-
Matt Baker
began learning the piano at the age of five, and having
grown up in a household filled with music, his love for
Jazz and performing was evident, and before even leaving
school, he was out playing gigs at the age of 15. In the
early years, he won a number of talent quests, including
the Australian Youth in Jazz competition, and in 1999 at
the age of 23, completed the 4 year Bachelor of Music
Jazz Studies degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music.
-
-
Back home Matt has toured Australia extensively with
trumpet virtuoso James Morrison. He has played for
Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick Jnr., and has also
been the support act for Jazz legends Tony Bennett and
Al Jarreau. Since December 2000, Matt is now the
resident pianist with Australia's most well-known Jazz
band, “Galapagos Duck”, and played in John Morrison's
Swing City from 1999 to 2003.
-
-
Matt,
a student of New York pianists Benny Green and James
Williams, revisited these wonderful players for some
more lessons, and in previous trips has also studied
casually with Mulgrew Miller, Eric Reed, Jacky Terrasson,
Stephen Scott, Laurence Hobgood, Ralph Sutton, and Ella
Fitzgerald's life-long accompanist Paul Smith. In
Montreux 2004, Matt spent some time with jazz legend
Herbie Hancock, studying the music and concepts Herbie
and his band are currently exploring.
-
-
In December 2002, Matt returned home from his third trip
to New York. He spent a week with Jazz piano legend
Oscar Peterson, watching him play every night at the
Blue Note, and spent many hours with him between
performances talking music, piano, careers and just
becoming good friends.
-
-
His music has taken him three times over to the Jazz
capital of the world, New York, as well as over to New
Zealand for a series of solo and trio performances as
well as the Queenstown Jazz Festival. Back home he has
performed in Jazz Festivals and concerts all around
Australia - Perth, York, Brisbane, Broken Hill,
Bundaberg, Lightning Ridge, Gladstone, Noosa, Kiama,
Thredbo, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, York, Sanctuary Cove,
Mackay, Darwin, Newcastle, Wollongong, Hamilton,
Coonabarabran, Horsham, Orange, The Blue Mountains,
Goulburn, Gundagai, Mudgee, Tamworth, Grafton, Ballina,
Twin Towns, The Gold Coast, Camden Haven, The Hunter
Valley, Manly and Darling Harbour.
-
-
In
2003, the trio was selected as the house band, to
perform seventeen nights straight in the Montreux Jazz
Club. This year they performed each night of the
festival in Harry’s New York Bar, and gave a concert in
the main jazz venue of the festival, ‘The Casino
Barriere’. Matt also represented Australia and gained
fifth place in the 2003 Montreux International Solo Jazz
Piano competition; an internationally acclaimed
competition open to jazz pianists from any corner of the
globe, and was a runner up in 2004.
-
-
Currently Matt is back home, based in
Sydney, working jazz clubs, festivals, concerts and
other one-off gigs. There are early thoughts about a
third album, although production wouldn't start at least
until mid 2006.
-
Matt Bakers
newest "From
An Afternoon With The Mountains"
recorded in 2006 is an absolute hit. Together his first
release "Talkin' Soul Food", they can be heard on most swiss jazz radios and
are available by CSMPRO.
-
-
