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Because STARLIGHT CAFÉ is mostly an evocative, late night session with drummerless accompaniment, Dmitri's lyrical side is almost always the center of attention. When it is, Jack Sheldon immediately comes to mind. But there's also a dash of Chet, a little Bobby Shew, and some Tom Harrell. It's an amalgam that makes for a singular new and refreshing voice. ~MIKE METHENY The DMITRI MATHENY GROUP is a cohesive and seamless unit, serving up equal parts soulful expression, caressing phrases, imaginative asides, and dedicated lyricism. ~ALEX HENDERSON Dmitri Matheny is a sensitive and expressive new voice on today's jazz scene. ~JIM SANTELLA Dmitri Matheny is an excellent flugelhornist whose style and sound are mellow and whose bop-based improvising is melodic. ~SCOTT YANOW GRANT & MATHENY have played together for years, and it shows. They share the lead and sometimes finish each other's phrases. Both players have refined their instrumental techniques to the essentials, giving their music a relaxed, uncomplicated sensibility that makes it fun to listen to. Not surprisingly, the Monterey Jazz Festival audience loved them. ~CRAIG JOLLEY STARLIGHT CAFÉ is a quiet, hauntingly beautiful album of ballads and standards -- late-night jazz that proves you don't need to make a lot of noise to make a strong impression. ~JOEL ROBERTS
Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny is a jazz treasure. The lyrical Matheny, whose influences include Chet Baker, Art Farmer, and Miles Davis, has impressive chops, but it's his warmth and soulfulness that win you over. ~ALEX HENDERSON Dmitri Matheny's recording career got off to an impressive start with his highly introspective debut album, RED REFLECTIONS. One could hear the influence of Chet Baker, Art Farmer and Miles Davis in Matheny's playing, but while the flugelhornist clearly admires their lyricism, it's also obvious that he's very much his own man. Except for Michael Brecker's "Take a Walk" and Horace Silver's "The Outlaw," RED REFLECTIONS emphasizes Matheny's own compositions, which include the complex "Myth of the Rainy Night," the contemplative "Like a River," and the evocative title song. Another high point of this pianoless date is "Sketch," an impressionistic, cerebral number that recalls Davis' mid-1960s output. This is an excellent album that is as cerebral as it is rewarding. ~ALEX HENDERSON
GRANT & MATHENY are equal partners. They accompany one another while improvising energetic solos over jazz standards, chamber music and African-American spirituals. They play spirited, swinging shout choruses just like a Big Band, but they never lose the warm intimacy of a classically-trained duo. An exciting and satisfying performance.
The Dmitri Matheny Group is back with PENUMBRA, featuring a host of music inspired by the shimmering disk we call the Moon. Broad, airy and a little mysterious, the Matheny sound is complemented well by this celestial theme. Matheny's is a sound that won't be overshadowed. ~BENNY VILLALOBOS After training under the eminent flugelhornist Art Farmer, renown has come for Matheny with the release of his debut CD, a collection of "sound paintings in jazz" that not only showcases Matheny's sculptural performance but also many of his own compositions. RED REFLECTIONS has quickly become one of the best selling releases on the Monarch label and has been praised by some as "the best jazz title of the year." ~BENNY VILLALOBOS
I have followed Dmitri's music career closely. With the release of each new CD, as his notoreity has grown, so has his heart. As the parent of a young jazz trumpeter, I'm impressed by the commitment the DMITRI MATHENY GROUP has shown to music education. And as the son of one who defined the genre, I'm encouraged that the future of jazz is in such good hands. ~CLIFFORD BROWN, JR.
Dmitri Matheny is a damn good flugelhorn player.
