, and college. At a certain point in college, faced with the prospect of years of practice to maybe attain a level of proficiency like that of his idols, Merewitz decided his time was better spent promoting jazz as a writer, radio broadcaster and promoter. While pursuing a minor in jazz performance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Merewitz became much more involved in behind-the-scenes aspects of the music industry (writing, joining the college radio station, WRCT and eventually booking concerts on campus in a venue called The Underground). He spent close to two full years at WRCT-FM and served as jazz director, general music director and publicity director). Matt's passion for music has landed him jobs at the Smithsonian Institution, XM Satellite Radio, WDUQ-FM in Pittsburgh, WRTI-FM in Philadelphia and the notable jazz publicity boutique, DL Media. While at DL Media, under the tutelage and mentorship of veteran jazz publicist and industry insider Don Lucoff, Matt directed publicity campaigns for artists including saxophonists Frank Foster, Bennie Maupin and Miguel Zenon; guitarists Nels Cline, Nguyen Le and Kurt Rosenwinkel; pianists Paul Bley, Alan Pasqua and Aaron Parks; drummers Kendrick Scott and Jeff “Tain” Watts; bassists Todd Sickafoose and percussionists Adam Rudolph and Steven Kroon, among many others. While at DL, Matt also oversaw publicity campaigns for DL Media clients such as Concord Records, Monterey Jazz Festival Records, Justin Time Records, Cryptogramophone Records, Marsalis Music and Blue Note Records, among others. In the Fall of 2007, concurrent to working with DL Media, with Lucoff's blessing, Matt started his own business doing publicity for New York-based label Pi Recordings. His first clients for Pi included AACM founding member and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir Elsaffar, saxophonists Steve Lehman and Rudresh Mahanthappa and guitarist Marc Ribot. Initially naming the company JazzClinic Media (after his college radio show, “The Jazz Clinic”), in Summer 2008, he renamed the firm, Fully Altered Media and began taking on a number of new clients including the Chicago-based drummer and festival producer Mike Reed, Philadelphia arts presenter Ars Nova Workshop, multi-reedist Jessica Lurie and others. If you are a musician with compelling music and a good story, he'd like to hear from you.