Los Angeles-based musician Matt Von Roderick performs at Walker’s Jazz Lounge at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Although steeped in the jazz tradition (“The New York Times” has referred to him as a “post-millennial Chet Baker”), his 2025 album “The Perfect Storm” provides evidence of an artist moving the music into new territories, incorporating elements of the avant-garde, classic minimalism (Steve Reich, Philip Glass) with doses of psychedelic infused rock (see his cover of the Flaming Lips classic “Do You Realize??”) while never losing a sense of melodicism. The compositions and the playing are rendered with a precision commensurate with Von Roderick’s storied and diverse training.
Having studied at both New York University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he has performed at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center while working with forward-leaning artists such as John Medeski and Brad Mehldau as well as popular music giants Neil Diamond and Dionne Warwick, plus the groundbreaking Welsh band Super Furry Animals.
Von Roderick recently spoke with KMUW from his home in L.A. about his approach to music and how he sees live performance as a chance for artists and audience members to form a sense of community.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Listening to the new album it struck me that you have a unique approach to your instrument, that you’re influenced by guitar and piano as much as trumpet in your playing.
Yep, you’ve got good ears.
Thank you.
You understand what I’m doing there. I’m influenced by pianists and guitarists definitely, just by virtue of being able to play chords and accompany a melody on those instruments, which is something I do with my multiphonics where I’m singing and playing at the same time. That’s the joke. When people say, “Oh, you’re a singing trumpeter. You don’t do that at the same time do you?” And, actually, I do. It’s kind of an avant garde extended technique and when you sing through the trumpet while you’re playing at the same time you produce at least a double stop. I can actually produce three notes at once, so that’s a triad and I can delineate harmony that way. Not to start off the interview on too much of a music nerd note but that’s part of where I’m coming with that. [Laughs.]
[Laughs.]
And with the guitar thing: I love modernizing the instrument and taking the trumpet into new realms so I have some effects pedals. I like to do live looping and stuff like that. It’s the full spectrum of possibility with the instrument and with jazz, really. It’s almost a retro futuristic thing that I do because I’m really rooted in the classic jazz standards and at the same time I’m really interested in how we can push the envelope.
Do you remember when it occurred to you to play with effects and loops?
When I was in New York I was part of a few different scenes which is rare because you sort of fall into one category in New York. I had a great time developing my artistry there. One scene I was involved in was the bebop/straight ahead thing which I loved. Then, at the same time, I started to work with some of the downtown cats. John Zorn had a whole scene down there, Dave Douglas. Eventually, I started to say, “How can I push the instrument and how can I take the instrument into new realms?” I started to think of it not as a single note instrument and started to see it orchestrally.
Compositionally, I hear touches of progressive rock and minimalism in with the jazz.
I’m influenced by Chet Baker in terms of playing and singing in a romantic way. At the same time I love a lot of alternative rock bands. One is the Flaming Lips. I cover “Do You Realize??” on the album, probably their most popular song.
For some people that might a bit of an outlier in terms of repertoire, but jazz players have always done that. They’ve always taken from the popular music songbook, whether “My Funny Valentine” or “My Favorite Things.”
Exactly. That really is the tradition of jazz. It used to be Broadway show tunes but now it can be anything. That’s what jazz is, a spirit of openness. To quote someone who I call kind of a mentor, Herbie Hancock, he has that approach to music where it’s just one big music. He doesn’t see genres. He’s free. He can take Snoop Dogg and put his spin on it and then he can take Rodgers and Hart and then he can write his own songs. That’s really the school that I feel I’m emerging from. I’m happy to be taking that approach.
How did you choose that song?
They’re an amazing band and I became interested in that song when COVID times hit. I was doing a lot of Zoom concerts. I guess we were all more aware of our mortality at that point and all going through this heavy thing together. “Do You Realize??” was just such a great way to make people focus on what’s important in life.
I also get a sense that there’s a show element to your concerts. It’s about entertaining as much as it’s about getting the notes right.
That’s very perceptive. I come from that East Coast very, very academic jazz approach and that’s my core, that’s what I do and at the same time what I’ve learned out here in Los Angeles is that now I have the best of both worlds because in L.A. it’s all about being generous with your audience and putting the audience experience first in a way. It’s almost a given that before that you have the substance. That’s a big part of my approach too, that I’m kind of equal parts New York City, where I cut my teeth as it were, and Los Angeles, where I’ve learned how to take that substance and extrovert in a very healthy way toward audiences and be very generous. People have a good time at my shows and I engage with them. Otherwise, why are we doing this? [Laughs.] It’s not just for me, it’s to create a real communal feeling and for us to share this magical moment together under one roof.
