A professional musician for over forty years, Matt plays flugelhorn, trumpet, flute and soprano sax. He performed for many years with Grammy-winning baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola and studied composition with Edgar Curtis, Founding Director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Matt leads Rio JAZZ, a Brazilian jazz concert band formed in 1988. Rio JAZZ features pianist Peter Tomlinson, guitarists Jeff Ciampa or Peter Einhorn, bassists Mark Egan or Don Miller, drummer Joel Rosenblatt, and Latin percussionist Tomas Martin Lopez. In concert, Rio JAZZ plays Brazilian sambas and bossa novas, jazz classics, and original compositions. Matt is also musical director for his wife, singer/songwriter Denise Jordan Finley. They live in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley and in Lake George.
A long-time member of American Federation of Musicians Local 238, Matt is a retired professor of computer information systems and was academic dean at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York. For many years, Matt accomplished his goal of learning to play a new instrument every year to improve his composing and arranging abilities. Not only a multi-instrumentalist, he is in demand as a composer, arranger, sound engineer and recording sideman. Matt recently served as guest clinician for the Dutchess County All-County Jazz Festival.
► "Flugelhorn master!" - Poughkeepsie Journal
► "Your playing certainly is top notch." - Russ Davis, XM Radio Channel 72 (Beyond Jazz)
► "Matt's execution is virtually flawless; he smokes on every tune." - WWW.VINILEMANIA.NET
► "Remarkable technique on trumpet & flugelhorn" - Schenectady Gazette
► "Standout solo trumpet" - Troy Times Record
► Matt's new CD, "Brazilian Wish", features nine of his original Brazilian jazz compositions and an all-star lineup produced by Jon Werking. World-best musicians include Romero Lubambo, Warren Bernhardt, Mark Egan, Joel Rosenblatt, Jon Werking, Tomas Martin Lopez, Dave Finck, Jeff Siegel, Jeff Ciampa, Dan Levine, Barry Danelian and David Mann. It's Rio JAZZ in a box!
► "Brazilian Wish showcases thirteen of the hippest Brazilian jazz performers in the world. Silky smooth grooves are expertly crafted and easy on the soul. This disc never takes its eyes off its roots, and is a hybrid of Brazilian sonic structures under sleek, melodic American style jazz." - J. Spica, Chronogram and WVKR Radio
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