As the sparkling guitarist on several chart-topping jazz CDs, a critically lauded songwriter and nimble lyricist Matt Munisteri is an urban banjo-warrior and a sometime session musician, a selfless and devoted sideman, a wry-yet-honest singer, an engaging and winning front-man and an arranger whose ear-pulling re-inventions of well-traveled songs have contributed to GRAMMY® winning CDs.
After leaving his post as the guitarist and principal songwriter for The Flying Neutrinos in the late ’90’s, Matt quietly self-released his debut CD Love Story in 2003. Word-of-mouth saw to it that it wound on several critic’s “Best Of” lists, and garnered the number two slot on Amazon’s Top Ten Jazz CDs of The Year. A formidable lyricist, his literate songs have been compared to Randy Newman, Mose Allison and Bob Dorough.
Matt’s CD Still Runnin’ Round In The Wilderness, is the first volume of two planned CDs to explore the “lost” compositions of the under-recognized, but truly prototypical, American singer-songwriter Willard Robison. Matt is partial to big ideas and prefers projects with challenges and substance, and tackling Robison’s music met all of these criteria.