Author: Nikolas Fotakis

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king. Also a father, a husband, a writer, an editor, a coffee addict, a type 1 diabetic and an expat. Born and raised in Athens. Based in Melbourne. Jazz is my country.
Concerts and tours, Interviews, News, people, Uncategorized Posted on

Henry Kovacevic: ‘B# keeps Big Band Swing alive and live’

Big Band Swing evolved during 1930s and ’40s wartime – a time of great oppression. It served to lift the spirits of those at that time, troops and civilians alike. Today too, Big Band Swing shouts an anthem call to all who are weary; Weary of war, worry and woe. So, as B# keeps Big Band Swing alive and live, people from ‘Gen Y to Gen Wartime’ smile, embrace and dance to re-feel their aliveness. And in the depths of their being, the ‘boom, boom, boom’ of today’s ‘modern bombs’ are again drowned by the joy of swing, the joy of life.

Interviews Posted on

Chris Broomhead: “Refraction’s music is a good soundtrack to a contemplative adventure journey”

” I think the way the trio plays has evolved and is sounding more unified – which is what happens with time spent playing together, and I think the new recording reflects this.
We’re still definitely exploring the textual and dynamic changes, going from relaxed tempos and feels through to some faster and more frenetic pieces.”

Interviews Posted on

Jan Preston: ‘Life is for learning!’

“I was always interested in boogie and ragtime, but didn’t have a teacher for that style, so I taught myself, with great difficulty, later in life.
I regret I didn’t live in Hamburg during the 1970s, when there was the huge explosion of boogie and blues piano players, the best in the world. It would have been clearer and quicker for me if I could have been part of that scene.”

Festivals, Interviews, News, people, Uncategorized Posted on

Ingrid James: “the Brisbane Vocal Jazz Festival hopes to celebrate the diversity of the jazz vocal art form”

” It’s our intention to make this yearly event a flagship for Queensland Vocal Jazz by providing significant career opportunities, job creation and promotion of jazz artists. We want to celebrate the diversity of the jazz vocal art form which encompasses everything from original works to original reinterpretations of jazz standards – mainstream and contemporary as well as jazz vocal improvisation.”

Interviews Posted on

Andrea Keller: ‘Transients foster a collaborative approach to music making’

The idea was to foster a collaborative approach to the music making and invite the other musicians to contribute their compositions and favourite tunes as well, rather than me having complete control over the repertoire (as was the case in the Andrea Keller Quartet). By opening things up like this, there’s diversity to the music that otherwise wouldn’t exist to the same degree.

Concerts and tours, Interviews, News Posted on

Brenton Foster: ” I’m drawn by singable melodies and sweet chord progressions with a groove”

“The internet has made the world really small. ‘Two Cities’ could really be called ‘Three Continents’ (maybe doesn’t have the same ring to it), because it was made all over the world. It was written and recorded in Australia and America, mixed in Australia, mastered in England and manufactured in Germany.”

Concerts and tours, Interviews Posted on

Matthew Sheens: ‘I get bored easily and rely on things outside my experience to shape my music’

“Half of ‘Cloud Appreciation Day’ was written before a friend died suddenly and completed after the event, so there is a bipolar quality to it. Almost every track has a distressing background, but it doesn’t always make the music depressing. In some cases, the reaction was to write more uplifting sounding music”.