Matt Carmichael March 2021

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BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020 finalist, saxophonist Matt Carmichael released his first album, Where Will the River Flow on Friday, March 12, 2021.

Featuring his quartet with award-winning pianist Fergus McCreadie, bassist Ali Watson and drummer Tom Potter, the album comprises nine original compositions that reflect Carmichael’s strong engagement with Scottish traditional music and Scandinavian influences as well as his immersion in jazz since his early teens.

Now twenty-one and soon to graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Carmichael is a product of Glasgow's thriving youthful jazz scene. He began playing saxophone at school in East Dunbartonshire and despite not being especially aware of the instrument at the time, he discovered a natural aptitude for it.

Internationally regarded Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith presently invited him to join his youth jazz orchestra. Smith, who toured internationally with vibes virtuoso Gary Burton in his teens and is Carmichael’s course leader at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, has since described Carmichael as “better than I was at that age”.

Carmichael formed his quartet in 2016 and they have developed a strong group sound and collective energy that have earned them appearances at Ronnie Scott’s, The Vortex, Pizza Express Soho, Kansas Smitty’s, BBC Introducing Latitude Festival and Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

In addition to appearing in the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020 final, Carmichael has played at Celtic Connections in Glasgow and has worked with the now London-based singer Luca Manning, the award-winning Scottish bands corto.alto and Fat-Suit, bassist Mark Hendry, and Scottish fiddler Charlie Stewart.

In 2019 Carmichael won a Peter Whittingham Development Award, which helped to fund Where Will the River Flow. The album was recorded at QuietMoney studios in Hastings just before the national lockdown in March 2020.