Hello there,

I have several exciting events to share with you, so I’ll jump right to it.

Next month I have two gigs in Brooklyn with my trio with Chris Tordini and Dan Weiss. One is at Korzo on April 9 at 9:30 pm – my brilliant friend Chris Speed will join us on tenor and clarinet for two songs that evening.  Then on April 13 at Shapeshifter the trio will play the 2nd set of a double bill with the amazing guitarist Miles Okazaki’s band. Miles’s band will play at 8 pm and we will play immediately afterwards, and Miles will join us for a couple songs.

Starting today on NPR’s JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater you can listen to a set by Chris Lightcap’s band Bigmouth in which I took part. This was from our tour last fall – in addition to Chris and myself, the band consists of Andrew Bishop and Tony Malaby on tenor and Ches Smith on drums. This tour was a blast and I’m thrilled with how this recording came out.

http://www.npr.org/event/music/174937757/chris-lightcaps-lost-and-found-new-york-on-jazzset?sc=tw&cc=share

Tomorrow evening, the 22nd, I’m taking part in a tribute to Paul Motian at Symphony Space in NYC. I’ll be playing ‘Psalm’ in duo with Tim Berne on the 2nd half of the concert. The list of musicians performing on the concert is amazing: Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Joey Baron, The Bad Plus, Masabumi Kikuchi, Geri Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Matt Wilson, Greg Osby….and many more…

http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/7591-a-tribute-to-paul-motian

The next night, I’ll be playing and improvising on the Bach chorale “Es ist genug” with Dave Douglas at an even at the Greene Space in SoHo called Bach Lounge, presented by WQXR.

http://www.thegreenespace.org/events/thegreenespace/2013/mar/23/wqxr-presents-bach-lounge/?utm_source=sharedUrl&utm_media=metatag&utm_campaign=sharedUrl

Speaking of Dave Douglas – from March 28 to 31 I’ll be playing with his Quintet at the Jazz Standard in NYC. This will coincide with  Dave’s 50th birthday celebration AND the release of a new CD by the group called Time Travel. The band on this album is the same as the previous album, sans vocals – Jon Irabagon, Linda Oh, and Rudy Royston. The album is out April 9 – but if you pre-order a hard copy at the link below you will receive the album immediately in digital form as well.

http://music.davedouglas.com/album/time-travel

Immediately following the Jazz Standard run I will head to the midwest to play with the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble. Details at this link:

http://johnhollenbeck.com/Live/

To round out April I’ll be playing 3 dates with my friend Anna Webber’s Percussive Mechanics septet in NYC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. This will be a fun band and the music is crazy – joining me and Anna will be Oscar Noriega, Patty Franceschy, Adam Hopkins, Kate Pittman, and Devin Gray. Dates here:

http://www.annakristinwebber.com/dates.html

Finally – to my surprise I was voted as the first runner-up in the Best New Artist category in the JazzTimes 2012 Expanded Critics Poll. The full poll is here:

http://jazztimes.com/articles/76240-the-2012-expanded-critics-poll

That should do it for this time around. Thanks so much for reading!

-m

Hello, everyone.

This will be the final update of 2012. Thanks to everyone for your constant encouragement and support.

I’d like to call your attention to my website, where I’ve put up some new music, including excerpts from two of my gigs from last month – my trio with Dan Weiss and Chris Tordini, and Normal Remarkable Persons, with Herb Robertson, Travis Laplante, Oscar Noriega, and Tyshawn Sorey. I also put up another live recording of my duo with Ches Smith.

I also have another couple whirlwind months of gigs to tell you about:

Nov 13 – Nov 15 I am on the road with the Dave Douglas Quintet plus Aoife O’Donovan as special guest. The band also will include Jon Irabagon, Linda Oh, and Clarence Penn. We will be playing music from the band’s recent album Be Still, which has received universal acclaim so far.

Nov 13 – Blues Alley  – Washington DC
Nov 14 – Unitarian Society of Northampton – Northampton, MA
Nov 15 – Regatta Bar – Boston, MA

Then the very next day I head to Portland, ME to meet up with Rez Abbasi’s Invocation for a couple gigs. The band on these gigs will also include Rudresh Mahanthappa, Johannes Weidenmuller, and Michael Sarin,

Nov 16 – Woodfords Church – Portland, ME
Nov 17 – Flynn Center for the Performing Arts – Burlington, VT

Then, to begin December, I hit more East Coast US spots, this time with the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble.

