Matt Otto- Red

Matt Otto was at Berklee about the same time that I was. He also studied with Garzone there,then he went to the New School for a masters degree and studied with Garzone even further. I used to sit in with him quite a bit when I first moved to NYC. Otto has the discipline of a serious Buddhist monk. I was curious when one day I noticed that he had Velcro strips all over his horn, so I asked him was they were for. He told me that they were so his hands didn't get tendonitis when he practiced long tones. This guy practiced long tones so much that he needed to clamp down his keys with Velcro. Insane, I say!

Matt can sound just like early Getz or late Trane, he rips up crazy lines in the altissimo and has a sound that is about as fat as Garzone's. Otto is back in LA now, going to school at Cal Arts for yet another advanced degree. Otto is scary and everyone in NYC is very afraid of him. If you can get past the communist ranting on his site you will be amazed to hear his playing. Listen to the MP3 of Trane's Sattelite in 7/8 in the bootleg MP3 section, it's totally nuts.
His site is- www.mattotto.net

Here are some Windows Media files of Matt performing in his Brooklyn apartment.
Red
Forces and Relations
I shot these in 1999 with the help of Scott Marshal.