"Matt Mitchell is a pianist and composer whose creative practice exists in a nexus between myriad strains of acoustic, electric, composed, and improvised new music. He has released several forward-thinking, critically acclaimed, and influential albums as a leader on Pi Recordings, Screwgun Records, and Out of Your Head Records, and together with Kate Gentile he runs Obliquity Records. In addition to co-leading Snark Horse with Kate Gentile, he also fronts several ensembles featuring many of the foremost improvisers on the scene, including Kim Cass, Kate Gentile, Jon Irabagon, Ava Mendoza, Miles Okazaki, Mariel Roberts, Sara Serpa, Sara Schoenbeck, Brandon Seabrook, Ches Smith, Chris Tordini, Anna Webber, Dan Weiss, and Miguel Zenon.
He is a member of several significant and acclaimed creative music ensembles, including Dan Weiss's Starebaby and Even Odds, Miles Okazaki's Trickster, Ches Smith's We All Break, Kate Gentile's Find Letter X, Anna Webber's Simple Trio, Jon Irabagon's Outright!, Miguel Zenon's Golden City, Sara Serpa's Intimate Strangers, and Yuhan Su's Liberated Gesture. He has a longstanding association with Tim Berne, and has played extensively in the ensembles of many major figures in improvised music, including Dave Douglas, Steve Coleman, David Binney, John Hollenbeck, Miguel Zenon, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, Jonathan Finlayson, Mario Pavone, Dave King, and Darius Jones. He has also performed the music of John Zorn, and has played with Donny McCaslin, Chris Lightcap, JD Allen, David Torn, Marc Ducret, Gordon Grdina, Kenny Wheeler, and Lee Konitz. He has also received several awards and fellowships including the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the Doris Duke Impact Award, and a Shifting Foundation grant."
How would you describe music?
The intentional organization of sound in time.
What is your relationship to music?
It has shaped my entire life.
What draws you to the instrument(s) you play, and/or to composing?
I started on piano quite young and just kept going, and it got more fun for me the more I improved, and especially once I started being interested in jazz and improvising around age 12. This was when I got interested in composing as well. It has remained incredibly challenging to be as good at it as I want to be, so I figured that my time was best spent focusing on one instrument. I did flirt with playing drums for several years, and I even played a couple gigs, but it actually still wasn't as satisfying for me as piano, though I still wonder what an alternate-universe version of me who stuck with drums sounds like now.
What deceased performer(s), improviser(s), or composer(s) would you most like to have a conversation with?
So many. Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, Frank Zappa, Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Tony Williams, Sam Rivers, Chopin, Bach, Wayne Shorter, Andrew Hill, Monk, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sun Ra, Sorabji, Duke Ellington
What musician most influenced your approach to music?
All of the above, plus Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Don Cherry, Jack DeJohnette, Tim Berne, Steve Coleman, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley, Stravinsky, Bartok, Scriabin, Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Wolfgang Rihm, Harrison Birtwistle, Brian Ferneyhough, Merzbow, Autechre, Bernard Parmegiani, Roland Kayn, Pierre Henry, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Zawinul, Henry Cow, This Heat, Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, XTC, Cardiacs, Prince, Living Colour, Fishbone, Pixies, Frank Black, Sonic Youth, Robert Pollard, Bad Brains, Napalm Death, Gorguts, Portal, Defeated Sanity, Bob Drake, Deerhoof, etc.
Who or what influences you most outside of music?
Visual art, fiction, poetry, science, mathematics, comedy, the unknown, the barely known, the misunderstood, the arcane and obscure, the uncanny, the ridiculous
What advice would you give to a young musician entering your field?
Stay off of social media, stay off of Spotify. Practice and compose as much as possible, of course.
What do you hope audiences take away from experiencing your music?
I hope they enjoy it somehow! Or, if they don't enjoy it in any way, I hope they really hate it, rather than feel totally neutral. But I make music first and foremost for myself, so when anyone at all ever enjoys my music in any way, I am grateful.
Where are you currently located or musically associated with?
I live in Brooklyn. Musical associations: Kate Gentile, Kim Cass, Chris Tordini, Ches Smith, Dan Weiss, Miles Okazaki, Brandon Seabrook, Tim Berne, Jon Irabagon, Anna Webber, John Hollenbeck, Sara Serpa, Tyshawn Sorey, Miguel Zenon, Steve Coleman, Anthony Tidd, Sean Rickman, Sara Schoenbeck, Mariel Roberts, Miranda Cuckson, John Hebert, Ralph Alessi, Jonathan Finlayson, Yuhan Su. Many more.
What is your musical education or background?
Started piano age 5, played classical music until I was 12, heard The Best of Thelonious Monk [Columbia] and Wynton Marsalis J Mood and wanted to play jazz, studied jazz, ear training, composition [jazz and otherwise] alongside the classical music until I finished high school. Also got my first synthesizer around age 13 or so and got into programming my own sounds, also making tunes on an Alesis sequencer. Attended Indiana University, finished in 3 years, did a masters at Eastman School of Music. Moved to NYC for a year, hated it and moved to Philadelphia for 15 years, the first 10 of which I had day jobs, during which time I played in free improv formations and went deeper into electronic music and noise, 4 track recording, pedals, then laptop/plugins, etc. Quit my day job in 2009, commuted to NYC for 5 years during which I finally made inroads as a pianist in the NYC jazz and improvised music scene, then moved to Brooklyn in 2014.
What is your favorite recording by another musician or group?
Probably 100-200 items could be on this list.
What is your favorite recording that you have made?
This feels like what I imagine choosing a favorite child would feel like. That said, I'm especially proud of my two recent solo piano albums:
Illimitable
and
Sacrosanctity
.
A Pouting Grimace
and
Phalanx Ambassadors
seem like they came from a past life and part of me can't believe I pulled them off.
Snark Horse
with Kate Gentile feels pretty monumental to me also.
Fiction
,
Vista
,
Accumulation
,
Oblong Aplomb
,
Zealous Angles
- they all hold special places for me. Each of these albums seems to have particular fanbases, and I don't think I have one album that has received significantly more feedback than any other one does. My duo albums with Tim Berne, my duo with Anna Webber
Capacious Aeration
, my upcoming duo with Sara Serpa
End of Something
- I'm exceedingly proud of these as well.
As a sideman, Kate Gentile's
Find Letter X
is a major personal achievement that I think stands somewhat alone in scope and depth, and it deserves greater attention.
Matt Mitchell:
Sophie Agnel / John Butcher:
Damon Smith:
Alexander von Schlippenbach / Dag Magnus Narvesen Duo:
Lotte Anker / Kamil Piotrowicz / Jacob Anderskov:
Killick Hinds:
Isotope Ensemble:
Satoko Fujii:
Dennis Egberth:
Barry Chabala:
