Dingo Australian Jazz Journal Issue 3 Autumn 2022

M USI C REVI EWS EDUCATI ON G I GS

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Dingo acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Musical experiences curated for adventure

Co m i n g u p Orange Winter Jazz Festival June 2022 Jazz: NOW July 2022 Freedman Jazz September 2022 Sydney Intl Women’s Jazz Fest October 2022

Explore sima.org.au

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EDITOR Adam Simmons | editor@dingojazz.com CO-EDITOR & MARKETING Cal Barry | marketing@dingojazz.com ART DIRECTOR Perri Winter | artdirector@dingojazz.com COVER ART Ashvin Harrison | art@ashvinharrison.com www.ashvinharrison.com | @ashvinharrisonart WRITERS Jake Amy, Shannon Barnett, Ella Clair, Des Cowley, Louise Denson, Matt Fripp, Jared Haschek, Toby Mak, Natalia Mann, Julia Messenger, Roger Mitchell, Tim Nikolsky, Barry O’Sullivan, Michael Prescott, Aaron Searle, John Shand, Simon Starr COPY EDITOR Des Cowley and Roger Mitchell ARTIST Meg Kolac | www.megkolac.com SUBSCRIBE subscriptions@dingojazz.com ADVERTISING marketing@dingojazz.com PUBLISHED BY Sounding Grace Pty Ltd 339 Clarendon St, South Melbourne, VIC 3205, Australia DISTRIBUTED BY WRAPAWAY ISSN 2652-9637 Dingo accepts freelance art, photo and writing submissions, however we cannot reply personally to unsuccessful pitches.

For submission guidelines please visit www.dingojazz.com/contact Views expressed by the authors are not those of the publisher. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. Copyright is reserved by the publisher.

Sumo Laser is an environmentally responsible paper manufactured under the ISO14001 Environmental Management System, using elemental chlorine free pulp. Sumo Laser is FSC Certified Mix pulp.

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editor Wominjeka/Welcome It has been just over a year since we announced the birth of Dingo.

Thanks to the strong show of support so far, we are approaching our first anniversary with a great sense of optimism about what lies ahead for us and our capacity to contribute to the jazz scene in Australia. Though, even as we are opening up after the past two years of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, the jazz community is not unaffected by other major world events.

Internationally, the unwarranted Russian invasion of Ukraine is cause for great concern with serious humanitarian and socioeconomic consequences. Closer to home, the recent torrential floods in Queensland and New South Wales have also taken their toll. In both cases, the impacts will be significant. Charity, support and understanding will be vital to alleviate great losses and hardship.

It is not always easy to know what to do in the face of such immense catastrophes. My personal response in these cases is to do what I can within my capacity – however small that may be. Any contribution to making the world a better, safer, more friendly place to live is a step in the right direction.

In this edition, there are examples of how jazz can unite people across borders – Wilma Reading has contributed at several key historical moments, while our expats, Shannon and Toby, write of their experiences abroad. Jazz is political on many levels and has indeed been used as a diplomatic tool. Dingo is proud to share in International Jazz Day’s celebration of jazz as “a force for peace, intercultural dialogue and international cooperation”.

We are also excited to share news on a raft of exciting initiatives including a major infrastructure project, new jazz festivals and events, as well as insights into the wide range of music-making activities and opportunities available across the country.

Enjoy Adam Simmons

contents

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EDITOR

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S POTLIGHT

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TH E RELEVANCE OF TERTIARY JA ZZ EDUCATION

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K ATH LEEN HALLORAN A PROFILE

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TERTIARY COU RS E GUIDE

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DON 'T GIVE U P DON 'T GIVE IN IN CONVERSATION WITH WILMA RE ADING

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THIN KING BIGGER

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JAZZ IN BRIS BAN E

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REVIEWS

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ARTIST SOPHIE MIN

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EDUCATION HISTORY LESSON: MELBOURNE JA ZZ CO - OPER ATIVE SPIDER M USIC DEEP DIVE UNDERSTANDING THROUGH LISTENING YOUNG ARTISTS

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GE AR REVIEWS

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LIVE

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GLOBAL PERS PECTIVE SHANGHAI PYJAMAS A POSTCARD FROM COLOGNE SUPPORT FOR UKR AINE FIVE STEPS TO JA ZZ NET WORKING SUCCESS

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CONTRIBUTORS

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52 34 67 105 72 84

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spotlight F E S T I VA L S AUSTRALIAN JAZZ CONVENTION In December, the 75th Australian Jazz Convention was held in Albury, albeit in a reduced manner due to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the explosion of case numbers just prior to the event. Dingo’s Editor Adam Simmons was in attendance, but only after spending several days in self-isolation waiting for COVID-19 test results (which were negative). The courage and resilience of the AJC team to stage the event paid off, with a small but dedicated and collegial gathering of musicians and jazz lovers enjoying several days of live music making and celebrating the 75th anniversary milestone.

The AJC team is looking forward to a gala 76th AJC in Newcastle between December 26–31, 2022.

ORANGE WINTER JAZZ FEST Coming up on the June long weekend is the premiere of a new festival in the historic township of Orange, presenting high quality artists from NSW’s Central West music scene, alongside some of Australia’s best jazz artists, including Mahalia Barnes, Vince Jones, The catholics, Andy Baylor and Genni Kane. A four-hour drive from Sydney, three hours from Canberra, and five hours from Newcastle, the Orange Winter Jazz Festival is an exciting addition to the Australian jazz calendar being produced and programmed by Jam Orange and Sydney Improvised Music Association.

ALBURY JAZZ FESTIVAL Albury is set to host the inaugural Albury Jazz Festival over the weekend of May 20–22. Drawing upon the model of many Australian jazz festivals,

including the Australian Jazz Convention, musicians will perform in their regular and festival-specific bands. Festival organiser Chris Gildersleeve describes the event: “Jazz will be presented in free concerts in the parks during the day on Saturday and Sunday and ticketed indoor venues on Friday to Sunday evening.” Further information is available at the Albury Jazz Festival Facebook page.

ALL-STATE JAZZ CHAMPIONSHIPS The successful launch of last year’s All-State Jazz Championships augers well for its return in 2022. The main competition day is Saturday 14 May, followed a week later with the Gala Concert Night on the evening of 21 May, featuring all winning ensembles and special guests performing in the world-class auditorium at St Leonard’s College. Creative Director Ross Irwin told Dingo, “With new team members, new awards and scholarships, and an ever-growing list of artistic development opportunities for all levels of student, it’s sure to be a hugely positive and inspiring event for high school musicians in Victoria.”

WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OF JAZZ & BLUES Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues is looking forward to staging a live festival this year kicking off in Wangaratta commencing Friday 28 October. Festival Co-Artistic Director Eugene Ball says the program “will focus on Australian talent, including returning expatriates and debut collaborations between Australian and international artists”. A special program launch event will be held on Friday 8 April at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre commencing 6:30pm.

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SHIRAZZ

JAZZ IN THE SQ. Dingo is excited to celebrate International Jazz Day 2022 by presenting Jazz in the Square, a full day of live music in the heart of Melbourne. This free eighthour event on Federation Square’s main outdoor stage begins at noon on Saturday April 30.

T H AT G O L D ST RE E T S O U N D

M E L B O U RN E C O N S E RVATO RI U M O F M U S I C

International Jazz Day – chaired and led by UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay and legendary jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock – is declared to be “the world’s largest celebration of jazz as a force for peace, intercultural dialogue and international cooperation. Each year on April 30, people from over 190 countries worldwide come together to recognize jazz for promoting respect for human rights and human dignity, eradicating discrimination, bolstering freedom of expression, fostering gender equality, and reinforcing the role of youth in enacting social change.”

Dingo’s aim for Jazz in the Square is to establish an event that celebrates the richness and diversity across different aspects of the Australian jazz community and that is easily accessible and visible for all. The event will also be streamed live by Dingo.

For this inaugural event, Federation Square will come alive with several dozen of Melbourne’s finest emerging and established jazz artists such as Shirazz, Hoodoo Mayhem, XANI, The Pearly Shells, Adam Simmons Creative Music Ensemble and That Gold Street Sound.

Melbourne Conservatorium Of Music Jazz & Improvisation Department are a key partner for the event, presenting a mixture of large and small ensembles led by staff (sessional and continuing) during the day. The music will continue with a free (ticketed) concert at Lionel’s and Grant Street Theatre from 7pm, with a special program featuring Sydney bassist and invited guest Jonathan Zwartz in collaboration with staff and students.

XA N I P H OTO BY KU RT P E T E RS O N

AWA R D S AUSTRALIAN JAZZ BELL AWARDS In a welcome return after taking a break since 2020, the Australian Jazz Bell Awards are due to be presented on April 21 as a Gala Awards Night at Bird’s Basement. The nominees are voted on by members of the Australian Jazz Academy, and the result from the top three finalists adjudicated by the judging panel. There will be winners in six categories, and an inductee to the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame. Use “Industry22” to receive a discount on tickets – full details: bellawards.org GOLDEN MELODY AWARDS

M AT T H EW T H O M S O N

Congratulations to Shanghai-based trumpeter Toby Mak for his two nominations at the 32nd Golden Melody Awards held last year.

Regarded as the Asian equivalent of the Grammy Awards, the GMAs recognize outstanding achievement on the basis of votes by a jury.

Toby’s nominations were for Best Album and Best Composition, based on his 2021 Synthetic Steps album and its title track, released under the artist name of TTechmak on Universal Music Taiwan.

ARIA AWARDS Melbourne’s Mildlife were awarded Best Jazz Album at the 35th annual ARIA Awards in 2021 for their LP Automatic. Described as “psychedelic jazz fusion”, this is Mildlife’s second album. During April and May they are touring extensively throughout the US and Europe before returning to Australia for Splendour in the Grass in July.

NATIONAL JAZZ AWARDS

TO BY M A K

The 2021 National Jazz Awards (piano) were staged virtually

by Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues in a series of free online concerts, having once again been impacted due to COVID-19 restrictions. First place was awarded to NSW pianist Matthew Thomson, which includes a $7,000 cash prize and a recording session with Melbourne’s Pughouse Studios. Matthew Sheens (SA/NYC) and Steve Barry (NSW) placed second and third respectively. Each year, the NJA’s focus on a different instrument – for 2022 the featured instrument is guitar.

ORIGINAL TUNES COMPETITION A long-standing feature of the Australian Jazz Convention, the 2021 Original Tunes Competition was won by the respected NSW-based saxophonist and clarinettist Paul Furniss, performing “Got You Covered” in duet with pianist Stephen Grant. This was Furniss’s fourth award since his first win in 1970. Furniss is preparing this tune to join his other compositions featured in the Australian Jazz Real Book. Trumpeter (and Dingo contributor) Donald Mayne placed second, with young Melbourne drummer Luca Fraillon taking third prize as well as the special “Young Composer” category.

PAU L F U R N I S S

MILDLIFE P H OTO BY TO M RO S S

MILDLIFE P H OTO BY K EV I N M C D OW E L L

JAZZ OUTSTANDING STUDENTS | BRILLIANT STAFF | SUPERB TRAINING Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) Diploma of Music (Performance) Bachelor of Music (Honours)

134 328 | futurestudy@ecu.edu.au | waapa.ecu.edu.au

“I wanted to major in Jazz music and I knew WAAPA was the best place to study.”

Linda May Han Oh (bassist/composer)

RTO Provider 4756 | CRICOS IPC 00279B

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CONNECTIONS Jazzahead! is described as the “must-go event for the international jazz industry” and is being held in a hybrid fashion for 2022. Featuring 40 bands from a total of 20 countries, the showcase concerts can be experienced live on site by registered professional participants and will be streamed simultaneously via the festival’s event platform. This year’s partner country is Canada, who will showcase eight bands with a large delegation of musicians, festivals, agents, labels and Canadian jazz personalities. The jazzahead! 2022 online platform allows participants who cannot travel to Bremen as well as for those registered on site, the exclusive opportunity to connect and exchange with the global jazz community. Any interested Australian jazz artists and industry members are encouraged to connect with Sounds Australia and Australian Music Centre.

Popular online music service Bandcamp announced in March that they are joining Epic Games, makers of the video game Fortnite. Bandcamp co-founder

and CEO Ethan Diamond’s open letter indicates he will continue to lead the team and that artists will retain the same control over the way their music is offered, but that working with Epic will help expand markets and services. Diamond continues, saying that with Epic, “[w]e share a vision of building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world.” With many jazz artists releasing music on Bandcamp, this will be an important space to watch.

Musicians Australia (part of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance) has had recent success in their national campaign to establish a $250 minimum fee for all government subsidised gigs. The Victorian Government’s recently announced package of support for the live music industry includes a commitment to this guaranteed minimum. Victoria joins Queensland, South Australian and Western Australia, who have already endorsed the fee in principle or practice. It has been adopted by the NSW upper house but it is yet to become law.

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THE RELEVANCE

O F T E R T I A R Y J A Z Z E D U C AT I O N

WO RDS JAKE AMY

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Is jazz dead? Well … it depends . At its current stage of evolution , Australian jazz seems to have surpassed all expectations and definitions . Late last year, Naarm -based indie psychedelic acid/prog-rock cosmic disco/electro -funk fusion jazz band Mildlife took home the prestigious Best Jazz Album ARIA award. And with a massive international tour set for 2022 , Mildlife’s string of sold- out gigs sug gests there is an audience that craves this st yle of jazz .

Australian avant-garde jazz band The Necks seem to have transcended the spik y discipline of jazz, with The Guardian U K describing them as “… entirely new and entirely now … They produce a post-jazz, post-rock , post- ever y thing sonic experience that has few parallels or rivals .” It seems the crosspollination of popular music and jazz idiosyncrasies has made it dif ficult to define exactly what jazz is .

Certainly, tertiary institutions have capitalised on teaching jazz and improvisation, with many Australian universities providing a jazz stream as part of their esteemed music programs. Tertiary jazz education has been pivotal in shaping the Australian contemporary music landscape, with jazz alumni having developed skills to shift seamlessly from genre to genre. This article will explore the current state of tertiary education’s relevance and importance for Australian contemporary music practice, and the impact of diversity in tertiary jazz education.

Doug Spencer, former presenter of ABC Radio National music program The Weekend Planet believes that “if you decide to pursue jazz seriously in Australia then, unless you’re very naive, you know that is not the smartest career decision to make if what really motivates you is maximising income”. Perhaps a reason why so many jazz musicians are proficient in many styles of music is due to the lack of financial gain. So why do Australian tertiary institutions teach jazz and what are the perceived benefits?

Bassist and educator Tamara Murphy believes the most important skill taught at tertiary institutions is “the nuts-and-bolts thing of actually being able to play your instrument really well”. Senior lecturer in Jazz and Improvisation at Monash University’s Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Dr Paul Williamson, suggests that the “essential components” of tertiary jazz courses include “teaching people how to play their instrument amazingly” and “teaching the possibilities of creativity”.

Dan Quigley, head of Meanjin-based specialist jazz school Jazz Music Institute (JMI) believes that “while it’s one thing to be proficient at your instrument on a technical level, it’s all the other skills you learn which are far more important, like being a good empath”. Quigley adds, “We need to learn how to communicate better with people because, as musicians, we have to listen. When we’re playing jazz, someone does something and that affects what the next person does in real time. I could sit there and listen

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T ERTIARY JAZZ ED UCATI O N HAS BEEN P IVOTAL I N SHAP I NG T H E AUST RAL IAN C O NT EMPO RARY MUSIC L ANDSCAP E, WIT H JAZZ ALUMNI HAVI NG D EVELO P ED SKI LLS TO SH I F T SEAMLESS LY FRO M G ENRE TO G ENRE.

P H OTO BY T REVO R M E I N

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to music and analyse it and say, ‘this chord is going to this chord’ or ‘that rhythm wasn’t quite right’, similar to how a grammar specialist would be able to break down every sentence. Musicians know all the inner workings, the technical stuff, but to the listener, those things don’t necessarily matter – it’s about feeling the story. Feelings and emotions connect with audiences. So teaching these other intangible skills are actually far greater for students to learn, but they’re difficult to teach directly and it’s the individual who has to experience it through their own practice. We just help facilitate that environment.”

Williamson says, “I think it’s a fair thing to suggest that most courses will hopefully be a catalyst for a new chapter in someone’s journey.

Their journey is very rarely going to fit within just the duration of the course. A lot of skills taught are not necessarily exclusive to jazz and improvisation. We want people to have real world experiences and develop a sense of community. People need to learn how to conduct themselves as professional musicians and also as human beings. More and more we want students to reflect and be socially and culturally conscious people, aware of things that are important within the broad music world. It’s worth acknowledging that I think a lot of those aspects are taught and reflected in elective units beyond core performance.” Murphy also stresses the importance of context-based sociocultural awareness: “We need to know where jazz has come from in order to know where it’s going.

We need to acknowledge the lineage and cultural perspectives and why things were done. Nothing is created in a vacuum.”

On a surface level, skills such as instrument proficiency, showing empathy, having good communication, developing a strong sense of community and understanding current sociopolitical issues, are important to any musician of any specialisation.

TA M A R A M U R P HY P H OTO BY JA M ES M C L E A N

Naarm-based jazz musician and educator Toshi Clinch says, “Tertiary jazz education is relevant in the fact that it teaches improvisation, harmony and skills associated with Western music at a very high level. If you know those skills, and you can execute them well, then you’re going to be well prepared in any field of music that you go in.” It’s not hard to find examples of successful Australian multidisciplinary music artists such as Rai Thistlethwayte, who initially studied jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, prior to forming internationally acclaimed Australian pop rock band Thirsty Merc. Gadigal-based Zoe Hauptmann (ANU School of Music alumna) is one of Australia’s most in-demand bassists and has played with a myriad of diverse musical artists including Missy Higgins, Ian Moss, Tim Minchin and Paul Kelly. Naarm-based guitarist and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (ex-Victorian College of the Arts) alumna Kathleen Halloran is a visible and strong musical contributor as part of Kate Ceberano’s most recent project.

