A California native, Matt Dickson has been involved with music since the age of 11. Picking up the saxophone for the first time in 6th grade, he played and learned mostly by ear, picking up melodies from pop tunes and T.V. shows. Due to unfortunate circumstances in High School, he put down his sax for 6 years (and started playing guitar like everyone else!) only to come back to it in his early twenties with a new fire and passion to learn and play. After moving to Northern CA, he met a number of musicians in Humboldt county and started playing out in bars and learning the ropes of gigging, playing jazz, funk and groove music with many area bands. With a desire to further his musical education, he enrolled in the music program at HSU and was often seen in the practice rooms until late at night. During this time he met the musicians who he went on to form the band Nucleus with and after a few semesters decided to drop out to tour full time. After 3 years with that band and having moved to Ithaca, N.Y, Matt went off on his own and started looking for area musicians to play with, having grown apart musically from Nucleus, finally forming Triose.

Matt has studied with or taken lessons from Virginia Ayoob (classical saxophone), Dan Aldag (jazz studies), Dave Valdez (jazz sax), Phillip Greenlief (jazz sax), and Rob Shepps (jazz sax). Some of his main influences are Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Henderson, Chris Potter, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, Dave Holland Quintet, Charlie Hunter, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, to name a few. Matt has played with and/or shared the stage with such artists as Sam Kininger, G. Love and Special Sauce, The Motet, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, Cerulean City, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Om Trio, The Slip, STS9, and L.A. producers Walter Afanasieff, Marc Cazorla, and Alex Stiff. Just a little interesting piece of trivia… the now huge modern rock band Hoobastank almost opened up for him and his then band Nucleus (I don't know what that promoter was thinking!), but they decided they didn't want to set up on the floor, so it never happened!