Matt Perrine
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About
By the time he was twelve, California native Matt Perrine was an accomplished trombonist, bassist (upright and electric), and arranger, and before he graduated from high school he'd played with the Artie Shaw Orchestra and other well-known jazz luminaries.
Since he move to New Orleans in 1992 Matt has become a staple – and an innovator – in the city's music community, a triple threat on sousaphone, upright, and electric bass. His skills, versatility, and musical sensibilities make him a sought-after musician throughout New Orleans and around the globe.
Matt's versatility extends from jazz, rock, and reggae to avant-garde, Dixieland, Latin, swing, or funk, on either electric or stand-up bass, tuba, or sousaphone. He is also an arranger and bandleader, and has been closely involved with the musical Nine Lives and as a performer and consultant to the HBO series Treme.
Downbeat magazine calls Matt a "virtuoso sousaphone player" and it is for that instrument and the tuba that he is best known and most prodigious. Matt’s 2007 release, Sunflower City was one of the first for the highly-acclaimed Threadhead Records label, the progenitor of crowd-funded artistic projects. Sunflower City was named “Best CD of 2007” by WWOZ-FM. With his Sunflower City Band, comprised of a host of New Orleans all-stars, Matt released the follow-up Bayou Road Suite in 2010, also on Threadhead.
Matt is co-founder of The New Orleans Nightcrawlers, acting as tubist, chief composer and arranger, as well as producer of their first eponymously titled recording and co-producer of their third, Live at the Old Point, and their latest release on Threadhead Records, Slither Slice. Combining brass band, jazz and funk elements, and for the past 15 years the Nightcrawlers have garnered local awards, toured domestic and European festival circuits and produced four recordings which sell internationally.
He is also a founding member of the Tin Men, along with songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Alex McMurray and local phenom "Washboard Chaz" Leary. The Tin Men's first release, Super Great Music for Modern Lovers, was nominated by the Big Easy Awards committee for Album of the Year.
Matt has also performed and recorded with OK-Go, The Indigo Girls, Pete Fountain, Stanton Moore, Ray Anderson, Bonerama, Better Than Ezra, Bruce Hornsby, Nicholas Payton and Howard Johnson's tuba ensemble, Gravity, as well as with Ellis and Branford Marsalis, Lillian and John Boutte, Kermit Ruffins, Royal Fingerbowl, Alex McMurray, All That, The Johnny Vidacovich Trio, the Danza Quartet featuring Tom McDermott and Evan Christopher, Henry Butler, Leigh "Li'l Queenie" Harris, Paul Sanchez's Rolling Road Show, Sista Teedy and Cool Riddums, Aaron and Charles Neville, Jason Marsalis, Debbie Davis, and Neslort.
Matt is an active educator and clinician, and is closely involved with the New Orleans Young Audiences program and with traditional jazz camps. He's been repeatedly commissioned by Copenhagen's Rhythmik Music Conservatory and its sister school in Aahus, Denmark, to give academic and performance clinics on brass band music.
Today Matt Matt's Sunflower City band plays regularly around New Orleans, both privately and publicly. He also continues to play in the New Orleans Nightcrawlers, the Danza Quartet, the Hot Club of New Orleans, and with Paul Sanchez and many other local bands.