CD Release: Potbelly Stove (Julius Schwing Quartet)

“There is a new generation of gifted, progressive young jazz musicians coming up in Tasmania, four of them are in the Julius Schwing Quartet. The group’s leader deftly combines a rich understanding of the jazz idiom with a very personal and subtle approach to both to his guitar playing and his composition. He is matched in this by the other members of the group who each make excellent contributions to this strong debut.”  – Peter Knight, Melbourne trumpeter/composer

Potbelly Stove (Independent)
Julius Schwing Quartet
Available now on Cdbaby.com

Information below from the media release

Potbelly Stove is the debut album by the Hobart based jazz ensemble The Julius Schwing Quartet (J.S.Q). It is a fiery entry onto the scene from a group that has ignored its geographical constraints and has endeavoured to bring a distinctly Tasmanian sound to the interstate jazz scene. With Julius Schwing on guitar, Danny Healy on sax, Hamish Houston on bass and Alfred Jackson on drums, the J.S.Q is an outlet for Julius’s compositions which often come to life through a collaborative and ‘band’ oriented creative process.

Recorded at Baker Street Studios in Melbourne at the end of 2011 with producer/engineer Myles Mumford, the album displays an extremely large yet focused and harmonious dynamic range and showcases a selection of the band’s material ranging from tight and hungry modern swingers (‘Waltz Alalullaby’, ‘A Story of Glory’) to film-like landscapes (‘A Good Paddock’, ‘Jackson’s Track’) and the very wild and catastrophic (‘Blackbeard’s Party’).

The material mirrors the rugged and natural surroundings in which it was written, at Julius’s home on Bruny Island off the south east coast of Tasmania.

Alf Jackson, Danny Healy, Hamish Houston, Julius Schwing

The Quartet has enjoyed strong crowd support at clubs such as Bennetts Lane, Paris Cat, 303 and at Devonport Jazz Festival, Clarence Jazz Festival, MONA, as well as airplay on ABC Classic FM for Mal Stanley’s Jazztrack, ABC 936 and Hobart FM.

Potbelly Stove is currently an independent release and was made with generous support from Arts Tas.

Available now on Cdbaby.com

Soon out on iTunes and Amazon.

Author: Miriam

Miriam Zolin is a writer who enjoys jazz and improvised music. She was the founding editor of AustralianJazz.net, and was also responsible for publishing the extempore journal, and books by John Clare, Geoff Page and Allan Browne.