"Bassist Matt Dwonszyk Leads Stellar Quintet on Live at the Side Door
Third album as a leader documents their longstanding chemistry in a live setting"
"With Live at the Sidedoor, Dwonszyk reminds us that jazz isn’t just a great art form – it’s also a damn good time." -Michael Toland
Bassist-composer Matt Dwonszyk has been a ubiquitous figure on the Hartford jazz scene after having spent five years during pre-pandemic times circulating around New York City, where he gigged at such places as Smalls, Smoke, Minton’s, Zinc Bar, Mezzrow, Ornithology, Django, the Jazz Standard and Birdland. On Live at the Side Door, his third album as a leader, Dwonszyk gathers kindred spirits and longtime colleagues Josh Bruneau on trumpet, Matt Knoegel on tenor sax, Taber Gable on piano and Jonathan Barber on drums for a scintillating live set from the Side Door in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
From the opening title track, a modal number of crackling intensity that has trumpeter Bruneau in Woody Shaw mode and pianist Gable channeling his inner McCoy Tyner, to the surging 6/8 closer, “Mode for Rene,” named for Rene McLean, an important mentor of Dwonszyk’s from his early days at the Artists Collective in Hartford, the stalwart bassist showcases his considerable skills as composer-arranger on Live at the Side Door. Add in the Latin-tinged “Stage Dive,” the calypso flavored “Mucho Fernet,” the crystalline ballad “Ms. Smith,” the elegant waltz-time “White Butterfly” and two hard bop
burners in “Billy’s Den” and “Alexandre the Great,” and the versatility and sheer depth of this smoking quintet becomes apparent. Said Dwonszyk about his copasetic crew on Live at the Side Door: “We were all in school together. I’ve known Jonathan the longest. We were at the Artists Collective together in high school, since 16 or 17 years old, and we’ve been playing together ever since. And I was lucky because at my time during school all those guys were there -- Josh, Taber, Jonathan. So we played a lot together and kind of pushed each other and were really trying to play and learn and get better.”
Since their years at the Artists Collective and subsequent stint at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz (founded by the iconic saxophonist as a jazz studies division of the Hartt School, the performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford), Dwonszyk and his colleagues have done countless gigs together and played on each other’s records. He solidified his link with Barber when the drummer invited him onto his regular late-night gig at Smalls in New York. Those two also appeared, alongside pianist Gable, on tenor saxophonist Jovan Alexandre’s 2015 debut, Collective Consciousness. Dwonszyk and Gable later appeared on Barber’s 2021 Vision Ahead album as well as his 2022 followup, Poetic, and 2024’s In Motion while Gable and Barber both appeared on Dwonszyk’s previous release, 2022’s A Year and a Day. Dwonszyk and Barber have also been the regular rhythm tandem for Argentine saxophonist Julieta Eugenio’s trio, appearing on her 2022 release, Jump, and 2024 followup, Stay. And both Dwonszyk and Barber appear together on guitarist Tony Davis’s latest outing, 2025’s Jessamine. Brooklyn-based Knoegel and Vermont native (and Hartt School grad) Bruneau, both incendiary soloists on Live at the Side Door, have also shared the bandstand on numerous other occasions with Dwonszyk. That shared history accounts for the indelible chemistry heard on Live at the Side Door.
“All these guys, I consider them my brothers,” said the leader of this potent live session. “Music is such a personal thing and to develop with each other and pick each other up and inspire each other along the way, it really makes you want to play at the top of your game. So the way I play the bass is really the result of these guys that are on this record. When you learn and you play gigs and you spend so much time together, it’s like you kind of figure out how to play through the people you’re playing with. So this recording at the Side Door was definitely a family affair. And there’s no trying to prove anything to each other; we’re just trying to make some good music together. This is the sound of brothers playing together, just having fun.”
Starting off on electric bass at age 11, Dwonszyk switched to upright during his years at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School, and has rarely switched back. “I don’t get called to play the electric much now,” he explained. “I’ll teach on electric and every now and then I’ll get on it and play a little bit. It’s hard to keep them both up when you mostly get called for upright gigs.” To date, he has been called by such illustrious figures as saxophonist Bennie Wallace, trombonist Steve Davis, pianists George Cables, Harold Mabern, Larry Willis, Joey Alexander and Jon Davis, saxophonists Julieta Eugenio and Sarah Hanahan, and vocalist Jazzmeia Horn, among many others. “I really try to take care of the music to the best of my ability,” Dwonszyk said. “I try to play every gig at 110 percent, no matter who it’s with. This is my calling; I’ve been doing it for more than half my life. It’s all about community.”
Now a top-call bassist in his native Hartford, Dwonszyk has toured Russia and Europe, he performs twice a year in Buenos Aires, Argentina and continues to play around New York City while also leading his namesake ensemble, the Dwonztet. Since 2020, he has taught jazz bass at Manchester Community College and Central Connecticut State College, where he also teaches jazz history. In 2024 Dwonszyk taught jazz bass at the University of Hartford and in 2025 at UMass Amherst. He also teaches privately.