Downtown cool, like a midwinter walk down empty Soho streets. ~ALEX LASH Taking a cue from classical groups and turning his imaginative programming and beautiful music into a cottage industry, Bay Area flugelhorn virtuoso Dmitri Matheny returns from successful tours of the United States and Europe for an ambitious four-day HOME SEASON...an engaging instrumentalist who brings gorgeous melodies to life with a smooth, elegant tone. ~DERK RICHARDSON The flugelhorn is the primary instrument of only a few jazz giants, most notably Dmitri Matheny's mentor Art Farmer. But Matheny, trained on trumpet, displays a precocious command of the bigger horn, blowing smooth and lustrous timbres and shaping unique phrases, often spare and always lyrical, in which you can hear traces of his earliest inspiration, Miles Davis. Whether exploring tender emotional nuances or cutting loose with quicker-paced romps, Matheny achieves a noble balance of cool attitude and warm sound, unforced in execution and rich in compositional and improvisational ideas. ~DERK RICHARDSON If the lushness and purity of the leader's flugelhorn tone were the only outstanding qualities of Dmitri Matheny's sophomore CD, that would be enough to recommend PENUMBRA as one of the most gorgeous mainstream jazz recordings of the year. The smooth, luminous sound and gentle tempos executed by Matheny and friends might give a deceptive "dinner jazz" gloss to the session, but a delicate harmonic complexity shapes Matheny's fine original music. Although he eloquently covers Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" and quotes Van Morrison's "Moondance" in the swinging tribute to legendary producer Orrin Keepnews, Matheny makes no facile pop or "new jazz" moves that would eclipse the fundamental beauty and understated lunacy of his vision. ~DERK RICHARDSON The first notes of this jazz debut, RED REFLECTIONS, drift up and curl in the air like smoke from a cigarette on the edge of an ashtray in some swank watering hole. They hang momentarily and then dissipate, leaving only memory traces in a void soon filled by another magical wisp. The evocative tones emanate from the flugelhorn of Dmitri Matheny, a San Francisco transplant stepping forward as one of the most eloquent musical voices in the gradually evolving mainstream of jazz. A young player with impressive academic degrees, awards, and commissions, Matheny makes feeling—from noir moods to unfettered delight—the primary source of his reflections. ~DERK RICHARDSON
(Carson County, Nevada) GRANT & MATHENY achieve a level of heartfelt communication rarely experienced in larger ensembles.
Every March, flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny organizes a series of Bay Area concerts before he sets out on a long road trip. This year's HOME SEASON schedule features an especially impressive, disparate array of performances. ~ANDREW GILBERT Dmitri Matheny's third album, STARLIGHT CAFÉ, is a ravishingly beautiful session with bass master Bill Douglass and the superb young pianist Darrell Grant. ~ANDREW GILBERT Dmitri Matheny's second release, PENUMBRA, is an exquisitely rendered, moody and reflective suite of music based around musical moon themes. ~WAYNE SAROYAN A noted composer who has received many commissions. Matheny is one of the most lyrical and creative musicians on the Bay Area jazz scene. His latest recording, PENUMBRA, is a ravishingly beautiful album of standards, pop tunes and his own finely crafted pieces, all linked by the lunar theme. ~ANDREW GILBERT Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny's music seems to have found the best of both worlds—it's as warm and appealing as Chuck Mangione's most commercial ventures, yet bares all the mastery of his mentor, Art Farmer. HORNMAN COMES HOME: Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny spends much of the year on the road, so he makes sure he has something special up his sleeve when he's working in the Bay Area. The noted composer has lined up a series of seven concerts in March, billed as his HOME SEASON. Looking to the heavens for inspiration, Matheny will perform a repertoire of linked lunar themed compositions in a series of starkly beautiful sonic vistas.
It's unusual that such a wondrous jazz moment gets caught on tape. But that's the story behind the captivating STARLIGHT CAFÉ, CD number three by rising star flugelhornist-composer bandleader Dmitri Matheny. Working with his remarkable trio of pianist Darrell Grant and bassist Bill Douglass, Matheny embarks on an exquisite ride through the cosmos, romancing and musing on his horn with balladic delicacy and gorgeous ebullience. This is dimmer-switch and candlelight music, best savored when the lights are low. Rich with improvisation and played to perfection, STARLIGHT CAFÉ gleams with rapturous jazz radiance. ~DAN OUELLETTE With resonant, soft-toned flugelhorn lines, Matheny casts a silvery blue glow over PENUMBRA, his radiant sophomore CD conceptually linked by a lunar theme.
A wonderfully lyrical flugelhornist whose clean, thoughtfully sculpted lines and warm tone bring to mind those of Art Farmer and Clark Terry. ~LEE HILDEBRAND
In their solos GRANT & MATHENY favor the "Stan Getz, less-is-more" style, striving to create a mood rather than displaying hot licks. It's hard to imagine any music more perfect for a warm, romantic summer evening.
