Matt Kendrick
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Matt Kendrick (1 April 1957–) is a double bassist and composer. Born in Greenville, North Carolina, U.S., he currently lives in Winston-Salem. Kendrick graduated from High School in Winston-Salem, where his family moved in 1961, before attending the North Carolina School of the Arts for three years.
He then moved to New York City, where he became immersed in much avant garde jazz music. From there, he move to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he studied under Jerry Coker and, for a time, played with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's bass section.
Kendrick is currently an instructor at Wake Forest University in Electric Bass and Jazz Improvisation.
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[edit] Music
Matt Kendrick has produced and recorded five CDs with his band, the Matt Kendrick Unit, four on his own label, Suitcase Music, and one on Ichiban Records. These releases contain over forty compositions by Kendrick himself, and have received air play and critical acclaim across the United States.
Other than his own band, which plays in functions across the South-West of the United States, Matt has recently played with Marian McPartland, Ernie Watts, Gene Bertoncini and JoAnne Brackeen, the last of whom guest starred with the Matt Kendrick Unit. He has also performed alongside Archie Shepp and Jaki Byard at Secca in Winston-Salem.
Matt Kendrick has also written music for film - his credits include The Dark Power (starring Lash LaRue, The Darien Gap (2nd Place at the Sundance Festival) and Weather or Not.
[edit] Grants and Fellowships
Kendrick has also won many grants and fellowships. The most well-recognised of these is the North Carolina Jazz Composers Fellowship, which he has won twice (the only person to have ever done so twice), in 1988 and 1994. This prize, of five to eight thousand dollars, has facilitated much of his recorded output.
[edit] Discography
[edit] With the Matt Kendrick Unit
- Bass City (1988)
- Unity & Alienation (1991)
- Art Jazz (1995) - recommended by an editor of Cadence Magazine as a CD pick of the year.
[edit] Others
- Other Aspects (1992) - recorded with pianist Fred Hersch
- The Omen Seeker (1995) by the Al Neese Quintet, featuring Matt Kendrick
