Matthew Stevens, "Courage"

March 27, 2014 | Rob Hochschild Guitarist Matthew Stevens has built his reputation on and brought his unique sound to recordings by many of jazz's leading young artists—including Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Ben Williams, Walter Smith III, and Jacky Terrasson—but his forthcoming debut on Concord Records promises to have as great an impact as any of the many albums he has appeared on. According to All About Jazz, he has "an impassioned sense of commitment, (and) his solos build with a burning combination of inevitability and sheer unpredictability." Stevens will lead his quintet in a performance at Berklee on April 2, 2014, on NPR's The Checkout—Live at Berklee, in a concert that will be broadcast by NPR Music and WBGO-FM. This episode of Sounds of Berklee spotlights a Stevens recording from 2010 that also features Walter Smith III, Milton Fletcher, John Escreet, and Jamire Williams.