Positively, a change in sociocultural/political awareness has emerged from Australia’s “cancel culture” (woke ostracism) movement. Online information for tertiary jazz courses employ inclusive language and improved marketing techniques to entice prospective students to study. Some universities who provide jazz courses promise an

DA N Q U I G L EY

TH E PREMI S E O F JAZZ ITS EL F I S A BOUT I N T EG RAT I ON A N D N OT S EGREGATI ON, WH I C H ES PEC IA L LY I N T HE AUSTRA L IA N C O N T EXT I S V E RY I MPO RTA N T GIV E N T H E CURRE N T C L I MAT E .

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invaluable career experience which draws from “the Australian Indigenous, non-Western, European and African-American jazz traditions within a culture of inclusivity that embraces diversity”. So what does this all mean and why is it important to not just yield a culture of buzzwords? Quigley comments, “The premise of jazz itself is about integration and not segregation, which especially in the Australian context is very important given the current climate. The only threat to jazz education is if the educators don’t open themselves up to that level of integration themselves.”

What does diversity in tertiary jazz education look like? Clinch says, “Realistically, it looks like a situation where you have both faculty members and a student body that is diverse, from multiple backgrounds. Right now, gender diversity is on a lot of people’s minds, but that is not the only diversity we need to see. Tertiary institutions need to make sure their courses are accessible to people from various financial pools, for example. One thing we don’t address often is how accessible courses are to Indigenous peoples. Right now, jazz courses are taught from a very white-male-centric point of view. Whilst this perspective has led to interesting

developments, it is only one viewpoint. More diversity means more interesting and creative music. Whilst the amount of infrastructure that has been built is quite significant, there are still people who are unable to access music education, which is to the detriment of those courses. I think it’s very weird that I know more about African/ American and Western/European music than Indigenous/Australian music. I know things are changing, but I don’t think things are changing fast enough to match the scene that we’re in now.”

Williamson also notes the gender and racial disparity: “For a while there has been a separate microenvironment which has existed within tertiary education. The rate of change is so slow. This isn’t a white male population. What tertiary institutions need to do is actually ensure that we offer knowledge that has come from listening and understanding.”

Quigley shares similar feelings, “As a white male growing up, seeing different kids from different nations come into my class was so important for me. I learnt that people deal with things I will never have to deal with. It helped me grow.” Murphy puts it simply: “It should be normal to be inclusive,” adding, “As I’m getting older, I’m really trying to think much

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more inclusively about heaps more things: age, ethnicity, ability, gender identity (gender is a lot broader term now than it was when I was younger).

Natalie Portman was hosting an awards ceremony and basically said something like, ‘If everyone in the room looks like you, then change who’s in the room.’”

Certainly, diversity in jazz education is positively contributing to student experience and thus the broader Australian contemporary music landscape.

Williamson suggests, “Jazz courses continue to increase in relevance as they become more reflective of the real world and can provide knowledge to be further developed and applied within multiple music styles. Hopefully students learn some indepth, focused, detailed, narrow-scope information about jazz, but then a whole bunch of broad ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ information which people can continue to explore in their own time.”

On tertiary jazz education’s relevance to broader contemporary music practice, Murphy says, “I think jazz education can be really relevant, but it’s not an essential part of being a professional musician. If I was coming up now as a student, I’d probably still want to go to a tertiary institution for the same reason

I did 20 years ago: I wanted to meet other people and find my tribe. Going to a university is simply the quickest and most expedient way to do it.” Clinch states, “Really, these jazz courses are there to make you better at your instrument, to better your ears and to better your understanding about being a musician.

Those fundamental skills will set you up for anything.”

So while our definition of what jazz is has changed, there is a huge market for music influenced by the skills taught by tertiary jazz courses here in Australia.

Tertiary jazz education has been pivotal in shaping the Australian contemporary music landscape for the better. Whilst specific context-based information is tailored from African American origins of jazz, a broad range of skills, such as bettering instrument facility and interpersonal skills, are transferable to any music genre. Though it will be the addressing of challenges posed by our interviewees in realising human potential that will underpin the continuing relevance and future growth of Australian jazz institutions.

Note: First People’s place names used in this article: Gadigal (Sydney), Meanjin (Brisbane), Naarm (Melbourne)

J M I ST U D E N TS

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KATHLEEN HALLORAN

A PROFILE

Throughout her career, Kathleen Halloran has found herself questioning what she dubs the “jazz illusion”. As an alumna of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music’s Jazz and Improvisation course (previously Victorian College of the Arts) and a high-level multi-genre working musician, she grapples with the elitism placed on jazz training. Swivelling on an office chair in her Elsternwick home studio, she begins to unravel the role of jazz school in her journey.

Kathleen admits of her late teens, “I spent that time trying to convince myself that I should enjoy jazz.” After a brief stint at AIM (Australian Institute of Music), where she landed incredible touring opportunities in China, the illusion pulled Kathleen to the MCM Jazz and Improvisation course, where she secured a spot majoring in guitar.

The culture there was thrillingly competitive, she confirms, with students all vying for teacher admiration. Legendary local teachers pushed Kathleen to squeeze her education like a lemon.

“You go out on Monday night and see Andrea [Keller] play her residency and Tuesday night, you go out and see Barney McAll,” she raves. There was a contagious urge not to let them down.

Kathleen recounts fondly the willingness of a tutor who had been describing his session work, “I went up to him after class and asked; ‘How do you do this? What’re the steps? Like, what do I have to do today?’ And he dedicated so much time to helping me do it.”

Without having met these mentors, Kathleen may not have found the network that gave way to her immense career opportunities.

For years now, Kathleen has played with singer Kate Ceberano.

“She’s given me wings really, constantly putting me on huge stages where I can grow into that role,” she gushes. One week before the original Melbourne lockdowns, they recorded an album that made it to the Top 5 on the ARIA charts. “I feel like that album is a really good representation of the sort of musician I am,” she relishes.

Reflecting on her time at MCM, Kathleen remarks, “Back then I would have turned my nose up at pop music. Now I would never do that.

I guess it was just the insecurity of trying to belong somewhere.” I see her working through something, chair swivelling. She comes to a resolution on this illusion, “I do feel that the value it has is totally warranted. It all just gets a little bit warped about why we value it.”

WO RDS ELL A CL AIR

It’s clear that for Kathleen to have reached such success in her career, she leant into the community merit of a tertiary jazz education at the MCM. This is why she values it, above some intangible illusion of elitism.

Kathleen Halloran is a nuanced MCM alumna. A nonpurist. She has played, honoured, and in return, been pushed forward by the illustrious world of jazz.

Kathleen Halloran performs regularly with artists such as Kate Ceberano and Andrea Keller, as well as featuring with her own trio at events including Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival, Stonnington Jazz Festival and Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

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TERTIARY COURSE GUIDE

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A

ACA DEMY O F MUSIC A N D PE RFO RMIN G A RTS

Surr y Hills (NSW ) H e ad of M usic: D r Elizabeth J ones

Bachelor of Music (Performance) On-campus, 2 yrs FT (6 trimesters) / PT equivalent – exit with Associate Degree of Music (Performance) after 4 trimesters Master of Music (Performance) On-campus, 2 yrs FT (4 semesters) / PT equivalent – exit with a Graduate Diploma of Music (Performance) after 2 semesters

AUSTRA LIA N IN STITUTE O F MUSIC (A I M )

S ydney (NSW )/Melbourne ( VIC) Bachelor of Music (Contemporary) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / 6 yrs PT Graduate Certificate On-campus, 6 months FT / 1 yr PT Graduate Diploma On-campus, 1 yr FT / 2 yrs PT Master of Music On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT

AUSTRA LIA N N ATIO N A L UN IVE RSIT Y

AN U School Of M usic, College of Arts & Social Sciences, Canberra (ACT ) H e ad of Sc hool: Assoc i ate Professor Kim C u nio

Bachelor of Music Performance (Jazz/ Contemporary) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / equivalent PT Bachelor of Music (Honours) On-campus, 1 yr FT

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BOX H ILL IN STITUTE

Nelson Campus , Box Hill ( VIC) Ac ade m ic C ou rse M anage r – M usic Performance: S imon Edwards

Cert IV in Music Industry (Specialising in Performance) On-campus, 6 months FT Diploma of Music Industry (Specialising in Performance) On-campus, 1 yr FT Bachelor of Music Industry (Major in Performance) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / PT equivalent

C QUNIVERSIT Y AUSTRALIA

Central Queensland Conser vatorium of M usic, Mackay (QLD) H e ad of C ollege – The Arts/ D irector C onservatoriu m of M usic: Professor J ud ith B rown

Diploma of Music (Jazz and Contemporary) On-campus/online, 1 yr FT / 2 yrs PT Bachelor of Music (Jazz and Popular) On-campus/online, 3 yrs FT / 6 yrs PT

EDITH C OWA N UNIVERSIT Y

Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts ( WA APA), Perth ( WA) Assoc i ate D e an (M usic) : Assoc i ate Professor J am ie O e hle rs C ou rse C oord inator for J azz: Tom O’ H alloran

Diploma of Music On-campus, 1 yr FT Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) On-campus, 4 yrs FT / PT equivalent Bachelor of Music (Honours) On-campus, 1 yr FT

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EXC ELSIA C OL LEG E

MELBOURN E PO LYTECH N IC

School of Creative and Performing Arts, S ydney (NSW )

M usic Performance and Industr y, Fairfield ( VIC)

M usic Program D irector: D r C hristine C arroll

H e ad of Program B ac helor of M usic (Pe rform ing Arts) : D r J onathan D imond

Associate Degree of Music On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT Bachelor of Music On-campus, 3 yrs FT / 6 yrs PT Master of Music On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT

GRIF F IT H U NIVERSIT Y

Queensland Conser vatorium , Southbank (QLD)

Undergraduate Certificate in Music On-campus/online, 6 months FT Diploma of Music Industry (Performance) On-campus/online, 32 weeks FT Advanced Diploma of Music Industry (Performance) On-campus/online, 32 weeks FT Bachelor of Music (Music Performance and Industry) On-campus/online, 3 yrs FT / can be PT

H e ad of J azz: D r Ste p he n N ewcom b

Bachelor of Music On-campus, 3 yrs FT Bachelor of Music (Honours) On-campus, 1 yr FT Bachelor of Music in Performance On-campus, 4 yrs FT (1 yr extension to Bachelor of Music) Master of Music Studies On-campus, 1.5 yrs FT / 2-3 yrs PT Doctor of Musical Arts On-campus, 3-4 yrs FT / 6-8 yrs PT

MO N ASH UN IVE RSIT Y

Sir Zelman Cowen School of M usic and Performance, Clay ton ( VIC) H e ad of Sc hool: Professor M argaret B arrett C onve nor of J azz & I m p rovisation: Assoc i ate Professor Robe rt B u rke

Bachelor of Music (Performance) On-campus, 3 yrs FT Master of Arts (Music) On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT Practise Based PhD – PhD (Music) On-campus, 3-4 yrs FT / 8 yrs PT

JAZZ MUSIC INSTITUTE (JMI)

Brisbane (QLD) H e ad of Sc hool: D an Q ui gley

Diploma of Music (Jazz Performance) On-campus, 1 Yr FT Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) On-campus, 3 Yrs FT

TA BO R IN STITUTE O F H IG H E R E DUCATIO N

Adelaide (SA) H e ad of M usic: D r J anelle Fletc he r

Bachelor of Music On-campus/partial online, 3 yrs FT / PT equivalent

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T H E U NIVERSIT Y OF AD ELAID E

Elder Conser vatorium of M usic, Adelaide (SA)

H e ad of J azz Stud ies: M ark Fe rguson

Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / PT equivalent Honours Degree of Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) On-campus, 1 yr FT / PT equivalent Master of Arts (Music) On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT Master of Music (Performance Studies) On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT Master of Music (Performance and Pedagogy) On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT

T H E U NIVERSIT Y OF MELBOURNE

Conser vatorium of M usic, Facult y of Fine Arts and M usic, Melbourne ( VIC) H e ad of J azz and I m p rovisation: And re a Kelle r

TH E UN IVE RSIT Y O F SYDN EY

S ydney Conser vatorium of M usic, S ydney (NSW ) Program Le ader B ac helor of M usic/ B ac helor of Advanc ed Stud ies (J azz Pe rform anc e) : D r Kevin H u nt

Diploma of Music On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT Bachelor of Music (Performance) On-campus, 4 yrs FT / 8 yrs PT Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Advanced Studies (Performance) On-campus, 5 yrs FT / 10 yrs PT Bachelor of Music Studies (Honours) On-campus, 1 yr FT / 2 yrs PT Master of Music Studies (Performance) On-campus, 1.5 yrs FT / 3 yrs PT

UN IVE RSIT Y O F TASMA N IA

School of Creative Arts and Media, Hobart ( TAS) C oord inator, J azz and Popu l ar M usic: D r G le n H od ges

Diploma of Music On-campus, 1 yr FT / up to 5 yrs PT Associate Degree of Music On-campus, 2 yrs FT / up to 5 yrs PT Bachelor of Music (Jazz & Popular Music Performance) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / up to 7 yrs PT Bachelor of Music with Honours On-campus, 1 yr FT / up to 5 yrs PT

Bachelor of Music (Jazz and Improvisation) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / 6 yrs PT Bachelor of Music (Degree with Honours) On-campus, 1 yr FT / 2 yrs PT Master of Music (Research) On-campus, 2 yrs FT / 4 yrs PT Doctor of Philosophy – Fine Arts and Music On-campus, 4 yrs FT / 8 yrs PT

VICTO RIA UN IVE RSIT Y

College of Arts and Education , Footscray ( VIC) Se nior lectu re r in M usic: J onathan Zion

Bachelor of Music (Performance) On-campus, 3 yrs FT / PT equivalent

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GETTING GIGS

RELEASING MUSIC

PROMOTING CAREER

INDUSTRY INTERVIEWS

It’s not every day that you get to write a wish list for a university performing arts department, but with the new Edith Cowan University’s $695 million City Campus development, that is exactly the opportunity presented to Associate Dean of Music Dr Jamie Oehlers.

Support & resources for gigging jazz musicians around the world.

“It’s been such an exhilarating experience designing and planning the music spaces at the new ECU City Campus. We’ve really had to think about the future and to consider what the crucial skills for a future music industry will be, and how they interact with the other performing arts disciplines. There were some incredible concepts that came up through our staff ‘blue sky’ dreaming sessions.”

jazzfuel.com

Opening in 2025, this stunning state-of-the-art campus, spanning eleven stories, will reshape the Perth CBD and redefine higher education in Western Australia. Innovative digital technology will be a key feature of the new campus.

“I’m excited about fresh, modern facilities that are technologically enhanced at every turn.” Oehlers extols there will be “seamless recording and streaming from any performance

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REIMAGINING EDUCATION B U I L D I N G FO R T H E F U T U R E

space in the building, projection integration into all spaces, and state-of-the-art software and equipment for teaching, performing and content creation. You will be able to … stream with ease and interact around the globe instantaneously.”

promote the new landscape for the university.

Last year, at ECU’s 40th anniversary, we had WAAPA musicians featured at the fashion department’s runway show, and visual artists and musicians improvising together.”

Five public performance spaces will feature prominently – including a recital hall, playhouse theatre, flex theatre, a jazz and contemporary music venue, and dance space – designed by international award-winning architectural studio Haworth Tompkins. Excited by the opportunity to have a “jazz and contemporary venue [that] is a state-of-the-art, fit for purpose venue,” Oehlers explains, “rather than a jazz ‘club’, this is a high quality, seated performance venue that will allow both the audience and the performers an incredible experience that treats the music as the first priority.”

Everything about ECU City Campus is designed to be immersive, with captivating spaces and technology that enthrals. Lining the public to the artists. It is fitting then that the ambitious digital media facade wrap around the outside of the building will “without a doubt … become an iconic feature of the city campus. Performances, interviews and digital exhibitions will enliven the surround[ing] cityscape – the arts will be seamlessly interwoven with the landscape of Yagan Square.”

The new campus will also house the business and law, creative arts, indigenous studies, broadcasting and digital journalism faculties. Oehlers is optimistic that “just bringing these disciplines together in the vertical campus will mean staff and students will be mingling, inspiring and collaborating.” He continues, “in fact the city campus project has already propelled us to work together as we

With a plan for more than 300 live WAAPA performances each year, a reimagined public square at the city’s most important transport hub, and a program of industry engagement that will support a highly skilled, digitally driven and innovative workforce for the future, ECU City Campus dreams big and clearly demonstrates the value placed on, and provides hope for, the future of performing arts education in Australia.

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W I L M A RE A D I N G AS J U L I E (S H OW B OAT - LO N D O N , 1 9 7 3 )

DON'T GIVE UP DON'T GIVE IN I N C O N V E R S AT I O N WITH WILMA READING WO RDS NATAL IA MANN

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Wilma Reading represents jazz royalt y, a respected name in the Cairns music scene for young and old. Still curious about who’s involved and what ’s going on in the local scene, she was keen to know who was recording in the studio down the hall before our meeting , and have a yarn in her characteristic bubbly st yle. Sitting with me for D ingo magazine, she describes a life full of stories that touch on significant moments in histor y.

Wilma Reading grew up singing as a regular part of family life in Cairns.

Music was strong on both sides of the family – classical on her father’s side, rhythm and harmonies on her mother’s side. She and her siblings won national awards for their singing while young. At 13, when her dad was unable to work, Wilma left school and asked for her first job in the local mill to help support her family – an experience which, she says, gave her a lifelong attitude of “having the guts to get out there and try it”.

“I got my first singing opportunity at 17 for a jazz swing band at the Ritz Ballroom in Brisbane. My dad gave me an offer, ‘If you can make a living out of this singing business you can go and get the job. Otherwise you come back home.’ I’d go to the jazz clubs and have a listen and ask if I could have a job, and that’s how it started. I ended up working six nights, seven nights a week.

“My sister’s husband played drums and was a musician. He’d play me records and say, ‘Listen to the phrasing, listen to this, listen to that.’ That sort of perked my ears up to what to listen to. That’s how I learned to sing jazz, plus the feel of it. You’ve got to try it yourself.

“In Sydney I was working the Sammy Lee & Reg Boom nightclub, the Latin Quarter, I did recordings for Festival Records, I was often on Bandstand on television, and doing coffee shops around. I liked the rhythm, liked the music, I liked singing live, and that to me is important. Because when you’re working a room, if you see someone you can say hi, have a little hello or something, to connect with, that helps improve your personality.”

Wilma moved to Melbourne, became a regular feature on GTV9 and sang with the Australian Jazz Quartet. Over the next few years, she worked as a resident solo artist in hotels in New Zealand, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bombay (now Mumbai), New Delhi, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Okinawa. She opened the Hong Kong Hilton and then went to the Tokyo Hilton, starring in the Japanese Tokyo By Night revue. The show was picked up for Las Vegas and toured the US for 15 months. She went to New York with her husband manager, comedian Ray Lehr, and soon found herself in the upper echelons of the New York scene.

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N EW YO RK 1 96 5 “There was an agent who approached me, ‘Are you the Australian singer?

Duke Ellington wants you to sing in his band.’ Somehow, he’d heard about me.

“When I went to Duke Ellington’s house to meet him the first time, that was in ’65, he was lovely to me, but he kept staring at me. He called me back in another time, and his son was sitting there, and he brought his wife out to meet me, and she was very nice, big smile. And they’re all staring at me. The next minute he picks up the phone and starts talking, you know, still staring at me. He said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got this girl here from Australia ... yeah Australia.

I want you to check her out for me. Ok, ok, I’ll send her over tomorrow afternoon ... 2:30 ok, she’ll be at your place at 2:30.’ It was Billy Strayhorn!

“Billy Strayhorn wrote ‘[Take the] “A” Train’ and a lot of things for Duke.

He stayed with him forever. He took me into his piano room and there was only one sheet of music on the piano. I looked at it, and I’d never seen the music to ‘Lush Life’: ‘I used to visit all the very gay places, those come what may places ...’ Billy Strayhorn wrote that song. All the big stars like Lena Horne were singing his songs, but they kept changing a lot of his notes and things, especially the ending, and he didn’t like it.

“He asked me if I knew the song. I said, ‘I’ve heard it, I listened to a Sarah Vaughan recording and I think it’s a great song.’ He said, ‘Well do you want to try it?’ I said, ‘Ok, I’ll try it,’ and he picked a key. He got right to the end, and I froze. On the last page there were only the four or five notes. I was going to sing it the way Sarah Vaughan sang it (more flowery with more notes), and I went into panic, I thought ‘Oh God, what do I do now?’ I had three seconds to make up my mind before the end of the song. So I went with my gut feeling, I followed what was written on the page. I sang it as he wrote it.

“Then he sat down like that. Thinking, thinking, thinking. I thought, ‘Oh I must have messed that up, I don’t know, he’s not even talking to me.’ It went on for minutes! But Duke must have told him ‘Check her out for me’, and now he’s checking me out, and knowing what Duke plays, and how would I fit in with my voice and the band, there’s all that to take into consideration. I didn’t dare move, I stood there and he turned to me, it must have been about four, five minutes nearly, that’s how long it took. Then he turned up to me and said, ‘Thank you for singing this song the way I wrote it. You got the job.’

“I was singing with Duke Ellington first as a band singer. It wasn’t long after that he asked me to be the ingenue in his musical Black & Tan Fantasy. He’d been trying for years to get that on Broadway. At that time, Broadway was not ready for any negroes. It was mainly Jewish and white – Irish, English whatever. The only negro people who were there played a servant or the big mama. They weren’t ready yet to let negroes – they were called negroes at that time, in the 60s, late 50s – have their own show. Because it was really run by a fistful of people who had all the money. They weren’t yet ready to accept [them], and Duke Ellington was waiting for ages. I looked like the perfect ingenue for him. I wasn’t really black, I wasn’t negro, I was a mixture. But I looked French Caucasian, and that’s what he sought. He wanted me to stay with him, and he gave me a job singing with the band.

“I did the Johnny Carson Show because of Duke Ellington. He said ‘Ladies and Gentlemen this is the first Australian I’ve ever had on my show!’ And it was something new for Johnny Carson to talk about this

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D U K E E L L I N GTO N & B I L LY ST R AYH O R N P H OTO BY W I L L I A M G OT T L I E B

I HA D T HREE SEC O N DS TO M A K E U P MY M IN D BEFO RE THE EN D O F T HE SO N G . SO I WEN T W IT H MY GUT F EEL IN G … I SA N G IT AS HE W ROT E IT.

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Australian girl because they didn’t know what an Australian looks like. I said ‘My mother’s father was born on Darnley Island in the Torres Strait.’ ‘Oh, what’s the Torres Strait?’ It was enough just to be Australian, and talk about Australia.

“I went to school every day to learn to sing, the breathing, projection, attack. In that time I managed to extend my vocal range higher, and I actually managed to double it. That’s quite impossible to do. It’s only because I wanted to do that and I had the will and the self-discipline to do it, do it, do it! I knew it was the only chance I’d have in my whole life to do this. I went to class at 9am, seven days a week, for three months solid.

“After the three months we were ready to go into rehearsal for Black & Tan Fantasy, but on the very last day, by 11 o’clock, the last person who was to invest money didn’t come up with his fee, and they lost the theatre.”

Black & Tan Fantasy was never staged in Ellington’s lifetime.

Meanwhile, Reading’s newfound vocal range had kindled a yearning for improvisation beyond the discipline of Ellington’s arrangements. Leaving New York then, she would only return six years later to headline at the famed Copacabana Club. Life led her to Vietnam, where she performed for troops and officers in the thick of the war. She spent some time in the Philippines recording and then went on to brighter days in London.

LO N D O N 1 9 7 2 “The 70s and 80s were a great time for me because I did a lot in England. I took over from Cleo Laine in Showboat, at the Adelphi Theatre in the Strand. I just happened to come into London at the time and some friends said to me, ‘Wilma, they’re looking for an artist to take over from Cleo Laine. They’re holding auditions this week.’ So I went down and I auditioned for it.

They called me back, and I got the job. So happy! So happy!

“London was really fun. I loved London. I did a lot of television and people come up and say, ‘Look, I want to make an album with you. Would you like to do that? Can we work together?’ I had so much happen for me out of England. I did BBC television for the Morecambe & Wise comedy series. I spent a fortune on costumes. Engelbert Humperdinck invited me to be on his Christmas show and I met Tom Jones. Princess Margaret asked me to do a show for her and her entourage in at The London Room.

“I was working at the Talk of the Town, it was the biggest showroom at the time. Sammy Davis, Frank Sinatra, they all sang there. I was doing the main show there for a month. One night the stage manager came back and said, ‘Wilma there’s a delegation from Russia here, they want to speak with you.’ I said ‘Oh wow, what do they want with me?’ So he brought them back, there were three of them, the ambassador plus his two aides. ‘Well, Ms. Reading we came to the show, we enjoyed the show. We would be interested if you would like to tour Russia.”

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MOSC OW 1979 “At that time there was a big underground black market for Beatles cassettes around the world and especially in the communist countries.

The youth didn’t all want to study classical music anymore, they wanted to go into pop music, they wanted to play like The Beatles.

“The tour was curated to introduce young people in Russia to rock. In 1979, the first artist through was B.B. King the American blues guitarist, two months later was Elton John, and the third one was me. I wondered why they chose me as an Australian, but I think it was because of my singing style. There weren’t many people who could sing with a classical voice but then get down and sing rock, pop and modern-day ballads of the era.

“I worked with American musical director Danny Sandidge to write a program for Russia. We started with Gershwin, then swing, Ellington, into jazz and then into a Beatles medley at the end for the young ones. I took big theatre costumes because I was on stage by myself. We took scores for the 75 musician symphony orchestras plus my standard 18-piece swing band.

“We played houses in Moscow, St Petersburg and Kiev. Oh, they loved it! When I came out sometimes there were 300 people waiting for an autograph. As it turns out they kept on adding concerts. In the end I did 33 concerts in 28 days.

“It was a very big experience for me to do that. Hard work! ‘Don’t give up and don’t give in, and that’s the way you’re going to win.’ My mother taught me this, and that was the mantra for my life. When I sat back and thought about it, I thought, ‘Wow, we did it!’”

While relatively unknown on home soil, Wilma Reading lived life in the limelight as a respected and loved international headliner. Starring on stage, in theatre, on records, television and even in feature films, she became one of the forerunners in opening the world’s awareness of who Australians were.

“My grandmother always said, ‘When you finish travelling and singing, my girl, you come home. This place is where you belong.’ So I did. I think from my own life experience, and there’s a lot of years, I went out to make it good, to try to be the best I can possibly be. For me it’s been a full life and I’ve been very grateful that I’ve had the chance to meet so many wonderful people.

I’m still enjoying life. It’s nice to wake up in the morning! (Laughs)”

M O S C OW ( 1 9 7 9 )

THE D EFI N ITIVE C O LLECTI O N O F AUST RAL IAN JAZZ I N D I GITAL AN D PRI N T

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Friday, April 29TH The Primrose Potter Salon, M.R.C.

Phil Slater & Matt Mcmahon’s “Background Music” Sunday, April 24TH The Jazzlab, Brunswick

Alister Spence Trio (Sydney) Sunday, May 15th. at The Jazzlab, Brunswick

Scott Tinkler & Friends (Tasmania/Sydney)

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IF W E CA N APPREC IAT E WHAT W E H AV E AND OF F E R OPPORTUN I T I ES TO GROW T H ES E SKILLS, W H AT MI GH T W E AC H I EV E?

WO RDS ADAM SI MMONS I L LUSTRATI O N MEG KO L AC

thinking

BIGGER

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The Great Resignation – also referred to as The Big Quit, The Great Reshuf fle, whatever you want to call it – is a labour-based phenomenon as forecast by experts to be sweeping Australia right about now.

Whatever form it takes, there is no doubting COVID -19’s impact on our creative industries, causing many to pause and reflect on their worklife balance – I can attest as I find myself slap bang in the middle of it.

It is impossible to fully comprehend the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning there was no inkling of what was to come. In March 2020 we were all thinking it was going to be an “extended” period of up to six weeks. It was going to be annoying, a major inconvenience even, but then we’d be getting on with our lives as planned.

Fast-forward 24 months and the world has fundamentally shifted in so many different ways. How we work, play, study, consume and relax have all changed. Though it’s also the why and where that have changed – facilitated in large part due to the how. Digital platforms and the internet have allowed us to work and play in virtual spaces together in an unprecedented manner in human history, helping us to still maintain human connections. But enforced periods of physical isolation from friends, colleagues and loved ones, and the uncertainty and lack of purpose experienced by many, are factors in the prevalence of mental health issues and cause for re-evaluation of priorities.

The Australian jazz community has also been impacted by this massive disruption of how, why and where. Resilience will be required to survive and recover, but through learning and adaptation to the emergent conditions we could achieve much more. Understanding the factors behind it might lead to insights as to how the jazz sector might not only retain its participants

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moving forward but also to help them grow and thrive.

What is The Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation is a term to describe a massive shift in labour, observed particularly in the US but also in the UK, Europe, China, India and Australia, as employees rethink their careers in light of reflection during the ongoing global pandemic.

H OW W E WO RK , P LAY, STU DY, C O NSU M E AND RE LAX H AVE A L L C H A N GE D.

The phrase was coined by US business and management professor Anthony Klotz last May in a series of articles and interviews. In his NBN News THINK article examining the increase of resignation numbers in the US, Klotz suggests: “One answer comes from research on human well-being, which aligns with centuries of philosophy in proposing that people tend to pursue two overarching goals in life: happiness and/or meaning. Work is central to many of our lives; as such, the extent to which our job is a positive source of satisfaction and purpose plays an outsize role in whether we feel that our lives are happy and meaningful overall.

“When viewed through this perspective, what is driving The Great Resignation is fairly straightforward: The pandemic has made many realize their job does not contribute enough (or at all) to their pursuit for happiness and meaning, and they have decided to invest their energy elsewhere — in new jobs, new careers or in other aspects of their lives (e.g., family, travel, creative endeavors).”

The Australian context is very different to the US, but by November last year a number of experts were speculating that The Great Resignation wave would be upon us in early 2022. Though according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in a speech delivered to the Australian Industry Group in February this year, given the differences between the two economies, and Australia’s near-historic high job participation rate, we may instead be undergoing a “great reshuffle”.

This is borne out by a recent NAB survey report that found “one in five Australians have changed jobs within the last year and almost a quarter are considering leaving their current place of employment”.

More than one in three gave COVID-19 as having a big impact, along with key reasons including “lack of personal fulfilment, purpose or meaning, career limitations, mental health concerns and poor pay”.

What’s this got to do with jazz?

The factors identified above are relevant across all industries, including the arts. Let's consider some impacts on the jazz sector.

Artists and arts workers are exploring alternative revenue sources and employment opportunities. Many have endured sustained periods without work, causing severe financial hardship and impacting negatively on mental wellbeing. This was already evident in research I conducted in mid-2020.

Music education in schools has suffered, with some schools decreasing support for music programs, with many teachers feeling exhausted and undervalued. Last September drummer John Morrison spoke to Sydney Morning Herald about the impact of COVID-19

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upon teachers and the flow-on effects: “They’ve had to re-skill, and now we’re seeing a lot of music directors leave the game, and that’s going to be the biggest problem. We are going to lose this incredible knowledge base that we had.”

Venues and festivals have had a mixed bag of financial support – Sydney’s Venue 505 is one that has been negatively impacted, announcing its closure in March 2022 (having managed a reprieve from a similar announcement a year ago). A range of festivals have received significant financial support, yet often with a severe adaptation or curtailing of activity in response to ongoing and ever-changing conditions.

On the positive side there are a range of new performance opportunities emerging such as Orange Winter Jazz Fest, Mary’s Underground, Perth's TuneNoiseTune and Hurstbridge Jazz Club, as well as more structural supports such as Dingo.

With all of this change occurring on so many levels – positive and negative – how do we identify what the next steps should be? Who is responsible? Where do we even start?

Learning what is possible: my story First, something of my own recent experiences and learnings.

I had no idea at the time, but I seem to have joined this great reshuffle.

After close to two years of next to no gigs, I am transitioning to data analytics with assistance of the Victorian Digital Jobs Program (VDJP).

Why have I done this? Well, many reasons really, but the key has been the disconnect to my sense of purpose and the lack of certainty during the past two years. Ironically, it’s also because I more deeply understand my value and capacity after participating in two positive learning experiences in recent years: Australia Council Arts Leader Program (2017-18) and CLOCK Your Skills (2020-21).

The Arts Leader Program for me was a revelatory journey with a stellar group of humans, that helped me identify the capacity within myself and others with much greater clarity.

CLOCK Your Skills is an international practice-based learning and accreditation programme for the creative and cultural industries. A masters-level qualification based on demonstrating competencies, understanding and contribution across four skillsets: creative practice, creative entrepreneurship, sharing skills and knowledge, and developing social potential.

Each one has helped develop a keener sense of what I bring to the table and my capacity to contribute. My journey may be leading away from performing, but it is intrinsically linked to my core as an artist, in mindset and experience – and I’m thinking bigger, not smaller.

Identifying skills If you look at all of the various jazz organisations, including festivals, venues and collectives, you will find they are invariably run by musicians or exmusicians. There are many reasons for this – and notable exceptions – but what I want to focus on is the skillset development of creative musicians.

Improvisation has a peculiar set of skills, heightened by those quickthinking, problem-solving, innovative skills required for in-themoment responses. And to use corporate buzzwords, it may even be that we are “agile” thinkers, utilising “iterative processes”.

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IT MI G H T BE OU R BEST S H OT I N YEARS TO PUSH FOR REAL CHAN GE I N H OW T H E ARTS ARE PERCEIVED FOR T H EI R C ONT RI BUTI ON TO OUR NATI O NAL WELLBEING Whether it is putting on a gig at a local cafe, teaching students, writing grants,

organising tours, recording CDs, rehearsing, composing, running festivals, building websites, creating videos, social media promotion, designing posters, doing your tax, writing a blog; these activities all utilise and develop valuable skills.

But shift the perspective from what the activity is to what is the skillset in use.

A career in the arts demands that we develop creativity, resourcefulness, resilience and adaptability. We become communicators and storytellers. We develop skills across sales, marketing, digital, media, budgeting, networking and more. Not to mention leadership, project management, teamwork, stakeholder engagement, counselling, research, mentoring and so on.

Unfortunately, despite having some or all of these skills, a musician can often be dismissed as “you’re just an artist, you wouldn’t understand”. I know, it’s happened more than once to me. Yet, it is precisely because an artist has to promote their work, connect with audiences, along with all the other aspects of being a freelance worker, that these kinds of skills develop.

By recognising and naming skills, it becomes easier to develop them. Imagine if instead of needing to transfer skills to other domains to make ends meet, we applied them within the scene to build things up? Or created a range of career pathways like they do in other sectors like sport or health, and made the most of this “incredible knowledge base”?

Understanding value Value in an economic sense is based on supply and demand, and generally exchanged through monetary means. Though to follow on from Klotz, the ultimate aim of this value exchange is not material in itself, but how it contributes to one’s “pursuit of happiness and meaning”.

Though, in my experience, the jazz industry does often rely too heavily on perceived non-monetary value to justify the lack of adequate financial compensation. I am sure these phrases will be familiar to those involved in the jazz industry:

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“You must love it.”

“I’m not in it for the money.”

“We can’t pay you, but we can give you some free drinks.”

“I’m just happy to play.”

“It’s for a great cause and you’ll get good exposure.”

Unfortunately, each of these reinforces an established attitude today that to make money from music must mean selling out and not being “true to the music”. Sometimes it’s imposed upon artists, sometimes it’s the artists themselves who can be their worst enemies. There are many instances of musicians undercutting others or playing for free, while everyone else involved in the event is being paid. And I’ve been told stories by my musical elders of how they’d take bets on how quickly they could clear a room.

There is a contemporary shift in not only understanding one’s value but also standing up for it. Examples in industry include companies such as 7-Eleven and George Calombaris’s MAdE being called out for underpaying, or in social movements such as MeToo and Black Lives Matter where intrinsic human value is upheld. I am seeing more social media discussion where musicians exchange information about what a decent fee should be, and where those offering jobs are now more likely to indicate a fee – and told very quickly if it is insufficient.

There is little transparency in the arts when it comes to money, which can bite both ways – I’ve seen how perceived success may not match reality. And from the many conversations I’ve been involved in over the past couple of years, it seems everyone thinks someone else is making the money, when no-one really is. What might it look like if we actually adopted whole-of-ecosystem thinking and realised the value in ensuring everyone is suitably rewarded and happy?

