Jazz Pianist Matt Savage Talks Balancing Celebrity With Life On The Autism Spectrum

Noted jazz musician Matt Savage was in the Triad Tuesday raising money for ABC of NC, an organization that provides services for children with autism spectrum disorder. It's a diagnosis that's very personal for Savage.

When Matt Savage was a small child, autism prevented him from listening to loud sounds or music. After receiving auditory integration therapy and being introduced to piano, his illustrious jazz career was already well underway by the age of 10 years old.

Since then, Savage has shared the stage with jazz greats like Chick Corea, rock legends including Neil Young, and late night hosts David Letterman and Conan O' Brien. Now he's 25 and has a new album titled Piano Voyages. 

Prior to his performance, he spoke with WFDD's David Ford about the challenges and rewards of establishing himself as a respected jazz artist in his own right.

Interview Highlights

On the transition from being unable to listen to music as a small child to recording his first album at nine years old:

What happened was, I was diagnosed with autism at age three, and I definitely had a lot of sensory aversion. So, I was put through many different therapies. But the one that really helped was auditory integration therapy at the age of six which was a gradual sound desensitization. It really helped a lot, and right afterward I started picking out nursery rhymes on a toy xylophone piano and then started the real piano the same week.

How are you able to manage being on the autism spectrum and in the spotlight on stages performing for hundreds of people?

As I've gotten older, of course, I've gotten a lot more commitments and I've been able to do more commitments. So, it sort of requires just being present for a certain amount of time. And the way I deal with it is to sort of isolate myself afterward and really give myself time to prepare for the next concert or the next interview.

On the act of performing jazz in front of an audience:

What's so amazing is that you can improvise or play the same tunes at home or in a practice room, but the actual feeling of having the acoustics of a larger room—one that's really receptive to jazz—and you can hear the audience just moving around in the background, it's really special. And it makes every note pop. It requires a lot of energy, and it requires knowing which chord you're going to play next because sometimes you have to play a whole bunch of them in a row. So, you really need to know not just which chord you're playing, but the next one. It's exhausting but the more you play jazz it becomes very natural.

You've chosen to record Herbie Hancock's “Maiden Voyage” on your new album. What do you admire most about his piano playing?

I love how he sort of expands the harmony and introduces a lot more unusual chords to help build tension. Even when you compare his early acoustic jazz to his later fusion work like Chameleon, and of course all the pop collaborations he's done, he still has this same sense of harmonic mystery which I really love.