-Bill Milkowski
Reviews
A Track-By-Track Analysis of Live at the Side Door
1. “Morning Dreams” — “This was written in my Brooklyn apartment after a late night at Smalls jazz club. After waking up and falling back to sleep a few times, the song came to me in a morning dream. It was one of those types of songs that took 15 minutes to write, and I never recorded it. It’s a song that I would play at gigs but never recorded. That was the first song of the night at the Side Door and we were just trying to raise the spirits in the club and create an energy. And all those guys are very good at that. It’s a great vehicle for improvisation.”
2. “Frederiksplein” — “This is a composition written by the late saxophonist Karime Rome and is named after a historic square in Amsterdam. Karime passed on much too soon at the age of 30. I remember in college playing that song with him. He was a great composer and saxophone player, and we wanted to play that song to honor his legacy.”
3. “Stage Dive” — “This is a faster piece inspired by the hard bop era. And it shifts back and forth from a Latin feel to a swing feel, kind of like Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers used todo. The title is named after guitarist Dave Gardina, who took a spill off a stage one night during a concert we were playing. I thought he was going to go face first. Luckily, his guitar somehow broke his fall and he was okay.”
4. “Mucho Fernet” — “This is a calypso feel AABA song. The title comes from my experiences in Buenos Aires, where fernet is a drink of choice. It reminds me of the Blue Mitchell tune “Fungii Mama,” which was a feature for Al Foster (on Mitchell’s 1965 album The Thing To Do). It was that type of feel and that type of attitude that I was going for. It’s kind of a fun tune. Not rocket science, just a nice melody with a certain positive vibe.”
5. “Gloomy Sunday” — “This is a composition (by Hungarian composer Rezső Seress) that Billie Holiday recorded and that I always loved. It is based off a Hungarian folk song. I always thought it would be nice to do a solo arrangement of it on the upright bass. I started playing that song with Kris Allen, the great saxophone player from West Hartford who apprenticed under Jackie McLean at the Hartt School. We would play trio with Jonathan Barber. That’s when I first heard the song. Obviously, it’s a very dark, sad song. It’s based on a Hungarian folk song. I think they called it “The Suicide Song” because people in Hungary were committing suicide to it. But I just felt it laid nicely on the bass and it also connected into the ballad I wrote, ‘Ms. Smith,’ because it was in the same key. I just thought this was a nice way to set up the ballad.”
6. “Ms. Smith” — “This is a ballad dedicated to the late Cheryl Smith, an educator at the Artist Collective in Hartford. She was a big inspiration for many students. We all called her Mama Cheryl. She was a dancer, but she oversaw all the departments at the Artist Collective -- the dance department, the music department. She made sure everything was on track and worked alongside Jackie McLean’s widow, Dollie McLean, who is still associated with the Artists Collective at age 90. Mama Cheryl sadly passed during COVID. She was just a very sweet lady and I wrote this song to honor her. And I thought the bow would be nice here.”
7. “Billy’s Den” — “I wrote this tune in Buenos Aires. There was a lizard that somehow got into the apartment, went under the couch and scared the crap out of me. And we ended up naming it Billy the Lizard. Eventually we got him out of there. But it’s named after him while also kind of tipping a cap to Billy Higgins. I could hear him playing on this type of tune. It’s a long-form blues with a riff sort of reminiscent of ‘Seven Steps to Heaven’ or a Nat Adderley tuned called ‘Fun.’ It’s like the same rhythm over and over again, and the soloist plays over it. I wanted something with that type of energy, where there’s like a static rhythm and then the soloist plays on top of it. And Josh Bruneau just kills on it. Then Jonathan goes crazy at the end.”
8. “White Butterfly” — “This waltz-time ballad is dedicated to my partner Denise Goldman, who is from Buenos Aires. There’s a white butterfly in Buenos Aires. We saw one in a park and it almost looked like some paper just floating in the air or something. And it is definitely a mixture of emotion towards my partner, Denise. She’s kind of taking care of me down there and we’ve been together a long time now. So that was kind of in tribute to her. And Matt Knoegel, who I knew from high school, plays such a great lyrical tenor solo on it.”
9. “Alexandre the Great” — “This tune is named after our dear friend and saxophone master, Jovan Alexandre, who continues to be a huge inspiration. We were all at Hartt together, though to me Alexandre was way ahead of all of us, even in high school. He’s just a virtuoso musician and tremendous composer. This piece I wrote has a similar feel to the title track of his 2015 album Collective Consciousness. It felt like Alexandre was just light years ahead of everybody but so humble, and for me a huge inspiration...just his demeanor and his character and how he approached music.”
10. “Mode for Rene” — “This was written for my dear friend and mentor, Rene McLean, who has been an integral part on my development as a musician and a man. His wisdom and humor have picked me up countless times. It’s an open, modal type of song, kind of inspired by Jackie McLean’s “Mode for J Mac” (from 1974’s A Ghetto Lullaby). And I try kind of do my own thing with that type of concept. Rene taught at the Artists Collective and he was just a great guy and inspiration to us all. He has been a real mentor in every way, shape and form. And I just owe a lot to him because he showed me that music is not just about making notes. He taught me that music is about community. And every time I play I try to have that mindset.”