Hello friends …after the New Music Review on Saturday I’ll be heading to Ballard for the revival of the John Coltrane Birthday Celebration at Egan’s Ballard Jam House.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 / 7:00PM
EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE
1707 NW Market Street
Seattle, WA 98107
Reservations: 206-789-1621 | Sets at 7:00 & 9:00pm.
Featuring:
Jay Thomas – saxophone
Roman Goran – piano
Paul Gabrielson – bass
Matt Jorgensen – drums
Recently updated my composing reel of public media projects. I’m really fortunate to work with a great group of creatives at both Cascade Public Media as well as KNKX 88.5fm. Take a look at some of my recent work!
To view/listen to a bit more … click here.
Some updates for Summer 2024.
My oldest daughter graduated from High School this year so we rounded up the family and took a three week trip to Europe. Starting in Paris, we got there right as the Olympic prep was in full-swing. Sidenote: really fun to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremony and know where everything was taking place. We then visited the Normandy beaches for 2 days before coming back to Paris for night and then visiting Switzerland and Italy.
When I got back to Seattle I had a full week of shows starting with two nights at Jazz Alley with legendary guitarist Stanley Jordan and then with pianist George Colligan at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship.
On the composing side … I just finished up the score for the short film Tadpole: an Origin Story which will debut at the Seattle Film Summit on September 7th. I’ve contributed music for a few episodes of the new season of Mossback as well as few Cascade PBS promos.
Lots of fun stuff coming up … of note, the return of the John Coltrane Birthday Celebration on Saturday, September 21st at Egan’s Ballard Jam House!
In 2018 I wrote original music and created sound design for Strawberry Theater Workshop’s production of Paula Vogel’s powerful play How I Learned To Drive.
This past month I was contacted by Lee Street Theater in North Carolina about licensing some of my music and sound design for use in their production (which runs June 13-15 … support live theater!).
Here is a bit about what I wrote about the project at the time …
##
One of the few comedic reliefs was the juxtaposition of subject matter with the theme of a 1950s-1960s PSA Instructional Video and the Drivers Manual. So I created a theme called “Safety First: You and Driver Education” which was used at a couple spots during the play.
Excited to leading my quintet at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship in Seattle the weekend of May 3-4. Check out the show!
On Friday November 10th, I was walking around Seward Park with the family when I got a text from KCTS9 asking if I could crank out some music quickly for a commercial … a promo for The Beatles mini-doc about the making of Now & Then which was airing the following Friday night. A couple hours later, with the added guitar from Dave Dysart, I had a tiny tiny tiny bit of something attached to the band that started me on my musical journey.
Had a fun two night performing with guitarist Peter Bernstein at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship in February. Peter was passing through Seattle on his way up to Vancouver BC so we put together a quartet with Tony Foster on piano and Michael Glynn on bass.
While in New York City over the holiday I had an opportunity to lead a band at Smalls Jazz Club. Check out the archive of the show from the Smalls YouTube page!
Set 1 starts at 22:09 | Set 2 starts at 1:54:00
featuring:
Wayne Escoffery – tenor saxophone
Jon Davis – piano
Marty Jaffe – bass
Matt Jorgensen – drums
The Matt Jorgensen FIVE made their debut at The Seattle Jazz Fellowship on Wednesday, October 25th. You can listen to a recording of the night here:
Set One:
The Sparks (Jorgensen)
Ridgecrest (Jorgensen)
Conference of the Birds (Dave Holland)
Mood Indigo (Ellington)
Chippi (Ornette Coleman)
Set Two:
Thelonious (Monk)
Quiet Silence (Jorgensen)
When Will The Blues Leave (O. Coleman)
Frida’s House (Jorgensen)
The Garden (Brad Mehldau)
A clip from Stanley Jordan at Jazz Alley. It was fun to play this music for a couple nights. Big appreciation to Dean Schmidt for holding it down on bass and thanks to Jeff Kashiwa for the video!
After composing music for 100+ episodes of MOTOTREK … I finally get to appear in an episode!
During Fall 2022 I did a few gigs with trumpeter Jim Rotondi and saxophonist Dick Oatts. During our stop in Bellingham this performance was captured
I’m fortunate to collaborate with an amazing team of creatives at KCTS9. I was part of the team that was awarded the 2021 Northwest Regional Emmy Award for Program Promotion – Campaign.
I composed music for two different shorts in support of the Ken Burns documentary Muhammad Ali. You can view them on the KCTS9 website:
A few new episodes of MOTOTREK have been released this month. It has been such a fun journey to work with this show … as of August 2022 I’ve written music for 98 episodes and it is approaching 24 million views. Thank you to Tim Tyler and Inventive Pictures for bringing me along on the journey.
Scene on the Scene, the new album from Jared Hall is out now on Origin Records! Take a listen below and support the album through BandCamp:
I’ll be joining Jared Hall on Friday, September 24, at SOMA Towers in Bellevue for the CD Release show!
Just wrapped a project composing music for the 2021 Crosscut Festival which was streamed online and later broadcast on KCTS9 in Seattle.
Here is a snippet from the May 13, 2021 broadcast where four of my music cues aired back-to-back … including a spot for support of Public Broadcasting which I brought together many of the KCTS9 themes I have been working with over the past couple years.
Continuing to add my discography to my BandLab page … check out the digital release of Tattooed by Passion complete with PDF booklet!
I’ve been going back and publishing my old catalog of music to my Bandcamp page. This one went live today … a classic organ trio session with Christian Eckert and Gary Versace.
Some people have asked me to listen to the New Music Review tribute to jazz piano legend Chick Corea. Below you’ll find the MP3 of the episode.
Excited to continue my adventure into radio. Starting Saturday, January 9th, I’ll be hosting a weekly radio show on KNKX 88.5fm called New Music Review. Each week I’ll be showcasing new releases in the world of jazz. You can listen in the Greater Seattle Area on 88.5fm or tune in online at http://knkx.org.
From the KNKX press release:
Following Grooveyard we’ll present New Music Review with Matt Jorgensen, from 4 to 5. Matt is active in all aspects of the Seattle jazz scene; he recorded four records with his group Matt Jorgensen +451 for Origin Records, he founded and is co-Artistic Director of the Ballard Jazz Festival, and produces jazz concerts in association with Bumbershoot and others. KNKX listeners will know Matt’s voice as the host of the Origin Records Holiday Specials. New Music Review will highlight selections from new album releases from a variety of styles.
MY SOCIAL NETWORKS