The Debut Album by Matt Shulman "So It Goes"

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Hailed by the New York Times as "A new voice from jazz's emerging generation", by fans as "Miles Davis meets Radiohead. A Chet Baker for the new millennium", and by DownBeat as "Zen-like", trumpeter and vocalist Matt Shulman combines intimate vocals with virtuosic trumpet playing and atmospheric electronics to create his signature sound. The nine tracks on SO IT GOES, Matt's first release with Jaggo Records, favor an adventurous jazz/pop feel, ranging from Matt's highly distinctive original material to the standards "My Funny Valentine" and J.S. Bach's "Air For The G String."

"My singing is really coming from more of an alternative rock singer and songwriter place than from a jazz background", Matt says. "My trumpet playing is very rooted in the jazz tradition, but I've listened to a lot more "rock vocalists than jazz vocalists when I recorded SO IT GOES, I was listening to a lot of Thom Yorke and Magnet."

Since his move to New York in 1997, Matt Shulman has steadily become one of the storied city's first-call instrumental soloists. Matt made his Carnegie Hall main stage debut as featured guest soloist with the New York Pops Orchestra in 2002, and was named Jazz Artist of the Year by the 2003 Independent Music Awards, earning him international acclaim for taking the trumpet to exciting new places through his highly expressive sound and pioneering approaches including simultaneous use of vocals and electronics with his trumpet.

"I started singing and playing the trumpet simultaneously about a year after I moved to New York", says Matt. "A trombone player friend of mine showed me the (multiphonic) technique, and although not many trumpet players have developed it, I took to it pretty much right away. I use it as a means for delineating harmony within the structure of a song, as opposed to merely as a sound effect. In this way I can play three-note 'chords' and counterpoint on the trumpet, functioning in my trio kind of like a pianist or guitar player does, or even like a solo violinist does. I grew up listening to my father play a lot of the Bach solo violin repertoire, so that approach is always somewhere in my sound. The electronics entered organically when I started using a stage monitor to amplify the multiphonics in live performance, then eventually added some reverb and delay for ambiance, and a loop pedal for layering."

Matt's spirit of experimentation and innovation can also be found in his development of the ShulmanSystem for Trumpet, a device he patented for eliminating detrimental embouchure pressure and body tension, endorsed today by Matt and his top trumpet player peers.

Matt has earned numerous prizes and awards for his music, including winning 1st Place in the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition, winning 1st Place in the National Jazz Trumpet Competition, being named a Runner-up in the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, and winning the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award. Matt holds a Bachelor's of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Master's of Music from New York University, which he attended on fellowship through the Alberto Vilar Global Fellowship in the Performing Arts.

Possessing a rare combination of traditional and progressive aesthetics, Matt has toured internationally, recorded and/or collaborated with such diverse artists as Brad Mehldau, Ethan Iverson and Reid Anderson from The Bad Plus, Musiq Soulchild, Super Furry Animals, The Jazz Mandolin Project, Robert Sadin, John Medeski from MMW, Kenny Werner, the Complexions Dance Company, Skitch Henderson, and Nneena Freelon. His work as a soloist has been featured on NBC's Saturday Night Live, the nationally syndicated Showtime Channel, and as both soloist and composer at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Classically trained (Mark Gould of the Juilliard School) as well as in jazz, Matt has given New York and world premiers of Edward Green's "Concerto in C", Marcello Toledo's "Solitude of the World", Timothy Newman's "Intervention", and his own "Works for Trumpet."

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