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Members > MattLem
Instrument(s)
Piano
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Vocalist
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Synthesizer
Information
Location
Houston, TX New Orleans, LA
Occupation
musician
Music That Inspires Me
none entered
Films I'll Watch More Than Once
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About
Influenced by the music he heard while growing up in New Orleans, Matt Lemmler is an accomplished jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Born in 1967 and raised in the lower 9th Ward, blocks away from the home of Fats Domino, Matt remembers a childhood where music filled the house. Matt, his brothers, Richard and Michael, and his father, Richard, Sr., a retired professional musician, played piano and trumpet day and night. The dining room was eventually converted into a rehearsal room, where he would practice with high school combos, rock & roll garage bands, and professional gigging musicians. This lifestyle was normal to him, and he didn’t realize until later in life that other families in the neighborhood didn’t live the same way. His parents were open-minded and supportive in allowing their boys to have free reign to explore and create music. The only rule set down by his mother was that the music had to stop at 10pm so the neighbors wouldn’t call the cops.
Matt’s teenage years were spent playing trumpet in the school marching & concert bands and piano in the jazz bands. During this period, his high school music directors began giving him more responsibility to write for the school bands, and arranging and composing became his focus. He studied arranging with Grammy award-winning arranger, Tony Klatka and jazz piano with Ellis Marsalis, jazz patriarch of the Marsalis family. These early and influential mentors inspired a young boy to pursue and dedicate his life’s work as a professional jazz musician.
During college, he was the house pianist for a jam session at New Orleans premier jazz club, Snug Harbor. He played with many local jazz artists such as Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Jr., James Black, George Porter, Jr., Charmaine Neville, Harry Connick, Jr., Rick Margitza, Nicholas Payton, Wess Anderson, Jon Cowherd and many others.
After completing his Bachelor’s degree at Loyola University in 1990, Lemmler moved to New York City, where he received his Master’s Degree in Jazz Performance & Composition in 1992 from The Manhattan School of Music. While living in NYC, he studied with jazz pianists Kenny Werner & Harold Danko. Matt composed and arranged many original works, some of which he performed in Europe and debuted at Carnegie Hall. He stayed on in NYC and arranged and/or performed with many of the jazz greats - Chris Potter, Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman, Matt Wilson, Joel Frahm and many others, until deciding to move back to his hometown of New Orleans in 1994.
Shortly after returning home, he was hired as pianist for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical, The Phantom of the Opera, and toured the US for 4 years before returning home to work with New Orleans jazz legend, Pete Fountain.
In 2000, Lemmler set out to pursue his own projects and recorded his first CD, Portraits of Wonder, a New Orleans jazz tribute to the music of Stevie Wonder. Portraits of Wonder produced by Tracey Freeman (Harry Connick, Jr.), garnered national attention and performed to sold out audiences featuring noted artists Brian Blade, John Ellis, and Nicholas Payton.
“It takes remarkable ears for an arranger to shape something altogether new out of tunes so deeply impressed in the public consciousness.” Downbeat Magazine
“Sumptuous arrangements that brilliantly recontextualize Wonder’s music with sparkling piano accompaniment.”
JazzTimes Magazine
“Contemporary jazz pianist Lemmler earned a truckload of kudos for his innovative CD, which recast gems from the Stevie Wonder songbook into elegant modern jazz showcases. Lemmler's tasteful work on the ivories and superb horn arrangements makes this CD a keeper."
New Orleans Times Picayune/Best of New Orleans-Critic's pick for New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
“Lemmler hits higher musical ground by recasting and rearranging 10 Wonder compositions into graceful pieces for a nine-piece jazz ensemble.”
Gambit Weekly
“A fresh, skillfully rendered take on a very familiar body of work.” . . . “This is a jazz record, the jazz vibe brings out the elegance of Wonder’s music.” . . . New Orleans Times Picayune
“One of the year's most compelling local jazz releases.” Critic's Choice - Top 10 Louisiana CD's of 2001
In 2004, Lemmler was commissioned to arrange and conduct for French pop star, Dany Brillant. Brillant’s fascination with New Orleans inspired him to record A La Nouvelle Orleans in the Big Easy using members of Harry Connick, Jr.’s big band. A La Nouvelle Orleans went Platinum Gold in Europe.
While teaching jazz piano and arranging at both Loyola University and University of New Orleans, Lemmler was recommended by Ellis Marsalis to replace him upon his retirement as full-time Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of New Orleans. In August 2005, after accepting the tenure track position at UNO, fate stepped in, and Hurricane Katrina changed his life forever. He evacuated to Houston, Texas where he was working within two weeks as pianist for Tommy’s Seafood Steakhouse.
After the huge success of Lemmler and Brillant’s first collaboration, Matt was hired, once again, by Brillant, in August 2006, to serve as his musical director for his next CD, Histoire d'Un Amour. On this project, Lemmler arranged & conducted for a 16 piece big band and 30 piece orchestra featuring 60’s/70’s pop cover tunes. The original plan was to record in Paris, New York, or Los Angeles, but because New Orleans was still reeling from the devastation of Katrina, Lemmler hoped recording in New Orleans would bring new life and hope to his hometown. Lemmler believes this was the first major recording session done in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.
As a way to work through his grief over the tragedy of Katrina, in the spring of 2006, Matt decided to go into the studio and record his next CD, a compilation of classic New Orleans standards. The Music of New Orleans is a soulful and heart-rending tribute to his beloved city and to all the New Orleans musicians, past and present, which influenced him and his music. Most importantly, The Music of New Orleans is dedicated to his fellow New Orleanians who lost their lives and to those who have survived and continue to press on to rebuild a city like no other. The Music of New Orleans was recorded in Houston and New Orleans, featuring instrumentalists and vocalists both from Houston and New Orleans.
In January 2006, Matt was hired as musical director for Tommy’s Seafood Steakhouse, where he has elevated the restaurant and jazz club into one of Houston’s leading venues for live jazz. Top notch players from New Orleans, New York, and Houston perform nightly.
“A perfect synergy of food and music. You can hear the best jazz players in Houston . . . highly recommend eating dinner in the lounge at Tommy’s Seafood Steakhouse on Westheimer.”
Houston Press
Matt Lemmler is considered to be one of the most original jazz pianists to recently emerge from the birthplace of jazz.
