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Matt
Small
Bassist / Composer
San Francisco bassist and composer Matt Small creates music that blurs the boundaries between divergent musical styles, producing a uniquely fresh sound. With a deep dedication to his craft and an unrelenting spirit of achievement, Small consistently conquers the challenges that his artistic will creates for him. It is this spirit of accomplishment that fuels his desire to explore a wide variety of genres while exercising "a strong aesthetic sensibility rather than glomming together a mix of musics" (Down Beat). Small has found inspiration from a vast array of music, including Western classical, jazz, American pop, and traditional music styles from around the world. Each genre has influenced his tastes and creative yearnings, and informs his compositions and playing. Musically, Small challenges the expectations of traditional and non-traditional musical worlds, while at the same time composing music that is interesting, viscerally attractive, and accessible.
Matt Small's Chamber Ensemble performs Saturday, February 18th at 8pm at Berkeley's Jazzschool.
(Left-right) Rachel Condry, Paula Dreyer, Steve Adams, Mitch Marcus, Kymry Esainko, Sarah Jo Zaharako, Matt Small
Photo: Stuart Brinin
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Small's current project, Matt Small's Chamber Ensemble, was born of the composer's desire to write complex material with a strong improvisatory concept. The quintet (bass, piano, sax, clarinet, violin) blends elements of a classical ensemble with those of a flexible jazz/improvisatory group. Paula Dreyer (piano), Kymry Esainko (piano), Mitch Marcus (sax), Steve Adams (sax), Rachel Condry (clarinet), and Sarah Jo Zaharako (violin) are some of the Bay Area's most talented players, assembled for this project. The Ensemble's repertoire is comprised of Small's recent compositions written for this instrumentation.
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Recent honors include a Subito Award, the quick advancement grant program of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum and the Northern California Composers Commissioning Program Award, also under the auspices of the ACF.
In June 2005, Small participated as a composer and instrumentalist in the Banff International Jazz and Creative Music Workshop. While there he had a chance to work closely with Dave Douglas, Greg Osby, Don Byron, Mark Dresser, Han Bennick, and many other fine musicians from around the world.
Small had his Carnegie Hall debut as a composer in April 2005, when Matt Small's Chamber Ensemble was chosen to participate in a workshop sponsored by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall and led by renown trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas. The week long workshop focused on developing the ensemble's repertoire, expanding the compositional scope of the music, and broadening the improvisational capabilities of the ensemble members. Along with Mr. Douglas, the workshop sessions were led by Greg Cohen (bass), Marilyn Crispell (piano), and Andrew Cyrille (drums). The workshop culminated with a public concert in Carnegie's Zankel Hall.
In September 2004, Small's multi-faceted musical personality was honored when he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a performer. Small was selected as a participant in a unique summer workshop co-sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, and Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. Sixteen musicians from the United States and abroad were selected through a competitive application process to join the Silk Road Ensemble at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. The workshop was led by Yo-Yo Ma and virtuoso musicians Alim Qasimov - the legendary Azerbaijani vocalist, Chinese wind instrument master Wu Tong, Indian tabla virtuoso Sandeep Das, and Iranian kamancheh master Kayhan Kalhor. Each helped guide the innovative workshop aimed at training a new generation of musicians in the performance practices of music from Silk Road regions. Participants spent 10 days at Tanglewood working on existing music as well as newly commissioned works by Silk Road composers, culminating in four evening concerts, multiple daytime demonstrations, and panel discussions at Carnegie Hall.
Small drew inspiration from his exposure to the music of the Silk Road, especially from traditional two and three-stringed instruments native to these regions, developing new bass techniques to mimic the sounds of the morin khuur, pipa, tanbur, komuz, and tabla. After sharing these concepts with the Ensemble, Small was invited by Mr. Ma to participate in a featured spot on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," was interviewed by the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) for a documentary on the Silk Road Project, and was selected to help lead an educational forum along with Mr. Ma and Mr. Das at Tanglewood. While in residence at Carnegie, Small performed in Journey to the South, a video navigation of an 18th-century Chinese scroll brought to life through narration and improvised musical accompaniment. Pipa (Chinese lute) virtuoso, Wu Man, also invited Small to share the Carnegie stage with her to perform a structured improvisational duet. This experience was an ideal opportunity for showcasing the bassist's breadth of musical knowledge and exploring his passion for non-Western music.
