Matt Smiley: Riding the Waves of Free Jazz
A look inside the mind and work of an accomplished experimental musician.
Matt Smiley doesn’t have a lot of free time these days. As an upright bassist and third-year student in CU Boulder’s doctor of musical arts (DMA) program, he stays busy with live performances, studio recording sessions, teaching and researching.
But it’s a business that’s fueled by passion: Smiley, an experimental jazz musician, is on a mission to compose and perform original songs that push the envelope, upend musical conventions, and expand listeners’ concepts of how music can sound.
Wednesday, Oct. 27 evening, Smiley performed with the Thompson Jazz Ensemble at Grusin Hall. For the first half of the concert, the group—which featured musicians from graduate music programs at CU—played a blend of jazz classics, modern compositions, and a few original pieces by Smiley himself. The latter half of the concert, led by pianist Victor Mestas, featured a zesty and upbeat mix of Latin jazz songs.
Smiley’s compositions were creative, improvisational renditions of jazz standards that many listeners know and recognize. His first piece, inspired by the 1945 standard “Autumn Leaves,” was titled “Coffee Dreams”—a nod to the surreal melodies of the saxophones, trumpet and trombone. The bass, guitar and drums created the familiar bass notes and rhythm of “Autumn Leaves”, leaving the brass instrumentals free to meander in strange and unexpected directions. The result was a refreshing, original take on a song that’s been played many times by an array of different artists.
According to Smiley, the inspiration for these types of songs will usually comes to him spontaneously. “I have this funny idea that I got from either Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac who said something like, ‘first idea, best idea.’ That’s one part of my philosophy with composing—I try not to overthink it, and I try not to spend too much time on it. I’m more interested in writing something quickly with whatever the idea is at hand.”
Andres Orco, a guitarist and one of Smiley’s bandmates from the Thompson Jazz Ensemble, explained that at its core, this type of music is about freedom. “It’s about the ability to explore something that’s either new to you or new in general,” Orco said. “In jazz there are always new frontiers where we’re trying to push the boundary of what’s been done before.”
Challenging musical customs and traditions isn’t a new concept. According to the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, that trend started to emerge in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Popular culture and attitudes were shifting, there was a growing restlessness with the “status quo”, and numerous musicians were growing tired of the old familiar ways of playing music.
Jazz greats such as Ornette Coleman pioneered the movement towards experimental jazz (also known as free jazz), a new style of music that had no set structure and experimented with a variety of sounds and instruments. This new style was more exploratory and collaborative than other types of jazz—bands started improvising as groups rather than instead of individuals, and every musician listened and responded to what the other members of the group were playing.
To many listeners, experimental jazz can sound unusual, dissonant, and even unsettling. It’s not always easy to listen to, and it defies many people’s expectations of how music should sound. But the beauty of experimental music lies in its ability to express human feelings in a unique and surprising way. When given the freedom to express themselves outside of traditional musical structures, musicians can play in a way that’s much more raw and emotive.
Annie Booth, an experimental jazz pianist from Denver, said, “What’s so great about improvised music is it’s unknown, it’s unscripted, and anything can happen. You really have to be listening and you have to be willing for anything to happen. It’s a really pure form of creation, because if you come into the scenario with preconceptions about how the music is supposed to sound, you’re not quite doing it right.”
Smiley didn’t always know he wanted to be an experimental musician, but he’s loved music ever since he was young. “I was always kind of fascinated with music as a kid,” he said. “The first thing I got really into was singing—I remember doing a lot of choir and vocal stuff, and starting off on drums as my first instrument. When I was in middle school, even before I started playing, I was buying CDs and cassette tapes and singing along.”
He began playing guitar at age 14. In high school, he pivoted to playing electric bass because, as it turned out, there were already multiple guitarists in the band he joined. Although at first he played bass out of necessity, he grew to love it, eventually transitioning to playing the upright bass, and became passionate enough about the instrument to study it in college.
ADERTISEMENT
The bass is easy to overlook—despite its large and impressive stature, it’s quieter and less flashy than other instruments. It often doesn’t get as much attention as the louder and more prominent piano, guitar, or brass section of a band. But the bass serves a crucial function: it acts as a rhythmic and harmonic anchor. It provides a structure and backbone for songs, and in many ways, it sets the tone of a piece.
Much like the bass itself, Smiley isn’t one to seek the spotlight or draw too much attention to himself. He sees it as his mission not to be the center of attention, but to make the rest of the band sound great.
Booth, who is also a longtime friend of Smiley’s, described him as “generous, both inside and outside of music.” When he’s playing music, she said, Smiley is always listening to the other musicians and letting them express themselves before adding his own piece.
“In conversations, there are those people who interrupt you or wait until you’re done talking to say something—the same thing exists in music,” Booth said. “Matt is the opposite of that; he waits and listens for you to tell the full story before adding what he has to say.”
Orco, who has collaborated with Smiley numerous times, echoed Booth’s sentiment. “He’s very down-to-earth and accepting of whatever is coming his way,” said Orco. “That kind of flexibility definitely comes through in his music.”
This easygoing, flexible approach to playing music also comes through in Smiley’s compositions. Instead of prescribing notes and chords for other band members to play, he gives them the basic structure and key of a song and allows the other musicians to add their own improvisations. “He’s a proponent of giving people the ability to be themselves,” Orco added.
Smiley’s unassuming manner belies the magnitude of what he’s accomplished as a musician. Over the two decades of his career, he’s recorded over 30 albums, collaborated with musicians around the globe and taught internationally.
Currently, he’s working on a new album that melds electronic music with improvisational jazz, inspired by Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series. After he finishes his DMA degree, Smiley is looking to teach music at the college level, although he might someday go on to pursue a Ph.D. in musicology.
But perhaps it’s precisely Smiley’s laid-back attitude and humble nature that enables him to be so successful. Booth said, “Matt is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. I’ve met a lot of creative people, but he stands out as one of the most creative because he shows up with no expectation of how things are supposed to sound. He’s like, ‘I’m down to ride this wave to wherever this music is meant to go.'”
Of course, “riding the wave” is not as easy as it sounds. It means surrendering a certain amount of control, which is a form of grace that few have mastered. But to many who know him, Smiley exemplifies the raw creativity that can emerge when musicians are able to step back and allow the music to unfold.
