Matt Panayides: Jazz Guitarist and Composer
Matt Panayides is a Jersey City-based jazz guitarist, composer, and recording artist known for his expressive modern quartet and trio performances. His music blends melodic exploration with rhythmic drive, showcased across critically acclaimed albums including Field Theory and With Eyes Closed.
Matt Panayides is a guitarist and composer based in New York City whose music is marked by clarity, lyricism, and a deeply personal sense of improvisation. Inspired by figures such as Jim Hall, John Scofield, Wes Montgomery, and Joni Mitchell, Panayides has steadily cultivated a sound that is both rooted in the jazz tradition and unmistakably his own.
Performing at New York venues including Smalls Jazz Club, Mezzrow, Birdland, and Brvsh Cu7tur3, he has also brought his music to audiences across the United States through tours with his trios and quartets. His groups have appeared at Rudy’s Jazz Room (Nashville), The Century Room (Tucson), Merrimen’s Playhouse (South Bend), Mr. Henry’s (Washington, DC), and stages throughout the Midwest and mid-Atlantic — experiences that continue to shape the direction of his recent work.
In 2024 he released With Eyes Closed, a trio recording with Steve LaSpina and Anthony Pinciotti. His earlier albums on Pacific Coast Jazz — Field Theory (2021), Conduits (2015), and Tapestries of Song (2011) — chart his development as a composer and improviser, often in close collaboration with longtime partners such as Rich Perry and Mark Ferber.
A meaningful dimension of Panayides’ musical life has also been his connection to the Seoul jazz community, where he spent several formative years and where he continues to perform at venues including All That Jazz, Club Evans, and major festivals in Daegu and Jongno, collaborating with musicians such as Oh Jong Dae, Chris Varga, and Kim Sung Su.
Originally from the Midwest, Panayides began on piano before moving to guitar and eventually pursuing jazz studies at the Manhattan School of Music and William Paterson University. His work reflects an ongoing commitment to exploration, nuance, and the continual refinement of a personal musical language.