EDITORIAL Unsurprisingly, there is a very long tradition in both classical and jazz worlds of acclaimed pianist/composers. American jazz pianist George Cables (pictured in the 1980s) has produced a solid body of attractive jazz tunes over his long career, but is equally well-known for his lyrical touch and melodic approach as a soloist and wonderful accompanist.
After first touring here with the Art Pepper Quartet in 1980, he returned here on four other tours - three as a 'single' with pick-up rhythm sections in the 1980s, and with Frank Morgan at the 1996 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. Starting with Woody Shaw in 1970, his recording credits include Max Roach, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Dexter Gordon and Frank Morgan (as well as numerous albums with Art Pepper).
As George had a long-time expatriate Australian partner (the late Helen Wray) in San Francisco, he enjoyed visiting here, and inspired many local pianists. The MJC presented him in 1984, and I toured him nationally in 1988, and he was a delight to work with. He was due to tour here again last June, with "The Cookers", but he was in hospital instead.
After having an organ transplant around a decade ago, at 73 he is now having to have his left leg amputated. With the U.S. health system being so notoriously expensive, a fund-raising campaign is under way to assist him. Donations can be made here Contrasting this sad news is the ever upward trajectory of the career of Melbourne pianist/composer/producer Luke Howard. Best-known to jazz audiences for his Trio, solo performances (often in tandem with Nat Bartsch) or his role in the Anton Delecca Quartet, Howard - like fellow pianist Joe Chindamo - has developed a parallel audience outside of the jazz realm (in his case, as a contemporary classical composer and performer).
A V.C.A. graduate (being a peer of Gian Slater), Howard has had a very successful parallel career in IT with software development, which has enabled him to financially invest in his career at times. But full credit to him for taking this risk of "backing" his musical talent, and reaping the rewards with both impressive international recognition and opportunities now coming his way. While the majority of Howard's composed music is not in the jazz idiom, the growing success of his work in overseas markets is a salutary example for Federal and State funding bodies which are not investing anywhere near enough in a range of our artists.
The film on his jazz Trio (with bassist Jonathan Zion and drummer Daniel Farrugia) is an outstanding promotional vehicle - especially when most local jazz artists cannot even produce a good quality photo image! Tomorrow night sees a double CD launch (that is two different CD albums; not a double CD) by Adam Simmons. He is another Melbourne artist who has continued to invest into his career, entrepreneuring his own ambitious shows and the Festival of Slow Music, as well as interstate tours, and producing his own albums. One of the Artistic Director team at the Wangaratta Festival last year, Simmons always displays positive energy in both his playing and his outlook. I am not 100% sure about the jazz content of the White Night program. Bands like B# Big Band, The Syncopators, Kylie Auldist and The Horns of Leroy are ideal for such an occasion, but there are many young (and largely unknown) bands included too. I am not sure whether this is just because of modest budgets for the Uptown Funk stage (cnr Lonsdale and Russell Streets), or a policy of introducing younger artists. Listeners can judge that. Lastly, the MJC is delighted to be assisting in the presentation of the wonderful trio of Nock, Magnusson & Wilson in their debut performance at Mildura's lovely Arts Centre Theatre. We hope that it is the start of more jazz artists heading to this dynamic rural city.
- Martin Jackson | Sunday, February 18, 8.30 pm-11 pm, at The Jazzlab, 27 Leslie Street, Brunswick $20 & $15 concessions Formed in 2010, Origami is led by Adam Simmons, acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and composer (as well as Co-Artistic Director of Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues) and have performed at various festivals. This is the Melbourne launch of two new CDs: Ornette, a tribute to jazz iconoclast, Ornette Coleman (recorded in 2017 by ABC Jazz at the M.R.C., including Adam’s son, Noah Simmons, on drums); and, Wu Xing – The Five Elements – a new suite inspired by ancient Chinese philosophy, featuring Wang Zheng-Ting on sheng (Chinese mouth organ). Noah Simmons (drums) and Wang Zheng-Ting (sheng) will join Adam Simmons (alto sax/bass clarinet), Howard Cairns (acoustic bass) and Hugh Harvey (drums) to present music from these two projects. | Sunday, February 25, 8.30 pm, at The Jazzlab $20 & $15 concessions Winner of the Ike Isaacs International Jazz Guitar Award (1997) and nominated for the Freedman Fellowship in 2005, Melbourne guitarist James Sherlock has toured internationally in his duo with vocalist Kristin Berardi (including performances in New York and a European tour). He has recorded several Trio albums over the past decade, and is joined in this performance by regular collaborators, bassist Ben Hanlon and drummer Danny Fischer. Hanlon, who works in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Hue Blanes Trio, performed with Sherlock in a sell-out duo show at The Salon in April. They will perform a mixture of Sherlock’s originals and select standards. See www.jamessherlock.com. NOTE: Doug DeVries & Jex Saarelaht were originally advertised for this date, but postponed their performance until May 13 | Friday, March 2, 7.30 pm, at Mildura Arts Centre Sunday, March 4, 8.30 pm, at The Jazzlab At 77, Sydney-based pianist/composer Mike Nock is simply a legend of Australasian jazz, with an international profile based on a 25-year career in the U.S.A. The recipient of the 2009 ‘Bell’ Australian Jazz Awards ‘Hall of Fame’ award, he is not one to rest on his laurels. One example is this bass-less and drummer-less project with two acclaimed Melbourne musicians: tenor saxophonist Julien Wilson and guitarist Steve Magnusson (respective recipients of the 1993 and 2000 National Jazz Awards). With Nock on piano and keyboards, they produced memorable concerts of spontaneous and creative music making as part of the 2013 Wangaratta Festival, and earned critical acclaim for their 2014 Sydney concert, and 2016 MRC performance. Making this concert even more of a special event, Nock will open with a solo piano bracket. He has produced several great albums of solo piano over the past three decades on US, European, Australian and NZ labels, and an album of his compositions was recorded by acclaimed pianist Michael Kieran Harvey.
