Dianne Reeves to
Perform in Sydney Tues 6th June City Recital Hall
WITH PETER MARTIN, ROMERO LUBAMBO,
REGINALD VEAL, TERREON GULLY
“The most admired jazz diva since
the heyday of Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday” The New York Times
“
Dianne Reeves is one of our
generation’s definitive jazz masters, a vocal stylist of extraordinary skill and
vivacity” The Huffington Post
Dianne Reeves is the pre-eminent
jazz vocalist in the world today – her arsenal of talents is richly on display in
each and every song of her limitless repertoire.
As a result of her virtuosity,
improvisational prowess and unique jazz and R&B stylings, Dianne has received
five Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album and an honorary doctorate of music
from Julliard. Dianne’s magical, timeless voice combined with the sheer force of
her performance mark her as a captivating world-class artist.
Wynton Marsalis exclaims, “she
has one of the most powerful, purposeful, and accurate voices of this or any time.”
Dianne’s recent Grammy Award winning album,
Beautiful Life, epitomises the
spirit of her storied and extraordinary career, traversing many genres and collaborating
with a diverse collection of artists.
Adored by audiences and critics
alike throughout the world, Dianne Reeves is a natural wonder not to be missed.
Duration: approximately 90 minutes,
no interval
17/05/2017 Stu Hunter Claims
Two of Five Nominations at 2017 Bell Awards
By
Kaye Blum
Recipients
of the Australian Jazz Bell Awards 2017 were announced at a ceremony hosted by Birds
Basement in Melbourne on Monday night. Named after Graeme Bell (MBE, AO), the awards
were established in 2003 to recognise and encourage excellence in the performance,
creativity, recording and presentation of jazz in Australia, with a $5000 prize
for each sponsored award category.
Stu
Hunter’s
The Migration was nominated in all five open voting categories and
took out two awards. Congratulations to all the nominees and award recipients:
Best Australian
Jazz Vocal Album (TarraWarra Estate)
Nominations: Kristin
Berardi
Just As You Are; Michelle Nicolle Quartet
A Flower Is A Lovesome
Thing; Stu Hunter
The Migration.
Awarded to: Michelle
Nicolle Quartet
Best Australian
Instrumental Jazz Album (Brand Partners)
Nominations
:
Jeremy Rose and The Earshift Orchestra,
Iron In The Blood; Andrea Keller
& Tim Wilson Duo,
Consider This; Stu Hunter,
The Migration.
Awarded to: Andrea
Keller & Tim Wilson Duo.
Best Produced
Album (Alfie Records)
Nominations
:
Jeremy Rose and The Earshift Orchestra,
Iron In The Blood; The Vampires,
The Vampires Meet Lionel Louke; Stu Hunter,
The Migration.
Awarded to: Jeremy
Rose and The Earshift Orchestra
Best Australian
Jazz Song/Composition of the Year (APRA/AMCOS)
Nominations
:
Eugene Ball 4tet,
Hi(gh) Curious song
Es Muss Sein; Andrea Keller
& Time Wilson Duo, song
Consider This; Stu Hunter,
The Migration
song
Eagle Fish.
Awarded to: Stu
Hunter
Best Australian
Jazz Ensemble of the Year (Monash University)
Nominations
:
Michelle Nicolle Quartet
A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing; Stu Hunter
The
Migration; The Vampires,
The Vampires Meet Lionel Louke.
Awarded to: Stu
Hunter
Can
an album be nominated for both Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album
and Best
Australian Instrumental Jazz Album? According to the guidelines published on the
Bell Awards website, the selection criteria for a vocal album nomination must be
“an album led by or featuring a vocalist”. To qualify for nomination in the instrumental
album category, “the recording must be free of lyrics” – unless it has only one
or two tracks out of 10 with lyrics. Hunter’s
The Migration has two vocal
tracks.
Keeping
it loose, the Best Australian Jazz Ensemble criteria specifies “the minimum size
of the band must be 7 members”, yet a quartet was nominated in this category. So
how do nominations work for the Bell Awards and who votes?
The
nomination and voting process was opened up to members of the Australian Jazz Awards
Academy last year to make it “transparent and more democratic”. Academy membership
is open to all jazz enthusiasts, with a $10 joining fee each year.
In
his opening presentation, Bell Awards founder and Chairman Albert Dadon (Albare)
commented that the number of Academy members exceeded 250 this year.
