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MaDFusion
MaDFusion represents the new frontier in musical collaboration. Pianist Matt Herskowitz, drummer David Rozenblatt and bassist Mat Fieldes draw upon diverse musical cultures and genres to forge a completely new sound which defies labeling. The music is a progressive blend of jazz and classical traditions with world music, funk, club, pop and hip-hop. MaDFusion's first album, Forget Me Not (released under the band's former name "HRP"), has received worldwide acclaim, prompting musicians like Dave Brubeck to write “This is the final straw. I’d better retire now,” and Barry Manilow to write "I'm serious when I say your band is the most thrilling music I've heard in years. It gives me hope for the future of music."

Influenced by their experiences with great music and musicians from around the world, MaDFusion brings an eclectic slant to its musical soundscape. Performances include high-energy bursts of virtuosity interspersed with contemplative, soul-searching respites. MaDFusion consistently dazzles audiences with the unexpected through scripted content and improvisation.

MaDFusion has appeared at major music festivals in Europe, Canada and the United States, and has been featured in performances and recordings with Absolute Ensemble, Paquito D'Rivera, Lew Soloff, Dave Taylor, Marcel Khalife, Dhafer Yousef and Daniel Schnyder, among others.

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Matt Herskowitz, PIANIST

Pianist Matt Herskowitz is a unique new voice from within the nexus of classical and jazz traditions. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, Matt is a brilliant young jazz pianist, a stunning interpreter of the classics, and a composer of vast range and originality. Unwilling to divide himself into different musical personae and bewildered by the arbitrary segregation of jazz and popular music from the classics, Matt prefers to expound on their essential unity, combining them into a new mode of expression.

Matt’s deft layering of jazz improvisation over written work has led him to many privileged collaborations. As composer, soloist and ensemble member, he performs and records regularly with Absolute Ensemble, a New York-based crossover contemporary chamber “band”. Their first release on Enja records, Absolution, which features Matt as composer and soloist on Serial Blues, was nominated for a Grammy in 2001. Matt was also featured on the Swiss television series Melting Pot New York on the recording of Serial Blues. Matt’s first solo recording, Gabriel’s Message (CCn’C Records), features his original arrangements and compositions based on Christmas themes, and has received world-wide critical acclaim. In 2004, Matt’s solo video-taped recording for the BRAVO channel was first aired. His performance features a mix of his original music and arrangements in jazz, pop and contemporary classical styles. In February 2005 Matt performed at the RIDEAU showcase in Quebec City, where he won two prizes for his performance; the Prix Galaxie, given to best emerging artist, and the Prix des Diffuseurs Européan, which sponsors a tour of France for his trio.

In 2002 Matt composed an original film score for a silent avant-garde French short film, which was performed live with the film at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. His piece was one of six short films screened with new music performed live by Parabola, a New York-based ensemble specializing in new film music. Other contributing composers included renowned film composers Carter Burwell and Stephen Endelman. In 2005 Matt performed again with Parabola music of Carter Burwell in two “sound plays” by the Coen Brothers and Charlie Kaufman in New York and London. The show featured renowned actors Meryl Streep, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Hope Davis, among others. Matt’s other film contributions include the soundtrack of the 2003 Oscar-nominated animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville. His performance includes a raucous jazz-style improvisation on a Bach prelude, entitled Bach à la Jazz. Matt also recorded an extensive solo piano improvisation for the soundtrack of the film La Face Cachée de la Lune, directed by Robert Lepage.

As a songwriter, Matt has collaborated with many artists and producers, including pop diva Lara Fabian and French pop-rock singer Sylvie Cobo. One of his songs with Ms. Fabian, Inévitablement, was released in March 2003 on the debut album of French singer Nolwenn Leroy, which was no.1 in France for several weeks. The song later became a single in 2004. Another of their collaborations, Avant, is now released on the new album of French singer Daniel Levy, “Le Coeur Ouvert.” Matt and Sylvie have just released their first album together, with Félix award-winning Montreal producer and saxophonist Charles Papasoff, on the Montreal label Disques Tempête.

In 1998, Matt gave the Canadian premiere of his Chorale and Variations on a Theme of Dave Brubeck, an original piece for piano and chamber orchestra, with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal, broadcast on Radio-Canada’s Chaine Culturelle. The piece combines jazz and contemporary classical idioms. Dave Brubeck, upon hearing the piece, contacted Matt, and has since played a very supportive role in the development of his career.

As a winner of the Pro Piano Recital Series Competition, Matt gave his New York debut as a classical pianist in 1994 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Also winner of first prizes at the 1997 Orford Festival International Piano Competitions, Matt's performances there led to a recording of Glazunov's Piano Concerto no. 2 with I Musici de Montreal for Chandos records in 1998, which was hailed as “by far the best performance on CD” by Strad magazine. Matt currently tours extensively throughout Europe and Canada in solo and chamber recitals, and with the critically acclaimed Herskowitz Rozenblatt Project (HRP), a group which features original music and arrangements by himself and drummer David Rozenblatt. HRP has performed in Germany at the Hamburg and Bremen International Music Festivals, in France at the Rhino Jazz Festival, in New York City, presented by the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, at the Luzerne Music Center Jazz Series in Lake Luzerne, NY and in Naples, Florida with the Philadelphia Piano Quartet on the Classic Chamber Concerts series. Their first CD, Forget Me Not, was released in September 2005 in Montreal on the Disques Tout Crin label, where it has already received much critical acclaim.

