Please note: most of the bold text on this page is linked. Click it!

(relatively) Recent Press: Writer Gordon Marshall wrote this nice article/interview on me at allaboutjazz.com.

• May 23rd (Thursday) 8:30 PM, I will be playing in a trio with Dei Xhrist, voice & electronics and Mike Fun, synth, at the 119 Gallery in Lowell MA. Also appearing: Unpopular Scientists (Reed Altimus and Josh Ronson).
   
• May 30th (Thursday) 9 pm, with Mission Creep at The Milky Way, Jamaica Plain MA. Also appearing: Machine 475.
   
• June 1st (Saturday) 8:30 PM, I will be playing in a couple of randomly-selected improv groupings at Flestivus in an undisclosed Chinatown location. Also appearing: TBD. I couldn’t possibly give you less information, right? (Email me for details.)
   
• June 6th (Thursday) 8:30 PM, I will be playing in a trio with Walter Wright, percussion & electronics and Junko Fujiwara, cello, at the 119 Gallery in Lowell MA. Also appearing: David Schnug/Travis Reuter/Dave Miller (NYC), Rock Flint Ensemble (Boston).
   
• June 8th (Saturday) 8 PM, I will be playing with the Teresa Czepiel Quartet (Teresa Czepiel, movement; Matt Samolis, flute, Jeff Pooser, contrabass and me on soprano sax, low clarinets and celesta) at the Nave Gallery at the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, 155 Powderhouse Boulevard, Somerville MA. Also appearing: TBA.
   
• June 15th (Saturday) 8 PM, I will be playing with Kobold: Laurence Cook, percussion, Tom Plsek, trombone and me on reeds at Opensound at Third Life Studios, Union Square, Somerville MA. Also appearing: Flunk + Id M TheftAble, Kevin Frenette Trio and a performance of John Cage’s Variations III. (See the Opensound web site for details.)
   
• June 23rd (Sunday) at nightfall, I’ll be performing in Dei Xhrist’s highly impressionistic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a large supporting cast including Crank Sturgeon, Greg Kowalksi, Id M TheftAble, Valerie Kuehne, Jules Vasylenko, Walter Wright, Junko Fujiwara, Kit Demos, Flandrew Fleisenberg and others, at The Chailly Mansion, 9 Spring Lane, Newburyport MA.
   

Show archive

Biography / Discography

Current projects

Means of Production This is my on-line and CD-R label, with eCommerce provided by the inestimable Weirdo Records.

Solo For a full description, see this page.

Duck That This group was formed to focus on game calls (!) as a sound source. I play saxophones, large clarinets, percussion and game calls with Angela Sawyer (electronics, voice, game calls) Josh Jefferson (alto sax, bass clarinet, game calls) and Keiichi Hashimoto (all manner of high brass, game calls). For more info, see the Duck That MySpace page.

Symptomatic, with Vic Rawlings on analog electronics and me on reeds. Obstinate strata; solid blocks of texture. [ more ]

Kilter, with Curt Newton on percussion and me on reeds. Straight-up free improv, building on our 20+ years of playing together. [ more ]

Farmhands, wherein Arkm Foam and I take on wheelbarrows, manure rakes, piano harps and a whole lot of reeds. [ more ]

Endguys (Steve Norton & Matt Samolis)

Grizzler is an improvising large ensemble lead by Dave Gross. Numbering anywhere between 9 and 13 (and sometimes more!) players, Grizzler concentrates its energies on the layering of individual voices and the intersection of the ensemble and the space. I primarily play baritone saxophone and bass clarinet. The group has no Web site yet, but Dave Curry (our violist) wrote a nice blog entry about the band here.

Metal & Glass Ensemble Drone-based soundscapes and just-intonation tunings are the primary concern of this ensemble of 5 to 9 or more musicians lead by Matt Samolis. The foundational sounds are generated by the steel cello (the bowed metal) and tuned glasses. I play bass clarinet (lotsa long tones & circular breathing) and some bowed metal. For more info, see the Metal & Glass Ensemble’s page on Matt’s Web site.

Steve Lacy’s Tips: we’ve assembled a trio of Noell Dorsey (voice), Matt Samolis (flute) and me on bass clarinet to perform Steve Lacy’ epigrammatic opus Tips. [ more ]

Spam, an improvising trio of Matt Samolis on flute, Curt Newton on percussion and me on reeds, tapes and stuff. The goal of the performances is (amongst other things) to expose the absurdities and unexpected beauties of viral email marketing. As the bio says, “Worn chant transplant imitable Delivery Status Notification (Failure) take asymmetric tizzy dream in a waking state Live your life, prescription-free Achieve all the gains in length knead knee kneecap kneel knell endpoint staccato. Matt Samolis–flute, tangerine roland; Steve Norton–reeds, things we need; and Curt Newton–percussion, choosy bloodstone.”

Glacier Harvest (An MP3 album by Steve Norton & Matt Samolis)

debris (my band for 12 years, 1986 – 1998)