Matt Ray

05.28.08 | Summer schdule is here!
please visit the itinerary page. I have some great gigs this summer as a sideman and as a leader. hope to see you all!

05.28.08 | My home studio
Danton, Quincy and I have been recording at my apartment. Boy are we having fun! I have built a home studio and am mixing and mastering stuff on my own. shhh, don't tell anybody.

Expect a new trio record by the end of this year.

07.22.07 | New review from All About Jazz
"As pianist Matt Ray’s...performance illustrates, he is lost in the best possible sense: totally immersed in the moment and the music...This is a true trio, not two guys comping behind a soloist, waiting their turn. The performance is a prime example of jazz as conversation."

-- Paul Moots, allaboutjazz

Read the entire article in the PRESS section of this website, or click the link below.

07.11.07 | Japanese sales brisk!
Japanese sales of both Matt Ray CDs have been booming over the last 7 months since Lost In New York was released.

THANK YOU JAPAN FANS!

07.11.07 | Download the "Lost" liner notes
For those who bought the CD from iTunes or another download site, you can still read the liner notes by clicking the link to the right.

They are not your traditional liner notes, but are instead an essay written by the artist which gives you a glimpse of how he thinks and moves through the big city. Hope you like it!

07.01.07 | #6 on Music Choice last week
Lost In New York was the #6 most played CD on Music Choice Satellite and Cable TV Radio for the week of 6/24-6/30.

04.11.07 | Disc of the week on KSUT!
Lost In New York is disc of the week this week on KSUT Four Corners Public Radio -- Ignacio, CO. Thanks for the spins!

04.05.07 | "Lost in New York" is currently #26 on the Jazzweek radio charts!

03.08.07 | San Diego -- Disc of the day
Lost in New York was "disc of the day" on KSDS 88.3 FM in San Diego.

03.06.07 | Lost In New york is feature of the week on www.radioioJAZZ.com
Matt Ray's new CD release 'Lost in New York' has been selected as the feature of the week on radioioJAZZ.com for the dates of March 5th through 11th. Click on over and see Matt on the front page!

Multiple tracks from 'Lost in New York' will be receiving heavy play on radioioJAZZ this week.

DJ Mike Matheny (Dr. Mike) spins jazz live in the studio at all times of the night and day. Listeners can email in to request music they would like to hear, including tracks from 'Lost in New York'.

www.radioio.com is one of the largest radio networks of its type in the world, rising to 4 million regular listeners as measured by Webcast Metrics. No longer internet only, they are heard on various digital media devices … radioioJAZZ is heard in over 78 different countries with a huge and ever expanding audience. They are featured on windowsmedia, itunes, phillips streamium, roku soundbridge.... and many other sources of incredible technology available for lovers of great jazz.

03.01.07 | Visit the Matt Ray myspace page

01.03.07 | "Lost In New York" now available on iTunes

12.20.06 | New CD "Lost In New York" available at CD Baby NOW! Enjoy.
New CD "Lost In New York" available at CD Baby NOW! Enjoy.

12.01.06 | New Matt Ray CD "Lost IN New York" for sale at jazzbeat.com ON SALE NOW!

11.30.06 | Matt Ray CD Lost In New York released!
Pianist Matt Ray has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene for more than a decade. Lost in New York is his sophomore effort, the follow up to his critically acclaimed debut album We Got It!. Here he calls on the talents of two other creative New York musicians -- drummer Quincy Davis (who's worked with Tom Harrell's band), and bassist Danton Boller (who has recently been spotted touring with trumpeter Roy Hargrove).

The trio wends their way through an interesting and compelling set of music -- effortlessly adapting tunes from a wide variety of sources. "Lost" is a dark and mysterious Wayne Shorter piece, and begins with a rolling rubato intro before giving way to a series of complex harmonies and Wayne's unusual melody. Ray uses his whole range of improvisational tools on his solo -- from well-crafted lines, to shifting chord structures. The tune also includes a masterful bass solo, and a drum solo which is underscored by the bass and piano playing a series of roots (lowest chord notes) which really captures the strange and wonderful harmonic movement of Shorter's composition.

The album includes several tunes adapted from soul artists -- Stevie Wonder's "Where Were You When I Needed You?" and Curtis Mayfield's The "Makings of You." There are tinges of gospel and soul on several other compositions on the CD, most interestingly on the John Coltrane ballad "Central Park West," which is given a jazz/soul treatment familiar to fans who bought Matt Ray's first CD. Still, the album has a number of searching and harmonically challenging tunes, and Ray makes the most of these opportunities to show off his ability to navigate difficult chord changes. On Joe Henderson's Serenity, Ray returns to his trio concept of leaving as much space as he takes up, which allows his cohorts to fill up the pauses with their own ideas, and Davis's brush work really shines here.

There are three original compostions on this CD. "El Bosque" (The Forest) is an interesting circular composition, with a rock-inflected middle section. "Greene Street Blues" is an old-fashioned soul swinger reminiscent of the Ray Brown Trio, and the album closes with a slow soulful "mo better" blues tune called "Last Call on the Lower East Side." Also of interest are the album's liner notes, which are made up of an essay written by the artist himself detailing the experience of being lost artistically and personally in the big city. Being lost is apparently a good thing to Ray, and it shows on this record, as he chooses diverse tastes in material, and works his way through a series of searching but well-honed trio improvisations. For those fans of Matt Ray who have been looking forward to a new recording, the album does not disappoint. The five year wait between records was worth it, as the pianist's concept has continued to develop into a warm and well-rounded voice in jazz. Pick up a copy, and get lost in Lost In New York.