Originally hailing from the North Yorkshire Moors and now living in London, saxophonist and composer Matt Anderson recently released his second album ‘Rambling’ with his group the Matt Anderson Quartet on the Jellymould Jazz label. Since its launch in June 2018 at the hotbed of the creative London jazz scene, the Vortex Jazz Club, the album has won praise from the likes of Jazzwise, BBC Radio 3 and Jazz FM for its “outstanding,” melodic writing and “uniformly excellent playing”, all fronted by Anderson’s warm tenor sound. The band brings together seemingly distinct musical influences, for example exploring the common ground between the folk music reminiscent of Matt's rural upbringing in the North Yorkshire Moors, the bluesy, country strains of Bill Frisell and Scandinavian jazz, culminating in a lyrical and personal Afro-Celtic sound world.
Alongside his performance work, Matt also teaches at Junior Royal Academy of Music, is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds College of Music and also teaches jazz saxophone at the University of Leeds, having also worked with many other organisations in the past including the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, THAMES Music and many other schools and music services.
He also has much experience working in the community, for example leading weekly jazz workshops for adult amateurs at Jazz-at-HEART in Leeds for five years while based there, as well as organising monthly jam sessions for participants to gain experience of playing with a professional band and teaching on yearly week-long summer schools.
