2001 Edition, The Mercury Press
Matheson, (James) Alan (David).
Trumpeter, pianist, composer, arranger. born Calgary, AB, March 29, 1959.
A musician of uncommonly wide interests, historically and stylistically, Matheson began playing piano, then trumpet, as a boy; he was drawn to the latter instrument by a recording of Bix Beiderbecke with Paul Whiteman and was working occasionally with Lance Harrison's Dixieland band by the age of 18. After studies with Dave Robbins at Vancouver Community College, Ron Collier and others at Humber College in Toronto and the classical trumpeter Vincent Cichowicz (1979-81) at Northwestern University in Chicago, he served as a pianist for Kate Hammett-Vaughan (Gettin' Off Easy) and other Vancouver singers and played (1987-96) alongside fellow trumpeter and pianist Brad Turner in drummer Paul Townsend's post-bop quintet, Fifth Avenue.
While working as a trumpeter in various opera, ballet, New Music and and theatre orchestras in Vancouver during the 1990s, Matheson led several of his own bands. One, a septet established in 1993, explored bebop and the modal directions in modern jazz; it was expanded in 1997 to play music from Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool and other works from the turn of the 1950s.
Matheson's big band, meanwhile, mounted tributes to Paul Whiteman in 1995, Duke Ellington in 1999, (as the Vancouver International Jazz Orchestra) and Louis Armstrong in 2000 (as the Festival Vancouver Jazz Orchestra). Matheson has composed and/or arranged for each of his ensembles; his big band charts have also been played stateside by the American trumpeter Clark Terry. Although his own bands have gone largely unrecorded, save for broadcast by the CBC, Matheson played piano and trumpet with Fifth Avenue on Urban Sprawl (1989, Jazzimage) and cornet with the classic jazz quartet Sweet Papa Lowdown on 'Til Times Get Better (1999, Black Hen).
- Mark Miller
Bio - Press - Pictures - Press Kit - Curriculum Vitae