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DMITRI MATHENY

  • NEWS
  • ABOUT
    • Bio
    • Awards
    • DMG
    • Beleza!
    • Horn
    • Commissions
  • MUSIC
    • DM Radio
  • EDUCATION
    • Lessons
    • Classes
    • Workshops
  • TOUR
    • Tour Support
    • Touring History
  • BLOG
  • MEDIA
    • Radio
    • Videos
    • Press Kit
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Newsletters
    • Quotes
  • DISCOGRAPHY
    • 2022 Cascadia
    • 2016 Jazz Noir
    • 2014 Sagebrush Rebellion
    • 2010 Grant & Matheny
    • 2008 Best of Dmitri Matheny
    • 2007 Spiritu Sancto
    • 2006 The SnowCat
    • 2005 Nocturne
    • 2000 Santa's Got a Brand New Bag
    • 1998 Starlight Cafe
    • 1996 Penumbra
    • 1995 Red Reflections
  • SHOP
  • CONTACT

JAZZIZ

Dmitri Matheny Starlight Café (Monarch)
Fall 1998
Review by Steve Futterman

Dmitri Matheny hardly plays an unpretty note on his flugelhorn throughout Starlight Café (Monarch). Dexterously, if discretely, accompanied by pianist Darrell Grant and bassist Bill Douglass, Matheny essays ballads and mid-tempo pieces with a winning, natural lyricism. For a player like Matheny, finding the most comely and voluptuous of notes and weaving them into mellow phrases is the very passion of jazz. There’s a treacherously thin line between genuine sweetness and banality, yet Matheny doesn’t even come within earshot of that border.

He’s also a smart judge of repertoire. Amid the more obvious choices of standards — "Stardust,” “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “When Lights Are Low” — and his own engaging compositions, Matheny also casts a discerning eye on three superb jazz originals: “Twilight World” by Marian McPartland, “Saturn’s Child” by Joe Locke, and “Spring Skylight” by Darrell Grant.  The value of a great ear can never be underestimated. And while no one’s about to mistake him for, say, Art Farmer, this instrumentalist/entrepreneur (Matheny runs Monarch Records) is unquestionably a master of his own refined territory.

©1996-2022 Dmitri Matheny. All Rights Reserved.
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