Opportunities and challenges What might be the impact of The Great Resignation in regard to jazz, and how might we respond?

Firstly, many in the jazz sector may be

considering a change of career due to the precarious nature of the scene – how can they be supported to remain?

Secondly, creatives have sought-after transferable skills – how can the jazz sector retain skills and knowledge within the sector?

Thirdly, recognise the opportunity for the jazz community to welcome those “great resigners” looking for an avenue to explore creative endeavours, and what skills might they bring?

The last point illustrates how changing conditions can be positive also. Programs like the Australian Jazz Museum’s Improvisation Workshops and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music’s Free Play Ensemble and examples in other genres such as Weekend Warriors or Melbourne’s Squawkestra offer models that could be emulated to create further engagement opportunities.

In regard to skills development, I believe it is incumbent upon our institutions and peak bodies to help better support our young musicians for professional careers through a range of initiatives geared to developing business skills as well as their musical ability. This could be at a secondary or tertiary level, or maybe as part of apprentice-style training, or an expansion of the federal New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS).

Something like the Melbourne Jazz Cooperative’s recent series of bandleader profiles written by emerging jazz artists is a great example of helping develop skills within the community, adding value at the same time.

Other initiatives like Freedman Jazz Fellowship, First People’s Artist Residency (Melbourne International Jazz Festival with Australian Art Orchestra), Take Note (MIJF), Pathfinder Program (AAO) and Australia Council Arts Leader Program are a few examples where mentoring is helping build understanding of skills and value, but they are for a select few.

For acknowledging and applying existing skills, new approaches such as CLOCK that formally recognise prior learning will help. If we as a sector can appreciate what we have and offer opportunities within our community to exercise and grow these skills, what might we achieve?

We may lack resources, but we do have skills and capacity – let’s encourage each other to think bigger.

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JAZZ

SATURDAY APRIL 30 LIVE JAZZ 12 – 8PM FED SQUARE

IN THE FREE EVENT LIVE STREAMED DINGOJAZZ.COM

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants.

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“ E V E RY T H I N G S TA R T S O U T A S FRIENDS BUILDING T H I N G S TO G E T H E R …”

BRODIE MCALLISTER

JAZZ IN

BRISBANE WO RDS LOUI SE D ENSO N

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Although jazz long ago ceased to be a financially interesting part of the commercial music market, it has survived and frequently thrived in different settings and locales around the world. Jazz lives on because a certain kind of musician finds the act of creating music in real time both challenging and rewarding , and a certain kind of audience enjoys being there to experience it.

Given its minimal market value, arguably ever y jazz scene in the world nowadays is sustained through the committed support of what is commonly referred to as a community, underpinned by a determined do -ityourself ethos .

H E L E N SVO B O DA P H OTO BY J U L I A AU M A N N

Brisbane’s jazz scene has long been characterised by a strong DIY spirit, with a number of individuals and organisations taking on important administrative roles. For example, over 30 years Jazz Queensland Inc (originally Queensland Jazz Action Society) curated jazz events and festivals (Valley Jazz Festival, Brisbane Jazz Festival) with federal and state grant funding and local business sponsorship.

A key figure throughout was Lynette Irwin, wellknown across Australia for her commitment to promoting jazz at the national level, and Australian jazz internationally, in addition to personally initiating and supporting countless events on the local scene. Musicians such as Andrew Shaw, Rohan Somasekaran, Ingrid James, Toby Wren, Paula Girvan, Dan Quigley, myself and many others served as committee members, committing many volunteer hours to animating the local scene.

The most enduring example of DIY in Brisbane is the Brisbane Jazz Club. This remarkable member-run, not-for-profit organisation has been presenting live jazz every week without interruption since 1972.

Currently open Thursday through Sunday, its strong community of members has supported it through changes of venue, floods, straitened times and most recently the ravages of lockdown and public health restrictions. The BJC presents a variety of styles under the broad banner of jazz (straight­-ahead, trad, contemporary, blues, Brazilian, gospel, tango) and annual events including OzManouche, a Big Band Festival and the Brisbane Vocal Jazz Festival.

It also hosts Jazz Singers’ Jam Night, a monthly event curated by vocalist Ingrid James, which features a house rhythm section and a program of vocalists ranging from students, amateurs and first-timers to distinguished, seasoned performers such as Sharny Russell, Kristin Berardi, Irene Bartlett and, of course, Ingrid herself. JSJN has created a widereaching community of vocalists over its 20-year history, giving participants a chance to learn and grow. Brisbane punches far above its weight in jazz voice, with international artists such as Berardi, Katie Noonan, Kate Miller-Heidke, Washington and Elly Hoyt – all alumni of the world-leading contemporary vocal program at the Queensland Conservatorium. Other rising and local talents include Charlotte McLean, Sarah Collyer, Kelsey Giarola and Robyn Brown. Brisbane jazz singers constitute an important part of the community. They generate regular employment for instrumentalists and keep the standards repertoire alive, as well as writing and co-writing their own material.

CA M E RO N B OW E R P H OTO BY K E LS EY M U H L E I S E N

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DIY has always been part of the Brisbane scene, but it has really come to the fore in the past five years for a number of reasons. Firstly, Jazz Queensland has disbanded and the events it sponsored no longer take place. Secondly, jazz endures an almost complete absence of support from the state. While Arts Queensland sponsors some grants programs, the orientation is overwhelmingly towards commercial music genres and community music initiatives. Jazz does not fit comfortably in either category. As a result – no doubt also because jazz musicians have given up applying – lists of Arts Ignite and Individuals Grant Fund recipients 2015-2021 reveal that of a total of $17,054,499 across all art forms, jazz performance or recording projects received $34,841, or 0.2043 per cent.

A third reason is the central role of Brisbane’s two jazz studies programs, Queensland Conservatorium and Jazz Music Institute (JMI), which supply the scene with young, gig-ready, enthusiastic musicians with a strong sense of community among their peers. Both programs include courses in “music business” which focus on preparing students for life on the outside as self-managed artists. They graduate already understanding that if anything is going to happen, they need to make it happen.

Some examples of successful DIY initiatives in Brisbane are Lawrence English’s well-established label Room 40 (ambient/electronic/experimental); West End Jazz Club fortnightly gigs; and Dots and Loops, which mounts two large-scale new music events per year, featuring local and national/international artists.

Since 2017, trombonist/improviser Brodie McAllister has been making a lot of excellent and highly original music happen via Made Now Music. MNM grew out of the realisation that there wasn’t a space for the kind of music he and his friends were making: “creative music, [not] straight jazz, [not] chamber classical … more experimental and on the fringe of these kinds of things.” He recalls, “I was just trying to find a venue that would put on experimental music … and [percussionist] Caleb [Colledge] was thinking of doing a label … so we met in the middle, why don’t we do a concert series that has album launches attached to it?” Right from the beginning it was about more than playing a few gigs: “I’ve always been a fairly community-minded musician … the ethos was, we have a community here, how do we support it and build it into something sustainable?”

For two years, MNM presented shows at Jugglers’ Art Space in Fortitude Valley.

Brodie acknowledges the mentoring role of gallery founder and facilitator Peter Breen, saying that MNM has always been “based on personal connection with people who believe in what I’m doing”. An intense three-month residency in a dedicated new music space, Glasshouse, “lit a fire not just for Made Now but for the whole scene – a space that’s dedicated to ANY music? That was a good start.” MNM is currently working out of KEPK Gallery, which Brodie describes as “the space for what Made Now seems to be about … a cross-pollination kind of space … the gallery downstairs for the community, and upstairs they’ve got animators and ceramicists and photographers and musicians, it’s wild.”

With his partner Catalynne, Brodie offers artists graphic design, video, press releases and promotion for CD launches and gigs, so that “all the musicians have to worry about is making good music”. MNM’s artists exemplify MNM’s values: doing exploratory music which is what Brodie describes as “honest … 100 per cent genuine, through [the] heart and onto the page”, with genre a secondary consideration. The 18 releases so far include outstanding musicians from Brisbane and beyond: pianist Pat Jaffe, wind players Martin Kay and Andrew Saragossi, vocalists Kayleigh Pincott and Merinda Dias-Jayasinha, drummer

L EX I , TO U K I E A N D CA R M E N P H OTO BY CA L E B C O L L E D G E

JA Z Z S I N G E RS ' JA M N I G H T

Tom Robb, and nationally celebrated bassist Helen Svoboda, among others. MNM “tends to fall within that jazz realm … because of the musicians and the music that it’s associated with. [It’s] the hard ‘other end’ of the spectrum to … the trad gigs, marching bands, which are a traditionalist kind of thing. MNM helps bookend that. They work in harmony together.”

Drummer Aaron Jansz agrees that Brisbane hosts a wide “umbrella of creative improvised music”, noting that the scene is very diverse for its size.

He has been gigging for 10 years and handles bookings at several venues in addition to playing with numerous ensembles. He says, “There’s a lot of independent original music … and there’s a lot of people playing … more straight-ahead stuff … In the last year, there’s been an increase in the ScofieldNew-Orleansy-funk type thing.” He always prefers playing with groups that have a specific repertoire rather than “throw-togethers”, and contributes to the Charlotte McLean Band, Andrew Butt Trio+, Zak Scerri Trio, John Reeves Accordion Trio, Steve Russell Quartet, Feng Shui, Denson Baartz Quartet and Lachlan McKenzie Quartet.

J O DAV I E P H OTO BY CA L E B C O L L E D G E

Because Brisbane has few dedicated music venues, musicians have established gigs in places such as breweries or hotels, sometimes on the recommendation of staff moving from one venue to another. The Australian live music scene has suffered untold damage due to COVID-19, but the impacts in Brisbane have been less severe than in Melbourne and Sydney. Aaron says, “We were very lucky … we lost a few gigs [but] we were still able to work.” In fact, he’s able to point to “one sort of positive to all of the COVID lockdowns … venues seem to think that jazz is going to be the post-COVID saviour for their businesses … [there was] an influx of jazz gigs in a lot of places that you wouldn’t expect.”

Not all of them will be long term, but it means employment while they last, and exposure to new audiences who are happy to be hearing live music again – both familiar and original repertoire.

Aaron is optimistic about the future for jazz and improvised music in Brisbane, saying “On the whole, [the scene] is constantly expanding and more things are happening.” From running labels, to curating concert series and events, to hustling gigs, DIY is alive and well in the sunny sub-tropics.

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AUSTRA LIA N F LOOD RE L I E F Our hearts go out to the many Australians recently impacted by the unparalleled and widespread flooding across Queensland and New South Wales, devastating communities, homes and infrastructure.

Some registered organisations to consider for donations: Foodbank www.foodbank.org.au

Red Cross Australia www.redcross.org.au

Salvation Army disaster.salvationarmy.org.au

REACH OUT IF YOU N E ED SUPPORT Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 www.beyondblue.org.au

Lifeline Australia 13 11 14 or text on 0477 13 11 14www.lifeline.org.au

Support Act Wellbeing Helpline 1800 959 500 supportact.org.au

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reviews

CURVE Alister Spence, Joe Williamson, Christopher Cantillo Independent

Curve has been a long time coming. This trio – comprising an Australian, a Canadian and a Swede – first came together in 2009, when they performed at the Vilnius Jazz Festival. They subsequently played, off-and-on, throughout Europe, before releasing their debut album Begin in 2014. The music on Curve, the trio’s second release, predates that album, having been recorded during a rehearsal in Örnsberg, Sweden, in 2011. Ten years on, it remains an austere and challenging experience, a testament to the trio’s experimental ethos, which emphasises open structures and close-knit interplay. Despite being made up of a dozen improvisations, some as brief as a minute, others hitting the eight-minute mark, there is a remarkable coherence to the album, approximating a single-piece flow. The audio mix intentionally foregrounds all three instruments: Alister Spence’s piano (and prepared piano), Joe Williamson’s bass and Christopher Cantillo’s percussion, each being afforded commensurate roles. Fabricated from a litany of isolated sounds – deep rumbling piano, plucked strings, bowed bass, cymbal scrapes, tiny bells, skittering percussion – the resulting soundscapes, resonant with sparse clarity, are directly attributable to the trio’s intense focus on sound at a micro-level. Whether drawing on the innovations of pianist Cecil Taylor – especially Taylor’s percussive approach to his instrument – or the free-floating abstractions of improvising units such as the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, the trio’s music burns with low-level intensity, full of drama and subliminal urgency. Despite its demands, Curve pays unequivocal rewards with repeated listening.

Des Cowley

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AN OTH ER DAN CE Mike Nock, Hamish Stuart, Julien Wilson, Jonathan Zwartz Lionsharecords

It’s almost become cliché and widely overstated that a band displays equal input.

On this recording of celebrated improvisers, there is graphic evident illumination of a virtuosic equilibrium. The set of eight compositions conjures a panoply of moods, sounds, and textures from all four players that are brilliantly realised by all and, like Monk’s music, many angles are to be encountered. Mike Nock and Julien Wilson are possibly in some way the main event here as they create, drive, and colour the shifting picture in sound and mood through which Zwartz and Stuart move, but that said it is most definitely a collective act of creation.

Of particular listening enjoyment was their weaving of these moods on the two extended compositions, “Headlands” and “Johnston St”. Wilson’s intense, pristine, vibrato-less tone stands out. His plaintive cry goes a long way as well in enhancing the poignant ballads, “Little Stars” and “LDT”, augmenting the palpable chemistry that flows between the members making some truly great listening.

The quartet’s performance on “Winter”, a Jonathan Zwartz composition with active colour and lyric depth, exemplifies a dynamic of seamless interplay by a band that only comes by once in every generation. Their music on this recording is at times elegiac and sometimes poignant, but never mournful. All here listen to each other with as much care and attention as they bring to performing their individual role. This is a killer recording by an exceptional ensemble.

Barry O’Sullivan

M ES SE Calum Builder ILK Music

Australian composer and saxophonist Calum Builder has delivered a viscerally emotive treasure with his classically deconstructed Latin Mass: Messe (You are where you need to be). Recorded in his new home of Denmark, this major work featuring an idiosyncratic instrumentation of seven voices, seven double basses and seven saxophones, seeks to answer the question: Does it matter that the divine may not exist?

Using seemingly abstract tonality, Builder creates a consciously extended approach, with nods to Gregorian chants as well as composers like for example Alban Berg, pushing tonal extremes, though not as uncompromising. Through a compositional juxtaposition of beauty and pain, Builder’s questioning of divinity and faith is peculiarly spiritually awakening, perhaps fuelled by the expansiveness of the recording itself, documented in Saint Augustine’s Church in Copenhagen.

The Kyrie lulls at first with meditative bells, then transports us from a calming choral trance to an atonal discord, the movement of impatient footsteps pulling us in another direction. Erratic voices and unsettling strings in “Credo” seem like ruminations of a spirituality confused. “Sanctus” starts with a singular hymnal, seraphic voice, then, as more voices join, the questioning of faith is expressed in the rhythmic and tonal variations, becoming almost pleading, disparate and desolate.

As with all great church works, its beauty, melancholy and overwhelming connectedness encourage contemplation of a relationship beyond oneself. The question of belief becomes irrelevant: “You are where you need to be.”

Julia Messenger

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SYSTE MS OVE R-RIDE Andrea Keller / Wave Riders Independent

Pianist Andrea Keller’s wide-ranging eclecticism takes yet another turn with her latest venture Wave Riders, which brings together the fiery virtuosity of saxophonist Scott McConnachie, the rumbling bass of Mick Meagher, the soundscapes of guitarist Jack Richardson, and the rhythmic percussive patter of Rama Parwata. Recorded between Melbourne’s fourth and fifth lockdowns (for those of us who can recall), the album explores, in Keller’s words, her twin fascinations – and here’s the surprise – with free jazz and doom metal. But never one to stray too far from melodic invention, Keller melds these disparate influences into a wholly unified sound, presenting over an hour of original compositions that evince a melange of ambient textures, beats and minimalism. The opening tracks – “Linger” and “Systems OverRide 1” – are a case in point, blending melodic piano, reverberating bass lines, pointillistic sax, stripped-back percussion, free jazz and spacy guitar. That it works – and works so beautifully – is a testament to Keller’s visionary approach, something akin to alchemy. Never one to rest on her laurels, Keller, during these sessions, also recorded five duo improvisations which she offered to five composers – including Nicole Lizée, Joe Talia and Theo Carbo – to serve as the basis for remixes inserted throughout the album. Exhibiting a unity and integrity that belies the many influences that have fed into it, Systems Over-Ride represents a musical meditation on a theme Keller has touched upon previously, the possibility of reconciling brutality and beauty, and the small acts of kindness and generosity that bind these opposing forces.

Des Cowley

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OUR M A N IN MOS S VA LE Andrew Robertson Independent

Firstly, my review copy came in vinyl format. It is sheer delight to hold the physical LP and admire the cover artwork, not to mention listening to the crisp clean sound emanating from the speakers. That said, the LP’s space limitations mean that two tracks are omitted, the old standard “After You’ve Gone” and Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way”.

This is an album in two parts. Seven of the tracks feature the saxophonist/ flautist Andrew Robertson’s quintet comprised of drummer Andrew Dickeson, John Harkins on piano, bassist Brendan Clarke and Simon Ferenci on trumpet. For “Pure Imagination” (from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory) and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust”, the quartet (less Ferenci) is joined by a string quartet sumptuously arranged, adding much colour and variety to these ballads and indeed, the album. Importantly, the string quartet is integral in the arrangements, adding depth to the performances.

Make no mistake, this is a crack band. Right from the opener, Dexter Gordon’s “Fried Bananas”, the leader delivers a gorgeous solo with great technique and Dickeson’s solo is just right. Robertson picks up the flute for his own “Don Juan” and “Pure Imagination”, further enhancing the album’s appeal.

What sets this collection of mainly standards apart from the mass of straight-ahead jazz albums is the variety of settings, the excellent arrangements and great playing. Plus, mention must be made of the great sound quality, particularly when listening to the LP version.

Michael Prescott

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SILVER LINING

ISO LATIO N EMA N CIPATIO N

Kate Pass Kohesia Ensemble

Mace Francis Plus 11

Independent

Independent

A friend came into my study whilst I was listening to this for review purposes. Ten minutes later he ordered a copy. I’m not sure what greater endorsement I can give this wonderful album.

