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Seattle Times Preview
It's hard to imagine Seattle jazz these days without drummer Matt Jorgensen. One of the partners behind Origin Records, not to mention the Ballard Jazz Festival, seattlejazzscene.com, Saturday jazz at the Hendrix Lounge (in Columbia City) ... this guy never seems to run out of projects.ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM - Review
It's been a four-year span between 2004's Hope and 2008's Another Morning, but Matt Jorgensen + 451 have made it worth the wait. Another fine and distinctive outing, with the adventure factor up a couple of notches.THE STRANGER - Review
With Another Morning (Origin), Matt Jorgensen+451 continue their pathbreaking combination of jazz, rock, and funk, all without succumbing to the excesses of yore: aimless solos, straitjacketed arrangements, and second-rate riffs. My favorite track, "Lock Down," begins with Ryan Burns laying down some serene electric piano chords but a sequence of ascending harmonies takes over, giving the tune a yearning, Pet Sounds–era Brian Wilson feel. Fine solos by everyone in the band follow, but the real treat is Jorgensen. Tapping, poking, and stabbing the cymbals, Jorgensen serves as a subtle co-colorist, pushing and prodding with microscopic licks that keep the whole thing together.Another Morning Review - Andrew Freund
Here is music that carries us forward, by simultaneously honoring both the great jazz tradition and the popular music of the airwaves, the inevitable soundtrack of our lives. Here is highly propulsive music, overflowing with the undisguised high spirits of certain classic rock, yet very specific unto itself and an unusually coherent piece of work. After the band’s previous recording, the hypnotically secretive Hope, one recognizes that this extroverted recording is the culmination of exceptional woodshedding and design, presenting one group’s cri de coeur, its latest answer to the artistic conundrums and opportunities of the current day.JazzTimes Magazine Review
Jorgensen's drum work fits best on the more adventurous pieces, such as "Sweetpea," with its industrial-strength, piston-pumping theme, and Lennon/McCartney's "Helter Skelter," with Burns' multi-textured Moog solo and Taylor's soaring alto. Joe Henderson's "Power To The People" is another well-balanced track, featuring excellent solos by special guest trumpeter Thomas Marriott, Taylor on tenor and Burns on Fender Rhodes, while Jorgensen offers his most sensitive and compatible support.
JazzReview.com Review
This recording includes intricately structured fusionish charts that seem to mix elements of Chick Corea’s Return To Forever band with work derived out of the compositional style of Michael Brecker. The result is a nice collection of forward-thinking tunes that also pay credit to the history of 1970s jazz.
Bopin' Dick's 10 Picks
Another Morning is your answer to the other side of funk where Jersey City is fading mythology, and space mountain is the new anthology, where Santa Cruz women prefer hair on their legs than a full body wax, where odor is an essence of nirvana.
All Music Guide - Review
Drummer Matt Jorgensen is one of those at the forefront of the fusion movement within the area, putting jazz and rock aesthetics together fluidly without focusing on fusion itself, and not coming across as heavy-handed as a result. This is effortless fusion: jazzers who happen to have a head for rock chord progressions; rockers who happen to inhabit jazz but veer away from the thrashing that fusion often devolves into.George FM - Review
It is instantly apparent that the band have worked together for best part of the last decade, they are a tight unit. The interaction is seamless and uncanny and they instinctively know when to hold back during solos. The jazz style is split roughly 50 /50 between straight jazz and fusion. Not that genres matter too much with this release, the music does the talking.
Review of HOPE - The Oregonian
The group, Matt Jorgensen + 451, sets a high standard for composition by including Charles Mingus' "Fables of Faubus," with its swinging, hard-bopping strut and catchy melody. And the best tunes on "Hope" do approach, in contemporary terms, the melodic grace and the harmonic and rhythmic complexity of the modernist masters. [read full review]HOPE CD REVIEW: All About Jazz, March 2004
By Dan McClenaghan"A solid set of sounds, start-to-finish..."
HOPE CD REVIEW: All About Jazz #2, March 2004
By C. Michael BaileyThe band hits a bull’s eye with their cover of Coldplay’s “God Put A Smile on Your Face,” ... All pieces are provocative and intelligent.
HOPE CD REVIEW: North Seattle Herald, January 28, 2004
By Brian KiddFrom the opening track, "Slinky," it is apparent that Matt Jorgensen+451 has found the pulsating confidence (as accented by Phil Spark's infectious, pulsating bass) that separates exceptional bands from mere good ones.
All Music Guide Review, March 2004
By Adam Greenberg"...an altogether outstanding piece of work"
Jazz Programmers List - Dick Crockett
"MATT JORGENSEN +451 begin with HOPE, new release on Origin. We played “Slinky,” which on first listen is real open ended jam with Jorgensen, hitting on all cylinders, going through the whole drum set, a whirling dervish on a summer holiday!"
Matt Jorgensen & +451 (The Willamette Week)
Seattle's Matt Jorgensen (a hip, explosive drummer to be reckoned with) brings his forward-thinking, Fender Rhodes-driven ensemble back for another round of innovative, asymmetrical modern jazz. Accessible (without pandering), the group tackles tunes with a cold-blooded, urgent precision-throwing into the mix of originals, Miles and Mingus a simmering, eclectic mix of Radiohead and Coldplay. (TD) [JAZZ]
The Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 595-0575. 8 pm. $5. 21+.Preview: The Stranger, July 8, 2004
Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with drummer Matt Jorgensen, who helms Matt Jorgensen + 451, one of those rare gems in jazz: a group that makes the tradition of blues-based improvisation sound fresh and new.