Members
can nominate then vote for their top three preferences in all award categories excluding
the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame award – this one is determined only by the panel of
judges. The Hall of Fame award recognises outstanding artistic achievement and contribution
to Australian jazz by a living artist, with this year’s honour going to drummer
Ted Vining.
The Young Australian
Jazz Artist of the Year, this year sponsored by Fender Katsalidis Architects, was
awarded to West Australian pianist Harry Mitchell.
The
2017 judging panel comprised Albare, Adrian Jackson, Martin Jackson, John McBeath,
Gerry Koster and Carl Griffin. At the risk of banging the Boys Club drum a little
loud, one has to raise the issue of gender imbalance here. Surely there are plenty
of women who could be – and should be – part of the judging panel every year.
How
about Dr Louise Denson, or ABC Jazz broadcaster and journalist Jessica Nicholas?
If previous Bell Award recipients aren’t excluded from judging, how about international
vocalist and composer Chris McNulty (her prestigious career includes a
DownBeat
readers poll top 11 album of the year)? Or Judy Jacques, Andrea Keller, Judy Bailey?
C’mon fellas, it’s time to move Australian jazz into the 21
st century.
Photo
caption:
L-R:
Tony Gould, Albert Dadon, 2017 Hall of Fame inductee Ted Vining, Jo Chindamo, and
Hon. Heidi Victoria. Photo: © 2017 Kaye Blum.
The Australian Heartland of
Jazz Stages its First International Jazz Festival
The University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music, the
heartland of the country’s finest jazz musicians and the first tertiary jazz course
in Australia, is hosting an inaugural international jazz festival on Sunday 4 June.
The one-day festival, a part of the Con’s new music program for Vivid Sydney, will
feature more than 100 musicians in 26 events across five venues.
Through unique, international and Australian collaborations,
new commissions and masterclasses, Artistic Directors David Theak and Simon Barker
have curated a program that sets the Sydney Con International Jazz Festival apart
from other Australian jazz festivals.
David Theak, head of the jazz program at the University’s
Conservatorium of Music said: “It is with a great feeling of excitement that Simon
Barker and I have been able to put together a program that features Australian artists
at its core. We have gathered the best of the best from around the country to perform
alongside our international guests. It will be a rare treat for Sydney audiences
to hear Blue Note recording artist Greg Osby alongside prodigious Miami-based Tal
Cohen and Perth heavy-weight Jamie Oehlers, Adelaide’s luminary guitarist James
Muller with potent British saxophonist Will Vinson followed by a new quintet by
Sydney’s profusely creative trumpeter Phil Slater - playing back to back - across
one epic day.”
Headlining the festival on his first visit to Australia
is prolific Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan. Tigran, who has won a swag of awards
including top prizes at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals, is shining a
light on contemporary piano with his ability to seamlessly blend jazz, folk, progressive
rock and classical forms. His soulful approach, owing largely to his Armenian roots
and undisputable technical skills, will be on display in a special solo performance
of his new release An Ancient Observer which is available now on Nonesuch Records.
The revolutionary American drummer Jim Black, who has a
reputation of taking the listener to places rarely travelled, will together at the
Sydney Opera House in 2005, when their performance was described by The Sydney Morning
Herald as having “boundless imagination”. For this performance, the pair will be
joined by celebrated Melbourne artists, bassist Christopher Hale and tenor saxophonist
Julien Wilson.
Other festival highlights include the debut performance
of the newly formed Australian National Jazz Orchestra, featuring the James Morrison
Scholarship Award winner and Stan Getz Fellow, Mat Jodrell, on trumpet with the
legendary New Zealand tenor saxophonist, Roger Manins. The orchestra will perform
the world premiere of newly commissioned works by Victorian big band composer, Nick
Mulder.
Theak, who is a tireless advocate for large jazz ensembles
and education in Australia, added: “Central to the festival program is not just
the performance of the music, but the educational elements. We will draw on an impressive
calibre of artists in our masterclass program to unlock the mystery of jazz and
help audiences to gain an insight into how the music in constructed.” In support
of their mission, Theak and Barker have devised a mentoring program that sees Conservatorium
students work with esteemed leaders of the Australian jazz scene, such as saxophonist
and composer Sandy Evans. Students will rehearse and perform with their mentors
during the festival.
The University’s Conservatorium of Music’s jazz program
is one of the most highly regarded in Australia and overseas. Students work alongside
some of Australia’s best-known jazz musicians and composers, and are trained in
improvisation, ensemble playing and repertoire development. Classes in jazz music
business skills prepare graduates for the non-musical aspects of their career. The
program includes three big bands and 11 small ensembles, with many opportunities
for performance at the Con and at jazz festivals. In 2018, the University will launch
a revamped Bachelor of Music to include a new program in Improvised Music – focused
on research-based improvisation, including but not limited to the jazz tradition.