“Nock made the music more playful, dense, dramatic and unpredictable. When Nock turned to synthesiser – an instrument to which he, too, brings a unique approach, but very seldom plays – the combination with the guitar made the whole sound world suddenly more capricious and marvellously intangible. It was disorienting in the best sense, and therefore both magical and exhilarating”. – John Shand, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 14, 2014 | 2018 AUSTRALIAN JAZZ BELL AWARDS NOMINATIONS OPEN Nominations for 16th annual Australian Jazz Bell Awards opened on 1st February. A new procedure for nominations has been created this year. Nominee’s details – name, bio, image, links to audio and video records – will be uploaded to The Australian Jazz Academy website. Once uploaded, candidate’s details will be available on the website immediately. New method allows the process to be completely transparent. The 2018 awards categories are: Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album
Best Australian Instrumental Jazz Album
Best Produced Album
Best Australian Jazz Song of the Year
Best Australian Jazz Ensemble of the Year
Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year
Graeme Bell Hall of Fame The prestigious awards will be decided by a judging panel of leading members of the Australian and international jazz community. Nominations for the 2018 Australian Jazz Bell Awards will close on 1st March 2018. Winners of the 2018 Australian Jazz Bell Awards will be announced at a gala event at Bird's Basement on 15th May 2018. The Australian Jazz Bell Awards are named after the late Australian jazz pioneer, Graeme Bell, AO, “The Bells”, are prestigious and highly praised among musicians. The award celebrates and elevates excellence in the performance, creativity, recording and presentation of Jazz in Australia. The winner in each of the 7 award categories receives $5000 as well as the Award presented to the artist at the Gala Awards Ceremony at Bird's Basement. Previous winners include a Who's Who of jazz players including Kristin Berardi, Julien Wilson, Michelle Nicole Quartet, Tina Harrod, The Necks, Paul Grabowsky and many others. The Australian Jazz Bell Awards Limited is a not-for-profit company. | SHORT FILM ON THE LUKE HOWARD TRIO + EUROPEAN SUCCESS & TOURS A short documentary-style film on the Luke Howard Trio has been made available on YouTube. Around 30 minutes, it has a spoken introduction from Tim Nikolsky of The Australian Jazz Real Book
View here He has been prolific in the studio, with a new Trio album due out this year. Recent releases include Eighty-Eight Days (2016), Two Places (2016), Forgotten Postcards (2016), The Electric Night Descends (2016) following the success of Sun, Cloud (2013), which was released in remixed versions as Night, Cloud (2014), with remixes by Kyson, Tim Shiel, Brambles, Jimmy Saunders, Japanese Wallpaper, Paul Evans, Mike Katz and Elisabeth Carlsson.
He signed to to Secretly Publishing in 2016, and Mercury KX label (Decca/ Universal) in 2017. He also
produced two records for Nat Bartsch, Hometime, and an upcoming record of lullabies for ABC Classics. 2017 saw Howard working across several projects: arranging the keyboard works of photographer William Eggleston, a pioneer of colour photography; a European tour culminating with a sold-out performance at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie; and a new album. Following his 2017 European tour, he performed in Moscow and St Petersburg in January 2018, with his next European tour in April/May 2018 (including the Zorlu PSM Jazz Festival 2018). Howard is now regarded as one of Australia’s foremost practitioners of contemporary classical music. As a composer Luke Howard has been described as “absolutely heavenly” (Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC Radio 6) and his music as “an ambient masterclass” (Musos’ Guide) | BROWNE-PANKHURST-HANNAFORD ALBUM RELEASED Pianist Marc Hannaford has finished uploading the album that documents the last two performances of the Trio of the late drummer Allan Browne, bassist Sam Pankhurst, and Hannaford, from 2013 and 2014. It's called "Monday Dates," and you can buy the album on Bandcamp:
https://marchannaford.bandcamp.com/album/monday-dates It contains 8 tunes and 4 tracks of Al's announcing. Hannaford also wrote a couple of paragraphs about the group. Jem Savage recorded and mixed the record, and Phil Rex mastered it.
