Matt Dickey: Try This At Home

Try This At Home is an apt title for the debut CD from New York City-based jazzman Matt Dickey, as it was written, recorded, engineered and produced in his basement studio. A project four years in the making, it’s 13 instrumental tracks of old-school acid-jazz, Afro-beat, and flat out funky soul. Many of the tracks feature the steady hands of drummer Adam Deitch, founding member of Lettuce. Opener “Don’t Slip” rides on a slick guitar groove before the four-piece horn section kicks in with a Latin flare. Interspersed throughout the album are “Late Night Part I”, “Late Night Part II” and “Late Night Part III”, movements in a sultry, ambient and dark guitar and keyboard jam. The mellow, solo guitar improvisation of “A Minor Invention” is followed up with the upbeat and funky, “Follow Me”, which again features Deitch and the horns. While the fluid keyboards lead the way, it’s the horns, which swirl and intertwine themselves in the grooves, that stand out. There is an atmosphere of a dimly lit jazz club on “Flyin’ Low,” while the 13-minute closer “Bright Idea/Something Else” begins as another swank jazz affair before veering off into more abstract and progressive keyboard and percussion beats. Try This At Home is a fine debut and will please the ear of most any fan of modern jazz.