TalamanaTĀLAMANA: Jim Matus, Latvian singer Laila Salins, world music percussionist, Shane Shanahan (Silk Road Project) and renowned kantele player, Timo Väänänen. Jim and Laila composed and arranged music for the Amber Road Project , which toured in Latvia in 2014 as part of the European Union "Capitals of Culture" celebration. The name of the group draws from the Indian rhythm concept of tāla - which also means “distant” in Latvian - both deriving from Sanskrit roots. (below, performing as a trio at the legendary Old Schoolhouse performance space, Hadley, MA.) MATUS RANERI DUET
Perform Jim's compositions arranged for laoutar and drums - combining jazz, Eastern and jam music - lyric melodies accompanied by rich harmonies and trance-like rhythms, reminiscent of McLaughlin's Shakti or early acoustic Zeppelin. YOUR REAL PARENTS
A progressive pop music collaboration with the visionary vocalist and lyricist Galen Brandt, begun in 1984. My band Noise R Us (seen below) - part of New York's legendary No Wave scene in the 1980's
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MawwalMAWWAL is a spirited acoustic/electric ensemble that performs original progressive music, beautiful trance-inducing world fusion and original arrangements of traditional Middle Eastern music in what has been called a "new genre" by Progression Magazine. Members: Jim Matus: guitar, laoutar, vocalist, composer; Jill O'Brien, vocals; Joe O'Brien, bass; Nur Habib, percussion, plus a variety of traditional guest musicians.
PARANOISE (Paranoise video seen above)
a bit of history: In 1980 in NYC I formed the band Noise R Us, Guitar, bass and drums with a 4 piece sax section and a wild and crazy vocalist. It was called 'punk funk', 'punk jazz' 'jazz metal' and many other things. We played the Downtown scene for about 3 years and for some forgotten reason the live band fell apart. Later in 1986 the core members Lloyd Fonoroff, Mickey Ortiz and myself recorded an album that was picked up by Island Records, and in Steely Dan fashion with NY studio musicians Anthony Jackson, Percy Jones, Lenny Pickett and others we released Constant Fear. Later in 1992 we released Start a New Race on Ozone Records, also a studio project. In 1999 after moving to Hartford CT I reformed the band with a new set of amazing local players and performed live once again as a brand new genre, 'Progressive World Fusion'. We recorded 2 albums on my own label Ancient Records, Private Power and Ishq. This band had very leftist/progressive political messaging and included loops and samples from various artists as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Master Musicians Of Jajouka. We also incorporated speeches by such people as Noam Chomsky and Terrence McKenna. This band also fell apart for a reason unremembered and from it, the band Mawwal was born........... NESTED DRIFT
Jazz fusion compositions by Larry Derdeyn, produced by Jim Matus. Larry derdeyn-keyboards, loops, voice; Jim Matus-guitar, baritone guitar; Greg Conte- basses, guitars, devices; Liviu Pop-drums; Tony Vacca-percussion. |