March 11th, 2012 Homepage-->
Welcome to MattJenson.Com
WELCOME!
This is my blog and website where you can learn about the various projects I’m working on and bands that I play in: Rebel Tumbao, Combo Sabroso, Cincoson, Federator No1, my Dragonfly Taxi Recording Project, and LOS THREE.
Also you can link to my involvement in education including my very popular Music and Life of Bob Marley class, Latin Piano Lab and my work as Assistant professor of piano at Berklee College of Music where I’ve been teaching for the last 10 years.
You will find a lot of music on this site that can be accessed in two ways: 1) hit the play button on the player in the upper right hand corner of each page (and scroll to different tunes with the arrows), 2) the site is set up with a ‘one shot’ player that I use to drop in pretty much any kind of audio I want including hot-off-the-griddle excerpts of new tunes I’m writing and recording. As you scroll through various pages you’ll see a speaker and play button icon, just hit it!
Much of my music is influenced by the socio-political happenings of the day and I spend a lot of time thinking about and discussing with friends and colleagues WHAT’s GOING ON as part of a life-long calling I’ve had to revel in the beautiful aspects of life and to continually work towards a deeper understanding of the not so beautiful aspects of how the human race functions. A lot of what I write comes from what I see as our collective inability to put human and environmental welfare before the obsession with material gain and how we continually allow such a tiny minority of people (who are QUITE misguided in my opinion) to have such a drastic concentration of power and money.
This is indeed a BLOG site so you’ll see various blog posts on the main page and on various project pages regarding my thoughts and activities. Over on the right, below, I’ve got links to some of the inspiring people out there who are true revolutionary visionaries when it comes to creating and pushing for the desperately needed transformation we need. Also there are a few of my brief writings and my travel blogs.
Thanks for dropping by and if you want to stay informed as to what I’m doing, please sign my email list to the right and come back to check out my blog entries from time to time!
January 15th, 2012 Dragon Fly Taxi Homepage-->
Dragonfly Taxi project update: Horns n more
During lulls between the Rebel Tumbao activities, and with Berklee on Winter break, I had some long hours in my studio available to work on Dragonfly Taxi tracking. I did a million and one keyboard tracks using the Nord Stage and the Moog Little Phatty (what a sound!!), but the main ‘ting was to get all the horn parts finished! I wanna thank my long time partner in musical happenings Matt Langley on tenor sax, the unstoppable and world touring Yaure Muniz (from Havana) on trumpet, and my one-time student (in the Berklee Marley ensemble) years ago turned quite the accomplished playa, Scott Flynn on trombone.
Nice job my brothers!!
November 19th, 2011 Homepage-->
The Rebel Tumbao Kickstarter campaign is a success!!
On December 1st, 2011 the REBEL TUMBAO KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN came to a close and it was a resounding success. We far surpassed our goal!! I am truly humbled and incredibly thankful to all those who contributed, not just financially, but with their hearts and souls.
Check out this video from Rebel Tumbao kickstarter campaign HQ with reports from the California and France fronts!
November 1st, 2011 Homepage-->
Noam Chomsky laying it down at Occupy Boston
October 14th, 2011 Homepage Music and Life of Bob Marley Class-->
ONE LOVE: BBC radio documentary on Marleyanks
I’m very honored to be included on this fantastically produced retrospective on Bob Marley’s life, 30 years after his death. It’s a 25 minute piece by British poet Lemm Sessay including inspiring words by Babba Mall, Esther Anderson, Chris Salewicz, myself and others. Thanks to Ms. Dilly Barlow for reaching out to me. Check it!