PORT TOWNSEND — Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quartet will perform Jazz From The Silver Screen at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The show will be at the Cellar Door, 940 Water St., Suite 1.
Admission is $10.
Winner of “Northwest Instrumentalist of the Year” honors in the recent Seattle Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Awards, Matheny will lead an all-star ensemble. Joining Matheny will be a who’s-who of Seattle’s finest: Milo Petersen on guitar, Joe Vasquez on bass and Rob Rushing on drums.
Showcasing favorite movie themes from the 1930s to the present day, the program includes music from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), “An Affair to Remember” (1957), “Black Orpheus” (1959), “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), “Days of Wine and Roses” (1962), “The Sandpiper” (1965), “The Godfather” (1972), “The Long Goodbye” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Round Midnight” (1986) and “Manchester by the Sea” (2016).
Praised for his warm tone, soaring lyricism and masterful technique, Matheny has been lauded as “one of the most emotionally expressive improvisers of his generation” by the International Review of Music.
An honors graduate of Berklee College of Music, Matheny vaulted onto the jazz scene in the 1990s as the protégé of jazz legend Art Farmer. Since then he has garnered a loyal international following, releasing 11 CDs and touring extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
The San Francisco Chronicle calls Matheny “one of the jazz world’s most talented horn players.”
Born on Christmas Day 1965 in in Nashville, Tenn., Matheny was raised in Georgia and Arizona. Attracted to his father’s collection of jazz and classical LP records, Dmitri began piano lessons at age 5 and switched to the trumpet at age 9.
Matheny attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, then the Berklee College of Music in Boston, form which he graduated magna cum laude in 1989.
After private studies with Carmine Caruso in New York City, Matheny became Farmer’s protégé, a relationship that lasted over a decade.
Farmer — “the bebop master who defined the sound of the flugelhorn in modern jazz,” according to the All Music Guide — was Matheny’s public champion and private mentor. It was Farmer who encouraged Matheny to devote himself exclusively to the “Big Horn.”
At 29, after launching a busy recording career on the West Coast, Matheny made his New York debut at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, then began touring internationally.
The soulful sound of Dmitri’s horn garnered praise from critics and audiences alike, drawing frequent comparisons to Miles Davis, Chet Baker and — not surprisingly — to Farmer.
Upon Farmer’s death in 1999, Matheny acquired his mentor’s copper-bell flugelhorn. Today, he leads the Dmitri Matheny Group.
Matheny has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
He has traveled to 19 countries and has performed with many Motown and popular music acts including the Temptations, Martha Reeves, Fabian, the Four Tops, Bobby Vinton, Sandy Patty, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon and the O’Jays.
For more information, call 360-385-6959 or see https://www.cellardoorpt.com/.