After a series of inventive releases – notably 2014’s Music For Average Photography – Mace Francis and his big band have since looked back with Love Songs I Love and continues the glance to a more swinging era with this new release. The album comprises mostly uplifting originals which would have been right at home in an earlier time, the impetus for this coming from an observation about the lack of happy tunes in his canon. In a further nod to the big band era, Francis has arranged some old tunes and given them a real makeover.

The fusion of world music with jazz is certainly not a new phenomenon, but usually it is a jazz musician playing alongside world musicians or vice versa. With her Kohesia Ensemble, Kate Pass’s compositions, and two by Esfandiar Shahmir, very successfully manage to meld the two genres into a cohesive and mighty attractive whole. More than this, Pass’s writing bristles with tunes that are melodic, memorable, powerful and embrace the essence of Persian culture.

This project grew out of Shahnameh: Songs of the Persian Book of Kings performance at Perth’s FRINGE WORLD Festival where it won the Martin Sims Award, enabling this album to be recorded.

The genesis of this successful fusion flows not only from the songs, but also from the complete integration of world instruments – daf, ney, saz and oud – with traditional jazz instruments – double bass, trumpet, sax, piano and drums. The compositions and arrangements are superb with just the right amount of room for the soloists to fully express themselves. Mention should be made of the title track and its solo bass introduction where Pass intriguingly quotes the Christmas carol, “We Three Kings”.

This is an album chock full of songs and bears repeated plays. I should know, I keep hitting the replay button.

To quote Molly Meldrum: “Do yourself a favour.”

Michael Prescott

This jaunty, cheerful and swinging approach is clearly demonstrated in the opening two tracks: “Casserole For Two” which also serves to introduce vocalist Lucy Ippla; and the delightfully titled “The Pudding March”.

For the most part, Francis has employed very tight arrangements with concise solos providing just the right balance. One highlight is the expressive “The Monk, The Drunk and Derek the Researcher”, with all three characters readily identifiable in the musical dialogue.

The standards – “In My Solitude”, “I’m In The Mood For Love” and “Some Of These Days” – aside from adding some familiarity, provide a contrast in style and serve to prove the merits of Francis’s own writings, with one exception. The old chestnut “Home On The Range” seems a bit incongruous in this setting and despite Francis’s clever arrangement, it remains out of place.

The upbeat vibe, great arrangements and a top-notch group of musicians add up to a great listening experience.

Michael Prescott

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W H E RE YOU CAME FRO M

SO LACE

Sandcastles

Kayleigh Pincott

People Sound Records

Independent

There is, one supposes, a niche for almost every kind of musical form, although some tastes are surely acquired. Hinano Fujisaki (tenor saxophone), Harley Coleman (guitar), and Chloe Kim (drums) are three bright young voices in Sydney’s jazz scene who are filling a specific niche on this debut release. After meeting as fellow students the band was formed through friendship and a mutual desire to pursue their own sound. They acknowledge that some of their inspiration “Yellow Pink to Blue and Lonely Boat Song” was derived from the melodies that the Motian/Frisell/Lovano trio explored on their 2006 album, resulting in group improvisation, led by well-crafted melodies, channeled with inventiveness and clarity through each instrumental voice. Elsewhere, the interplay of the three musicians is deftly showcased through the lyrical compositions of Fujisaki and Coleman, with “Akatombo (Red Dragonfly)” being the only track on the album that isn’t an original composition. On this gentle, traditional Japanese folk tune Fujisaki receives some saxophone kudos in a perfect showcase. A highlight of the album is the stellar drumming technique of Chloe Kim whose Korean Folk and Shamanic skills are well utilized on some tracks. On his compositions, “Afterthoughts and Country Sons”, the guitar of Harley Coleman brightly complements Fujisaki’s saxophone, capturing some delightful moods. On the surface, this is music of simple design. But there is a depth to the layers that add up to music that is much greater than the sum of its parts. It is within the folds of the trio’s interactions that the magic lies, allowing them to fill their niche.

Solace, by Kayleigh Pincott, is a wonderfully imaginative debut recording by a vocalist steeped in the modern jazz world. The album, brimful of fascinating arrangements, brings together some of Brisbane’s great young players. Pincott composed eight of the album’s ten songs. Her clear, pitch-perfect voice delightfully executes some often tricky material.

Barry O’Sullivan

The opening song “I Closed the Door” showcases Pincott’s proficient songwriting talent. Here, the listener is offered a private window into the angst of a relationship turned sour: “the walls we built are strong. but we are screaming up a storm.” Deceptively sweet and innocent at first, her voice harmonically builds and spirals to a powerful force as if trying to find a clear resolution within the walls of the arrangement.

Equally impressive is the agility and musicality of pianist Sophie Min. Her melodious choices are distinctive and truly defy her age. In the title track “Solace”, the intimate interplay of piano and voice sets the tone for the mastery that underpins the whole album. In the arrangement of Elling and Mendoza’s “Esperanto”, Min’s improvisational uniqueness dazzles.

“Empathy” highlights the sensitivity of Tristan Rogers on trumpet. “Onwards” shines the spotlight on the dexterity of both Zac Sakrewski on double bass and Lachlan Hawkins on drum kit.

This recording proves Pincott is a singer to look out for, and a skilful and exciting composer and arranger.

The whole ensemble is a breath of fresh air, but with a wealth of maturity and musical understanding.

Julia Messenger

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G RATE FUL Mat Jodrell Nicholas Records

Releasing an album of music with the sole intention of bringing joy and uplifting the spirits of its listeners can be nothing but a bonus for those who are lucky enough to hear it. This was the intention of Mat Jodrell when he recorded with two New York–based musicians and a remaining ensemble consisting of his long-time Australian friends, Carl Mackey on saxophones, Jordan Murray on trombone, and Sam Anning on bass. The inspirational repertoire of original compositions, mainly by the trumpeter and leader with the remainder from his sextet members, most certainly will please the listener appreciative of an ensemble of this calibre. The recording highlights that Jodrell is a continuously evolving artist whose music just seems to get better with each release.

All of the member’s contributions are creative, well played and arranged, without trying to be world-shattering and Jodrell’s superb technique provides the heightened interest and spontaneity that is the benchmark of the creative input. The resultant style is contemporary jazz that is fluidly melodic and constantly inventive. New York pianist Miki Yamanaka is an excellent improviser, supplying some well-placed substantial chords and interweaving phrases. Jordan Murray (trombone) and Carl Mackey (saxophones) support their fearless leader with a lovely unison sound, eloquently climbing and descending through the pathway of peaks and troughs he paves for them. Sam Anning’s double bass playing and his solos throughout are a standout feature, especially on the track “Nebulae”. This a luscious collection of music that is both multi-layered and adventurous, delivered by musicians at the top of their game, with compositions and performances that successfully creates an illusion that they’ve all been playing together for years.

Barry O’Sullivan

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on tracks ROGER M ITCHELL S ELECTS T WO D I S PARAT E T RACKS FROM A FAVOU RITE ALBU M FO R A CLOS ER L I ST E N.

I D L E H AN DS D O THE D EVIL’S WORK James Annesley Quartet Newmarket Music 2009

Featuring James Annesley soprano and tenor saxophones, Hugh Stuckey guitar, Tom Lee double bass and Hugh Harvey drums. Conceived in early 2007 in Melbourne as a trio, the group added a guitarist, set up a makeshift studio at a school and did 2–3 takes for each tune, all Annesley originals.

Giraffe 9:54 At this year’s Australian Open, Nick Kyrgios showed tennis need not always be serious. “Giraffe” surely shows jazz can be fun. Agility is obvious in this track, which is introduced lightly at fast tempo by the drums and quickly taken up by soprano saxophone in scoops of sound that hint at audacity and high spirits. This could be a rally call for freedom, but not from vaccination, spurts of vibrato escaping as the reed notes take us who knows where next. About two minutes in, the vivacious sax is joined in the main melody by fluid guitar in a dance that delights. Then Annesley’s notes soar away in free flight, Stuckey’s chords leaving the limelight. They are soon back up front, musing energetically over bass and drum scatterings. Harvey’s ensuing, long solo is restrained, even meditative, with intricacies rather than smash and bash. The interweaving horn and guitar ease us out with the familiar melody plus flourishes, leaving us wonderfully relaxed – and possibly with an earworm.

Idle Hands Do the Devil’s Work 5:12 Straight away tenor sax, bass and drums deliver the drama and rock vibe surely needed for the devil’s work, firing a series of salvos that drive us into this vigorous, toe-tapping piece. Tom Lee is key to the sustained rhythmic propulsion that carries us through solos as if to prove there are no idle hands in this ensemble. The double bass walks us at a fast pace for a distance, backed ably by Harvey at the drum kit, before guitar over bass encourages some bodily movement – even if we are seated – in response.

Saxophone musings maintain and intensify the tension, until all too quickly we run into those familiar, sharp repetitions in unison that signal the abrupt end.

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ALAN LEE P H OTO BY JA N E M A RC H

WHERE WE’RE FROM? I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Jazz in Britain website over this past year. The recent boom in British jazz (does a week go by without the British media name-checking Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia or Theon Cross?) has brought with it a renewal of interest in what might have come before. Hutchings himself has spoken of his excitement upon first discovering 70s British jazz in the dusty bowels of the Birmingham library, when still a teenager. Long perceived as a derivative offshoot of its more significant American counterpart, there is a growing recognition that modern British jazz went through a golden age from the mid-sixties to the early seventies. Hutchings has categorised this sound as one of rawness, freedom and experimentation.

Jazz in Britain has unearthed un-released tapes by some of the key musicians of the period: Joe Harriott, Tubby Hayes, Michael Garrick, Harry Beckett, Neil Ardley, Don Rendell, Ian Carr, Mike Osborne and Ray Russell. There is a snowball effect in motion, with larger labels getting in on the act, dusting off long-forgotten masters. Decca’s recent compilation Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain (1965–72) features many of the above-named artists, along with Alan Skidmore, John Surman, Mike Westbrook, Graham Collier and others. There’s already whispers of a re-issue program covering the key labels of the period – Deram, Argo, Fontana, Mercury – bringing back into circulation rare albums that have been fetching soaring prices on the vinyl market.

It got me to thinking: could the same thing happen here?

Many of the same conditions are in place: a genuinely exciting contemporary jazz scene, flush with creative musicians, added to which is a growing audience for improvised music and its associated genres, whether soul, electronica, beats, ambient. Conditions, in other words, not unlike the UK. But the nagging question remains: is the audience for jazz in Australia substantial enough to generate a similar buzz about our own recorded legacy? Or is it more a case that the media, and funding bodies, just need to get on board? While there have been a few parries over the years, such as re-issues of Charlie Munro’s 1967 album Eastern Horizons (Votary, 2008), Ted Vining Trio’s 1977 Number 1 (Birdland, 2006) and Judy Bailey’s 1976 Colours (Basement Digs, 2006), it’s nevertheless the case that numerous recordings of the pre-CD era have languished out of print for decades: the 1967 compilation Jazz Australia, and seminal albums by the Jazz Co-op, Women and Children First, the Benders, Bruce Cale, Judy Bailey, Keys Music Association.

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While far too early to call it a trend, several recent compilations have gone some way toward rectifying the situation. Following the death of jazz impresario Horst Liepolt in 2019, Martin Jackson has curated a 2-CD compilation The Australian Jazz Explosion of the 1970s: A Tribute to Horst Liepolt (AJM049) that digs into the music Liepolt loved and championed. Prior to his departure from Australia in 1981, Liepolt founded 44 Records, issuing some 30 albums of Australian jazz between 1975 and 1979. While Jackson draws heavily upon this material – much of it unissued since original release – he’s also sourced tracks from the Phillips label, which had originally green-lighted 44 Records, and for whom Liepolt produced albums.

As Jackson explains in his liner notes: “Sydney in the 1970s witnessed a convergence of factors which produced a seeming ‘explosion’ of all styles of jazz, but particularly contemporary. These factors included new venues, American saxophonist and educator [Howie Smith] taking over the NSW State Conservatorium’s Jazz course from 1973–1976, and the return to Australia of expatriates such as Bruce Cale and Bob Bertles, and visits by Mike Nock.”

Jackson’s selection bears witness to this explosion, embracing its eclecticism and vibrancy. And while there is the odd clunker, the bulk of the music on offer – all two-and-a-half hours of it – contains an abundance of exciting performances revealing an Australian jazz scene breaking loose from its confines, notably the Bryce Rohde Quartet, Bruce Cale Orchestra, Sydney Jazztet, Mike Nock and Serge Ermoll’s Free Kata.

Many of these performances are revelatory, despite the intervening years. Charlie Munro’s late sixties “Islamic Suite” remains streets ahead of anything from the period. Out to Lunch’s “The Fire Sermon”, with guest Roger Frampton, could have been drawn from an ESP album. Jackson includes three tracks by Jazz Co-op, arguably a bone fide supergroup of the early seventies, including the extraordinary “Inta-A”, a trio piece featuring Frampton on piano and alto sax, along with Phil Treloar on drums. Similarly, Brian Brown is allocated three tracks, and guests on others, including a punishing “Theme for Horst” by the Ted Vining Trio.

While Jackson’s compilation is ostensibly a one-off, reflecting his aim to pay homage to Horst Liepolt’s wideranging taste, the case of James Pianta’s Roundtable is an altogether different matter, manifesting as it does a single curatorial vision. The label, over the past decade, has displayed an adventurous streak

when deliberating on our jazz past, viewing crucial recordings as part of a wider continuum of international and local experimental music, from Val Stephen’s early tape manipulations to Gianfranco Pleanizio’s seventies “giallo” score for La Gatta in Calore.

Among the many cult soundtracks to be found in The Roundtable’s catalogue is John Sangster’s experimental score Once Around the Sun, along with his psychedelic, avant-garde score for the Sydney film Marinetti. More recently, the label has begun expanding its jazz offerings, re-issuing a vinyl pressing of Brian Brown’s 1975 album Carlton Streets, originally recorded by Horst Liepolt’s 44 Records.

Two recent gems in The Roundtable's catalogue are the compilations Pyramid Pieces 1 and Pyramid Pieces 2, serving up scarce sounds from the Australian modernist canon. The first in the series, subtitled Modal & Eco Jazz from Australia 1969–1979, gathers six pieces of esoteric jazz by Brian Brown, John Sangster, Alan Lee, Jazz Co-op, Out to Lunch and Galapagos Duck. The music – while disparate in intent – reflects the influence of Miles Davis’s and John Coltrane’s modal advances on local musicians, exemplified in the Roger Frampton penned “A La Coltrane”, performed by Jazz Co-op.

Frampton was no stranger to modern jazz, having worked in the UK with Don Rendell and Joe Harriott before emigrating to Sydney in 1966, and his piece bears all the hallmarks of Coltrane’s early sixties spiritual sound. Alan Lee’s extended piece “Sunflower”, on the other hand, while similarly grounded in a solid bass motif, strives for a more evocative, understated feel, with the leader’s vibes dancing in sunlit fashion across a percussive backbeat. John Sangster’s brief “Exploration of the Sun” approximates an “eco” aesthetic, drawing on the natural Australian landscape for its effects.

Pyramid Pieces 2 investigates modern jazz in Australia 1969–1979, gathering six tracks from the Jazznote label and 44 Records. Opener “Valley of the Tweed” is lifted from Bob Bertle's 1979 Moontrane album, and perfectly captures the leader’s jazz credentials, toooften overshadowed by his tenure with Max Merritt.

The track demonstrates a strong harmonic approach, Bertles’s brawny tenor offset by Miroslav Bukovsky’s delicate trumpet. Bruce Cale’s “Kuri Monga Nuie”, a tour de force recorded in 1978 for Jim McLeod’s Jazztrack, hinges on Cale’s intricate basslines, weaving a vibrant pattern behind John Hoffman’s trumpet and Bob Bertles’s soprano. Charlie Munro’s “Whirlpool” is a revelation, a genuinely experimental trio piece later

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reworked for his 1969 album Countdown, scored for an imaginary ballet. Alan Zavod’s “Circles”, drawn from his 1980 album What’s New, starts off as a harddriving modal piano-trio piece, before ratcheting up the intensity, repetitive and hypnotic. The album closes with Out to Lunch’s exploratory take on T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, a genuine slice of Australian experimental and modal jazz of the seventies.

The striking cover art that adorns Pyramid Pieces I & 2 makes an intentional link with abstract art of the period. The improvisatory element of abstract expressionism was underlined when Ornette Coleman featured Jackson Pollock’s painting “White Light” on the cover of Free Jazz. In this case, the abstract artworks by Peter Upward and James Meldrum make a strong case for the modernity of this music.

The abiding question I’m left with is whether there is enough quality music still to be unearthed from this proto phase of Australian modern jazz? Unlike the UK experience, Australia’s major labels took scant interest in jazz. Moreover, aside from Liepolt’s Jazz 44, there was a dearth of independent ventures, comparable with the UK’s experimental scene, that might have championed and documented a burgeoning avantgarde. On the other hand, it’s a fair bet the ABC is sitting on tapes that could well shed light on this period.

Recognising that not every album is likely to offer up gold, Jackson questions whether compilations – or cherry picking from the past – might not be the best way forward. Certainly, James Pianta’s Roundtable is feeling cautiously optimistic, projecting further Pyramid compilations, along with previously un-issued Brian Brown recordings.

I’m of an age when I could have been closely following this music as it happened. But I was too busy listening to recordings by Coltrane, Mingus or Coleman to explore the local scene that surrounded me in Sydney at the time. This piece, in some ways, is my mea culpa for failing to recognise the pioneering spirit of Australian modern jazz when I had the chance. Of course, I’m not advocating nostalgia, nothing should distract us from the heart-stopping excitement of the here and now. But increasingly I’ve noticed younger musicians name-checking artists like Mark Simmonds or dropping a Bernie McGann composition into their sets. There’s a recognition that giants – Mike Nock, Judy Bailey, Ted Vining, Sandy Evans – are still among us. There’s a growing sense that there’s a history that sits behind where we are, one that warrants further digging.

