Matt Silver
Digital WriterMatt Silver is a journalist, commentator, and storyteller who’s been enamored with the concept of performance since his grandparents told him as a toddler that singing "Sunrise, Sunset" in rooms full of strangers was the cool thing to do.
In his writing—informed by backgrounds in law, reporting, and creative writing— he seeks to understand the indulgent, joy-enhancing, and therapeutic power of music within the context of our everyday lives and the challenges of our wider culture; he knows of no other artistic medium that speaks to, speaks for, and nourishes life’s panoply of emotional shades and colors to a similar extent. Why does music not just provide enjoyment but imbue us with purpose? Why, when awestruck by a piece of music, do you play it over and over again so as to hold onto that exalted feeling for just a moment longer? Wait, it can’t be just Matt who does that, right?
His love of jazz comes from his father, Ken, an accomplished clarinetist, bandleader, and educator, who's passed on his extensive knowledge of the Real Book and an abiding love for jazz tunes with Broadway origins.
Matt’s contributed regularly to WRTI's Arts Desk since 2018; his work has also appeared on NPR.org and public media platforms across the country, as well as in The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia), Washington Jewish Week, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, and The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.
In addition to writing for WRTI's Arts Desk, Matt can frequently be found whistling Gershwin or Bernstein with gusto or trying to replicate the sounds of Stan Getz and Larry McKenna on his saxophone, which he's found is a good deal harder than it looks. He is a proud member of that group of hardy souls who got their start at WRTI hosting Jazz through the Night, and is the host emeritus of The Silver Standard, a weekly sports-talk program that aired on Philadelphia’s 610 ESPN.
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Let’s play a little game: How much do you really know about your favorite Tin Pan Alley composers?
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For almost 60 years, the only recording on which Hasaan Ibn Ali’s piano playing could be heard was 1964’s The Max Roach Trio Featuring The Legendary Hasaan, an album for which Hasaan—one of the most enigmatic figures in all of Philadelphia jazz lore—did not receive top billing even though he wrote all the music.
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Throw on Joey DeFrancesco’s new album, More Music, and you’re met almost immediately with the sound of an organ. Of course you are; DeFrancesco’s the most celebrated jazz organist in the world—what’d you expect? But this organ, this organ player… something sounds different, more subdued—earth tones compared to the boisterous musical pastels and neons we’ve grown accustomed to hearing from DeFrancesco.
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Among the myriad small pleasures that make life worth coming back to day after day—a well-struck golf shot, a pull-through parking spot, bottomless chips and salsa—is an album that turns out to be way more enjoyable than you expected.
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From the absurd and campy to the spooky and truly frightful, you’re sure to find something in these 10 tunes that speak to what you love most about Halloween.
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If you’re not ready to go all white tie and tails in an auditorium full of strangers who may or may not be vaccinated, allow me to present a relatively risk-free alternative: The Count Basie Orchestra’s (CBO) latest release, Live at Birdland.
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In 1995, the highly respected alto saxophonist Steve Wilson told The New York Times everything you need to know about fellow altoist Kenny Garrett’s approach to playing music. “He’s the first one of us to really encompass the whole tradition of Black music with his sound."
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A critical genetic link between ragtime and bebop, Erroll Garner was one of the most stylistically distinct jazz pianists of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. Beloved by audiences and revered by fellow musicians, Garner’s accomplishments transcended his art. But, for better or worse, he was most associated with one, single word.
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Physicists have long postulated time travel as possible, at least theoretically. But why live in theory when you can now pick up a copy of Erroll Garner’s Symphony Hall Concert and instantly transport yourself back to Boston’s Symphony Hall in January 1959.
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Swift's reverence for this music’s history and her respect for its composers and lyricists asserts itself with every old show tune or standard she dusts off and makes devastatingly hip again—or for the first time.