December 6 – ATLAS Performing Arts Center – Washington, DC
December 7 – Painted Bride Art Center – Philadelphia, PA [hometown gig!]
December 8 – Duke University – Durham, NC
December 10 – Roulette – Brooklyn, NY

Then I turn around and almost immediately head back out with Dave Douglas again, this time to the Green Mill in Chicago

December 14 and 15 – Green Mill – Chicago, IL

After that, back to NYC. On the 17th and 18th, I will be recording a new album with Ches Smith. We will be recording 15 of my etudes, and I’m very excited to be recording at Josh Roseman’s beautiful studio in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn at 58 N 6th St. I will mention more about this in January.

Finally, to round out the year, I play on the 19th with Michael Attias’s Spun Tree at the Cornelia St. Cafe, and then on the 20th with the Darius Jones Quartet at Greenwich House. Playing also with Spun Tree will be Ralph Alessi, Sean Conly, and Tom Rainey, and Darius’s band will also include Trevor Dunn and Ches Smith. I was fortunate this year to play on records featuring both of these bands.

December 19 – Michael Attias’s Spun Tree – Cornelia St Cafe – NYC, NY
December 20 – Darius Jones Quartet – Greenwich House – NYC, NY

and that’s it! Thanks as always for reading.

Happy Holidays!

-m

Hello everyone,

Matt Mitchell here again. I’m playing many gigs this month, all slightly different from each other, and I want to tell you all about them. Here they are:

As a leader:

Oct 2 10 pm at the Stone

Normal Remarkable Persons: Oscar Noriega, Herb Robertson, Travis Laplante, Tyshawn Sorey

This band does not play incredibly often so I highly recommend trying to make it! We play one song, and we play it long.

Oct 9 10:30 pm at Korzo

Matt Mitchell Trio: Chris Tordini, Dan Weiss

This will be our 2nd gig. The first one a couple months ago was a success – it got reviewed in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/arts/music/matt-mitchell-with-trio-at-greenwich-house.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1348862961-0CxQUDs9elAfSuj+7jqYAw

as a sideman:

Oct 6 8 pm at Greenwich House

Michael Attias’ Spun Tree: MA, Ralph Alessi, Sean Conly, Tom Rainey

This will be a CD release for this band – the disc will be available at the show. We had a great time recording it.

Oct 16 8:30 pm at Cornelia St Cafe

Amir Elsaffar Resonance Quintet: AE, Ole Mathiesen, Francois Moutin, Dan Weiss

Amir is a phenomenal trumpet player and I’m psyched to play his music with him for the first time.

Oct 18 8:30 pm at Cornelia St Cafe
Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth Deluxe: CL, Tony Malaby, Chris Cheek, Ches Smith

My first time playing in my friend Chris’s band – we’ll be touring the West Coast at the end of the month – the dates are below.

Oct 19 8 pm at University of Alabama
Donny McCaslin group: DM, Tim Lefebvre, Nate Wood

This will be my first time playing with Donny and I’m really looking forward to it!

Oct 27 7:15 Jazz Foundation of America’s 21st Annual Jazz Loft Party

Darius Jones Book of Mae’bul Quartet with Conly, & Ches Smith @ 7pm

This is open to the public but is sort of a high-priced event. It goes to a good cause, though, that of providing services for jazz musicians in need.

http://jazzfoundation.org/loft2012

Oct 28-Nov 2 West Coast Tour

Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth Deluxe: CL, Tony Malaby, Andrew Bishop, Ches Smith

Oct 28 The Earshot Jazz Festival, Asian Art Museum Seattle, WA.

Oct 30 The Redwood Jazz Alliance, Fulkerson Recital Hall, HSU, Arcata, CA.

Nov 1 at Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, CA.

I’m also pleased to tell you that the new Dave Douglas CD on which I play, Be Still, has just been released to a so-far-extremely-positive response. I’m very pleased to be a part of it, along with Jon Irabagon, Linda Oh, Rudy Royston, and Aoife O’Donovan. It is available at iTunes and Amazon, and also at Greenleaf Records, Dave’s label – you can listen to a few of the tracks in their entirety there as well.

http://www.greenleafmusic.com/

Only one more update for the year after this one. I hope everyone is doing well.

best,

-m