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This award-winning quintet skips, swings, waltzes and saunters through slick tunes, start to finish singing out with crystal clear lines and well-chiseled harmonies. With trumpet lines answering sax lines in a most intimate conversation, fully supported by piano, bass and drums, the The Matt Lawson Quintet truly sings as one single entity; the five of them play as tightly as one musician and yet each voice has its own vocabulary. For a classic combo CD this is the best new pick. 
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Matt Lawson’s “Midnight in Merizo” is a wonderfully, straight-ahead jazz album without any pretenses or posturing. Lawson has listened well and certainly has applied himself. His trumpet playing is absolutely gorgeous. There is a lovely combo effort and the music effortlessly flows. There is a lot of confidence in Lawson and his band’s playing. They are sharp and tightly consistent throughout the album. Bernstein’s ‘Some Other Time’ is a poignant example. This ballad is played with extreme sensitivity and deliberate care that it can bring tears to your eyes. It is like someone who trying to hold off and makes a determined effort at rationalization, but eventually cannot help the bitter sorrow and lets all the salty rain come dripping down, hands in head in a grey empty room. 


“Midnight in Merizo” is a stunning first album.
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