He arranges songs and solves problems
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Saturday, December 7, 2024


He arranges songs and solves problems
Jazz musician Matthew Garrison plays the bass in Brooklyn, N.Y. on July 24, 2022. Garrison codes, composes, performs and produces as he pushes the boundaries of music. Danielle Amy/The New York Times.



NEW YORK, NY.- Jazz bass player Matthew Garrison doesn’t like to slow down. “I’m always thinking, doing,” he said.

As a performer, he has toured with Herbie Hancock and has upcoming shows with pianist Jason Moran, drummer Jack DeJohnette and others. But most days, he is focused on producing music events through ShapeShifter Lab and its nonprofit arm, ShapeShifter Plus. He also created the Tunebend app, which facilitates virtual collaborating and recording among musicians.

Garrison, who is the son of Jimmy Garrison, the bassist for John Coltrane, seems to like pushing boundaries in the jazz world.

“I’m really tired of the stagnant music scene, where this club only books a certain type of band and that club only books musicians that play this genre,” he said.

For a decade, Garrison ran a performance space in Gowanus, Brooklyn, also called the ShapeShifter Lab, but it closed last year. Soon, he will open a new venue.

“My new space will be a place for performers, those genius rejects, who would not otherwise be able to play in the city.”

Garrison, 52, lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his business partner, Fortuna Sung, 51.

Dark and Quiet: Time has been wonky post-pandemic. It sounds horrible, but sometimes I wake up as early as 4 a.m. I get a lot of work out of the way. I code for my apps, including Tunebend, and organize things on my computer for a few hours because everyone is asleep. There’s no one around calling, texting or bugging you.




Caffeinated Nap: I might have some coffee and a light breakfast. I have a weird relationship with coffee these days. It doesn’t keep me awake. I now use coffee as a sleep aid. I don’t know how that works. So after I work for a few hours and drink some coffee, I often go back to sleep.

Working Weekend: I wake up again around 9 or 10 a.m., and I’ll have another cup of coffee. The music industry is a 24-hour thing. I communicate with folks in Europe and Japan all the time, so my weekends don’t count as a day off. I have to divide my work hours and devote certain days to my three ventures to get everything done. On Sundays, I try to get to the stuff I couldn’t do during the weekday. But I make a mess if I multitask too much.

Steps: Then I might compose for several hours. Or I go take a walk in Prospect Park or zigzag through neighborhood streets. Sometimes I venture out into Gowanus and Carroll Gardens. Fortuna says I walk too fast, but I need to get my heart rate up. My body is telling me I need it.

Song Layers: I listen to music on Tunebend while I walk. I listen to see how all the bits and pieces that were recorded can become layers in a song. You can swap out different performers for the same part, so I do a lot of listening and rearranging. But I’m also interacting with the app as a user to see if anything needs to be tweaked. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but this is how I decompress.

Piecing It Together: When you’re coding or composing music, you’re problem-solving. You’re in continuous research mode to figure out why something is done in a particular way. In the jazz world, there’s so much that you have to know and be able to play in a fraction of a second. In coding, you also have to remember all these bits and pieces to build something. The only difference between the two worlds is the pay!

New Space: I finally got the keys to a new performance space that we’ll open by the end of the year. So far, I’ve done a livestream workshop on how to use the Tunebend app, but I’m gearing up for a lot of fundraising so we can put on shows and events for all types of musicians here.

Sustenance: We get our errands done in the neighborhood, including groceries from the Park Slope Food Co-op. Fortuna, whose family is from Hong Kong, is the better cook. Her family owned and operated many restaurants, so she knows her way around a kitchen. When we eat out, it might be Japanese or Thai. Today we had dinner with my mom at Littleneck.

Old-People Time: After dinner, I’ll watch TV or read. I’m news-centric: There’s so much stuff to keep up with, which makes me understand how I can make this world a better place. I also like tech stuff, like articles about the newest plug-ins for music software. My mom still scolds me that all my reading is done on a screen. Now I’m on old-people time; I’m in bed by 9 or 10 p.m.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

August 15, 2022

What would Donald Judd do?

Manifesta 14 Prishtina has been open for three weeks, with impressive visitor numbers

Exhibition features works rarely exhibited during Luchita Hurtado's lifetime

Pace presents an exhibition of music photography by artists

National Air and Space Museum will open renovated West End Oct. 14

The Currier Museum of Art announces acquisition of Gee's Bend quilts

Timothy Taylor Gallery invites viewers to reconsider the domestic spaces and images around us

Foam presents an exhibition by self-taught photographer Mous Lamrabat

Library acquires original artwork by children's author Vera B. Williams

Carmel Allen appointed Managing Director of Tate

Free survey exhibition featuring new and recent work by 19 contemporary artists and collectives

'Queensland to a T' celebrating 120 years of the State Library of Queensland

Library of Congress appoints leaders to advance discovery and preservation of collections

Parafin opens Hiraki Sawa's third exhibition with the gallery

MFA St. Petersburg opens new exhibition, 'Multiple: Prince Twins Seven-Seven'

Jordan Nassar's first exhibition in Boston opens at ICA/Boston

Vivien Green Fryd awarded the 34th annual Eldredge Prize

The art of making garden rooms

The queen of slow fashion on the art of a slow exit

In the Mile High City, festivals and food are on the rise

He arranges songs and solves problems

Soda pop or ice cream soda? Morphy's Aug. 23-25 auction series lines up sweet advertising treats

An orchestra supports Ukraine, and reunites a couple parted by war

Zofia Posmysz, who wrote of life in concentration camps, dies at 98

No Deposit Bonus: What You Need to Know




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful