Many musicians before have taken classical music and jazzed it up. I wanted to go the other way; by taking my music and expressing some of it with a classical sound, yet while still weaving the jazz through.From an afternoon with the mountains
The Matt Baker trio have just recorded their 3rd album, with two new young up and coming giants, Alex Boneham and Ko Omura. Sydney percussionist Akyho Akhrif joins the trio for the project too. On the album, the group explores a completely new original sound with Cuban, Brazilian, Classical and Jazz influences .
... "A lot of inspiration for this album has come from my travels to Switzerland, to the Montreux Jazz Festival. One major part of the album is "The Mountain Suite", a three-piece suite for two of the mountains that surround Montreux (Le Gramont, and Les Dents Du Midi) and the Lake (Lake Geneva).
This album also marks my first collaboration with a Chamber Orchestra. I have wanted to play with a real classical orchestra for a long time now, and the fantastic musicians in the orchestra made it all a magical experience.Lake (from The Mountain Suite) was actually composed in one take, in the Montreux Conservatory, Switzerland, as a solo piano work. Luckily I had the recorder on. After listening back, I decided this had to be written for orchestra, and so transcribed the piece from the recording and arranged it, changing nothing exactly as it was played (or composed) at the time and there was born The Mountain Suite... "
"Many things in life inspire different emotions within us; love, sadness, happiness, admiration, sorrow, and more. Music to me now is an expression of emotion; a portrait , in the form of melody, harmony and rhythm. Every song on this album is a musical portrait of different parts of my life; of people, places or events that have inspired me in some way. I want to share these emotions through the music on this album" MB
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Matt Baker has been performing nationally and internationally for the last several years. He
has performed at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with his trio in 2003 and
2004 as well as solo in 2005, and was a semi-finalist in the Montreux International Solo Jazz
Piano Competition three years in a row.In December 2002, Matt returned home from his third trip to New York. He spent a week with
Jazz piano legend Oscar Peterson, watching him play every night at the Blue Note, and spent
many hours with him between performances talking music, piano, careers and just becoming
good friends.Matt, a student of New York pianists Benny Green and James Williams, revisited these
wonderful players for some more lessons, and in previous trips has also studied casually with
Mulgrew Miller, Jacky Terrasson, Stephen Scott, Laurence Hobgood, Ralph Sutton, and Ella
Fitzgerald's life-long accompanist Paul Smith.In Montreux 2004, Matt spent some personal time with jazz legend Herbie Hancock and Cuban
pianist Michel Camilo, studying their music, concepts and approaches to modern jazz.Back home Matt has toured Australia extensively with trumpet virtuoso James Morrison. He
has played for Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick Jnr., and has also been the support act for
Jazz legends Tony Bennett and Al Jarreau. Since December 2000, Matt is now the resident
pianist with Australia's most well-known Jazz band, Galapagos Duck. He also already has 2
other albums as a leader: I Got It Bad (released 2000) and Talkin Soul Food (released 2003).
for album sales directly, click
http://thecan.com.au/mattbaker/
to view other Matt Baker albums within the official website click on http://www.mattbaker.com.au/albums.htm
"the tracks to listen to in myspace will be periodically rotated... tune in again soon
to hear some more music from the new album !"
