NH musician tours world, returns to Portsmouth April 6 at 3S
PORTSMOUTH — He has played music to tens of thousand of fans; toured with his keyboard and reggae band in three continents; and been quoted in Time magazine as a pre-eminent scholar of the politics of Bob Marley.
And on April 6, the New Hampshire-born and educated Matt Jenson will return to 3S ArtSpace in Portsmouth with some of New England's best Latin musicians to raise money for a school in the beleaguered nation of Haiti.
“I have never been to Haiti, but when we do the show for Life and Hope Haiti we know we are helping to educate kids,” said Jenson, whose band, Combo Sabroso, has played at all 13 Caribbean Nights Dance Parties for Haiti in Portsmouth.
Combo Sabroso, with its its unique blend of reggae and Latin music, will help raise money for the Eben Ezer School in northern Haiti, which is thriving thanks to 17 years of support from the Seacoast. The event will include a video update on progress at the school during this era of great challenge for Haiti.
Although Jenson is best known in the Seacoast as leader of Combo Sabroso, he has taught at Berklee School of Music for 22 years. A longtime resident of Portsmouth now living in Gloucester, he grew up in the small New Hampshire town of Walpole, graduated in 1997 from the University of New Hampshire and went on to study jazz at New England Conservatory.
After getting his graduate degree at the Conservatory, Jenson returned to Portsmouth and started Combo Sabrosa, playing to overflow crowds at the Press Room. From 2018 to 2022, he toured internationally with the reggae and Groundation. Jenson was floored when he got a call from the group’s leader and found himself at 55, being given a chance to tour.
“That’s all I ever really wanted to do since I was a kid,” said Jenson. “I had already given up that it was going to happen."
The band, especially popular in Europe and Brazil, gets top billing along with reggae artists like Ziggy Marley and Steel Pulse, according to Jenson, who still seems gobsmacked by the reception given this group with a sound that is far from mainstream.
“You play some of these songs and within half a beat they are screaming the lyrics,” he recalled.
During the pandemic, the band capitalized on Jenson’s talent for composing and arranging, inviting him to work with songs on a new album.
“I put in all sorts of horn stuff and vocal stuff and messed around with chord changes, and also put in keyboard parts,” said Jenso, whose imprint suffuses the resulting album, One Rock.
“Local boy Combo Sabroso’s Matt Jenson on a world class album,” he says, as if he is shaking his head in disbelief..
A people person who enjoys hanging out with fans after shows, Jenson is particularly moved by the people who told him how much they love the music.
“Their hand goes on their heart and they say, ‘this music changed my life forever,” he said.
Still, by 2022, Jenson had decided full-time touring was not for him.
“People romanticize the touring thing,” he said. “It’s great but it’s hard.”
Although he is not touring with Groundation anymore, he has submitted songs for their next album and may tour with them in the future.
Because Jenson teaches a class on the politics of Bob Marley and runs the Bob Marley ensemble at Berklee, he was quoted last month in a Time magazine article about, “One Love,” the new Marley movie.
These days Jenson plays often at the Cut, a venue steps from his house in Gloucester. His current pet personal project is to create ambient music that brings people “a spiritual connection to higher forces, to truth, to love.”
Who knows, Jenson said. He may even take this show on a mini tour.
In the meantime, he is psyched to play at 3S next week.
Tickets, $30 in advance and $40 at the door, are available at http://www.lifeandhopehaiti.org/tickets. More information is available from newslifeandhopehaiti@yahoo.com