Flugelhorn, Cornet and Alto Clarinet player, composer and musical storyteller Matt Lavelle is a prominent member of the downtown music community in NYC. Playing Jazz in NYC since 1993, Lavelle has toured Europe 6 times to date. He began his music career with Hildred Humphries, a swing era veteran who played with Count Basie and Billie Holiday. In 2005, Lavelle began study with jazz legend Ornette Coleman, which had a tremendous transformational impact on him and led to his adding the alto clarinet as another voice. Lavelle was also instrumental in the recent resurgence of Jazz man Giuseppi Logan, an underground legend of the ‘60’s who had been missing for over 30 years, playing on and producing his comeback record.
In 2011 Lavelle created his 12 Houses Orchestra, comprised mostly of musicians he has collaborated with over a 20 year period in New York City. The 12 Houses has recorded for Unseen Rain and have performed ten concerts in New York City. In 2015 Lavelle co-leads an internationally acclaimed duo that he created called Harrmoldic Monk, which applies Ornette Coleman’s philosophy to the music of Thelonious Monk. He is also a member of the improvising, spontaneous composition trio entitled Sumari. Both of these projects have also recorded for Unseen Rain.
With over 15 appearances as a sideman on record, Lavelle has also released five records as a leader: Handling the Moment (2002), Trumpet Rising, Bass Clarinet Moon (2004), Spiritual Power (2006), Manifestation Drama (2009), and Goodbye New York, Hello World (2011) . In addition, Lavelle is a prolific blogger and writer. He published his first book, New York City Subway Drama and Beyond in 2011. Most recently, in 2013 Lavelle published a second book called The Jazz Musician’s Tarot Deck. Lavelle’s acclaimed blog That Fat Eb feels Mahagony to Me is currently under construction into transtion of a new website/blog called No Sound Left Behind.