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MATT JENSON
Matt Jenson was born with music running through his veins. After years of study as a young child and
teenager, he completed his formal training when he received a Masters degree in Jazz Composition and performance from the
New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (1991). While there he studied with jazz greats Dave Holland, Ran Blake and
especially with pianist Geri Allen.
After graduation from the Conservatory his 'street' training began, first with a deep involvement with the blues. For
many years he concentrated on soul, blues and rock influenced piano and Hammond organ, working with such greats
as Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, legendary R&B singer Johnny Adams, Mighty Sam McClain, Cyril Lance,
Johnny Neel, and Julien Kasper. Matt is never far away from the blues.
Although blues and jazz were Matt's first musical loves, the call to Afro-Cuban styles has always occupied a strong current in
his musical demeanor. In answer to this, he began a courtship with Latin music in 1995 studying the
rhythmic basics of Salsa styles on a set of used timbales. Later Matt returned to the piano and joined the Worcester
(MA) based 17 piece Salsa/Plena Orquesta, Los Pleneros del Coco. In 1998, Matt assembled top notched Latino musicians
from Boston to form the popular Latin dance septet, Combo Sabroso(formerly known as Mambo Combo),
playing to packed houses in the Seacoast, NH area.
This group received two awards form the local newspapers' readers' poll in 1998 and 1999 and continues to perform in
the Boston and Seacoast NH areas.
A highlight of Matt's involvement in this style came when he was selected to partake in the week-long
Salsa Meets Jazz seminar at Goddard College (VT) with Eddie Palmieri and his Octet during the summer of
2001. Matt maintains a friendship with the Maestro and has performed with Conrad Herwig, trombonist with
the Eddie Palmieri group and Mr. Palmieri's timbale player, Jose Claussell.
Bob Marley was a simmering musical vibration in Matt's early years, but it wasn't until a trip to Belize
(during his graduate school tenure) that he became OBSESSED! For years Matt absorbed all that he
could about Marley's life and music because Marley crystallized so much of what Matt feels, not only as a musician,
but as a keen observer of socio-political events and a life-long drive to raise human consciousness so as to make
the world a beter place. He began writing his own reggae compositions, rehearsing his own bands, but, with such broad musical
interests and talents, and a disposition quite opposed to being defined in any narrow stylstic (cultural, religious, political)
category, to become a pure reggae musician was not in his destiny. Matt has always been one to blaze his own trail.
The Fall of 2001 Matt joined the faculty at Berklee College of Music in the piano department, teaching studio piano
and a Latin piano lab. Matt's calling to Marley presented him with an amazing opportunity to help further the legacy
of that musical visionary which resulted in his creating a performance studies class entitled, "The
Music and Life of Bob Marley" which has become a smash-hit at the college and at other locations in the US where
he teaches it. His involvement with the class has presented him with some rare opportunities such as partaking in two
performances with Judy Mowatt, the publishing of two articles on the class in "The Beat" Magazine and
a piece in Berklee Today (Berklee's Alumni Magazine).
Matt received of a grant from Berklee for an amazing research trip to Jamaica where he met and played with many who
knew and worked with Marley including Chinna Smith, Neville Garrick, David Madden, Skill Cole, Mortimer Planno,
Sharon Marley! Also, Matt was invited by Rita Marley to be a guest speaker at the Africa Unite 2006
(February) event
in Ghana, West Africa celebrating Bob Marley's 61st birthday. While there he gave a talk on Marley and education at
the symposium associated with the massive event and also auditioned young Ghanaian musicians to receive scholarships
to Berklee's 5-Week Summer program!
Now, at the mid-point of his musical development, Matt is taking the raw material of his study of so many musical
styles and life experiences and honing them into a sculpted form. His first attempt at this resulted in a recording of his
original material (1997) entitled "One Drops, Spirituals and Riddim," where he infuses the one drop reggae style with a
heartical jazz influence. On this recording
he introduces himself as a singer as well. The development of that project now stands with the Acid
Reggae Xperience band which has grown into a neo-dub group combining rock, blues and jazz influenced soloing/arranging
over reggae and
neo-soul grooves and incorporates plenty of experimentation with electronic textures.
Lastly, Matt has recently turned his attention to what is an obvious direction for him: he has embarked on the pursuit
of a project that merges Marley's music (and some of Matt's original compositions) with Afro-Cuban arranging, naming the
endeavor "Rebel Tumbao." (Rebel "GROOVE") With this project Matt is bringing forth his statement as
an artist to the larger public, a 'coming out' as it were. He has formed a close relationship with Jose Claussell
(timbalero for Eddie Palmieri) and the two of them are now working tirelessly to bring this inspired project to an
international audience!
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