Here is all the music available from Suitcase Music. This is Matt Kendrick's record label. This music is available from all streaming sources. Apple Music, Spotify and many others. It's on Amazon also. If you actually want a CD contact me.
Bass City:
This is more straight-ahead jazz cd with some great tunes on it. It garnered a lot of rave reviews. It features trios, quartets, sextets, and "The Eternal Winds," an eight-piece wind group. MORE Bass City has “The Eternal Winds” on two cuts: “Cosmic Message” and “The Eternal Winds.” This is a unique group of woodwinds and brass, consisting of bassoon, oboe, flute, bass clarinet, trombone, trumpet, tuba and French horn. These Euro classical players from the Winston-Salem Symphony were not really accustomed to improvising, so Matt wrote out verbal instructions and other little devices to enable them to come up and play at the Jazz open mic night Matt’s hosted on Tuesday nights for years. Tuesday is concert night for the symphony musicians, and after the big concert, a lot of them come down the street to the club where Matt’s playing to hang out. They have their instruments and Matt, not being one to overlook an opportunity to do something different, formed “The Eternal Winds.”
Unity and Alienation: Acid guitar, Bebop trumpet. A quintet cd featuring Jack King (electric guitar), Alan Neese (trumpet and rotomagnetic horn), Steve Blake (sax), Abdullah Rahman (drums) and Matt Kendrick (double bass). This 74-minute cd explores some pretty wild terrain. "Wonder Bug," nice little rant. "Going Blue Crazy" was a hit for Matt. "Face It," a psychedelic jam of bass, drums and guitar. Just like the old days except the bass is an acoustic one with heavy metal bowing. “Heavy Wood?” If you like bebop trumpet and acid guitar this is the cd for you.
Other Aspects: This is nice little swinging duo cd with Fred Hersch on piano and Matt Kendrick on bass. Acclaimed by critics, the cd features jazz standards such as "Have You Met Miss Jones" and "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me," as well as the soundtrack from Stephen Jackson’s Lethal Dose 100. It’s a play with a mostly solo bass score with wild electronic effects and sounds of a soft mallet whacking the bass. The cd also incudes a solo upright version of Jaco Pastorius' song "Continuum." Pretty cool.
Art/Jazz: "Art/Jazz" was one of the 1995 editors cd picks for Cadence Magazine. It’s a daring cd that pushes boundaries. Art/Jazz features a quartet with Matt Kendrick (double bass), Hugh Petersen (drums), Steve Blake (sax) and Alan Neese (trumpet). The unique thing about Art/Jazz is that the music is based on seven paintings and one sculpture. The art is pictured in the eight-page cd booklet. Each artwork gets it's own page in high-quality color. The music is a mixture of free, out, free bop and bop usages of Jazz language. Some of the stuff sounds new; some sounds old; some sounds way out there.
"Original Art/Jazz"
This music was recorded in Charlotte NC by Mark Williams at Reflection Recording Studios in the early 90's. The music is based on paintings from the NC Museum of Art. Including Monet, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell. The Bass player/composer and leader is Matt Kendrick. Abdullah Rahman plays drums, Alan Neese plays trumpet and Steve Blake plays sax. The music is very improvisational within interesting composed frameworks. The music was performed prior to the recording in many places. This music's debut was at the NC Museum of Art with the paintings projected while the band performed. The auditorium was sold out. Matt calls this Art/Jazz
Album Notes
This cd has two components:
Musicians and composers / Writers and word performers
Musicians/composers:
East Meets West
Matt Kendrick-Bass
Keith Byrd-Piano
Chuck Burns-Guitar
John Wilson-Drums
This project is as much a social comment as an artistic one. We are making a social comment through the use of our art, music. We are not trying to do anything new or avant garde but at the same time the fact that we are living, performing jazz musicians in 2008 means something to that effect. We are playing at the culmination of all our combined experiences to this point. We all grew up playing music in Winston-Salem. We are indigenous jazz musicians. We could put a bunch dressing on the music but I just don\'t feel this is necessary. We play the songs and what happens naturally in the improvisations is what this project is all about.
The social aspect is different. This is a statement against racism, segregation and discrimination. We are coming together as two European-American musicians from West Winston-Salem and two African-American musicians from East Winston-Salem.
So, What’s the big deal? Winston-Salem is still segregated, even now. Maybe some people want it that way but as artists, we know it’s not for the best. Art reflects life and art stagnates if it just stays within itself. There is no growing, no new ideas, no new concepts. Jazz is a gift from God created by African Americans through the melding of African and European cultures. Jazz brings us together in an informed and intellectual setting.
This c.d. is about breaking down barriers in people’s minds with artistic statements. It is about coaxing people to think about the segregation that still exists in their minds, in this town and beyond. It is about art being created with interaction and no segregation. It is about people hearing and thinking about a diverse group of musicians communicating with each other on a high level.
The exchange of ideas between people of all types is where the future lies. If we do not we will perish. East Meets West will demonstrate this exchange of ideas through the art of Jazz, a music embraced by people all over the earth.
Matt
This recording was made with an \"Artists Project Grant\" from the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Arts Council
Writers and word performers:
Terryl Dozier,
Terrence Nivens
Tamara Settle
Terrence Trent
Dayshawn Middlleton
Love Lemon
Ebony Little
Jasmine Little
Aquarian Greenberg