Matt is currently based in Montréal, Québec, where he has lived since 1999.

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DAVID ROZENBLATT, DRUMMER/PERCUSSIONIST

David Rozenblatt’s talents have drawn him to all corners of the globe and all styles of music, performing in the world’s most revered concert halls as well as intimate nightclubs. He has performed and collaborated with some of the finest talents in Pop, Jazz and Classical and is currently performing with Barry Manilow with whom he can be seen on A&E’s Live By Request, PBS’s Soundstage, ABC’s Good Morning America, The Ellen Show, The Society of Singers honoring Elton John, BBC Television, The Jerry Lewis Telethon, and currently in his hit show Music and Passion in Las Vegas. Other collaborations include performances with Judy Collins, Cindy Lauper, Donna Summer, Paul Simon (collaboration involving the first stages of his show "The Cape Man"), Micky Dolenz, Paquito D’Rivera, Ornette Coleman, Dave Koz, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Mike Keneally, Mark Egan, Danny Gottlieb, Peter Erskine, the Executioners, Pierre Boulez, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Vladimir Spivakov and Elliot Carter (reading of first opera and collaboration on percussion sounds). David has performed at Madison Square Garden, Nassau Coliseum, the Meadowlands, Gund Arena, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall, Blenheim Palace, Santori Hall, the Barbican and Shostakovich Hall.

As a drummer and composer for the critically acclaimed and Grammy Award nominated Absolute Ensemble, David can be heard on the group’s eight released CDs including their latest, entitled Fix, which he also served as producer. David is also featured on many albums of various genres featuring renowned artists, and on the soundtrack recordings for the feature films The Chamber, Wide Awake, You’ve Got Mail, and Swat.

On Broadway, David performed in Swan Lake, Smokey Joe’s Café, Sunset Boulevard, The King and I, Miss Saigon, Elton John’s Aida, and Dance Of The Vampires featuring Michael Crawford. David has performed with the Met Orchestra, NYC Opera and Ballet, St. Luke's Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Jupiter Symphony, Concordia Orchestra, EOS, Moscow Chamber Symphony, the Moscow Virtuosi and as soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

David received his Bachelor and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he became a founding member of the critically acclaimed New York Percussion Quartet. He also leads his own Latin jazz band, Latin Jamzz, featuring prominent musicians as guest artists.

Born in the Ukraine, David moved to the United States at the age of four and one year later began playing drums professionally. He began his formal training at the Kaufman Cultural Center in New York City and, following graduation, was appointed to the faculty, a position he held for over ten years. David also devotes a good deal of time to producing music from his recording studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and has an extensive private studio in New York City where he enjoys coaching and teaching drums, percussion, piano and theory to students of all ages.

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Mat Fieldes, BASSIST

Mat Fieldes is one of the most sought-after bass players on the New York freelance scene today. Equally comfortable in Jazz, Rock, Hip-hop, R&B, and Classical genres, Mr. =Fieldes has collaborated with such luminaries as Joe Jackson, John Cale, Ornette Coleman, Steve Vai, Peter Erskine, Paquito D'Rivera, Kristjan Jarvi, Joe Williams, Arturo Sandaval, and Toni Tennille among others. His recent appearances include Dream Engine – the latest performance group for legendary song-writer Jim Steinman. In 2001, he performed on Joe Jackson’s album, Symphony, which won a Grammy Award for “Best Pop Instrumental”.

Mat tours extensively as solo bassist for Absolute Ensemble, an electro-acoustic crossover chamber orchestra, which performs at major venues worldwide. Recent appearances include the Sydney Opera House, Koln Philharmonie, London Barbican, the Estonia Concert Hall, and residencies at Bremen and Adelaide Festivals. In 2000, the ensemble won the coveted German Record Critic's Award for its album Mix. The ensemble received a Grammy nomination in the 'Best Small Ensemble' category for its album Absolution in 2002. Current collaborations include recordings and touring with Joe Zawinul, and a Frank Zappa tribute featuring Mike Keneally and Napolean Murphy Brock.

As a soloist, Mat has performed Mark Anthony Turnage's concerto “Blood on the Floor”, at Miller Theater, NYC in 2001. In 2004, he performed the same concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Kristjan Jarvi conducting. A few days later he was honored to premier “Lost Illusions”, a concerto written for him by Gene Pritsker for electric and acoustic bass with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in front of 30,000 people.

Other ensembles and bands include New York based Quasilulu, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Brooklyn Symphony Orchestras, Continuum, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Second Generation Productions, and the Jose Limon Dance Company.

Mr. Fieldes was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He earned his Master’s degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Eugene Levinson, Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic.