MATEUS

Mateus’ music is not easily categorized. It comes from a multiplicity of musical worlds, from the urban music of his New York City youth to the music cultures of his Colombian homeland, from America’s complex of multicultural and racial expressions to traditional and pop global musics. Music nonetheless continues to be the heart and center of his existence, one to which he remains deeply committed, as an artist, musician, and teacher. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, and as an immigrant to America, Mateus built a local reputation as a sought after guitarist, composer, and producer, working in varied creative spaces unbound either by place or defined by popular or current trends. Whether working with rock, funk, jazz or fusion projects or their subcultural derivatives, Mateus has always sought out music collaborations that offered originality of form and authenticity, substance and feeling. Preferring to perform with diversely talented artists, Mateus often turned down gigs with name artists (such as Yo La Tengo, Richard Lloyd, Swans, to name a few), choosing instead to remain committed to projects with artists of vision and musical integrity, of whom he believed it was more important to be open to exploring and expanding his view of new and experimental music, rather than simply carving out a “career” as either a touring or recording session musician. Mateus’ main goal has always been to grow as a musician and artist– independent from trends however enabled his immersion in serious study of the guitar, with Jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne, John Scofield, Sam Brown, Anthony Purrone, Rhythm & Blues guitar (Cornell Dupree), and classical guitar (Robert Mamary at the Westchester Conservatory of Music), and Country pedal steel guitar (Josh Dubon). Playing in countless bands, Mateus’ performances during the late 70s to the present inform his eclectic music. And now, that the musical world has embraced cultural diversity and difference, MATEUS is primed and ready to release music which has laid dormant, like a volcano waiting to erupt without warning. Where does MATEUS music come from? From Latin Jazz projects in and around New York City, including Jorge Mateus’ Triage, Audiograph, Parranda Vallenata and Vallenato City (Colombian vallenato and cumbia); TheTerrorists (punky-reggae), Disturbed Furniture, OOO, Rank & Phyle (post-punk/Art rock); Black Mambo Dreams (Rap/Funk/Soul), Hunter College Jazz Big Band (as guest artist under the direction of Ryan Keberley), and the FolkCOLOMBIA All Stars (as guest artist). Touring and/or performing with "downtown" composers Jeffrey Lohn, Ben Neil, and Rhys Chatham, Petr Kotik’s S.E.M. Ensemble and jazz stalwart Anthony Braxton; choreographers Karole Armitage and Jody Oberfelder; and, throughout the U.S. and Europe, at numerous venues and art galleries including Lincoln Center, Knitting Factory, the Kitchen, Whitney Museum, Dance Theatre Workshop, the Joyce Theater, La Mama E.T.C., Tier 3, Pyramid Club, Peppermint Lounge, CBGBs and the Nuyorican Café, Bowery Electric, Bowery Ballroom, Danceteria, Mercury Lounge (NYC), New Music America Festival (Chicago), The Mint, Shark Bar (Los Angeles), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria). Mateus won a GRAMMY, winning as producer for Best Historical Recording, The Live Wire, Woody Guthrie in Performance, 1949, in 2008, also winning the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award of the American Society of Composers for his liner notes. His professional life outside of music is still music, as an educator, scholar and music archivist.