Des Cowley

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WA N GA RAT TA FESTIVA L O F JAZZ & BLUES 30 YEA RS Adrian Jackson & Andra Jackson Melbourne Books

For regular pilgrims to Wangaratta’s annual celebration of jazz and blues, the photographs alone will trigger an avalanche of memories. Suddenly the music is swirling in your head again as you stare at singer Michelle Nicole and remember easing into a new day’s music with her quartet, or you see Steve Lacy’s face screwing up to hit a note on his ancient-looking soprano saxophone and remember his singular asceticism. There’s keyboardsmaster Joe Zawinul wearing a tea-cosy hat to keep a lid on a brain exploding with sonic ideas, while drummer John Pochée’s leonine head reactivates the glories and tragedies of Ten Part Invention.

Then you read the text (or even just the year-by-year list of players at the back), and other memories ambush you, like lazy, hazy Mondays at Brown Brothers, or guitarists John Scofield and James Muller sharing a stage in 2008. Many may remember brilliant bassist Mark Helias leading his trio with saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Gerald Cleaver in 2000, and then being joined by trumpeter Scott Tinkler, trombonist James Greening and saxophonist David Ades. That the latter went on to share recording projects with the three Americans is a tribute to the nous of the festival’s long-term artistic director, Adrian Jackson, in forging collaborations.

Jackson was perfectly placed to write this large-format overview of 30 years of Australia’s most important jazz festival (with help from his sister, Andra). His style is conversational, anecdotal, entertaining and selfdeprecating. Sometimes he could have employed deeper analysis of exactly why a given act worked so well (or didn’t!), but that minor flaw is swept away by his ability to take us behind the scenes of the event’s first 26 iterations.

While the book is predominantly penned by Jackson, sidebars proliferate from musicians and others. Trumpeter Eugene Ball astutely observes that the festival’s success can partly be attributed to people leaving their daily environment and travelling to Wang (with its convenient combination of venues) specifically to devote themselves to the music. Pianist Matt McMahon notes that before Wang he’d only heard local jazz in clubs, never concert halls, and the festival helped change perspectives on the music’s importance. Journalist/photographer Roger Mitchell mentions the festival’s particular capacity to expose listeners to unfamiliar artists, and trumpeter Phil Slater takes that further, suggesting that the engaged and informed Wang audiences actually

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G EO F F AC H I S O N

K A N C H A N A K A RU N A R AT N E , PAU L S I M M O N S , SA M B O O N

made certain types of music possible that otherwise might have been out of reach. Also incisive is singer/trumpeter Vince Jones’s reflection that Jackson’s purity of motives played an important part in upping the festival’s quality of art.

Many sidebars are reminiscences, including an entertaining beat-poet-like spray from saxophonist Wilbur Wilde and a heartfelt piece from singer Judy Jacques about jumping into the deep end of a jam session, goaded on by Jackson. The yarn about drummer Allan Browne having his prized new car head-butted by a goat is hilarious, as is Pochée’s quip that when his trio, The Engine Room, accompanied the National Jazz Awards participants two years in a row, it was the only time in his long career that the billing said, “Back by popular demand”! Saxophonist Zac Hurren also tells a priceless story of a boozy afternoon with the great Bernie McGann.

Among Jackson’s own anecdotes, many of the best relate to handling recalcitrant musicians (drummer Alan Turnbull, pianist Eric Reed and band-leader Willem Breuker among them) and sudden catastrophes (including having the entire ICP Orchestra delayed in Beijing, with Jackson calmly shuffling his program accordingly). There are also marvellous stories of a dinner Jackson hosted for the bands of Zawinul and Helias, where Zawinul’s accounts of days of yore had everyone spellbound, and of driving Steve Lacy to Wang in 1994 and astounding him by playing Charles Munro’s brilliant 1967 local album Eastern Horizons on the way. Especially moving is his account of Ten Part Invention’s scorching set of pianist Roger Frampton’s compositions in 1999, which Frampton (and everyone else) knew would be his last concert with the band before his death from an inoperable brain tumour.

Andra Jackson’s contributions add colour and breadth to the picture her brother paints, and his own recounting of being axed by the board in 2016 still puts a lump in the throat. While the festival continued (and Jackson continues the story), it soon ran into the pandemic, and its ongoing viability remains to be seen. But any Wang fan will lap up this testament to its first 30 years.

John Shand

M I R KO G U E R RI N I

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P H OTO BY VA N ES SA VA N DA LS E N

artist

SOPHIE MIN

Sophie Min is a Korean -Australian jazz pianist and composer based in Brisbane. Having toured and performed across the world, Sophie is a prolific recording artist and is completing her masters research .

Sophie’s “ Bellwether” is the bonus track available with this copy of Dingo, the title track from her debut Sophie Min Orchestra release.

What’s your musical background?

I started piano at a quite young age like how other kids from K-family normally do and I have always enjoyed listening to rearranged church music and transcribing them. I studied jazz in Korea then transferred the degree to Australia and while I was undertaking my Masters of Music Studies, I toured with the JM World Jazz Orchestra in Europe and that experience inspired me to write for a large ensemble. Also, a residency with world-class musicians at Centrum and Banff Workshop encouraged me to broaden my artistic spectrum. I focus on creating mixed music ranging from jazz to improvisational music.

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What is jazz?

Well, if the question was asking for my opinion apart from Wikipedia or Google’s term on it, I see the term “jazz” as a communal, social and cultural art form consisting of musicians in performance together with their audience’s interpretation and reaction.

As I learn more of the history and tradition of jazz, I now perform jazz to reflect the creation of my musical language as well as lifestyle. However, when the audience becomes involved in the experience of music, additional appreciation engages and expands the meaning of our playing and composing. Jazz needs good listeners.

FREE D OW N LOA D w w w.dingojazz .com/sophie -min Passcode: BELL2022

“Bellwether” is the title track from Sophie Min Orchestra’s first

What excites you about composing?

album with the 11-piece ensemble

I utilise composing as a musical speaking material and I get excited when I have the best way to express myself through it and if people feel the same way from my compositions, that’d be the best compliment ever. It’s like cooking and you serve your meal to people.

comprising four strings, four horns

What is the vision behind “Bellwether”?

“Bellwether” is my artistic expression of an imaginative journey of the wild road of Messiah. It expatiates the story utilising the fertile sound of strings and horns, whose great varieties of harmonic adventure reveals the secret of one’s true character. I especially wanted to embrace the advantages of the ensemble by using the length of notes and breath, combined with the harmonic properties of jazz arranging techniques.

My artistic vision behind the ensemble is about constantly discovering potential works through practice and study and to enjoy playing with my companions.

What else are you working on?

I’m currently finishing my thesis entitled “Narrative Driven Practice: the Process of Arranging and Composing Music through Piano Improvisations” which is about investigating transformative short progressions from piano improvising and to carry through the inventive methods into my orchestra works.

and rhy thm section. Look out for the ensemble’s follow-up release Wind and the End, due May 2022 .

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12-2PM MOUTHPIECE FIT OUTS 2-3PM SOUND PRODUCTION AND MOUTHPIECE TECHNOLOGY FREE – BOOKINGS PREFERRED www.musicplace.com.au/resources/events/jody

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education

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H I STO RY L ES S O N : MELBOURNE JAZZ C O - O P E R AT I V E As the 40th annual program presented by the Melbourne Jazz Co-operative (MJC) begins, we caught up with founder Martin Jackson to see where it all started.

What inspired the creation of the MJC? As a saxophonist, I was wanting the security of a monthly gig for my band and the musicians that I admired – such as Brian Brown – and to promote the music that I was passionate about that was not being heard in Melbourne except in less-than-ideal venues.

What were you hoping for when founding the MJC? I was hoping to expand the audience for this style of music – the spirit of Black American contemporary jazz mixed with an Australian element.

For the first years the MJC presented its program at the RMIT Glasshouse Theatre. What attracted you to this venue and how did the relationship develop?

The Glasshouse was an ideal platform compared to previous inadequate spaces. It was a central location with a sound system and acoustic grand piano, as well as relatively affordable rental. In terms of the “relationship”, I had to persuade an incredibly conservative student council to agree to this.

What role does the MJC play in the jazz community?

I like to think that the MJC has had a very positive impact in terms of building the audience and assisting musicians – albeit often in the background.

Our presentations of two nights per week at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club over 23 years really provided much artistic credibility and innovation to the venue, particularly in its early years. Our lobbying on behalf of the scene – particularly the campaigns for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival when its funding was withdrawn for 2002, and equity with Australia Council funding for Victorian artists – was invaluable.

The MJC continues to support musicians by providing the security of a paid performance, as opposed to a door deal, while providing the audience with a diverse program that always incorporates a good percentage of new projects and emerging artists.

What has been a standout highlight for you?

So many, but founding the Melbourne Women’s Jazz Festival (1997) and co-presenting the Paul Grabowsky Orchestra (effectively the Australian Art Orchestra premiere) over three nights in the 1993 Melbourne Festival were specific milestones.

Visit www.mjc.org.au for more info on the MJC 2022 program or to become a member.

P I A N O P E RFO RM A N C E A RT WO RK BY AS H V I N H A R RI S O N

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SPIDER

MUSIC DEEP DIVE DR TI M NI KO LSKY Grey is Ground​ is a swirling, emotional synthpop album of rare complexity and emotion, featuring Gian Slater’s extraordinary voice atop churning rhythms and galactic synths. The album features keyboardist/producer B ​ arney McAll​ (Sia, Daniel Merriweather, Aloe Blacc) and drummer ​S imon Barker​, with special guests beatmaker ​E mefern​ and trumpeter ​P hil Slater​.

The Singer’s Singer. Fearless. Inventive.

Extraordinary. Angelic. Brilliant. There are many words to describe Gian Slater. What impresses me most, however, is that her music sounds new, fresh, exciting, unheard, yet well resolved.

Grey is Ground was recorded over five years.

“What struck me most about Gian was her ultimate trust, her curiosity, her intuition, which she has faithfully followed since the beginning of her career.”

– Steve Davidson, The Playful Musician podcast.

From the first bars of ​Gian Slater’​s new album G ​ rey is Ground​, there is an unexpected serenity to the vocal melodies – given the restless, complex grooves underneath. Gian’s crystalline voice is unhurried as the accompanying rhythms boil and shift. The juxtaposition is deliberate. Musically and lyrically, Grey is Ground welcomes ambiguity, patiently waiting for beauty, empathy and comfort to be revealed. “‘Spider’ is the centre of a web of mystery.

I was interested in describing that knotted up feeling of uncertainty – the layers of doubt, questioning, anxiety, a search for truth underneath the superficial.” – Gian Slater The very first thing that we hear on Grey is Ground is the opening track “Spider”. Gian audibly takes a breath through her nose and opens her lips in preparation to make the first sound. The conscious decision to include this – in the hands of most vocal producers it would’ve ended up on the digital cutting room floor – sets the scene that we are listening intimately to a human making sound.

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G IA N ’S VO I CE ACTS L I KE A L I G HTHOUSE MI RRO R – A BEAC ON SHI N I N G BRI G HTLY THROUG H THE DEN SE FOG .

“Layer — upon layer” is an apt opening line (Ex. 1).

Verse 1, Ex. 1

“Spider” firmly establishes a bright A major bed at the outset that is firmly diatonic. This foundation will be used as a departure point for non-diatonic harmonic colours in bars to come.

However, harmony is not the central tenet of Grey is Ground. According to Gian, rhythm was the inspirational wellspring of the album, from which harmony and melody are created. This is a departure from the creative workflow on previous albums. Right from the outset, rhythmic density establishes a genre-redefining context and the palette of sounds presents a fresh sonic landscape.

“Rhythm was the first idea for all of these songs on this album” – G.S. Keyboard comping patterns appear to suggest a highly nuanced approach to dialling in suitable amounts of rhythmic tension within the 5/8 context (Ex. 2). But again, it is constantly changing.

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Wellbeing Helpline – free & confidential 24/7 support: 1800 959 500 General Enquiries | Crisis Relief: 1300 731 303 www.supportact.org.au

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“I love working with rhythm this way, because it feels familiar and murky at once.” – G.S. Ex. 2

Accompanying the on-grid 5/8 groove is Simon Barker’s unique quintuplet language (Ex. 3).

There’s a rolling, swirling dense hi-hat/snare part that I dare not notate, as it is improvised and different each time. They are not precise subdivisions and are related to Simon’s idea of “Coiling”. The official instruction from Simon is to “Improvise variations”.

Ex. 3

Worth mentioning here is the idea of quintuplet swing, whereby 3 + 2 quavers are spaced within a pulse, creating a 60/40 ratio (Ex. 4). Contrasting this 5/8 context; regular swing in 4/4 is 2 + 1 quavers within a pulse, creating a two-thirds/one-third ratio. Of course, relative amounts of swing are certainly not fixed within these proportions. There are infinite amounts of microvariation and possibility within this idea. Often called “Drunk Drummer” groove, quintuplet and septuplet swing has origins in western urban music such as J Dilla. However, Simon Barker has developed his own unique language around this topic, independent of that history.

Ex. 4

Progressively, more textures and ascending layers of luscious synth-pop soundscapes expand the height, width and depth of the mix. The sparkly, chimey celeste sounds were achieved by Barney McAll layering the ​​Prophet Rev2 with the Kawai DX800, used also for the dense, warm harmonic bed of strings. The gritty Mellotron-esque sound is actually a Fairlight sample from a VST. All these layers contribute to the intensity build of the pre-chorus before “falling off the cliff” and landing on the new section. At 1:12 the 5/8 transition to a more sparse 5/4 feels more settled, less dense and more centred.

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Gian’s voice acts like a lighthouse mirror – a beacon shining brightly through the dense fog (Ex. 5).

Additionally, Gian layers her harmonic bed by multitracking vocal harmony layers panned wide in this section, fulfilling the supporting harmonic role.

Verse 2 Ex. 5

“‘Spider’ is my metaphor for a truth that may be painful and dark – and a surrender to embrace the spider.” – G.S. Gone are the dense quintuplet hi-hats – a more direct and clean drum kit sound is presented. Subtle, but underlying momentum (on on, off off) is provided by the symmetrical comping pattern on piano (Ex. 6).

Ex. 6

“The choices you make in the moment are never wrong” – G.S. The B section (pre-chorus) lifts by temporarily modulating to B major, providing a yet even brighter harmonic texture (Ex. 7). Minor chords are extensively avoided here. Even the diatonic possibilities are shunted into major, all preparing for the impact of the upcoming bridge. Again, synths are employed here to build an animated sonic space through filter sweeps and stereo-panning phase effects.

Pre-Chorus Ex. 7

Bridge Ex. 8

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2:10 gives way to the expansive bridge – a soaring saw-wave synth lead (Ex. 8). The soaring and expansive G#m11 is the first time we’ve heard this harmonic colour, contrasting everything heard beforehand. For the first time in the song the intensity curve descends and releases the sonic pressure that has built up to this point. This progression is repeated to establish this longing, almost despairing texture change.

2:42 features a sparse breakdown, re-establishing the intimacy and purity of the vocals accompanied by a warm synth bed. The bookend of the opening line closes out the song: “Layer, upon layer, I want to peel it back, back to the core” – G.S. The transition after the final chorus at 3:10 is a spacey synth aural contrast into an as-yet-unheard space. For me, it is reminiscent of the transition in the 7min album cut of Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” off the 1973 album Innervisions, in which the protagonist arrives in New York City and is wrongfully arrested. Contrasting off-grid synth textures are used to disrupt the established rhythm and transport the listener’s ears into new sonic territory. We are shaken out of our audio familiarity.

We sense that the next album track is about to be presented, but the pathway taken to reach that point is most definitely the scenic one.

“The music itself, too, is really inspired by embracing the unknown. There’s great power in the vulnerability of not knowing the answer.” – Interview with Cat Woods, audiofemme.com Grey is Ground is a highly resolved, adventurous and expertly articulated album containing performances by some of Australia’s most accomplished musicians at the height of their creative powers. It is fearless in its presentation of advanced rhythmic, harmonic and textural elements. The true art of embodying these challenging and complicated musical elements is that Gian Slater makes it sound seamless, transparent and effortless in its execution. Gian has made these elements musical. In the search of the new, the unplayed and the unheard, Gian has created a sonically sophisticated and innovative album in Grey is Ground.

Dr Tim Nikolsky is the digital curator of www.australianjazzrealbook.com, music teacher at Virtual School Victoria, and is a performing and composing musician based in Melbourne.

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U N D E R S TA N D I N G THROUGH LISTENING SI MO N STARR When we are making and listening to music, we do so through the central sense of our hearing ; it is through our ears that we mainly experience aural art. The genesis of ever y meaning ful and personal sound we create lives within our aural imagination and unless we create a well-swept cerebral corridor at the nexus between our amygdala, hippocampus (which deal with memor y), our temporal lobe (hearing ) and our cerebellum (motor skills), music will lack the vital connection between emotion and intellect. Without it, we cannot create music that is the fulfilment of self- expression . From self- expression comes deeper understanding , and through this visceral communication music truly brings people closer together. So why does ear training cop a bad rap so of ten?

It can be that ear training is hard at first, but I think it has much more to do with the way it’s taught as some sort of arcane code that exists in the ivory towers of our hierarchical imaginations, rather than as the MOST FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFERABLE SKILL THAT EXISTS IN ALL OF MUSIC. Yes, I’m shouting.

Ear training is much easier than it first seems if it is destigmatised and taught as a fundamental survival skill, not just in music, but in life. Decoding what people are saying, really saying, comprehending and being able to respond to communication, these are all acts that we take for granted in our everyday life. Somehow when it is applied to music, people freak out. To turn that perception around we have to get our hands dirty. Like any language, the basics of grammar, diction, vocabulary and, most critically, everyday use, need to be broken down for us to help make it not just palatable but understood for how central it is to the meeting of mind, body and soul that all music making should be. As Brian Brown used to say to us at the Victorian College of the Arts, monkeys can be taught to play bebop and robots can be programmed to play anything. It becomes art/beauty/truth only when we understand what we are trying to communicate, because we can HEAR it in a real context.

