Cascadia

Dmitri Matheny is a jazz treasure. The lyrical Matheny has impressive chops, but it's his warmth and soulfulness that win you over.
All Music Guide

Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny celebrates the beauty, terrain, and expansiveness of his adopted home in the Pacific Northwest. With ongoing decades of touring, Matheny recorded his 12th album with a trio of longtime Seattle collaborators - pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks, and drummer Mark Ivester - with saxophonist Charles McNeal joining them from Las Vegas. Performing several inspired classics such as Tadd Dameron's "On a Misty Night," Coltrane's "After the Rain," and Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman" adds depth and clarity to Matheny's six original compositions and "Humble Origins" by Bill Anschell. "Perfect Peaches," a lyrical bossa, "Dark Eyes," a seductive noir ballad, "Evergreen Girl," a soul-jazz shuffle, "Bourdain," a memorial elegy for a great man, "The Lonesome Road," a weary traveler's lament, and "Cascadia," the evocative title track, combine to create an emotionally expressive set that will be familiar to Matheny's many followers across the country.

"Dmitri Matheny has ample talent, executing beautiful lines with a flawless warm tone. An excellent performer on gentle ballads and bop scorchers alike."
Rolling Stone

Production Info:

Produced by Dmitri Matheny
Executive Producer Sarah Asbury
Recorded by David Lange
at David Lange Studios, Edgewood WA
Assistant Engineer: Benjamin Lange
Recorded on November 2-3, 2021
Mastered by Ross Nyberg
at Nyberg Mastering, Issaquah WA
Dmitri Matheny photo by Steve Korn
Cover Artwork by Sarah Brayer: Cassiopeia (2001)
Cover Design & Layout by John Bishop

Reviews of Cascadia

Midwest Record (Chris Spector)
An incredibly lyrical player, Matheny and his flugelhorn guide a crew of Seattle pals through a set of grace and dignity that seems almost classical in it's elegance. A real jazzbo that understands the purely instrumental side of things as well, this is the kind of enchanting recording that was made for weekends. ...

All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)
4-STARS Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quintet play perfectly on Cascadia. There is no surprise there—with a rhythm section of pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Mark Ivester backing the front line of Matheny and saxophonist Charles McNeil— perfection is the expectation. Matheny grew up in Georgia and Arizona, spen ...

Jazz Weekly (George W Harris)
Rare is the artist these days that plays only the flugelhorn, but for this album Dmitri Matheny makes it work and work elegantly with his team of Charles McNeal/ts-ss, Bill Anschell/p, Phil Sparks/b and Mark Ivester/dr on this collection of originals and covers. Of the former, Anschell is rich and easy with Matheny and McNeal's tenor on the pulsati ...

Something Else! (S Victor Aaron)
Flugelhorn maestro Dmitri Matheny issues his first long player since 2016's Jazz Noir and continues to lead small combos making cozy, tasteful straight-ahead jazz. Cascadia brings Matheny back to mostly fresh originals with a few standards sprinkled in, leading a five-piece band that throughout comprises of Charles McNeal (tenor and soprano saxopho ...

Coggie Ink (Carol Banks Weber )
Dmitri Matheny doesn't ask a lot of you, dear listener. The WA-based jazz flugelhornist and composer does all the work, behind the scenes and in front of the mic — on bandstands across America and in the studio — so you can focus solely on the music and musical stories, anecdotes, and tone poems that move him, from time-honored ballads and stel ...

All About Jazz (Jack Bowers)
4-STARS Cascadia encompasses an hour of amiable, even-tempered jazz from trumpeter Dmitri Matheny who, like several of his predecessors—Chet Baker, Chuck Mangione, Guido Basso and his mentor, Art Farmer, among them—focuses exclusively on flugelhorn (that and his alert and able-bodied quintet). Matheny uses his gorgeous tone and remarkable lyri ...

CD Hotlist (Rick Anderson)
Here's the challenge when you're a jazz flugelhorn player: avoiding sounding like a TV commercial soundtrack from 1979. It's not your fault; it's just that the flugelhorn has such a sweet, soft tone that it was the favorite vehicle for easy-listening music during that heavily easy-listening decade. So what does Dmitri Matheny do? He takes the dange ...

Take Effect (Tom Haugen)
The flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny takes the company of Charles McNeal (tenor, soprano sax), Bill Anschell (piano), Phil Sparks (bass) and Mark Ivester (drums) for this timeless and exciting jazz affair. The title track opens the listen with warm keys and soothing brass, as a very warm spirit enters the graceful climate, and "On A Misty Night" fo ...

Papatamus (Robert Rusch)
DMITRI MATHENY [flg] has lead a few sessions since he began recording in the late 1980's. CASCADIA [Origin Records 82849] is his latest quintet date featuring Charles McNeal [ts/ss] who blends wonderfully with Matheny on a mixture of fine originals and one jazz standard. ...