March usually means spring, but it also means the DMITRI MATHENY HOME SEASON, a wonderful series of jazz concerts and events throughout the Bay Area. ~GEORGE POWELL RED REFLECTIONS, jazz flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny's maiden offering as a leader, is a lovely collection of tunes in the cool jazz tradition of the late, great Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and of Matheny's mentor, Art Farmer. These moody tunes, mostly composed by Matheny himself (he also covers pieces by Horace Silver and Michael Brecker) are musical tone poems far more affecting than the usual fusion static. Recommended.
Say you're a thirty-year-old flugelhorn player, and Art Farmer, the legendary master of the big horn, says your debut release "sounds so good I wish I'd made it myself." You must might have to pinch yourself. RED REFLECTIONS, the excellent debut from Dmitri Matheny, has a little bit of everything, from a serene, floating calypso reminiscent of Tony Williams' "Sister Cheryl" to burning bebop, a mid-tempo Horace Silver tune, a free association mosaic, film noir ballads, and a strutting Michael Brecker number. ~JASON OLAINE
Dmitri Matheny has the kind of flugelhorn sound that has inspired this Metheny to start spending an extra hour each day in the woodshed. It's as gorgeous and soulful as a sumptuous full moon on a breezy summer night. And that's not to mention a level of technique and fluidity that will probably end up adding another hour to this admirer's new regimen...one of the jazz world's next important flugelhorn players. ~MIKE METHENY
Playing a whole gig without a drummer takes a special kind of musicianship. This threesome pulls it off brilliantly. ~MIKE METHENY
It is a giant joy to soak and bathe in his virtuosic lyricism, clarity, savoir faire, sensitivity, and integrity. Dmitri Matheny sings on his horn, illuminating the fresh vocal quality of his instrument and improvising with imagination, witticism, and emotion. Remember his name. ~DR. HERB WONG As the past President of the International Association of Jazz Educators, I'm warmly gratified that the DMITRI MATHENY GROUP has made jazz education a prominent and vital part of their busy touring season. As a veteran jazz media producer, author and historian, I'm particularly proud that this world-class group of artists is based right here in my home, the San Francisco Bay Area. ~DR. HERB WONG
Dmitri Matheny hardly plays an unpretty note on his flugelhorn throughout STARLIGHT CAFÉ. Matheny essays ballads and mid-tempo pieces with a winning, natural lyricism...unquestionably a master. ~STEVE FUTTERMAN The debut CD of flugelhorn player Dmitri Matheny is an intricate, colorful, slowly whirling vortex that draws you in deeper with each listening. The entire CD is steeped in the shadowy mood of a rain slicked city street at night. The five original songs on RED REFLECTIONS show him to be a major talent as a composer. ~MIKE ERVIN
Matheny's composition "Whisper, Muse" adopts a reflective attitude. Its minor key and somber melody create a sense of subtle beauty. ~JIM SANTELLA The subdued sonority of the Wallace Stevens poem in the liner notes is a reflection of Matheny's similar qualities—understated, understanding, assured and explicative elegance. Legendary producer Orrin Keepnews lends decades of expertise to this fine album. The title song is especially beautiful. PENUMBRA offers innovation, maturity of style, an ensemble sensibility, a deference to influences, wit, controlled and masterful technique and evident joy. ~BILL DONALDSON
Dmitri is a very laid-back player with a gorgeous tone who speaks the language of jazz in measured eloquence. ~ROBERT TATE
Matheny has created a mysterious and compelling world where songs that touch the heart provide an escape from life's ups-and-downs and allow us to re-connect with our true spirit.
JazzTimes International Readers Poll (March, 1999) ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Wynton Marsalis, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Diana Krall BEST NEW ARTISTS: Brad Mehldau, Dmitri Matheny, Stefon Harris, Ravi Coltrane
Don't miss flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny, who hails from Northern California, as he leads a quintet at the Jazz Bakery this week. More concert space than club, the Jazz Bakery (brainchild of singer Ruth Price) offers the best big name performers for those of us who really like to listen to music rather than talk through it. We like the cool tones of flugelhornist Matheny's new release RED REFLECTIONS, and we're not alone. The disc has drawn praise from Art Farmer, perhaps the reigning master of jazz flugelhorn.
