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Jazz Articles about Matt Smiley
Wil Swindler: Space Bugs
by Jack Bowers
Space Bugs is essentially multi-layered yet readily accessible chamber jazz admirably performed by saxophonist/composer Wil Swindler's Colorado-based Eleventet—a finely woven banquet for the ears that was handsomely recorded in May 2022 before an appreciative audience at Denver's Mighty Fine Productions. Gil Evans springs to mind when listening, as do Pete Rugolo and late- career Bob Brookmeyer. As a composer, Swindler writes that he has “always been between worlds," loving “the pristine intervals and warm timbres of orchestral ...
read moreSN Trio: Free Wyoming
by Mike Jurkovic
There is a lot of movie going on: The night boatman at the moors, fifty foot ants, a crisis in chaos, gulls, babies, dark climes, eccentric mimes . . . Whatever you can fancy while listening to the unruly codes of saxophonist Sam Newsome and his equally idiosyncratic, first-time rhythm section of bassist Matt Smiley and drummer/percussionist Ron Coulter is happening, whether you can follow it or not, within the challenging realm of Free Wyoming. Recorded live in ...
read moreMatt Smiley: Quartet Art
by Florence Wetzel
Colorado-based bassist Matt Smiley is an excellent example of the virtues of musical versatility. His résumé includes performing internationally at the Montreux, North Sea, and Montreal Jazz festivals; premiering John Hilliard's 2nd Piano Concerto at the Kennedy Center; presenting his own arrangements of bassist Dave Holland's seminal “Conference of the Birds"; playing with a funk band; experimenting with electronics; and providing music for silent films. Clearly Smiley is a musician with wide-open ears, and his expressive, inventive bass work is ...
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