For those unaware, Matt Otto is currently the Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Kansas University (KU) teaching Jazz Theory and Performance, Jazz Combo, Mindful Musicianship (meditation for musicians) and private lessons. Matt was also an Adjunct Professor at the Rutgers New Brunswick teaching online courses in jazz improvisation, theory and performance.

While in Los Angeles, Matt co-founded of the Los Angeles Jazz Collective ( www.lajazzcollective.org). The mission of the collective (LAJC) is to help create opportunities for creative jazz composers and performers to showcase original artistic work and to set up an ongoing Jazz outreach program for young jazz musicians in and around Los Angeles.

Matt currently performs his original compositions and jazz standards with his Kansas City based quartet as well as traveling several times per year to NYC and LA for performances and recordings.

A blink of an eye. The sour from a lemon drop. A flash of lightning or the sudden glow before sunset. An echo through the canyon, or the gong of a church bell or meditation bowl, resounding until it isn’t anymore. Names of people you once were close to. A hug from someone you love. The anger you felt during the argument just before. The best summer of your life. The cold bitterness of the worst winter. Some of these last longer than others, but none last forever.

They are ephemeral.

Of all the arts, music is most like this. Sound waves dissipate the instant they are produced. Melodies once had to be remembered to endure; the advent of written notation and audio recording only helps to keep the notes from fleeing as fast. Perhaps a simpler song can be retained more easily.

Matt Otto has come to this conclusion. “At this point in my life I mostly try to write songs I hear in my mind and that I personally like the sound of,” he says. “I’ve mostly stopped writing complex, long form difficult music and instead focused on short, heartfelt pieces that have a vibe and are easy for good musicians to work with right away. I don’t think this is a conscious decision, it’s just what tends to happen when I sit down to write – I feel like I’m a simple person and my music is beginning to reflect that more as I age.”

1. Sobule
2. Ephemeral
3. Rachel
4. Elliot
5. Twilight
6. Dune Town
7. Wadada
8. Scroll

Otto’s musical snapshots - where writing melodies for those you love and admire and playing them with those you trust helps to place all of them in something that helps us to remember, to endure in us past their ephemeral existence, is a musical must-do for him - open on the effortlessly engaging, softly whispered Sobule and then rolls majestically into the digitally-cultured title cut Ephemeral, then we get gifted the impassioned Rachel, the emotively serene Elliot, and the languishing beauty of Twilight, with the new recording rounding out on the veritably glistening Dune Town, the pensively sculpted, yet resonant Wadada, coming to an close on the gentle hipsway of the affecting Scroll.

Official Spotify Purchase Link

www.mattotto.org