Matt Zimbel

Matt Zimbel is a percussionist with the band Manteca, and also an award-winning writer, producer, documentary filmmaker, artistic director, broadcast executive and radio and tv host. In this fascinating episode he shares his insights gained from a wealth of experience across the music industry. We speak near the beginning about his father the photographer George Zimbel, who died this past January 2023, after we recorded the episode. We talk about the beautiful documentary film, “Zimbelism” that Matt made with director Jean-Francois Gratton. Matt offered that the trailer for Zimbelism, which features the music of Manteca, could be used in this episode. He has also generously let me weave in a pre-release of a fantastic new percussion piece with Art Avalos which will appear on Manteca’s upcoming Offspring Project.

The video version of this episode, with the transcript is here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/mattzimbel

Matt Zimbel website: http://mattzimbel.com/    Manteca: https://manteca-music.com/   Busking in Deadwood video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBtrn8Mob5s Manteca albums on Bandcamp: https://mantecamusic.bandcamp.com/music 

Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:30) early influences: Osibisa, jazz on CBC radio

(05:38) dropping out of school at 14, percussion studies Jim Farety, Dido Morris, John Ruddell, Armando’s Orchestra, forming Manteca

(08:30) intro Hit Record percussion piece with Art Avalos pre-release for Manteca’s The Offspring Project

(09:20) Hit Record

(10:31) learning percussion, playing diferent styles, recording disco

(12:30) early influences: Eddie Harris

(13:11) creating the film Zimbelism

(14:38) clip from trailer for Zimbelism

(16:03) making of Zimbelism, Elaine Sernovitz and George Zimbel

(21:03) adoption of Jodi from Korea, racism

(23:27) immgration to Canada to a farm on PEI

(26:00) Matt’s family’s reaction to him dropping out of school, living the freelance life as an artist

(27:59) orchestra life

(29:22) Manteca, Colleen Allen and memorizing music, Will Jarvis

(31:21) Road Stories with Manteca

(34:06) Manteca’s The Offspring Project

(44:46) Leonard Cohen, Miles Davis

(48:42) Canada Day show, PanAm Games

(58:41) publicity, finding new audiences, Canadian culture

(01:07:28) Doug Wilde creative process Manteca

(01:09:17) clip from Miss Météo from album Augmented Indiference,

(01:12:23) story about Miss Météo

(01:15:33) problem with streaming music, Busking in Deadwood video

(01:18:09) dealing with the pandemic through creativity, livestream with Lyne Tremblay, Matt’s sons

(01:21:45) the importance of good food

(01:23:01) Rick Tait

(01:24:59) crowdfunding and challenges for performers

(01:28:44) lessons learned from his parents

(01:32:05) Matt’s perspectives on a varied career