Matt Bianco 'Matt's Mood (featuring Basia)' album

After a twenty-year absence the original line-up of Matt Bianco are back together again with their new album Matt’s Mood.

The infectious, and irresistible jazz grooves that make up Matt Bianco blend everything from Latin and Brazilian music to sensual soul and pop tunes. This marks the follow-up to their 1984 international, multi-platinum album, Whose Side Are You On? which spawned the top 20 single, “Get Out Your Lazy Bed.” To showcase material from the album, Mark Reilly (vocals), Basia Trzetrzelewska (vocals) and Danny White (keyboards) will kick off their first-ever U.S. tour on April 5th at the State Theatre in Minneapolis and wrap-up on the west coast in mid-May. Matt’s Mood will be released on Decca March 1st.

Not long after the band’s success in the early-eighties, they disbanded and went separate ways. Reilly kept the group’s name and recorded several records while Basia took the path as a solo artist with White by her side as keyboardist. Basia went on to release five albums to much critical acclaim, two of which went platinum. She also had two #1 AC hit singles with “Promises” and “New Day For You.”

All of the different music genres incorporated in Matt’s Mood give the album a multifaceted, unique touch that will appeal to a wide variety of music lovers. After touring Europe and Japan, Americans will get a first hand taste of this musical smorgasbord. This world-wide trek will actually be the first time that the original line-up has ever toured together as a band.

Biography

Fans of seductive and sophisticated music the world over, take heart! It’s time to get back in the mood…Matt’s Mood, the long anticipated second album by the original lineup of British sensations Matt Bianco.

If the return of Mark Reilly, Basia Trzetrzelewska (vocals) and Danny White (keyboards) twenty years after the multi-million selling Whose Side Are You On? (and its Top 20 hit single “Get Out Your Lazy Bed”) after two decades proves one thing, it’s that innovative pop, seductive jazz, sizzling melodies and irresistible grooves still sound bright, fresh and inspired, no matter the era or pesky passing trends. The nine vocals and one instrumental on Matt’s Mood run the gamut from smoky and sensual jazz lounge vibes to deeper explorations of the trio’s lifelong passions for classic soul, Latin and Brazilian styles. Four of the tracks feature the familiar acoustic guitar (and accordion!) of smooth jazz superstar (and Danny’s brother) Peter White.

For Reilly, the sensual opening track, the playful samba-flavored “Ordinary Day,” perfectly captures the seamless connection between 1984 and 2004. “This for me sums up Matt Bianco. It has a really nice bossa groove, Basia’s vocal is so inviting. It just chose itself as the single. As we did in the past, we simply wrote the kind of music we’ve always liked, connection on that fusion of R&B, Latin, jazz and pop. Getting together again inspired new injections of creativity, and our sound still sounds fresh.”

Danny adds, “Once Mark and I started writing again, we really didn’t think about an overall concept, we simply wrote what came natural to us and then bought Basia into the process. These are the styles we gravitate to. Mark is less technical, more intuitive, and I’m good at interpreting his musical ideas. He roughs up my smooth edges and I smooth out his roughness. Add Basia’s beautiful voice and harmonic and melodic ideas, and we’ve got something very special.”

Excited immediately by the early material Reilly and White ran by her, Basia soon realized how much she had missed writing and recording after a several year hiatus. “Their early tracks which evolved into ‘Ordinary Day’ and ‘Ronnie’s Samba’ really woke me up and inspired some great new creativity,” she says. “I had only co-written with Danny before, and it was interesting doing it three ways, contributing melodies and words wherever they were needed. It was a really therapeutic process for me. I have so much more life experience to draw from now.”

Diehard Matt Bianco fans anxiously awaiting the return of the trio’s special magic have enjoyed each member’s many successful outside endeavors since their initial split. Reilly kept the group’s name and formed a fruitful partnership with keyboardist Mark Fisher, originally a session musician on one of the trio’s live British TV dates. Over the next 15 plus years, the duo released eight internationally acclaimed albums, including a self-titled project (1986) and Indigo (1988) on Atlantic, and Another Time, Another Place (1994) and World Go Round (1998) on JVC (1994). Their rendition of Georgie Fame’s “Yeh Yeh “received a European music award as Best Single of 1985, while “Wam Bam Boogie” was the #1 European club track of 1988. Indigo also featured the hit single “Don’t Blame It On The Girl,” which was sung by Emilio Estefan.

Basia’s ongoing creative partnership with Danny White launched an incredibly successful solo career beginning with the platinum album Time and Tide (1987), which topped the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart for eight weeks and spawned two #1 Adult Contemporary pop hits, “Promises” and “New Day For You.” The title track was a Top Five AC and Top 25 pop hit. Basia’s follow-up album, 1990’s London Warsaw New York, featured the #1 AC/Top 30 pop hit “Cruising For Bruising” and was also certified platinum by 1992. While 1994’s The Sweetest Illusion was her last full-length recording, Basia released various compilations with new tracks over the years, including 1998’s Clear Horizon, and chronicled her incredible ongoing U.S. touring success with Basia On Broadway (1995).

