News and Updates

John Coltrane Birthday Celebration: Sept 21

POSTED ON September 16, 2024

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




Updated Public Media Reel

POSTED ON August 24, 2024

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.




Lots of Summer music and fun

POSTED ON August 22, 2024

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!




How I Learned To Drive at Lee Street Theater

POSTED ON June 02, 2024

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 …

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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.




Matt Jorgensen Five at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship: May 3-4

POSTED ON April 26, 2024

Excited to leading my quintet at the Seattle Jazz Fellowship in Seattle the weekend of May 3-4. Check out the show!




Writing music for The Beatles, well, sort of …

POSTED ON February 28, 2024

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.




Playing with Peter Bernstein Quartet

POSTED ON February 27, 2024

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.




Matt at Smalls NYC – December 27

POSTED ON January 05, 2024

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




Live at The Seattle Jazz Fellowship

POSTED ON October 27, 2023

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:

Matt Jorgensen · Matt Jorgensen live at Seattle Jazz Fellowshop

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)





Jazz Alley with Stanley Jordan

POSTED ON August 30, 2023

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!




Playing the drums in Mototrek

POSTED ON June 26, 2023

After composing music for 100+ episodes of MOTOTREK … I finally get to appear in an episode!




In Bellingham with Jim Rotondi and Dick Oatts

POSTED ON February 15, 2023

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




And then this happened …

POSTED ON August 10, 2022

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:




New MOTOTREK episodes

POSTED ON August 10, 2022

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.




New Jared Hall album out!

POSTED ON August 17, 2021

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!




More music for KCTS9 / PBS

POSTED ON June 01, 2021

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.




Tattooed by Passion available on BandCamp

POSTED ON May 31, 2021

Continuing to add my discography to my BandLab page … check out the digital release of Tattooed by Passion complete with PDF booklet!




NY3 album published to Bandcamp

POSTED ON March 24, 2021

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.




Tribute to Chick Corea

POSTED ON February 21, 2021

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.

 




New Music Review on KNKX 88.5fm

POSTED ON January 05, 2021

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.




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