A loving concern for fine detail....it is a particular pleasure to hear an outing that mixes solid straight-ahead blowing with thoughtful composition and a subtle understanding of the crucial musical balance between sound and silences. ~DON HECKMAN A flugelhorn so cool it'll run a shiver through your martini.
With his gift for soaring lyricism, Matheny plays jazz that's emotionally open but full of mystery. ~ANDREW GILBERT One of the jazz world's most talented horn players, Dmitri Matheny is a rarity in the music world: a rising star free of ego and hubris. Matheny's mild-mannered appearance belies the smoldering passion that oozes from his horn. His recent CD, STARLIGHT CAFÉ shows off Matheny's prodigiously versatile talent and promises that San Francisco's jazz scene is well-stocked for the future.
"Dmitri Matheny's warm tone, playful nature and lyrical sensibilities add an extra dimension to SANTA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG, a collection of tried and true holiday tunes."
Dmitri Matheny's SANTA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG crossed my desk a few weeks ago, and I can't seem to keep it off my desktop CD player. It's downright refreshing. Matheny's warm tone, playful nature and lyrical sensibilities add an extra dimension and freshness to this collection of tried-and-true holiday tunes.
This is music to touch your heart. A twilight mood for lovers of leisurely paced music. Dmitri Matheny's warm pellucid sound truly encapsulates the essence of jazz. ~MARIAN MCPARTLAND
(Newport, Oregon) As part of a three-week, 18-city tour, GRANT & MATHENY will bring their intimate chamber jazz sound to the Oregon Coast this weekend. GRANT & MATHENY have appeared together on major concert stages from Carnegie Hall to the Monterey, Telluride and San Francisco jazz festivals. The classically trained duo blends the intimacy of chamber music with the spontaneous spirit of American jazz to take listeners on an inspired musical journey.
STARLIGHT CAFÉ is a real winner. Matheny mixes soulful, torchy ballads and inventive uptempo numbers with deft ease. ~CHRIS DEBENEDETTI
One of the ten best jazz releases of the year. Recorded live in Berkeley, STARLIGHT CAFÉ is an exquisite, soft-spoken album of standards and originals, ideal for quiet nights. In the company of bassist Bill Douglass and pianist Darrell Grant, Matheny savors a relaxed, reflective mood through a handful of nocturnes and standards. Matheny's velvety horn glides effortlessly above the sympathetic, sparse accompaniment of Douglass and Grant, weaving a spellbinding tapestry of sounds. ~WAYNE SAROYAN A fluid player with a reliable sense of adventure and a solid feel for jazz tradition, Dmitri Matheny has emerged in the past few years as one of the most vital talents on the Bay Area jazz scene. ~DAVE BECKER Under the guiding hand of flugelhorn player Dmitri Matheny, the DMITRI MATHENY GROUP has earned a reputation as one of the most eclectic and daring groups on the Bay Area jazz scene. As likely to borrow from classical chamber music structures as Bebop or blues, Matheny and his cohorts treat music as a fertile landscape without boundaries. ~DAVE BECKER The music on STARLIGHT CAFÉ, Matheny's live disc, is splendid—familiar standards such as "Stardust," "When Lights Are Low," Jobim's tropical "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)," and a few originals—is lush, seductive and dreamy. The album also continues Matheny's unabashed passions for all things celestial. ~WAYNE SAROYAN
Over the years, "pretty" became a dirty word in jazz circles. But players as hip as fabled saxophonist Dexter Gordon have always honed the sweet as well as the tough. When asked his musical goal, Gordon answered simply, "Why, to play pretty, of course." Into that tradition comes Dmitri Matheny, a rising young flugelhornist, composer and this year's winner of Downbeat's "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" poll. Inspired by his mentor, the great Art Farmer, Matheny's playing is lyrical, flowing and graceful. He plays pretty. A shared love for melody and a lyrical rather than percussive approach make GRANT & MATHENY a good match. Their elegant understatement should restore Beauty to its rightful position alongside Truth in the pantheon of jazz values. ~LYNN DAROCH
Ever since hearing Miles Davis at age 5, Dmitri Matheny has been in love with jazz music. He began by playing the trumpet in the dry Sonoran Desert of Arizona, a place of wondrous tranquility where Matheny was able to listen and be inspired by the beauty around him. Eventually, the Tucson Jazz Society recognized Matheny's talent and gave him a scholarship. This schooling eventually led to a successful career in jazz music. After years of trumpeting Matheny took up the flugelhorn, which allowed his music a more lugubrious sound. He is now a spectacularly popular flugelhornist who continues to bring new and innovative sounds to his field.
