2024. Glassmeyer's Live Band with Mark Raudabaugh, JP Ruggieri, and Ethan Jodzievicz. Photo: Jared Ichtenberg
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Matt Glassmeyer composes and improvises typically with the Wurlitzer, acoustic piano, reedless tenor saxophone (aka buzzaphone) and standard tenor saxophone, amplified contra-alto clarinet, shuitar and other percussion. He plays with a wide variety of exploratory musicians and improvisers from Nashville, New York, Chicago and elsewhere. As a solo endeavor, he records under the project name Meadownoise.
Matt weighs discovery and catharsis equally. He is the inventor of the reedless saxophone (State Fete with Billy Martin and Jonathan Goldberger, Bift, The MG Marching Band with Garchik, Drye, Mcginnis, Global Abacus Supply, Meadownoise, The Wood Brothers, Coupler, Rix Glassmeyer). In 1997, Murfreesboro, TN, Matt invented the shuitar, which is both a vertical technique for playing drumset beats on an acoustic guitar as well as a custom instrument (The Morpholinos, Rix Glassmeyer, Meadownoise, Hompulon/Tom Spiker, Church of Cleanliness). Matt has built 180 shuitars for players in 11 countries. With the Wurlitzer electric piano, Matt has developed a range of extended sounds (Duo with Sara Schoenbeck, Glassmeyer's Live Band, Ocean State). He amplifies the contra-alto clarinet with a mouth pickup to achieve a synth-like bass sound (DDYGG, Meadownoise, Lambchop, Rix Glassmeyer). Matt has deeply explored saxophone sounds beginning with extensive use of electronics in the mid 1990s (The Jongleurs, Twelve 20 Six, Bift), modified mouthpieces and quarter tone fingerings (Delphian Jazz Orchestra, Bift, The Jack Silverman Quartet, State Fete) Matt grew up in Nashville, influenced not as much by the standard Nashville aesthetic but by the musicians (including his father, Steve, and his friends), the instruments, and the record collections that pervade the city. In his late teens and early twenties he explored jazz, Cuban and South American music of Miami. Matt finished his studies at the University of Miami and made three records with The Jongleurs, touring the US. Following that, he spent time in Nashville sessions, international tours, with The Sidemen at The Station Inn studying fiddle tunes on saxophone in the late 90s, and a winter in a Broadway pit. Matt is involved in the rapidly growing improvisational community in Nashville as well as the rock, ambient, electronic, string music scenes there. He also regularly performs in New York City with various groups including Dan Lyn's keyboard trio, Los Torneros with Sean Moran and Harris Eisenstadt, and Hodemento with Matt Hollenberg and Hamir Atwal. Four albums with his solo project, Meadownoise, are available at the adventurous label, YK Records. _________ For ongoing activity click Instagram and YouTube links below. For album videos, click the Vimeo link. |