UW-Platteville’s jazz festival started strong with an appearance in the Center for the Arts from the Matt Wilson Quartet.

Photograph by Dan Klein


The Matt Wilson Quartet starts off the jazz festival in the CFA Friday night.

Matt Wilson is an internationally recognized drummer that has toured to countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal and Australia. He was accompanied by: Jeff Lederer on saxophone and clarinet, Chris Lightcap on acoustic and electric bass and Kirk Knuffke on cornet.

There were over 180 in attendance on Feb. 5 in the CFA, including students, teachers, alumni and members of the surrounding Platteville communities. The show evoked positive responses from the audience. Kevin Patterson, a junior biology major, said he was excited that the Matt Wilson Quartet was going to be at UW-P because he likes to admire other drummers’ work.

“I wasn’t going to miss this,” Patterson said. “The show was two-thumbs up, [Wilson] makes drumming fun and entertaining.”

Tyler Pimm, a freshman mechanical engineering major said, “It was musically inspiring.”

The quartet performed a selection of songs from their CDs and also a solute song to Beyonce’s “If I were a Boy.” Wilson said he was happy to be back in Platteville and was thankful for the audiences’ response.

“Music is music, it is creativity,” Wilson said. “It’s all around us and [making music] is just what we try to do.”

The group perfomed improvised jazz, allowing solos for each of the performers to showcase their individual talents. Each experimented with their instruments to make different sounds and keep the audience entertained.
Allen Cordingley, a saxophone professor at UW-P encouraged his students to come to the performance.
“It is contemporary music that is done right” Cordingley said. “It is accessible and everyone can enjoy it.”

The show was brought to a close by the quartet’s song “School Boy Thug,” which Wilson said was a mix of jazz and metal that is often overlooked. Matt Lemanski, a senior music business and trumpet performance major said the performance was constantly entertaining and really funny.

“[The show] was fun and hilarious,” Lemanski said. “It was a $50 show for $4.”