Any and all profits from this album will go to the Lung Foundation of Australia. | BLICHER HEMMER GADD Saturday, February 17th. at The Jazzlab Drumming legend Steve Gadd, known for his collaboration with Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Chick Corea and James Taylor, among others, is touring Australia in February with alto saxophonist, Michael Blicher and Hammond Organ wizard, Dan Hemmer, performing music from their new album ’OMARA’ (as well as tracks from their debut album ‘BLICHER HEMMER GADD’) BLICHER HEMMER GADD (BHG) formed in 2014 and toured all over Europe and Scandinavia. BHG’s second album ‘OMARA’ was recorded live in Germany, England and Denmark during their 2016 tour and this album is a collection of the finest and most hard-swingin´ moments. NOTE: The Jazzlab website is currently down, but tickets are available at the Door. | CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO & JAMES CARTER ORGAN TRIO return at BIRD'S BASEMENT Bird's Basement's program for February features CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO (USA) on February 21-25, STEPHEN MAGNUSSON's KINFOLK on February 27 and JAMES CARTER ORGAN TRIO on February 28-March 4. | KAMASI WASHINGTON Thursday, March 8, at The Forum, After his debut 2016 'side tour' (via the Byron Bay Blues Fest) tenor saxophonist Kamasi Wasahington returns with a 10-piece ensemble. | JOHANNES LUEBBERS, JAMES MULLER, DAVID ADES & OTHER AUSTRALIAN JAZZ ALBUMS AVAILABLE FROM THE MJC In its support of some artists with independent releases (whom we have presented), the MJC has bought a quantity of their CD albums to sell for only $20 (including postage).
One of these is that of former Perth-based arranger Johannes Luebbers Dectet ("The Exquisite Corpse Of Beethoven"). The more recent of these is James Muller's "NEUROTICA", his first album in almost a decade. Recorded in Melbourne (in conjunction with MJC gigs), the album features his Trio, with guest keyboardist Sean Wayland on some tracks, performing all-originals.
In addition we have "A GLORIOUS UNCERTAINTY", the second last album by the late alto saxophonist David Ades, recorded in New York with Tony Malaby, Mark Helias and Gerard Cleaver. It won two Bell Awards: for Best Jazz Ensemble, and Best Jazz Composition.
There are also limited numbers of albums by US-based expatriate saxophonist Jacam Manricks ("Labyrinth"),. For those who attended Allan Browne's funeral service and were impressed by the beautiful classic New Orleans style ensemble in the church which featured clarinetist Barry Wratten, we have his New Orleans Pelicans album. | M.J.C. ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP: SUPPORT THE CO-OP & LIVE MUSIC IN MELBOURNE in 2018 MJC Associate Membership for 2018 is available in three tiers: Gold level is $75; Silver level is $30 ($20 concessions), and Bronze level is $10 for musicians. Associate Membership of the MJC costs just $75 for Gold Membership. When you sign up for Gold Membership you receive a free pass to one MJC Club performance by a Victorian ensemble and concession rates to all gigs all year, equating to large savings for frequent MJC audience members.
Silver membership costs $30 (or $20 for concession holders, $2 for Tertiary students). Silver members also receive one free pass to an MJC Club performance by a Victorian ensemble, as well as standard member benefits.
Musicians are encouraged to join at the special Bronze rate of only $10 per year and support the continued operations of the MJC, an organisation that supports them!
All members receive enewsletters, brochures, a range of discounts to sister businesses and opportunities to win a range of giveaways (CDs, tickets and more) throughout the year.
For more information, email [melbournejazzcooperative@gmail.com] or visit our website for the easy Renewals page, or new Membership page. | Do you have a gig coming up or a new album out? We would love to do a CD or ticket giveaway for you! email mjac@netspace.net.au or melbournejazzcooperative@gmail.com www.mjc.org.au | Founding Artistic Patron: the late Brian Brown, OA Artistic Patrons: Mike Nock, ONZM, Professor Tony Gould, OA MJC Chairperson: Eugene Ball Piano at Uptown Jazz Café is generously supplied by Kawai Pianos, Australia www.kawai.net.au/ | |
