Matt Belsante
| Matt Belsante | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 5, 1984 |
| Origin | Livingston, NJ |
| Genres | Jazz, Easy Listening |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Green Hill Music |
| Website | MattBelsante.com |
Matt Belsante (IPA: bel-SAN-tay) (born October 5, 1984) is an American big band singer/songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Belsante's music encompasses jazz, pop and swing, reminiscent of the style of the crooners of the 1940s and 1950s.
Just out of grade school, Matt picked up the tenor sax at the age of twelve and became a standard fixture in his middle school and high school jazz bands. But the sax wasn’t his only instrument: he soon found he had a talent for using his voice. By his senior year of High School, Matt had won the prestigious Louis Armstrong Jazz Award in both the vocal and instrumental categories, the first student from his school to achieve such a feat.
That affirmation was a turning point for Matt, as he realized that his true passion was for using his voice to interpret a song. He grabbed a guitar, taught himself to play and began composing his own music the summer before he entered Nashville’s Vanderbilt University. Before the first day of class commenced, the late Vanderbilt/Blair school of Music director, Billy Adair, had already recruited Matt to sing for the Blair Big Band. Soon, Matt was directing himself, leading the Dodecaphonics, an all-male a cappella group on campus.
The rising star eventually came to the attention of Nashville’s well-heeled music industry following a performance of the Nashville Jazz Orchestra. That night, the NJO performed a Sinatra tribute, and Matt sang many as if he was channeling Sinatra himself. That performance landed him a televised appearance as a featured entertainer for the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Pageant 2006, which eventually lead him to Green Hill Music, where he recorded an album of Christmas classic (White Christmas), and followed that with a spectacular non-seasonal collection of standards (Blame It On My Youth). The titles quickly became two of the label’s top selling releases.
CBL Properties and KMT Creative Group tapped Matt to become both the voice and the face of their year-long ad campaign. As a result, Matt was featured in a series of spots on television, radio and internet.
Matt’s latest collaboration with Green Hill, teams him with Grammy nominated producer, Jack Jezzro, acclaimed arranger and orchestrator, Jeff Steinberg and the exciting new jazz pianist, Mason Embry. A collection of traditional jazz and Big Band standards, as well a couple of pop and R&B classics, “When You’re Smiling” boasts Matt’s best vocal work to date.
Discography
- White Christmas, 2007, Green Hill Productions
- Blame It On My Youth, 2008, Green Hill Productions
- When You're Smiling, 2015, Green Hill Productions