While rummaging through my attic, I stumbled upon a treasure: a cassette tape containing practice sessions recorded during my time at Berklee around 1987 or…
Read Full Blog PostNew CD ~ “Notebook”
Here’s the track “Esthesis” from the album: https://mattotto.bandcamp.com/album/notebook This new recording features two groups; essentially two EPs put together. One group is a tenor trio…
Read Full Blog PostCycle – Kansas City Trio
Here’s a pdf and video of a contrafact I wrote over the Sam Rivers tune “Cyclic Episode”. I love working on improvising over this progression…
Read Full Blog PostNew CD recording – Kansas City Trio
This recent CD is my first standards album. As jazz musicians we arguably spend most of our time improvising over the jazz cannon; old show…
Read Full Blog PostMousai – Live Recording
Here’s a short tune of mine I recorded on Aug 3rd 2022. It based on an augmented major 7 melody. I wrote the melody from…
Read Full Blog PostSoul Eyes – Mal Waldron
My friend Richard Giddens came out to KC for some gigs and recording summer of 2022. Here’s a take of Soul Eyes by Mal Waldon…
Read Full Blog PostWanjiku – Live recording June 2022
I wrote this song in 2001. Wanjiku was inspired by the book Pedals of Blood, recommended to me by my step-father Bruce Baron, who studied…
Read Full Blog PostAlliance ~ New CD
This new CD features some of my favorite musicians playing seven of my original compositions. Each track has a different configuration of players. You can…
Read Full Blog PostAeon, an Original Piece for Marimba and Saxophone
I wrote a short original piece for my friend and Marimba player Michael Compitello. Mike is an amazing musician whom I’ve had the honor of working with at KU. This is a duo piece which is a study in cycle 5 motion using minor harmony.
Read Full Blog PostRing – CD release!
The CD is pressed – here are all the tracks on one post. You can also listen to the whole album for free or buy…
Read Full Blog PostAlbum, “Iberica”
Matt Otto “Iberica” – Origin Records Dan McClenaghan, from All About Jazz, has given it a nice review which you can read below. Here’s a…
Read Full Blog PostCD – “Reunion” with Andy Ehling
Alto saxophonist Andy Ehling and I have released our second album, “Reunion”. We recorded ten original compositions in Kansas City over two days. Nate Espy…
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