 From 1998 to 2002, Small wrote for, performed in, and produced his band, the Crushing Spiral Ensemble. The group's performances included appearances at the San Francisco Jazz Festival (2001), the Monterey Jazz Festival (2000), the San Jose Jazz Festival (2000), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000), and numerous appearances at Bay Area venues, such as Yoshi's, Bruno's, and others. Small and his music were also featured on National Public Radio's "West Coast Live" in 1999 and 2000, which included live performances and interviews on air. Small released two albums with this group which featured his compositions exclusively, Pictures of an Inhibition (1999), and The Count of San Francisco (2000).
"Beautifully surreal and hauntingly languid…demonstrating Small's affinity for wry humor and quiet grandiosity" said the San Francisco Bay Guardian of the first release. The San Francisco Weekly described the second album as "seductive and mysterious…shifting effortlessly among klezmer, pop, rock, and improv jazz…Small infuses his quirky compositions with both breadth and intimacy." Comprised of a rotating cast of Bay Area-based musicians, the Ensemble was primarily a vehicle for Small's writing and electric bass playing. Traditionally not the compositional centerpiece of an ensemble, Small's expansive concept on the instrument turns the electric bass into a logical focal point. His highly chordal and intricately rhythmic style features lyricism over technical grandiosity. "Small's magnificent and imaginative bass playing creates a kaleidoscope of impressive sounds…the music (the Crushing Spiral Ensemble) plays has an integrity and excitement about it that many of the veteran jazz giants seem to have lost over the years," hailed the San Francisco Examiner. His compositions featured with the Ensemble brought together written material and improvisation into a cohesive whole.
Since 2002, Small has focused on composing music for his Chamber Ensemble; vocal music to be used in a theatrical setting; orchestral works; and has expanded the capabilities of both his electric and upright basses. The chamber music project, discussed previously, features Small's unique style of highly percussive and lyrical upright bass playing, imbedded in intricate compositional structures that vacillate between written and improvisational material. The vocal music is offered in (somewhat) traditional song formats with off-beat, comic story lines. The orchestral works, Small's most expansive material to date, include optional improvisational sections for a handful of players with a full orchestra. This allows them to be performed as purely written works or as pieces which feature improvisers.
Matt Small's commitment to his own technical growth has recently led the bassist to alter the traditional formats of his instruments. Desiring more chordal possibilities for the electric bass, he designed an instrument with a local luthier which expands the range on the bass by adding two additional high strings, turning it into a six-stringed instrument. With his upright bass, Small also wanted to expand its higher register and so added a single higher string, turning his upright into a five-string bass. This has allowed him to access the range of a cello while maintaining all the qualities of a standard four-string bass.
Small's professional freelance work around the Bay Area included performances with the Berkeley, Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz, and California Symphonies, as well as the San Francisco Symphonietta. As a member of Nik Phelps' Sprocket Ensemble, which performs live original music for short films and animation, Small composed scores for the group and premiered them live at film screenings at the Castro Theatre, Roxie Theatre, and at the San Raphael Film Festival.
Before arriving on the West Coast in 1997, Small attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and College of Liberal Arts in Ohio. At Oberlin, he studied classical music as well as jazz with Richard Davis and Chuck Israels. To facilitate the creation of his own ensemble on the West Coast, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded Small the Charles Cinnamon Achievement in the Arts Award grant, which laid the foundation for the Crushing Spiral Ensemble.
Small's first experiences with music were typically hap-hazard and innocent. The night before his elementary school teacher called the kids down for instrument assignments, Small had seen a music video of the Police, with Sting playing an upright bass, and maybe something about that registered in him subconsciously. The next day, Small surveyed the instrument options and said he'd try "the big thing in the back." He remembers them testing him on whether or not he could tell if particular notes on the bass were either higher or lower in pitch. He probably couldn't tell and they rightly figured that he'd make a fine bass player.
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