Mark Reilly, voice Mark Fisher, keyboards
Anthony Mason, drums Michael Remy, guitar
Andrew Ross, saxophone, flute Shea Matthews, back vocal
Megan Cavanaugh, back vocal
Matt Biancois a UK band formed by the late Kito Poncioni (bass), Mark Reilly (vocals) and Danny White (keyboards) in 1982, all originally members of the band Blue Rondo A La Turk. Initially, the band was known as ”Bronze”, before settling on the name Matt Bianco in 1983. The band name suggests that Matt Bianco is a personal name, but Matt is ”a made up spy, a secret agent; we loved spy TV themes and film scores.”
Popular during the mid-1980s in continental Europe, Matt Bianco was part of the new jazz pop genre, that they shared with acts such as Working Week, Sade, Everything but the Girl and The Style Council.
For their first album ”Whose Side Are You On?” they hired unknown polish vocalist Basia Trzetrzelewska. Her vocal arrangements gave the album a jazzy dimension that Reilly and White couldn’t anticipate, and hits like ”Get Out of Your Lazy Bed” and ”Half a Minute” turned Matt Bianco into one of the biggest acts of 1984’s Europe. Whose Side Are You On? spawned several UK and European hits, including ”Get Out of Your Lazy Bed”, ”More Than I Can Bear”, ”Half a Minute” and ”Sneaking Out The Back Door”. As well, the title track, while not a hit in the UK, was a minor hit in Canada.
Basia and Danny White left the group after the first album to pursue a lucrative solo-career with Sony under the name Basia. Mark Reilly, now without a musical partner, found two new musical partners: Jenny Evans became the new female singer for Matt Bianco, contributing mainly backing vocals, and lead vocals on two album tracks, and ex-Wham and Second Image keyboarder and session musician Mark Fisher became White’s successor as songwriter and producer, and the band’s keyboard player. With the addition of Mark Fisher, the sound changed considerably. Fisher, a keyboardist, composer and studio wizard, contributed a more contemporary sound, compared to that of the early Matt Bianco. They recorded the next (self titled) Matt Bianco album, containing the hit ”Yeh Yeh”, followed by a European tour that saw them perform in front of more than 250,000 people. Now Matt Bianco was a household name in Europe and Warner Brothers thought it was time to get them into the U.S. market. However, Jenny Evans left the group shortly after the recording of the group’s self-titled album and was not replaced.
They hired Gloria Estefan’s husband and producer Emilio Estefan and recorded Indigo, with the singles ”Don’t Blame It On That Girl” and ”Good Times”, released in 1988. Another song, ”Wap Bam-Boogie”, became European dance single of the year.
Their first Greatest Hits album, entitled The Best of Matt Bianco, collecting their greatest hits from 1983 to 1990, wasreleased in 1990. After another album with Warner Brothers – Samba In Your Casa (1991), Reilly and Fisher split from their record company and went freelance: From now on they would record their albums in their own studios and then offer them to independent distributors worldwide.
This way, they had total artistic freedom but still scored contracts with ZYX Music and Intercord in Europe, and JVC-Victor in Asia. They created a loyal fan base in Japan and the rest of Asia and the albums Another Time Another Place, Gran Via, World-Go-Round, A/Collection, Rico and Echoes were very successful.
After twenty years recording and touring Mark Fisher started to crave for a different lifestyle and the two split amicably.
Basia and Danny White joined with Mark Reilly to reform the original Matt Bianco in 2003, after 20 years apart. In 2004, Matt Bianco released the album Matt’s Mood (the name is from one of their most popular early instrumental tracks). The album featured adult-contemporary/jazz numbers, in the spirit of their first album.
The following year, they embarked on a world tour, which included stops in the UK, Japan, and the United States.
After the success of Matt’s Mood, Basia and White left Matt Bianco again. Reilly reunited with Fisher, and Matt Bianco were back as a duo. Three compilation albums were marketed between 2005 and 2008, including The Best of Matt Bianco – Volume 2, containing many of the Asian tracks, which were so far only available in Germany for European fans, and the re-release of the original 1990 The Best of Matt Bianco, featuring their European hits from 1983 to 1990. In May 2009 Fisher and Reilly released their first album as a duo entitled HiFi Bossanova, their first studio album together in 7 years in Europe, the UK and Japan. With HiFi Bossanova the band secured a recording contract with Edel Music in Europe and continued their cooperation with JVC-Victor in Japan which in November 2012 bore fruit again with the release of their latest album Hideaway.
In 2014 they continue to perform at concerts and jazz festivals around the world and are currently promoting their latest album, Hideaway.