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Jazz Articles about Matt Ulery
Brian Citro: Keep Moving (Home)
by Jack Bowers
The sound of Brian Citro's mellow guitar introduces “Stay Where You Feel," the first of his 14 original compositions on Keep Moving (Home), most of which began life as pieces for solo guitar and were revised by Citro to suit a quartet format. Citro's teammates on this generally pleasing yet largely anodyne session are alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Quin Kirchner. Mazzarella doubles on the seldom-heard Wurlitzer organ. About the only thing that could ...
Continue ReadingMatt Ulery: Mother Harp
by Mike Jurkovic
With 15 albums of adventurous composition and daredevil artistry behind him, Chicago-based bassist-composer-bandleader Matt Ulery is, as they say back home, no slouch. And on his 16th, the raucously-inflamed and infectious Mother Harp, he follows his rock 'n' roll heart to the finish line and beyond. Mother Harp is a bevy of crazy-good stuff packed with a punk-rock punch you do not hear authentically or authoritatively anymore anywhere these days. Today it all sounds categorical, as if AI ...
Continue ReadingJarod Bufe: Brighter Days
by Dan McClenaghan
Making a living as jazz artist is a challenge. For every jazz megastar who can support his or herself with their music, dozens rely on day jobs and remain relative unknowns, even while making great music. Players like saxophonist Buck Hill, who did a forty-year stint working for the Post Office while releasing eleven excellent recordings--including his top ten album of the year material swan song, Relax (Severn, 2006) while working the day job that provided the bread and butter ...
Continue ReadingArman Sangalang: Quartet
by Jack Bowers
Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Arman Sangalang, still in his mid-20s, makes his recording debut with Quartet, wherein his talented four-member ensemble uses delicate textures and shadings in lieu of heated fire and brimstone to amplify its even-tempered musical purpose. That was clearly Sangalang's idea, as he wrote all save one of the album's ten by and large tranquil themes (chaperoning the lone standard, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's “Polka Dots and Moonbeams"). Sangalang's unaccompanied intro to that ...
Continue ReadingMatt Ulery: Mannerist
by Mike Jurkovic
There is a lilting magic to the music of Mannerist that is hard to deny or find fault with. The “Bridge" starts and the whole day changes, eliciting, perhaps, a feeling of being lighter on the feet, lighter in spirit and, most importantly, lighter in the head. Suddenly all the information they want you to swallow goes away and its just you and the music. It is a beautiful thing. It is something bassist/composer/bandleader Matt Ulery sets out to do ...
Continue ReadingMatt Ulery's Delicate Charms: Live at the Green Mill
by Troy Dostert
One of the central figures of Chicago's thriving jazz scene, bassist Matt Ulery has cultivated fruitful relationships with a core of compatriots who embody the grit and beauty of the music coming out of the Windy City. He maintains a host of projects, one of the foremost being Delicate Charms, a group that released its self-titled debut in 2019 on Woolgathering Records; alto saxophonist Greg Ward, pianist Rob Clearfield, drummer Quin Kirchner and violinist Zach Brock assist Ulery in creating ...
Continue ReadingChad McCullough: Forward
by Paul Rauch
Trumpeter Chad McCullough has an identifiable sound—his striking, bold tonality, and his penchant for stark contrasts compositionally. His previous four releases on Origin Records, featured artists encountered during his tenure in the Pacific Northwest. His association with drummer and Origin founder, John Bishop, resulted in the formation of his quartet with Belgian pianist Bram Weijters. In two releases, Urban Nightingale (Origin, 2011), and Imaginary Sketches (Origin, 2011) he established a cerebral, pastoral sound of intriguing melodies presented in storyline fashion. ...
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