Sunday was the last date of the short Matt Anderson Quintet ‘Songs of the Ridings’ tour, playing music commissioned by Creative North Yorkshire and Scarborough Jazz Festival celebrating the cultural heritage of North Yorkshire.

It was a real privilege to be able to play my own music at such great venues and with such amazing musicians, whose creativity meant that each performance was totally different and therefore felt fresh, risky and exciting. So, big thanks to Jamil, Kari, John, Aubin and Sam for their contribution, as well as promoters Mike Gordon (Scarborough Jazz Festival), Steve Shaw (Pave), Claire Turner (Matt n’ Phreds) and Steve Crocker (Seven Jazz).

Also, I’m very grateful to Hazel Cameron and Chrysalis Arts for the funding that made the project possible, as well as to Nigel Slee (Jazz Yorkshire), Kathy Dyson, Oli Bentley (Split Design), Dave Chapman and Leeds City Library.

Photos and video footage from our performance at Scarborough Jazz Festival should be available shortly.

Next up, the Matt Anderson Quartet will be playing at The Bridge, Newcastle (30th Oct); Cafe Lento, Headingley (25th Nov) and The Spin Off, Leeds (19th Jan).

This weekend saw the exciting first performance of the new ‘Songs of the Ridings’ commission tour at the Scarborough Jazz Festival.

Lance Liddle of the bebop spoken here blog had this to say about the gig:

Commissioned by Creative North Yorkshire and Scarborough Jazz Festival this was a bold and ambitious work composed and arranged by leader Anderson. Is compositional ideas are good and his tenor sound warm although on Cold Spell it was appropriately – cool! Kari Bleivik’s vocal lines added a Winstonian feel to the ensembles.

On bass John Marley delivered a strong harmonic foundation propelled along by Gardner’s drums whilst, on piano, Sheriff, proved, as he has done at previous Scarborough Festival, what an inventive player he is.

A fine set and yet…

…on a descriptive suite such as this I felt that the leader should have spoken more about the background or, if time was prohibitive, to have provided programme notes such as Tommy Evans did in the evening.

That aside, it was musically sound.

(Lance Liddle, bebop spoken here: Scarborough Jazz Festival – Sunday Afternoon, 26/09/11)

To see the full article, follow this link: http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/scarborough-jazz-festival-sunday.html

We’re looking forward to the next three gigs of the tour – next up is Pave Bar in Hull, this Sunday the 2nd Oct. Also in the pipeline is Matt n’ Phreds, Manchester (11th Oct) and 7arts Centre, Leeds (16th Oct).

The Matt Anderson Quartet sampler CD was reviewed by Ron Burnett for the York Press in this week’s ‘Jazz Notes.’ This is what he said:

Saxophonist Matt Anderson has a new quartet album of his own with John Marley, Aubin Vanns (guitar) and Sam Gardner (drums), who are all on Kate’s CD.

Aubin’s mellow, Metheny-esque electric guitar in place of piano creates a cool, spacy dynamic, occasionally booted up a notch by Gardner’s drums in a compelling programme of original compositions. Ralph’s Cross has elegiac saxophone over gently meandering rhythm, guitar chords with a hint of atmospheric reverb and Marley’s full-toned bass.

Cold Spell is a warmly propulsive and rewarding four-part conversation between the instruments. The Vanns composition, Free Into Edinburgh, is a boppy, 6/8 piece and the guitarist stretches out in an articulate solo.

The Matt Anderson 6-track album can be streamed or downloaded free or at your own price at mattandersonquartet.bandcamp.com

(Ron Burnett, York Press Music News and Reviews – Jazz Notes, Fri 2nd September 2011)

To read the full Jazz Notes article, follow this link: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/9230598.Jazz_notes/

Just received the image file for the new flyers designed by Oli Bentley at Split.co.uk, also with a great landscape photograph by Jon Stanley Austin. Will be getting them off to venues soon when the printing is complete.

‘Free into Edinburgh,’ written by Aubin Vanns and recorded by the Matt Anderson Quartet, was today’s Download of the Day on AllAboutJazz.com, where it was also commented that ‘Adopting rock influences while retaining its jazz identity, Matt Anderson’s quartet steams through this thoroughly enjoyable tune.’

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6735

The new Kate Peters Septet album was released last week – see http://www.kate-peters.com/home.cfm to buy a copy!

The CD features my arrangements of ‘Around the World,’ ‘Love for Sale’ and ‘She’s Leaving Home’ as well as 6 other similar pop/jazz/country covers.

The septet is also set for more performances in the Autumn, with HEART (10th Dec) and the Lescar (30th Nov) recently added to the diary.

The Matt Anderson Quartet sampler CD has been reviewed by Lance Liddle of the bebop spoken here blog – see http://lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.com/2011/07/cddownload-review-matt-anderson-quartet.html.

We’ve finally been able to release the Matt Anderson Quartet sampler CD, recorded in March at Savile and Chrome studios in Leeds. The project was kindly funded by Jazz Yorkshire, and we’re very grateful to them as well as to Rosemary Vanns and Oli Bentley, who provided the artwork/design for the sleeve and the CD respectively.

The sampler is made up of five of my original compositions and one by Aubin Vanns, all recorded in the same session on March 18th by my regular quartet which also includes Sam Gardner and John Marley. This recording was part of our regional tour sponsored by Jazz Yorkshire.

You can see, hear and download the sampler for free online at bandcamp – our page is http://mattandersonquartet.bandcamp.com and it is also embedded below. Hope you enjoy it!

[wp_bandcamp_player type=”album” id=”2817311848″ size=”venti” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

New performances announced:

Monday 11th July – Standards gig at Sela Bar, Leeds, with Jamil Sheriff, Garry Jackson and Sam Gardner.

Tuesday 16th August – w/ Sam Watts Quartet at the Spotted Dog, Birmingham, with Hamish Livingstone and Sam Gardner.

Plus Matt Anderson Quintet gigs in September/October:

25th September – Scarborough Jazz Festival

2nd October – Pave Cafe, Hull

11th October – Matt n’ Phreds, Manchester

16th October – 7arts Centre, Leeds

Leeds Guide review of the Matt Anderson Quartet’s gig at Wakefield Jazz on the 8th April:

http://www.leedsguide.co.uk/review/live-review/matt-anderson-quartet-yoruba/18385.