Nothing earth shattering precipitated the Reilly-White-Basia reunion; all three members believe it was simply the right time to join creative forces again. Reilly’s working relationship with Fisher had ended, and White and Basia had been away from recording for several years. “It was funny, we’d all been thinking about each other,” says Reilly. “Danny came down to my studio to say hello one day and we just took it from there. We had no idea what might come of it.” White says, “We thought it might be fun to do some writing, and pretty soon it was like old times.”

Desiring a deeper connection to the old days, Reilly and White decided to draw upon a handful of baritone sax solos by the late Ronnie Ross, an integral part of the first Matt Bianco album and legendary for his performance on Lou Reed’s classic “Walk on the Wild Side.” Before Ross’ passing in the early 90s, White had recorded a handful of demos featuring his horn; Reilly and White used these solos as starting points for three key tracks on Matt’s Mood, the spirited, highly danceable, Brazilian flavored tribute “Ronnie’s Samba,” the bouncy and infectious Latin gem “La Luna,” and the moody, bluesy, Latin spiced old school jam “Slip & Sliding,” featuring bright horn accents and White’s irrepressible organ energy.

“Ronnie had a wonderful jazz pedigree and when he died, we realized just how under-appreciated he was,” says White. “He was a great player, and I always loved those solos he did for me. We isolated them, ignored the songs they came from, and built new tracks around them. Reilly adds, “We started from the standpoint of figuring out what we liked best about the first album. Ronnie’s work was of course among our favorite elements, and I liked the solos Danny played for me. The writing evolved quite spontaneously from there. Once we got going, new ideas kept popping up.” Basia continues, “The moment I sang the third chorus of ‘Wrong Side of the Street,’ in my native Polish, I was hooked heart and soul. I knew we were on to something wonderful.”

Beyond the Ross-influenced tracks and the single “Ordinary Day,” Matt’s Mood’s multitude of pleasures includes the moody and atmospheric romance “I Never Meant To” (featuring Reilly on lead vocals); the trippy and cool, jazzy lounge cut “Wrong Side of the Street” (with Basia backing Reilly’s hypnotic lead vocal); “Say The Words,” a sweet romantic samba featuring Basia’s dreamy vocals and Peter White’s lush accordion harmony; the swinging and exotic “Golden Days,” which features intricate, Manhattan Transfer styled vocal textures; and the soulful, raw and jazzy “Kaleidoscope.” The instrumental closing track “Matt’s Mood III” is a spunk filled, Booker T flavored nod to 60’s soul jazz featuring White on Fender Rhodes and plenty of club scratches. It’s a sequel of sorts to “Matt’s Mood I” and “Matt’s Mood II,” from Whose Side Are You On?

Both Whose Side Are You On? And Matt’s Mood is in essence an alchemy of each member’s musical influences. White was inspired by the jazz of Thelonius Monk, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans, classical music, Gershwin and Jobim, while his fellow native Brit Reilly gravitated to the rock-soul-Latin fusion of bands like Santana and War. Basia grew up in Poland but was inspired equally by artists like Brazilian legend Astrud Gilberto and Aretha Franklin.

The original Matt Bianco lineup formed from the ashes of the trendsetting band Blue Rondo A La Turk, which featured Reilly and White. Eager to do further jazz experiments, White tapped Basia, who had worked with him since answering an ad he had placed in the Melody Maker for a vocalist to complete his Quincy Jones-like funk outfit Bronze. Basia’s husky, Brazilian inflected tones recalled those of Gilberto (who inspired “Astrud” from Time and Tide) and provided the perfect foil for Reilly’s fatter pop delivery. “When I heard her audition,” he says, “she caught my breath. I knew we’d found the missing piece of the musical jigsaw.” The band chose its name based on another shared influence—spy TV themes and film scores. “He was a made up spy, a secret agent,” says Reilly.

Coinciding with the release of Matt’s Mood, the reunited Matt Bianco are planning a European and U.S. tour for Spring 2005, which will mark the first time the trio have appeared live on stage together as Matt Bianco. “It will be so exciting to experience our songs injected with the energy of a live performance,” says Basia. “The chemistry works between us. I love working with Mark, and enjoy the interplay of our voices. Making music is the only thing that gets me going like this, and everything about this project was so natural. It’s great to be back.”

White agrees, “It’s rare to find people you work with so well.” To which Reilly confirms: “I knew we were onto something when Basia finished recording the first song ‘Ordinary Day.’ When we got that down, I said, ‘yeah, this is happening.’”

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Matt Bianco - Matt's Mood (featuring Basia)