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My most recent period of living in Israel happened between 2009–2015. What I experienced playing music there shattered my Anglo-centric preconceptions about professionalism and musicianship. Musicians would routinely turn up late, almost none of them could read, didn’t seem to know much about different styles and getting different professional level sounds – I began regretting the idea of playing music there at all. However, very quickly I began to read the room a bit better, to note that: a) almost everyone had close to perfect pitch, at the very least perfect relative pitch; b) almost everyone loved singing, and almost everyone plays percussion there, usually at what would be professional level here; c) almost everyone improvised with a rare combination of incredible passion and intensity as well as a deep reverence for the sources and intimate knowledge of the past. Emotions and opinions are worn proudly on people’s sleeves in Israel.

This, combined with the population density, tiny size of the music market and sense of pride in musical traditions that in some areas go back millennia, made for a dynamic and riveting music scene in which the moments lightning strikes as mind, body and soul combine seemed to happen more and more frequently, until they became my baseline expectation. Everyone took the idea of creating art very seriously and I found people everywhere prepared to go all in – on and off stage – and whose compositions demonstrated a deep understanding of everything from Bach to the Beatles to Arabic maqam and everything in between.

Batsheva Rubenstein, who pioneered the ear training course at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is probably more responsible than anyone for birthing generations of musicians with amazing ears. Her teaching methods revolve around in situ ear training, to whit: hear passage, play passage in 12 keys in every possible position with maximum appropriate emotion each time, going up by perfect fourths, playing a scale to stabilise your hearing for each new key. Play

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as a religion, as something that is never questioned. Your technique develops only as your ears develop, as you understand each interval and subdivision, in context, all the time, so that what you can play is only what you can hear. Jazzy Suzuki without the daggy tunes. Based on whatever music floats your boat.

This method is an exact replica of what I learned in a life-changing weekend spent with Gary Peacock, who got me to explore emotion-interlocked-withprocess based language acquisition. Peacock’s method is an extrapolation of the Rubenstein method, whereby he got me to make a list of all pieces of music that were inextricably linked to emotionally charged moments in my life; then deconstruct/transcribe every note on every instrument in that piece in every key, going up by perfect fourths each time, maintaining the emotional tenor throughout.

Through this, one builds up a technique directly linked to one’s emotional language, a method for articulating one’s emotions in every position, every octave.

Your technique grows as you identify, frame and resolve key emotional moments in your life; an aural psychoanalysis that sanctifies the details of these musical pieces by virtue of their ineluctable attachment to the cathartic events of your life.

Ear training is the ultimate connector between your intuition and your capacity to execute complicated motor skills under pressure, the ultimate rescue remedy for when you make mistakes. But above and beyond everything, it just makes the music sound and feel better, because it is easier to discern that the performer means it. And it is really this that we develop our ears for – the ability to actually empathise with others, to peep into their imaginations and go on these glorious journeys together. Once that little door has been prised open, we realise that life has many, many possibilities, and we can then start liberating ourselves from the constraints of our learned behaviours. Yes, dear reader, organically taught ear training is the most vital aspect of making music.

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G eorgia Sweet na m (18) Alto & Tenor saxophones / Bb & Bass Clarinet Kingscliff / Bundjalung land Griffith Conservatorium, 1st Year

My musical journey began with the clarinet and bass clarinet. My interest in music grew and I discovered the saxophone. The sound, music and improvisation inspired me to complete my theory and practical grades through AMEB. As my passion continued, I joined the Gold Coast Youth Orchestra playing alto and tenor saxes. I was selected to participate in Gordon Goodwin’s online Phat Sound Band 2020 where I recorded and played with other talented students from around the world. Performing in Sydney Town Hall and Foundry 616 in Sydney alongside saxophonist David Theak, and camps with JMI have been highlights.

Teachers: Martha Baartz Inspiration: Candy Dulfer, a Dutch jazz and pop saxophone player who is an inspiration and role model to saxophonists around the world, with a vibrant and punchy sound to strive for.

What I like about jazz? Jazz allows musicians to input their personal musical ideas into the world of music. You can develop your own ideas and draw them from other musicians to help you strive to be the best musician you can be. Jazz creates a basis for musicians to grow and evolve as they express themselves individually.

What will I be doing in 10 years? I would love to have fully progressed in my career as a performer and teacher in the music industry. I hope to gain further experience as a professional musician in musical pit orchestras, jazz clubs and music festivals as well as continue to tutor and inspire young musicians to pursue their love for music.

Favourite movie: Before Sunrise Favourite jazz club/festival: I love performing at Foundry 616 in Sydney. It has such a vibrant and energetic atmosphere; it is a great club to enjoy listening to jazz.

I also like: Composing, recording and teaching music to aspiring musicians.

Best practice tip: Always make sure to start off your practice sessions with technical work and long tones. This effectively helps warm up both your instrument and embouchure. It is also very important to use a metronome and tuner when practicing as they help make sure everything is played both correctly in tune and in time.

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artists

YOUNG

Elija h Davies (18) Guitar Hobart / lutruwita University of Tasmania, 2nd year

I am a jazz guitarist currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), lutruwita (Tasmania). I perform regularly with my trio and quartet, focusing on hard bop and straight-ahead interpretations of standards and original material. As well as leading my own band, I have played alongside musicians such as Ted Vining, Spike Mason, Matt Bowden, Tom Robb and Hamish Houston. I am a former recipient of the Clarence Jazz Festival Scholarship and a finalist in the 2021 Ossa Music Prize.

Teachers: Damien Kingston Inspiration: Jim Hall, Charlie Parker and Pasquale Grasso have been influential and inspirational to my playing. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by really hardworking friends and teachers, who continue to push me to be a better musician.

What I like about jazz? I love jazz because it is a genre that allows me to be honest and transparent in the way that I express myself through music. Being able to express myself through sound and share that with other musicians is one of the most joyous feelings I’ve ever felt.

What will I be doing in 10 years? I hope to be playing, composing and sharing music with others. One of my dreams is to play at Emmet’s Place with Emmet Cohen.

His weekly live-streamed performances are uplifting, fun and inspirational.

Favourite movie: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Favourite jazz club/festival: Pablo’s Cocktails and Dreams, a small intimate speakeasy jazz club in town.

I also like: Cooking, collecting vinyl and making cocktails.

Best practice tip: Continue listening to and seeking out music that inspires and challenges you.

Luca Fraillon (16) Drums Eltham North / Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung land Preshil, Year 10

I’m told I started playing drums when barely a year old, banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons, but my musical journey really began when I first heard the Louisiana Shakers playing in Carlton. Reminiscent of New Orleans in the 1920s and 30s, this music began my interest in jazz and I’ve been playing and listening ever since.

Recently, I began composing in the genre as well and was lucky enough to get third place at the 2021 Australian Jazz Convention’s Original Tunes Competition. I hope to continue exploring and enjoying all kinds of jazz long into the future.

Teachers: Michael Di Cecco, Kevin Bolton, Adrian Perger Inspiration: I’m inspired greatly by early jazz drummers such as Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton, as well as Lynn Wallis, who I’ve been lucky enough to play with. I also look up to more modern drummers such as Charly Antolini – I love the ways in which all of these drummers utilise their tools to create incredibly rich textures and voicings.

What I like about jazz? To me, jazz is more of a celebration than a performance. I love the fact that the same song can be played in such entirely

different ways by different musicians, with each artist imposing their personality onto a piece.

I particularly love collective improvisation as a tool – it creates a musical conversation that feels deeply personal to witness and partake in. More than any other genre, however, I think jazz is just fun, both to play and enjoy.

What will I be doing in 10 years? Playing jazz, I hope! Personally, traditional New Orleans jazz is where my musical heart belongs, but any time I’m playing any style of jazz is a good time for me. I love exploring more modern styles of jazz drumming and am always trying to work phrasings and voicings from all musical areas into my playing. I’d love to extend my knowledge and application of composing jazz across the next decade as well.

Favourite movie: A Monster Calls Favourite jazz club/festival: Halls Gap Jazz Festival I also like: Reading, design and public transport.

Best practice tip: Listen to music. Lots of it.

Listening is the best way to pick up the subtleties of the genre that can’t be conveyed by notation – and once you’re done listening, go and play!

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Osca r Brute n (19) Saxophone / Woodwinds Trafalgar / Gunaikurnai land Monash University, 2nd Year

I started playing clarinet at the age of 11 and joined the school band. At 15 I heard a recording of Wayne Shorter and decided I had no choice but to play saxophone. Going to Generations in Jazz with my school inspired me to pursue music professionally, a dream which has become a reality! Over the past few years, I’ve won a number of awards as well as performed with musicians of the highest calibre including Dick Oatts, Barney McAll and Toshi Clinch. My practice, particularly due to COVID-19, has revolved around gaining a deeper understanding of the jazz tradition. Currently I’m focusing on composing and rehearsing music for a new album planned for this year.

Teachers: Tarko Sibbel, Julien Wilson, Toshi Clinch Inspiration: I’m particularly inspired by Wynton Marsalis.

What I like about jazz? I love how jazz can create beauty out of complexity. Not just through the technical challenges it presents, but through a deep lineage of hardship and storytelling.

What will I be doing in 10 years? I’m hoping to move to New York and keep writing and playing music.

Favourite movie: Star Wars Favourite jazz club/festival: My favourite venue is the Paris Cat. I have a soft spot for Generations in Jazz.

I also like: History, videogames, farming, reading.

Best practice tip: Try and breakup your goals into small, achievable and measurable ones. Record yourself often and be realistic with yourself, critique the things that are not working but be proud of your achievements.

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Ja m ie Rea (21) Piano / Keyboards Canberra / Ngunnawal land Australian National University, completed 2nd Year

I have played piano since I was three and cello since age five. I discovered jazz when I was about 16 and looking for a new musical challenge; it quickly became the thing I am most passionate about. I was awarded the highest performance scholarship at ANU; however I am leaving early to focus on recording and writing with my two bands – JEP and One Seventeen – because at some stage, you just have to step out in faith and go for it! We have ACT and interstate shows and festivals lined up and albums in the works. Keep an ear out!

Teachers: Taught by my mother until age eight, then self-taught until university where I learned from Hugh Barrett. Since then, I have had some chill mentor-type sessions with musicians including Rai Thistlethwayte, Dennis Hamm and Jacob Mann.

Inspiration: Louis Cole is my musical hero and has been for years. I’m obsessed with his musical style – it brings me unparalleled joy. My other main loves are Butcher Brown and Kiefer.

What I like about jazz? The love of jazz seems so irrational; it is so intense and unexplainable. All I can say is it brings me fulfilment and joy, and I need it like food and water. Whether I am performing or listening, it’s all the same!

What will I be doing in 10 years? Hopefully living in LA or nearby – performing, recording and touring as an artist and session musician.

Favourite movie: Interstellar Favourite jazz club/festival: I wish I had been to some. I saw Herbie Hancock at Melbourne International Jazz Festival (2019), however seeing KNOWER in 2018 was the most insane musical experience I have lived through.

I also like: Surfing, skating, snowboarding, astrophysics (did an elective at ANU) and I am also a sales rep for Heaps Normal, the non-alcoholic beer!

Best practice tip: Play what you love and stop comparing yourself to others!!! Let go of the fears that you aren’t good enough and practice whatever gets you excited to sit at your instrument. Trad jazz ain’t particularly my thing, so what?

Pun not intended!

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GEAR

reviews

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D ORIC O M US IC N OTAT ION SO F T WA RE

In 1995 I was introduced to Finale, 2007 to Sibelius, and in 2020 to Dorico. Having used Finale and Sibelius extensively over the past 30 years, I was interested in digging into Dorico during Melbourne’s lockdowns to see what all the fuss was about. I haven’t stopped using it since. While I still use Finale and Sibelius when required by a particular publisher or project, Dorico has become my go-to notation program for my own arrangements and orchestrations.

The most immediate thing that sets Dorico apart from the competition is that it appears to “think” about your score as music, rather than a collection of fonts arranged on some horizontal lines. If you have entered chord symbols on a vocal part, it knows that bar 20 has a G7 chord across the whole score, not just for the vocalist. So if your soloist needs some chord symbols, it’s easy to apply them to their part for that region (transposed appropriately) without needing to re-enter them. Should the chords be edited down the track, you only need to edit them on one of the staves, and it’s reflected on every stave that has chords.

Dorico knows you have players, not instruments.

If your player is holding an alto sax, tenor sax and flute, it’s no problem at all. Dorico will look after all the instrument changes and layout challenges.

If you later decide to have a dedicated flautist, you can simply drag that instrument to a new player and it will reformat accordingly.

Information is largely entered using “popovers”. Need to enter dynamics? Select a region of one or more staves (Shift+D) then simply type in p < mf to get a p at the start of your selection, a crescendo across the selection, then an mf at the end of the selection, on every stave selected. Decide that you really wanted f at the end? Double-click one mf, change it to f, and the change will be replicated across all the staves you originally selected. Popovers cover almost all aspects of notation entry and greatly speed up productivity.

Dorico’s condensing feature is a godsend for orchestral scores. In “Gallery View” – Scroll or Panorama view to Finale and Sibelius users – two flutes, two oboes and two clarinets each get their own part (six parts)

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and take up six systems, but will naturally condense to three systems in the score. Similar rhythms share stems, different rhythms will have opposing stems.

All done seamlessly and formatted perfectly.

There are two main editing modes – “Write” and “Engrave” – so you can’t accidentally change the pitch of a note when you’re trying to adjust the look of the score. “Play” mode is like a miniature DAW, allowing you to not only mix, but do some rudimentary automation.

The only negative I have found to using Dorico is that on my mid-2015 MacBook Pro, large orchestral scores can cause the software to respond a little sluggishly as they near completion.

Overall, I love this program. I have also found the online support to be extremely responsive and helpful, and the program is constantly improving. If you’ve wondered what all the fuss is about, it’s about a lot of good stuff.

Dorico 4 has just released, so check it out today.

Dorico is available for Mac OS, Windows and iPad. Jared Haschek

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ZOOM F 3 F IE L D REC O RDER

The recently announced addition to the Zoom product line is a great offering to capture the subtleties of live acoustic jazz.

At its best, jazz takes you on a journey, with sound levels fluctuating often and quickly. This 2-channel recorder features the dual A/D converters and lownoise preamps found in Zoom’s professional F-Series recorders and, with 32-bit float recording, the F3 can effortlessly capture the quietest whispers to the loudest honks. All without having to set the gain or worry about clipping. In post, there’ll be plenty of headroom to work with your capture, regardless of extremely low or high volume levels. Despite its small size, two locking XLR connections with phantom power are incorporated.

Two AA batteries can provide over 8 hours of record time or you can connect an AC adaptor or USB power source. The F3 supports microSDHC and microSDXC cards up to 1 TB. Input signals can be monitored visually in real time with the waveform display on the inbuilt LCD or via the wireless iOS/Android remote (optional BTA-1 Bluetooth adaptor required). Independent outputs allow for live audio monitoring through headphones as well as a send to a camera. On top of all this the F3 can also be used as a 2-in/2-out USB audio interface.

Overall, this versatile field recorder, housed in a durable metal casing, offers excellent audio quality and elegant simplicity of use. Well worth checking out for your live recording needs.

Cal Barry

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After the success of the 52nd Street saxophones, which took inspiration from vintage American horns, Andreas Eastman’s new model has a more European flavour. Named after the address of Adolph Sax’s workshop in Paris, it’s no surprise that the Rue Saint-Georges plays with the focused tone and precise keywork that is synonymous with the instruments of the best French makers.

With its gold lacquer and ornate floral bell engraving, the Rue Saint-Georges is a beautiful instrument, but it offers much more than just great looks. The keywork is smooth and comfortable, with a quick action and light touch. The intonation is accurate across the whole horn and it plays effortlessly from low Bb, right up into the altissimo register.

The tone is focused in the mid-range, making this a perfect instrument for classical repertoire, though you can play any style on this horn. Tonally, it is placed in the sweet spot; enough warmth for traditional jazz and enough brightness for contemporary styles. The tone is consistent across all registers and dynamic contrasts are effortless.

If you’re after a professional saxophone which can handle any genre, check out the Rue Saint-Georges. You’ll be glad you did.

Aaron Searle

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save the date weekend commencing 28 October 2022 looking forward to a return to live performances www.wangarattajazz.com

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F E S T I VA L S 2022 April 9 Eltham Jazz, Food & Wine Festival Eltham, VIC

June 17–19 SoundOut Canberra, ACT

www.elthamjazz.com.au

www.facebook.com/

October 28–30 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues Wangaratta, VIC

SoundOutFestivalandEvents

www.wangarattajazz.com

July 28–31 Devonport Jazz Festival Devonport, TAS

November (dates TBC) Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival Sydney, NSW

May 7 and 14 Victorian All-State Jazz Championships Brighton East, VIC www.allstatejazz.com.au

www.devonportjazz.com.au

May 20–22 Albury Jazz Festival Albury, NSW

August 5–7 Inverloch Jazz Festival Inverloch, VIC

www.alburyjazzfest.com.au

www.inverlochjazzfestival.com

May 27–29 Big Band Blast Port Macquarie, NSW

August 19–21 Newcastle Jazz Festival Newcastle, NSW

www.bigbandblast.org

www.newcastlejazz.com.au

June 3–5 Cronulla Jazz and Blues Festival Cronulla, NSW

August 27 – September 3 Noosa Jazz Party Noosa, QLD

www.cronullajazzandbluesfestival.com

www.noosajazzclub.com

June 5 Sydney Con Jazz Festival Sydney, NSW

September 18 JazzMania Festival Southport, QLD

www.sydneyconjazzfestival.com

www.jazzmaniagoldcoast.com

June 10–12 Orange Winter Jazz Festival Orange, NSW

September 24 – October 9 The York Festival York, WA

www.owjf.com.au

www.yorkfestival.com.au

June 10–13 Merimbula Jazz Festival (40th Ann.) Merimbula, NSW

October (dates TBC) Manly Jazz Festival Manly, NSW

www.merimbulajazz.org.au

www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/

June 10–13 Castlemaine Jazz Festival Castlemaine, VIC www.castlemainejazzfestival.com.au

June 15–17 Generations in Jazz Festival Mt Gambier, SA www.generationsinjazz.com.au

things-to-do/whats-on/manly-jazz

October 14–16 South Coast Jazz Festival Goolwa, SA www.sajazzfestivalsinc.com

October 14–23 Melbourne International Jazz Festival Melbourne, VIC www.melbournejazz.com

www.siwjf.org.au

November 4-6 (Perth) November 12 (Busselton - TBC) Perth International Jazz Festival Perth & Busselton, WA www.perthjazzfest.com

December 4-11 Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival Melbourne, VIC www.mwijf.org

December 26–31 Australian Jazz Convention Newcastle, NSW www.australianjazzconvention.org.au

2023 January 17–19 (Launceston) January 24–26 (Hobart) MONA FOMA Hobart/Launceston, TAS www.mofo.net.au

February 10–12 Port Fairy Jazz Festival Port Fairy, VIC www.portfairyjazz.com.au

February 15–19 (TBC) Clarence Jazz Festival Clarence, TAS www.clarenceartsandevents. net/clarence-jazz-festival

March 10–12 (TBC) Kiama Jazz and Blues Festival Kiama, NSW www.kiamajazzandbluesfestival.com.au

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GIGS TuneNoiseTune This new bi-monthly series is an exciting joint initiative by Tone List and Perth Jazz Society. The second in the series will be at The Ellington Jazz Club on April 26 as part of Audible Edge, featuring a rare solo performance from jazz piano maverick Tom O’Halloran, alongside a new commissioned work by Alice Humphries and Thea Rossen.

