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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Founded in the late 1990s in Boston by saxophonist Matt Steckler with three
fellow saxophonists
(also on flutes and clarinets)
and a rhythm section,
Dead Cat Bounce straddled the border between
Charles Mingus' cerebral hard bop
and the
World Saxophone Quartet on
Lucky by Association (Chonsky, 1998),
Terms of use (Chonsky, 2001) and
Home Speaks to the Wandering (Innova, 2004).
Chance Episode (Cuneiform, 2011) is more than just a display of
call and response among the four reeds (the leader, Charlie Kohlhase, Terry Goss, and Jared Sims).
It actually boasts a complex landscape:
the melodies implanted in the geometric Food Blogger,
the neoclassical flute of Salvation & Doubt,
the martial and sinister Tourvan Confessin',
and especially the feverish and pan-ethnic Township Jive Revisited.
The longer pieces also allow for narrative liberties.
Far From The Matty Crowd is de facto a multi-part suite framed by two
propulsive and fanfare-like movements via
an ethereal intermezzo and a witty cabaret-style parody.
The chameleo-like Salon Sound Journal blends big-band swing, a
pastoral flute solo, a dancing Latin rhythm, post-rock doodling, and a hard
bopping finale.
The pensive and chromatic Bio Dyno Man that bounces back like a rubber band when one least expects it.
The leitmotiv of
Silent Movie Russia 1995 sounds like a melancholy soundtrack of the
1960s, before a circus-like clarinet pushes it into playful and irreverent
Frank Zappa-esque territory.
After Dead Cat Bounce disbanded,
Matt Steckler launched a new project with
Persiflage (2005), featuring Lonnie Plaxico (bass), Pheeroan Aklaff (drums), and Michael Cain (piano).
He then used the moniker Matty Stecks for several albums:
Night Cravings (april 2012), with Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Todd Neufeld (guitars), Dave Ambrosio (bass), and Satoshi Takeishi (drums & percussion);
Long Time Ago Rumble (april 2019), with Keith Price (guitars), Matt Kozicki (basses), Eric Platz (drums and percussion), Leanne Zacharias (cello), Catherine Wood (clarinet), Jeff Presslaff (piano & keyboards), and the vocalists Megan Demarest, Hannah Fearn and Lenya Wilks;
the solo EP Matteleine (june 2021);
Garden Variety (july 2022), with Jeff Presslaff (piano), Eric Platz (drums) and James Hamilton (bass).
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