Den Sessions with Matt Savage Trio and Quartet

Matt Savage, age 23, has had a fourteen-year professional career as a jazz musician, bandleader and composer with ensembles of different size. He’s played with some of the biggest names in jazz since first labeled a “jazz prodigy” at age 8. That same year he met and played piano for Dave Brubeck. Matt has performed (on stage and in jam sessions) with artists such as Chick Corea, the Ellington All Stars, Chaka Khan, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Jason Moran, Arturo O’Farrill, John Pizzarelli, Joshua Redman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi, Donny McCaslin and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. He’s even performed with folk musicians such as Al Stewart and Shawn Colvin, and he opened for Neil Young, Stephen Stills and others at an Autism Speaks benefit concert in Hollywood this April.

Savage has toured worldwide, performing at such venues as The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland, the Blue Note, Bohemian Caverns, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Scullers, the Jazz Standard, the Iridium, the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Heineken Jazzaldia (Spain), the Costa Rica International Jazz Festival, the International VSA Arts Festival, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Japan, Curacao, Aruba and for the president of Singapore.

Media appearances have included Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz,” NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the “Today” Show, ABC’s “20/20,” the Discovery Channel, BBC, Telemundo TV, and news shows and documentaries worldwide (including the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and the U.K.) The Wall Street Journal, JazzTimes, JAZZIZ, TIME, WIRED, Der Spiegel, The Jerusalem Report, People Magazine, TIME for Kids, American Way, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, The Boston Globe, the New York Daily News, and others have featured Matt in print.

As a composer, Matt has had great success. 2014 saw the release of a full-length documentary film scored by Matt, Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story. The movie, directed by N.C. Heikin, chronicles the story of alto saxophonist Frank Morgan’s troubled life and eventual redemption. Matt composed, arranged and recorded all the original music. The film was premiered at the 20th Los Angeles Film Festival on June 14, 2014. In September of 2014, Matt premiered two classical pieces Piano Sonata No. 1 and 24 Preludes at Caffe Vivaldi in New York. Almost all the songs on Matt’s eleven albums are original compositions, several of which have been used in short documentaries, on web sites, in school music curricula and in government educational materials. Savage consistently garners recognition through ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards and tops the International Songwriting Competition. He scores music for ensembles of all size and instrumentation, including big band.