On the morning of Thursday, June 5, bassist Matthew Sperry was hit and killed by a truck just outside of Oakland while riding his bicycle to work. A longtime stalwart of new and improvised music, Matt spent most of the 1990s in Seattle playing in an amazingly long list of groups including ...kagel..., Brainstun, Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument Band, the Black Cat Orchestra, Seattle Experimental Opera, Gamelan Pacifica, iv bricoleurs, and the Seattle Creative Orchestra. Indeed, a complete list of collaborators and his sizable discography could consume this entire column.

By 2000, Matt had settled in the Bay Area and continued playing freely improvised music, collaborating with Gino Robair, Anthony Braxton, John Butcher, Jack Wright, and other local and international luminaries. His tastes in music were omnivorous, plunging into everything from contemporary classical compositions to accompanying Tom Waits on Late Night with David Letterman to glamming it up on electric bass for the San Francisco production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. As an improviser, Matt did what the best musicians do, which is finding the orchestra lurking within his instrument. With his long fingernails, agile bow, and arsenal of objects inserted between the strings, his double bass clattered and thwacked, creaked and moaned, thundered and sang.

But beyond his extraordinary musicianship, Matt was a warm, welcoming guy. In 1998, he ran sound for one of my infrequent solo performances, dispelling my pre-performance jitters with a sunny mood and well-chosen warm-up music. Matt was also active in helping his fellow experimental musicians get gigs, co-curating the long-running Other Sounds series from 1996 to 1999 and co-organizing two years of the Seattle Improvised Music Festival. Once in the Bay Area, he helped curate the exploratory Acme Observatory series. Matt Sperry was a gift to Seattle. He will be missed. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI

chris@delaurenti.net