Dmitri Matheny has diverted his ample talent from trumpet to flugelhorn, performing beautiful Hard Bop lines with a flawless warm tone. He's an excellent performer on gentle ballads and bop scorchers alike.
A protege of the late Art Farmer, flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny works along the edge between chamber music and jazz, weaving a musical landscape found when lights are low. The lyricism of his horn work is achingly poignant. ~ANDREW GILBERT NOCTURNE is a haunting meditation on the beauty of the night. ~ANDREW GILBERT
Dmitri Matheny has matured into one of jazz's most talented horn players. ~DAN OUELLETTE North Beach Jazz Festival Review At the shrine of St. Francis of Assisi on Vallejo Street, GRANT & MATHENY (flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and pianist Darrell Grant) were playing beautiful duets in the hushed sanctuary. Standing near the relics of St. Francis and beneath Luigi Brusatori's murals depicting the saint's life, Matheny played an exquisite "Stardust" that sailed through the Gothic vaults. Standing in back was Franciscan friar Robert Ouellette. swaying to the music in his hassock and sandals. "Hearing Stardust in a church—for me it became a prayer" said brother Robert... ~JESSE HAMLIN
A true jazz visionary. Dmitri Matheny's flugelhorn is both hot and cool, wide of range, always sure of tone and brilliantly imaginative. He is a fine instrumentalist and composer with a mature understanding of jazz roots and—happily—an optimistic view of his own, and the music's future. ~PHIL ELWOOD
The first breakthrough flugelhornist since Chuck Mangione.
On the wonderful Hoagy Carmichael song "Stardust," his flugelhorn playing was warm, lyrical, wistful and perfectly suited to the lovely standard. A stellar evening. ~JIM HARRINGTON
Dmitri Matheny's lyrical approach to the flugelhorn has earned him a legion of fans.
Dmitri Matheny is among the vanguard of today's musicians who have helped propel the Bay Area jazz community onto the international scene.
Extravagantly, unashamedly, irresistibly pretty. A spirit voice that compels attention even when it whispers. Dmitri Matheny. Now you know. ~THOMAS CONRAD GRANT & MATHENY are intense listeners, sometimes anticipating and instantly echoing ideas, yet always weaving one fabric. ~THOMAS CONRAD
Like the petroglyph musician Kokopelli centuries before, Dmitri Matheny developed his horn skills in the acoustic canyons of the American Southwest. Now based in San Francisco, Matheny has broadened his career to encompass composing, educating, and bandleading one of the most eclectic and daring groups on the Bay Area jazz scene. Joining Matheny at the Telluride Jazz Celebration is Darrell Grant, who will add his dynamic, transcendent keyboard skills to this exciting date. ~KAREN METZGER
(Telluride, CO) In this spellbinding performance, jazz flugelhornist and composer Dmitri Matheny and his band weave a magical, musical tale of a little girl searching for her missing white cat on a snowy afternoon. Based on a medieval Japanese parable, THE SNOWCAT reveals the spirit of sharing and gratitude that makes the holiday season such a wonderful time of year.

I've finally found it: Dmitri Matheny's STARLIGHT CAFÉ. This is the album I've spent a lifetime looking for. ~STEPHEN SEIGEL
A fine new CD, STARLIGHT CAFÉ affirms Matheny's atavistic standing as a romantic and as a brass player who can limn slow motion ballads without referencing Miles. ~GARY GIDDINS GRANT & MATHENY (Pianist Darrell Grant and flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny) are a chamber duo modeled after the old Willie Ruff-Dwike Mitchell team, though I imagine they swing a lot harder. They are gifted technicians with lyrical streaks a mile long, capable of surprising melodic and harmonic twists. Their performance at St. Peter's Church, honoring Martin Luther King's birthday, follows a tour of dozens of concerts in Europe, Japan and around the country. ~GARY GIDDINS
(Portland, Oregon) An active part of the San Francisco jazz scene, Matheny plays the seldom-seen but versatile flugelhorn with verve and virtuosity. Not smooth, but cool, Matheny is a player in the Art Farmer school of soft-toned melodicism, with kudos coming from near and far for his radio-ready discs.