Customer Reviews

Hot Ticket: Live in Boston

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This may be the turning point for young Matt Savage....until now his creativity and passion for jazz has been abundantly clear but now he is developing the tools and vocabulary to really put some clothes on the ideas and give them a full hearing. Structurally, harmonically and expressively this young man is coming into his own. Check out this live tour de force. You'll be glad you did.

It's amazing that this young musician is only a teenager! His music, in many ways, reminds me of many "classical" works. After all, many early classical works called for improvisation. One of his pieces, "Setting Sun," could have been written by Debussy.

I must admit that I am skeptical when it comes to LIVE recordings ... until NOW. I have all of the Matt Savage CDs and let me add that I have heard some of the finest recordings in the World, including Direct-to-Disc, and Original Master Recordings. I was stunned how WELL this CD was engineered and recorded. Yes, this CD was well-engineered and 15-year old Matt Savage, himself, was directly responsible for a LOT of the ways this CD came off. Many of the ideas, musically and technically, were from the mind of Matt.

What I am saying is that this may be TRULY ground-breaking work in the field of recording. This may be the first time that a person of Matt's youthful age has been responsible for the lion's share of the musical and technical ideas which were implemented in the recording of this 2007 CD, at Tufts University, Boston MA.

But now, my remarks concerning some selected songs on this CD:

1. Muy caliente -- a rousing start to a live CD, which is what it should be. Matt and I both agree that music ought to be both FUN and exhilerating!

2. Setting Sun -- a most warm and peaceful piece written by Matt. indeed, Matt write between 90% and 95% of all the songs on the Matt Savage Trio CDs.

5. Black Key Magic -- Here, Matt demonstrates his love for technical innovation. In this case, it is back-and-forth modulations between the white keys and the black keys. Matt is known for being innovative and simultaneously FUN in the process ... but isn't that what music OUGHT to be?

6. A 6/4 Song -- Once again, Matt loves to try NEW or DIFFERENT things. In this romping piece, Matt revels in the 6/4 time signature, which is 6 beats per measure, but when conducted can be done like 2/4, since 6/4 is a "complex" time of 2/4 or duple. It is really exciting and the syncopation Matt employs is REALLY musically satisfying. His side men did a splendid job in coordinating with their Band Leader.

7. Curacao -- In short, Matt created a splendid Opening to this song, and improved it from its original setting by 110%. Really--could not have been done better.

8. Seven Steps to Heaven -- Miles Davis wrote this jewel-of-a-score, and Matt does a arrangement of it ... and dare I say neigh out-performs Davis in this near-PRESTO tempo version. If this had been a direct-to-disc recording, I would have been afraid that the sheer POWER of this arrangement would have melted the Master lacquer off of the cutting lathe. WOW!!!

9. Free and Easy -- Matt appropriately (THANK YOU MATT!!) gave us a taste of his SOLO work at his wonderful Vienna-made concert piano. Here, Matt lets his listeners hear the REAL breadth and depth of the hand-made concert piano he recorded on, as well as the breadth and depth of his BALLAD capabilities. Sonorous, rich, and a delightful swan-song to this fabulous CD!

A last note about TECHNICAL things : Matt and the engineers worked HARD to make sure that this CD was VERY balanced and that the drums and bass did not overtake the piano, and vice-versa. LIVE recordings can be difficult to SELL due to the "looseness" of recording variables: ambient sounds from the audience, overall balance and acoustics in general. But not in this case. This recording was a tribute to REAL musical engineering, and Matt was an integral part of that process. Microphone placement and fine recording details were not beyond Matt's interest and concern, and that interest shows up in an absolutely superlative recording for all time ... an historical event in the field of jazz and in the field of recorded music, period.

HOT TICKET is an indisputable, resounding triumph in LIVE recordings. The Matt Savage Trio is one HOT TICKET!

I've been a big fan of Matt / MST since I stumbled onto the WIRED article about Genius several years back...

This CD proves that Matt/MST continue to get better and better with each release.

The recording is technically so clean that were it not for the crowd noise it would be hard to tell that this is a live release.

The variety of material is comprised of old, new and standards with enough banter to convey the wonderful humanity of this musical treasure... he's our Mozart crossed with Thelonius Monk.

An excellent start for your Matt/MST collection as well as a delicious addition for those of us who wait anxiously for the next/more material from the piano.

BONUS : go to savagerecordsDOTcom and get the disc there + there are T-shirts available for this release.