MNM Presents: Paths of Invention Made Now Music presents the world premiere of four new chamber works by legendary Australian composer and performer Phil Treloar, a resident in Japan for the last 30 years.

The performances will combine everything from jazz ensembles, string ensembles and choirs, held over four days during April 21–24 at KEPK Gallery in Yeerongpilly.

The catholics’ 30th anniversary The catholics are celebrating their 30th anniversary, touring between May 19–22 to Brisbane and northern NSW – Bellingen, Armidale, Byron Bay. A month later they will head west for the inaugural Orange Winter Jazz Fest (June 10–12). Featuring Lloyd Swanton, Sandy Evans, Jon Pease, James Greening, Hamish Stuart, Fabian Hevia and Gary Daley.

live

Delay 45 A return visit to Melbourne by Sydney-based quartet, Delay 45, led by award-winning trumpeter/composer Tom Avgenicos, featuring collaborators Roshan Kumarage (piano), Dave Quinn (bass) and Ashley Stoneham (drums).

They will present their latest work, Where The River Goes in the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Primrose Potter Salon on May 6.

Bendigo Jazz – First Friday Jazz Jam For those in Victoria’s Goldfields region, every first Friday of the month, Bendigo Jazz run a jazz jam in the welcoming venue of The Old Church on the Hill starting at 7pm. A list of tunes is shared in advance of each month on their Facebook page. It is an opportunity for all levels of players to explore jazz and for the general public to come and listen.

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S H A N G H A I P YJ A M A S TOBY MAK What was meant to be a four-month hotel gig has somehow timewarped into an unbelievable 19 years as a jazz trumpet player based in Shanghai. I am happily married to a local, my son just turned 13 and bustling Shanghai is my second home.

Arriving in the early 2000s, I found the jazz scene was just starting to blossom and there was a kinda Wild West feeling to it. At first, there was just a small number of expat and local players, but it was fast growing, with many visiting musos drawn into staying by the excitement and exoticness of the city. There was clear potential in the opening up of this city of 24 million residents and you could feel the air buzzing with opportunity, which attracted musical adventurers and misfits from around the world.

Fuxing Lu’s JZ Club was opened by young bassist Ren Yuqing in 2004 and it is central to the jazz story of modern Shanghai. It immediately had an impact, becoming a magnet for musicians to congregate. Its close proximity to The Cotton Club, the original blues and jazz venue in Shanghai, helped create a music hub in the old French Concession district. Exotic street food vendors, swarms of bicycles, outrageous Chinese New Year fireworks and Shanghai grannies in pyjamas were merged with Western-style dance clubs, restaurants and bars. JZ was the place for jazz musicians especially and nightly jams beyond 4am were the norm, not the exception. I played there weekly, often with fellow Aussies such as Nick McBride, Willow Neilson or Mark Fitzgibbon. It was always encouraging to me that most of the audience was far younger than the older audience often seen at jazz gigs in Australia.

For the next decade and a half, the JZ brand grew exponentially, eventually becoming host to a massive international jazz festival, six more clubs throughout China, a JZ school and a record label.

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global P E RS P ECT I V E

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TO BY M A K W I T H B LU E N OT E B E I J I N G B I G BA N D

The growth potential of the Shanghai jazz scene was being realised and a first generation of Chinese modern jazz musicians had emerged, with players such as trumpeter Hu Deng Feng, pianists Zhu Mang and Mark Bai, and vocalist Coco Zhao. The scene continued to attract many excellent expat jazz musicians too, such as the great trombonist Andy Hunter or the young, ultratalented trumpet player Theo Croker, who took up residence at the famous Peace Hotel and was a tremendous inspiration to me on the many nights we shared and sparred on stage there.

Although the scene was providing all the gigs and opportunities it had promised when I first arrived, I was periodically struggling with my playing, physically and mentally. I switched embouchures several times, each time spending around two years working arduously to get back into shape. I often felt frustrated and dejected, uncertain whether I had the ability to continue to support the family as a professional player. Thankfully with patience and the help of different teachers, things improved.

By 2016 I had joined the Bluenote Beijing Jazz Orchestra and started making more frequent trips to the sprawling Chinese capital. I found the scene in Beijing refreshingly less commercial than Shanghai.

More experimental music was encouraged and audiences listened more intently. The big band invited some incredible guest soloists including

Mark Turner, Ingrid Jensen, Chris Evans and Conrad Herwick, which were all wonderful experiences.

The Cotton Club and the original JZ Club both closed in 2017, bringing an end to that somewhat golden period. Shanghai was transformed: no more street food, no more fireworks, even outdoor pyjamas had been banned by the government and now I seem to see as many Teslas on the road as bicycles.

By 2018 a new JZ had opened, as well as a Shanghai Bluenote and Jazz at Lincoln Centre (JALC), both bringing amazing bands from abroad. Although the new JZ lacks the magic of the first, there is now a whole new generation of Chinese players, many of whom have studied abroad, leading the way with great skills on their instruments and social media alike, ensuring the audiences at jazz clubs are still predominantly a young crowd.

Throughout these 19 years I’ve survived as a musician in Shanghai only thanks to the experience I gained in the amazing late 90s Melbourne scene I grew up in. At almost every gig I am reminded how lucky I was to have the mentors, teachers, bandmates and friends of that period. I still listen and keep up to date with the inspiring, creative and unique jazz music coming out of Australia. Since the pandemic things have been closed off, only local bands perform at JALC or Bluenote, but I hope soon the gates will open and more musicians and bands can visit from Oz.

S H A N N O N BA RN E T T Q UA RT E T P H OTO BY K I L I A N A M RE H N

A P O STCA R D F RO M C O LO G N E SHAN N ON BARN ET T Seeing as I’m currently sitting in one, let me dispel a common myth about German trains. Although the system is vast and can take you from Munich to Hamburg and everywhere in between (even up into Denmark), and although they are comfortable – with restaurants, Wi-Fi and for the most part amiable staff – they are anything but punctual and reliable!* Among my least favourite experiences was the time I had to team up with three others and take a taxi back to Cologne from the Frankfurt Airport station (about 300km) after being stranded at 2am when a train simply gave up the ghost. But living in this country for the past eight years has also brought me a lot of positive experiences in addition to the challenging ones.

I moved to Cologne in 2014 to take up a position with the WDR Big Band, a jazz orchestra that is run by the government. It’s kind of as if the ABC had its own big band (it used to), except that in Germany they used to have one in almost every state. Currently three full-time bands remain. The WDR also has a choir and two symphony orchestras, all funded by a kind of media tax, which every household in Germany has to pay.

Even though the opportunity came out of the blue, I was happy to embark on a new adventure (and to be paid for it) after having spent almost three years as a struggling student in New York.

The role immediately pushed me; the musicians were all at such a high level and were able to read and interpret basically any piece of music put in front of them. Add to that the cast of characters walking through the door, including Vince Mendoza, Bob Mintzer, Ron Carter, Maceo Parker and Maria Schneider and, needless to say, the motivation to improve was very strong.

I’ve lost count as to how many recordings we made during the four years I was there, as almost every project is documented. We also travelled a lot within Germany and even once to China.

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Another hurdle had less to do with music: before I relocated, the general consensus among my friends and acquaintances was that the majority of Germans speak English well (and enjoy doing so). Having previously spent quite a bit of time in Scandinavia, I thought this a feasible hypothesis, however Cologne is not Berlin and I quickly realised I would have to get my Deutsch happening to be able to enjoy my existence in this new city. Luckily, I enjoy learning languages and apart from some awkward moments including accidentally reducing my daily banking limit to €2, I’m comfortable enough now to go about my daily life without enduring too much embarrassment or confusion.

My time at WDR was inspiring but also demanding and, at some point, I realised that I needed to make a change, mostly because I felt I didn’t have the time or energy for more creative endeavours. I left the band in 2018 and have concentrated on other projects since then, including my quartet, which released the albums Hype in 2017 and Bad Lover in 2022 (on Florian Ross’s Toy Piano Records label); my singing/songwriting projects Wolves and Mirrors, and Who Manatee; and other random things like doing an installation piece in a gym called Dead Weight.

I’ve also really enjoyed working with German musicians such as Philip Zoubek, Sebastian Gramss, Robert Lucaciu, Wanja Slavin and Lucia Cadotsch. The scene over here is full of innovators and musicians who are really dedicated to developing their own music, which is possible in part because of the support of the government and various other organisations, including some staffed by volunteers.

In addition to performing, I’ve been the Professor for Jazz Trombone at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne since 2019. Despite the name I also get to teach students who play other instruments. We have a great team there and I enjoy the exchange of energy and inspiration between students and staff. It feels like a healthy eco-system that feeds directly into and benefits from the wider scene.

All of that said, of course I miss Australia, but as I write this, I am looking forward to visiting in February this year after a couple of years of being locked out. On the agenda: a CD launch with Andrea Keller and Sam Anning, as well as a concert with fellow expat Raj Jayaweera. *If the German government is reading this, please don’t kick me out. Thanks.

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WE STAND WITH UKRAINE The Dingo team wishes to express our strong support for the people of Ukraine at this extremely difficult time.

For this issue, we had prepared an interview which focused largely on an internationally significant celebration of Russian jazz. At the time of the interview, there was no inkling of the events that were to unfold just days later.

Considering the subsequent invasion of Ukraine, we felt these pages should instead be dedicated to giving voice and support to those who are taking positive action.

We encourage you to stand with us in support of the people of Ukraine.

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“My country is burning.

As a native Ukrainian and a human being I can not be silent.

I wish I could go and fight alongside my family who are all in the resistance, but I have to stay where I am and use my music as my weapon.

My mother told me I have to be strong for all Ukrainians and play my music for them to show solidarity and give my people some comfort and love.

I am very proud of my friends and family – and everywhere standing up against evil right now.

Ukraine has always been a European country; it has amazing people, who only want to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the world.

They were pushed to become great warriors, but they are musicians and artists, doctors and lawyers, housewives and teachers and all of them are now united against the aggressor who wants to kill democracy and freedom in their country … peace is so fragile at the moment and the world needs this – peace – the most.”

Alina Bzhezhinska, Ukrainian-born harpist, commenting on the reasons for her March fundraising Concert for Ukraine (London) Artwork by Meg Kolac

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INTERNATIONA L C O MMIT TEE O F TH E RED CROS S “I am gravely concerned for the safety of communities in Ukraine. Our message to the parties to the conflict is clear: uphold International Humanitarian Law, protect civilians and essential services”. Peter Maurer, President, ICRC. How your donation will help people in Ukraine: As the security situation allows, the ICRC is responding to urgent humanitarian needs and must be able to continue their life saving work. ICRC water engineers and doctors aim to help more than 3 million people access clean water and improve the living conditions of more than 66,000 whose homes have been damaged by heavy fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross – together with its partners in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – remains active in Ukraine, saving and protecting the lives of victims of armed conflict and violence. Our neutral and impartial humanitarian action supports the most vulnerable people: humanitarian needs are enormous, but together we can address them. Your donation will make a huge difference to families in need right now.

Donate www.icrc.org/en/donate/ukraine Donate via Australian Red Cross: www.redcross.org.au/ukraine

AIRBNB HELP RE FUG EES FRO M UKRA IN E Airbnb.org and Airbnb have announced that Airbnb.org will offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine.

Anyone interested in opening their homes to support this effort can learn how to get involved at www.airbnb.org/help-ukraine.

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MUS IC FOR UKRAINE Music for Ukraine is an initiative by Melbournebased artist Mirko Guerrini – a Bandcamp site where all proceeds go directly to the charity United Help Ukraine.

Over 30 artists from Italy, Germany, USA, Canada and Australia have donated their music for this initiative. The minimum amount is $1 per track, but you may always donate more.

United Help Ukraine is a US non-profit organisation providing as much help as possible to people in need in Ukraine at the moment, with food, medicines, clothes and anything they have to help the population.

Mirko Guerrini says, “I have always been against all wars, and the only thing I can do is to play, write and produce music. I am not rich, and don’t have too much money, but I certainly can donate my music.”

Music for Ukraine: musicforukraine1.bandcamp.com United Help Ukraine: unitedhelpukraine.org

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F I V E ST E P S TO JA ZZ NETWORKING SUCCESS MAT T FRIPP | JAZZ FU EL .C OM

One of the key fixtures in the international jazz calendar, the annual jazzahead! conference in Germany attracts more than 3000 promoters, agents, journalists, musicians and record labels from around the world.

In an increasingly digital landscape, sitting face-to-face with potential industry partners is a great way to make real connections and get a sense of the wider jazz scene. As an independent musician, it also throws up a whole bunch of questions about how to deal with the situation.

Whilst not everyone is able to get over to Europe for the event, it’s a good opportunity to brush up on some ideas for networking, showcasing and conferences in general.

Prep in Advance These events can be pretty hectic places, especially if you’re a first-time visitor.

Figuring out in advance which delegates are most important to meet will help you focus. The attendee list is a great place to find that info, not to mention a valuable resource to keep afterwards to expand your database of contacts. Just a simple thing like knowing which festivals booked which artists in the past is a great conversation-starter with any promoters you might meet.

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Book meetings In-demand industry guests like agents and promoters are going to fill up their schedules in advance, so it’s important to drop them an email early.

To have the best chance of getting some success here, make your (super-concise) email: - Personal: prove you know what they do - Relevant: what type of music do you play?

- Profile: mention gigs or reviews from trusted industry contacts Remember: even if they don’t set up a meeting, this email can still be a good starter for future email conversations.

Prepare your elevator pitch Whether you meet people at formal networking events or just at the bar of a gig, it pays to know a couple of key things you want to get across to them. Whilst it might sound a little academic, planning a 30-second recap of the most important things you want people to know about your project can really help make a professional impression.

If this feels a little awkward, start by trying this out with fellow musicians.

Hang out However organised your schedule is at a conference or showcase, you’ll miss out on some great networking if you don’t take the time to simply hang out after-hours. Whilst it might not be published on the official schedule, you can always ask around to see which bar or venue is the go-to place for other delegates.

Away from the formal meetings and networking events, people are more relaxed and open to chatting, and you have the opportunity to be introduced by mutual friends. Just be aware of the social setting and don’t necessarily launch into a gig pitch to a promoter you meet at 2am.

Promotional materials CDs? Dongles? Flyers? Deciding what to bring to an industry networking event is not easy. Whilst the goal is to get people to listen to your music, expecting them to travel home with 100 CDs is perhaps unrealistic. If the goal is to make yourself memorable enough that people will reply to your emails afterwards, a thin promo CD or flyer with your name and face prominently displayed could be enough to jog their memory when you follow up with them later.

Thinking of a conference meeting as a “first step” takes off the pressure of needing to offload everything about your project on day one.

Round up Whether you’re attending an industry event this year or just looking to grow your network in your home city, hopefully some of these points will help you do that a little more effectively.

If in doubt, just try to prioritise personal connection first, business second!

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VA L E Dingo wishes to acknowledge the passing of the following valued members and contributors of the Australian jazz community and extend our condolences to their beloved friends and family: Mat Baulch – saxophone, teacher Colin Beal – clarinet, saxophone Neill Duncan – saxophone, composer, teacher, disability advocate Frank Hambridge – Victorian Jazz Club member, Australian Jazz Museum volunteer Gretel James – Victorian Jazz Club Life Member and committee, Australian Jazz Museum volunteer John Kennedy OAM – co-founder of Australian Jazz Museum, outstanding achievement and leadership in the Jazz Archiving Community Des McKenna – drummer, writer, actor John Murray – trombone, vocals, New Melbourne Jazz Band Keith Nash – former president of Victorian Jazz Club Bert Newton – entertainer, radio, theatre and television personality, presenter of jazz artists Ross Nicholson – clarinet, saxophone Mick (The Reverend) O’Connor – Hammond organ, keyboards Ian Orr – trumpet, teacher Marina Pollard – Australian Jazz Museum committee, youth mentor Harold Phillis – piano Nick Polites OAM – clarinet, multicultural advocate, co-founder of Greek Australian Welfare Society (now PRONIA), performed at inaugural Australian Jazz Convention Willy Qua – saxophone, drums, member of Galapagos Duck

Additional Content Contributors Australian Jazz Convention Albury Jazz Festival All-State Jazz Championships Jazz Music Institute Jazz Singers’ Jam Night Made Now Music Melbourne Books Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Melbourne Jazz Co-operative Monash University Support Act Sydney Improvised Music Association The Roundtable University of Melbourne Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

Additional Photographic Contributors Laura Adai Mohamed Abdelsadig Brandi Alexandra Athena Travis Beck Ekaterina Bolovtsova Charles Oliver Cole Geordanna Cordero Cottonbro Pawel Czerwinski Henry & Co Toa Hftiba Nikita Karimov Shunya Koide Krzysztof Kotkowicz Khunkorn Laowisit Andrej Lisakov Daria Liudnaya Vidar Nordli Mathisen Mohamed Nohassi Geoff Norris Adrien Olichon Shvets Production Rodolfo Quirós Rfstudio Pejvak Samadani Evie Shaffer Vika Strawberrika Romain Terpreau Rohith Vishaal Scott Webb JJ Ying

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