New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Mattson 2, the virtuosic guitar-and-drums jazz duo of twin brothers Jonathan and Jared Mattson, announced Mattson
2 Play A Love Supreme, their full album cover of John Coltrane's 1964 masterpiece. The record is due on August 17 on Spiritual Pajamas and finds the brothers translating the iconic saxophonist's spiritual vision into a thrilling 21st-century electric exploration. "For us it's about taking this beautiful art form and adapting it," says Jonathan, "being forward thinking and not trying to confine it to this narrow definition that has been set out by purists over the years." Along with the announcement, the Mattsons shared their version of "Resolution."
The Mattson 2 recently wrapped a North American tour in support of psych-jazz breakouts Khruangbin. Prior to that, the duo released Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2: Star Stuff, a collaborative album with the Toro y Moi frontman that Pitchfork said "swings between lucidity and lunacy and back again." Premier Guitar has praised the Mattson 2's "potpourri of sonic colors and trance-inducing grooves," while Aquarium Drunkard has called the twins' musicianship "telepathic chemistry - effortlessly and mesmerizingly in-sync."
Mattson
2 Play A Love Supreme
August 17, 2018 - Spiritual Pajamas
1. Acknowledgment
2. Resolution
3. Interlude
4. Pursuance
5. Psalm
The Mattson 2 will take A Love Supreme on the road this summer.
Catch them on tour with Astronauts, etc. at:
8/10-12 San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
8/14 Visalia, CA - Cellar Door
8/15
Santa Barbara, CA - SOHO
8/16 San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
8/17 Los Angeles, CA - Lodge Room
8/18 Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar
8/22 Houston, TX - Rockafeller's
8/23 Dallas, TX - Three Links
8/24 Austin, TX - Mohawk
8/25 Norman, OK - Opolis
8/26 St. Louis, MO - Firebird
8/27 Nashville, TN - The Basement
8/31 Raliegh, NC - Cat's Back room
9/1 Richmond, VA - The Camel
9/5 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
9/6 Washington DC - Songbyrd
9/7 Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade
9/8 Boston, MA - Cafe 939
9/10 Toronto, CN - The Drake
9/11 Detroit, MI - Loving Touch
9/12 Chicago, IL - Schubas
9/13 Indianapolis, IN -
Square Cat Vinyl
9/14 Madison, WI - Ruby
9/15 Door County, WI - Door County Brewing Co.
9/17 Twin Cities, MN - Turf Club
9/19 Denver, CO - Lost Lake
9/20 Salt Lake City, UT -
State Room
9/21 Portland, OR - Jack London
9/23 Vancouver, BC - Wise Hall
9/25 Seattle, WA - Barboza
John Coltrane's 1965 magnum opus A Love Supreme is one of the most revered and influential recordings in the history of jazz, widely regarded as the iconic saxophonist's masterpiece. It might seem audacious at the very least to undertake a new recording of such a foundational album, but twin brothers Jared & Jonathan Mattson are nothing if not sonic risk-takers.
With their new release Mattson
2 Play A Love Supreme, the duo reimagines Coltrane's avant-garde epic through a 21st-century lens, creating a new interpretation that remains faithful to the questing spirit of the original while pushing the music into bold new territory - which itself is fully in keeping with the composer's forward-looking vision. The album, due out August 17 via Spiritual Pajamas, translates the Coltrane Quartet's acoustic jazz explorations into a modern language swathed in a haze of analog synths, ecstatic guitars, transcendent grooves and enveloping atmospherics.
"Our goal was to showcase our own reinterpretation of the piece, to really push forward and try to evolve the art form of jazz," says Jonathan Mattson. "For us it's about taking this beautiful art form and adapting it, being forward thinking and not trying to confine it to this narrow definition that has been set out by purists over the years."
That mission certainly fits with Coltrane's own intentions for the piece, which is less a set composition than a framework for spiritual communion through improvisation. The Mattson brothers have a particular advantage when it comes to achieving that level of communication: the unique telepathy that exists between identical twins, an unspoken empathy that they refer to as "twinchronicity." In A Love Supreme, the Mattsons saw a way to channel that rare connection into expansive new horizons.
The duo undertook an intensive study of the original composition, Coltrane's notes, and every available recording by the Coltrane Quartet as well as later versions by the likes of John McLaughlin, Branford Marsalis and Alice Coltrane. They used that vocabulary to create their own take, which they honed through invaluable live performances before audiences largely unfamiliar with the original. "It was so incredible to see the way that a rock demographic connected with the music," Jonathan recalls. "There was yelling and crying, people getting really stoked and devouring every note we were playing. Seeing people's minds getting blown by Coltrane's music, we realized we had to record it."
Those visceral reactions attest to the continuing impact of Coltrane's bold vision. Mattson
2 Play A Love Supreme channels that vision with both reverence and inventiveness, creating a vibrant and electrifying new interpretation that will resonate with new generations of open-minded listeners.