Event Details: What: Sydney Con International Jazz Festival
When: Sunday 4 June, 9am-9pm Where: Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 1 Conservatorium
Road, Sydney Tickets: http://music.sydney.edu.au/jazzfest
29/4/2017 Donny McCaslin Group One Night
Only in Sydney
With three Grammy nominations and twelve
albums to his name, saxophonist Donny McCaslin is widely regarded as one of jazz’s
most innovative artists and band leaders. In 2014, David Bowie made a visit to
hear McCaslin and company at the 55 Bar in Greenwich Village. Soon after, Bowie
began corresponding with McCaslin, forming a new collaboration and friendship that
transpired through the recording of Blackstar until Bowie’s passing. Now McCaslin
has released the much acclaimed album Beyond Now, which documents “David Bowie’s
Last Band” and features an exceptional group of musicians.
“Replacing Michael Brecker in Steps Ahead
back in the 90s, and making an especially telling contribution to the orchestral
sweep of Maria Schneider’s Orchestra, McCaslin has led a string of small bands of
distinction. The most recent, with keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre
and drummer Mark Guiliana had already become one of the signature bands of the day,
playing a free-wheeling, grooving form of electric jazz, before being heard by Bowie
in a tiny New York bar and thence providing the instrumental muscle behind his final
recording, with the singer plugging into the band’s ‘intensely responsive metabolism’”
- (New York Times)
The Basement Wed 31
st May 2017
29/4/2017 Influential Guitarist Bill Frisell
in Sydney
Guitarist and composer
Bill Frisell
is a revered musician and Grammy® award-winner whose career spans more than 35 years
and 250 recordings. Recognised as one of America’s most vital and productive performing
artists, this bold and inventive musician has stayed true to jazz, but that hasn’t
prevented him from trying his hand at avant-garde, noise, bop, folk, country, bluegrass,
rock, blues, American popular music and even classical music.
Frisell is a twelve-time Best Guitarist winner
in the Down Beat Critics Poll (including 2013), a four-time Guitarist of the Year
at the Jazz Awards (including 2013) and has collaborated with artists and ensembles
as diverse as Sting, Rickie Lee Jones, Elvis Costello, Bono, T-Bone Burnett, Marianne
Faithful, Paul Motian, Ron Carter, Eberhard Weber, John Zorn, Dave Holland, Lucinda
Williams, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Brian Eno, Paul Simon, The Frankfurt Ballet,
BCC Symphony Orchestra and The Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In concert, Frisell is joined on stage by
vocalist
Petra Haden (The Decemberists, Beck, Foo Fighters, Queens of the
Stone Age), bass player
Thomas Morgan (Paul Motian, Dave Binney Quartet,
Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet) and drummer
Rudy Royston (Branford Marsalis,
Dave Douglas, The Mingus Big Band).
The concert includes music from Bill’s latest
Grammy® nominated release,
When You Wish Upon a Star – featuring
his interpretations of classic American cinema music from
Hitchcock’s Psycho
through to
Ennio Morricone ‘s score to
Once Upon A Time In The West,
via
Nino Rota ‘s music for
The Godfather.
“Bill Frisell is the most innovative and
influential jazz guitarist of the past 25 years.”
The Wall Street Journal
“Frisell is a revered figure among musicians
– like Miles Davis and few others…”
The New York Times
York Theatre Seymour Centre 3
rd
June 2017-03-29
29/3/2017 Kenny Barron to play The Basement
Kenny Barron is unrivalled in his ability
to mesmerise audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and dynamic
rhythms.
Spotted by Dizzy Gillespie when still in
his teens, Barron has illuminated the jazz world for over five decades, working
with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz and Roy Haynes.
Named by Los Angeles Times as "one of
the top jazz pianists in the world", Barron has received nine Grammy nominations,
six Best Pianist Awards from the Jazz Journalists Association, and consistently
won jazz critics and readers polls in Downbeat, Jazz Times and Jazziz magazines.
He was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005 and as an NEA Jazz Master
in 2010.
With deep respect for the jazz tradition
and irrepressible warmth and creativity, this unforgettable performance will feature
works from Barron's most recent Grammy-nominated release,
Book of Intuition.
Thursday 1
st June 2017
