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20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Matt Jorgensen
by Paul Rauch
The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America on Jackson St in the 1920's and 1930's. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the south. It has produced such historical jazz icons as Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson. In many instances it has acted as a temporary repose ...
read moreChamber 3: Transatlantic
by Paul Rauch
Chamber 3 began as a trio effort started by German guitarist Christian Eckert, and Seattle based drummer Matt Jorgensen, who forged a friendship while studying at the New School in New York in the early nineties. Over the years, they engaged in many projects and tours together, culminating in this project that includes German tenor saxophonist Steffen Weber. The band added a fourth member in the person of Seattle bassist Phil Sparks for their last release, Grassroots (OA2, 2017), and ...
read moreChamber 3: Transatlantic
by Dan McClenaghan
Seattle-based drummer Matt Jorgensen tattoos every recording he releases with a mark of bold, clean modernity--whether working with his group Matt Jorgensen + 451 on Hope (Origin Records, 2004) and Another Morning (Origin Records, 2008), or Tattooed By Passion (Origin Records, 2010). Add in scores of sideman slots. His is a distinctive sound, compositionally and instrumentally, on his own or backing his labelmates. Transatlantic is the second outing by the Jorgensen vehicle, Chamber 3, a follow up to ...
read moreChamber 3: Grassroots
by Dan McClenaghan
Do different geographies create different sounds? New York-hard and brassy, in your face and boppish; the Nordic countries--cool and reflective, spacious and dreamy; the American Midwest, Chicago and Detroit--soulful and hip with a hard urban edge. This is, of course, a simplification, with exceptions flying all over the place, but distinct similarities in sounds can be found in various locales, owed probably more to a certain level of local and/or stablemate nepotism than the local culture or particular cityscapes or ...
read moreMatt Jorgensen: Painting With Sound
by Joshua Weiner
Matt Jorgensen is a very busy man. A drummer and composer, he plays and records with a wide variety of musicians, including his own long-running quartet 451 and popular trumpeter and label-mate Thomas Marriott. Jorgensen also co-manages the Origin Records label, a thriving concern that has released over 300 discs since 1997, and that now encompasses two associated labels, OA2 and Origin Classical. He is also a family man, and it's a family connection that provided the ...
read moreMatt Jorgensen: Tattooed by Passion: Music Inspired by the Paintings of Dale Chisman
by Dan McClenaghan
Drummer Matt Jorgensen pushes a bit out of the relative comfort zone of his longstanding Matt Jorgensen + 451 ensemble, to pay homage to his late father-in-law, abstract expressionist painter Dale Chisman, with Tattooed by Passion. With his + 451 group, Jorgensen crafted a distinctive modern-leaning sound on CDs Hope (Origin Records, 2004) and Another Morning (Origin Records, 2008). He carries that tradition forward on Tattooed by Passion. Tight grooves are a part of Jorgensen's approach, which isn't ...
read moreMatt Jorgensen + 451: Another Morning
by Dan McClenaghan
Matt Jorgensen + 451 has created a distinctive music, a free flying jazz sound with a 1960s rock sensibility, bursting with enormous chops. It's a mix of Ryan Burns' often out there, Jimi Hendix-ian keyboard work (wailing on Fender Rhodes, organ and Moog ), Mark Tayor's bite-of-lime saxophone tang, Jorgensen's multi-layered percussion complexities and Phil Sparks' deep in the pocket bass work. Mix it up and it's unmistakable on the blindfold test.The group is a rhythm section and ...
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