MATT JENSON
Growing up in rural New Hampshire injected Matt with a deep spiritual connection
communicated by the simplicity, beauty and truth of nature. As a child he had the
opportunity to visit extended family in Boston and with that cultural exposure, he fell in
love with the musical styles of the African diaspora: Jazz, Blues, Reggae and Afro-Latin
Music. Later as a young man with a penchant for seeking the deeper understanding of
life, he became extremely interested in the socio-political-economic and
psychological-emotional conditions of human kind. This, combined with his intense
creative drive, provides the bedrock for nearly all of Matt’s artistic output as a talented
keyboardist, singer, composer, arranger, educator and producer.
Just before the turn of the last century, Matt completed a masters degree in Jazz
studies at the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with (the late)
Geri Allen, Dave Holland and Ran Blake, and then began his professional career
playing keyboards in the various Boston jazz and blues music scenes. Quickly noticed
for his groove and ability to get funky as well as for his arranging chops, Matt headed
to the bandstand most notably with the great blues guitarist Ronnie Earl and then with
the maestro of New Orleans soul, singer Johnny Adams and Matt found himself
playing sold out houses in the US and Europe. The double barreled Blues and Soul
Ph.D. he got from those experiences allowed Jenson to settle back in Boston and flush
out some ideas he'd been having regarding his attraction to Caribbean music, especially his simmering love for Bob Marley and an equally intense attraction to Afro-Cuban music. The universe came with an answer to Matt’s musical loves and almost simultaneously he had the opportunity to study piano with his idol, the iconic Latin piano player Eddie Palmieri and to plumb the depths of Bob Marley’s life and music.
In regards to the latter, Matt joined the piano faculty at the Berklee College of Music (2001) and while teaching studio piano lessons, labs on Hammond organ playing and Afro-Cuban styles, he created a smash hit performance-studies class entitled, “The Music and Life of Bob Marley.” Each semester he takes a flock of 13 talented young musicians from across the globe on a deep dive learning to play roots reggae properly and uncovering how the revolutionary life that Marley lived directly informed the music he and his band created.
This class has given Matt many opportunities to deepen his overstanding of Marley’s life and music, including numerous trips to Jamaica where he has connected with many who were in Marley’s inner circle. He has written full arrangements for about 40 of Marley’s songs and the ensemble has performed throughout New England at clubs and reggae festivals. He taught the class in many formats outside of Berklee, most notably at the ecstatic northern California summer immersion camp, Jazz Camp West.
Matt is an inspired music educator who has developed very creative and effective methods to teach blues, jazz, pop, rock, funk and R&B influenced keyboards. His approach helps musicians develop their improvisation, theory, composition and arranging skills. During the covid-19 pandemic Matt developed and launched his popular online reggae educational platform, Art of Reggae with complete courses on all aspects of reggae keyboard playing and a course on reggae guitar playing by Tuff Lion that deeply honor the Afro-Jamaican culture from whence this music arose. (www.artofreggae.com)
Matt’s original compositions, arrangements and lyrics appear in his collaborative work with the band Rebel Tumbao that soulfully merges roots reggae with Afro-Cuban style and include some killer Latin arrangements of Bob Marley’s music. His contribution to reggae’s long mission of revolutionary consciousness-raising, lies with his Liquid Revolution band, having released the album “Dragonfly Taxi” complete with political satire ads connecting the offering of original compositions. In 2018 Matt joined the San Francisco based jazz-fusion powerhouse reggae band Groundation, touring Europe, Brazil, Hawaii and the West Coast (USA) multiple times. He helped develop the songs for the band’s 10th album, ‘One Rock’ (and the subsequent dub version of the album, ‘Dub Rock’) contributing horn and string arrangements and performing nearly all the keyboard parts on the album. Matt’s deep love of jazz and reggae has found an outlet with his Ernest Ranglin/Monty Alexander influenced band Mix Up Mix Up presenting reggae-jazz originals and creative arrangements of popular rock, soul, R&B and jazz tunes. Lastly, Matt’s been leading his popular Latin and Reggae dance band, Combo Sabroso, for over 20 years, hitting audiences with booty shaking Salsa and reggae covers.
Starting in 2024, Matt has turned his artistic attention to the world of ‘ambient electronic’ music, working his way up the learning curve of electronic sound design on keyboards with a whole lot of knobs and blinking lights, and a lap top computer, intimately merging them with the piano and other acoustic instruments with the intention to deliver awe inspiring sonic beauty in this time of human and planetary transition. This project is called UNMARKED ROUTES.