Preview: The Stranger, March 24, 2004
Why do I dig this drummer-driven quartet? Simply put, they cook.
Preview: The Seattle Weekly, August 6, 2003
This band, usually a quartet, covers the range of modern jazz, creating a distinctive hybrid that's forward thinking, groove-based, and bad-assed.
TAKE A WALK IN THE JAZZY SIDE: The Seattle Times, November 1, 2002
By Paul de BarrosMatt Jorgensen, a drummer who plays with rare East Coast fire, ignites the normally Celtic environs of Conor Byrne, with his aptly named band +451 (that's the Fahrenheit temperature at which paper burns, you'll recall from the famous Ray Bradbury novel). The band features hot saxophonist Mark Taylor, Phil Sparks (bass) and Marc Seales (piano).
ALL MUSIC GUIDE PROFILE: Matt Jorgensen
By Bradley TorreanoTeaming with backing group 451, Jorgensen came back the following year with the equally adventurous Quiet Silence. Covering groups like Radiohead and the Beatles, it was another success for the Northwest jazz fixture.
PREVIEW: THE STRANGER
By Christopher DeLaurentiImagine Miles Davis' slinky rhythm section from Filles de Kilimanjaro with a dash of R&B and you get the picture.
ARTICLE: EARSHOT JAZZ MAGAZINE
By Peter MonaghanAfter 10 successful years in New York, Shoreline Community College-trained drummer Matt Jorgensen is moving back to Seattle. He said farewell to New York residence on April 25 with a performance at the Kavehaz club of his band, 451, featuring Justin Flynn (saxophone), Gary Versace (Fender Rhodes), Tom Pietrycha (bass), and of course Matt Jorgensen (drums).
PREVIEW: THE STRANGER
By James KirchmerIn the world of hiphop, the "old school" tag tends to be reserved for those who've managed to stay true to the spirit of yesteryear while still keeping things fresh.
QUIET SILENCE CD REVIEW: All Music Guide
By Adam GreenbergIn his sophomore album, Quiet Silence, drummer Matt Jorgensen shows off an incredible hand at both composing and arranging, as he moves effortlessly through piece after piece mixing the old and the new with his band 451, a collection of busy Seattle players.
QUIET SILENCE CD REVIEW: The Seattle Times, February 2, 2003
By Paul de BarrosThis is not only one of the finest albums produced by Seattle's Origin Records, it's one of the most satisfying, well-made and seductive recordings currently in rotation in my house.
QUIET SILENCE CD REVIEW: Percussive Notes, February 2003
By Terry O'MahoneyThe Seattle jazz scene continues to foster great players and Jorgensen definitely falls into that category.
JAZZ REVIEW.COM: REVIEW OF 'QUIET SILENCE'
By Joshua NannenQUIET SILENCE CD REVIEW: EARSHOT JAZZ, August 2002
By Gordon ToddDrummer Matt Jorgensen need not worry about the pitfall of the sophomore slump with his second release as a leader, Quiet Silence. It contains some of the freshest and most honest playing on any jazz CD this year. Jorgensen and his band, 451, play complex, progressive music but make it sound as natural as breathing.
JAZZ PROGRAMMERS LIST - REVIEW OF 'QUIET SILENCE'
By Dick CrockettSoon to become the next best new thing...
QUIET SILENCE CD REVIEW: All About Jazz.com
By Dave NathanHe manages to keep the music moving along at a good pace, without intruding on the work of his playing mates. This is an ability not often found among contemporary drum leaders. This album is another winner for Origin.
QUIET SILENCE CD REVIEW: The Muse's Muse
By Ben OhmartJazz lovers, this one is very much worth getting.
'THE ROAD BEGINS HERE' CD REVIEWS:
REVIEW: ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM
By Ben OhmartListen, several times, to the subtly of 'Central Park West' and find something different within each time.
REVIEW: MUSICDISH.COM
By Ben OhmartThese are the champions of a combo so tight, you'd swear you hear more in these instrumental songs than just these few people. The swinging nightlife sound of 'Afterglow,' busy with Davis sax and Jorgensen drums, is somethin' else. Burns like lamplight oil on a street far in the past; warms; glows.
Matt Jorgensen visits with a Coltrane hard bop classic. Horn parts played skillfully by Ron Davis. A Nice breeze from Seattle. There’s more to the West Coast than just... California. A surprise on this cd. The last cut is finished. Silence as it keeps tracking and perchance, a ”Lush Life “refrain.
REVIEW: NEW YORK POST, February 27, 2001
By Dan AquilanteMatt Jorgensen is an unusual jazzman. He is young, he runs his band from the drum kit, he knows when to give and when to take within a song and he has a rock aesthetic that lends intensity to his improvisations for 'The Road Begins Here.'
REVIEW: EARSHOT MAGAZINE, August 2000
By Michael AllisonDrummer Matt Jorgensen's 451 band has had several incarnations with varying personnel over the past few years. What they have all shared is spirited and intelligent interpretations of well-chosen material. "The Road Begins Here" exemplifies Jorgensen's spirit as a leader on record with the most cohesive group to date. This is due in large part to great collective and individual statements by his sidemen.
REVIEW: PERCUSSIVE ARTS SOCIETY
By John RaushThe title of this CD has special meaning, as it is drummer Matt Jorgensen's debut recording as leader of his own group. Jorgensen, who is also composer of two of the seven tracks on this CD, is touted in the liner notes as one of the "new breed who are intensifying the great truths of modern jazz with the visceral directions of popular music."