Andy Fiddes’ writing shines as bright as Tinkler’s playing. The range of colours, the breadth of ideas – so many audacious chances taken, chances that all work beautifully – the mastery of the idiom: pushing the big idea of The Big Band forward while deeply knowing its traditions (you can hear echoes of the history all across Fiddes vs Tinkler).
“While studying jazz at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, this made me feel quite inadequate, but there was a point when I stopped comparing myself to all the great bebop singers and embraced my own way of making and enjoying music”.
Schwing writes: “When standing at the Neck I see/hear the environment along a pitch scale. Or a colour scale.”
All songs in the album are performed with the same electrifying intensity, from the most high-energy compositions to the contemplative interpretations of standards.
JMI has received endorsements from significant jazz figures, including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis who has performed with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and Sarah Vaughn, and founded one of New York’s finest jazz education facilities Jazz at Lincoln Centre. Marsalis commends JMI for developing “one of the first jazz curriculums that addresses the entire fundamental range of jazz styles… a template that should be followed by schools who are serious about the study and performance of jazz music”.
Keller’s harmonic sense throughout seems to have its own logic, following its path to places, once arrived at, are just where we want to be. Like all valid jazz writing, her compositional language seems to suit the soloists just fine, too.
It sounds odd, and yet one of the most attractive attributes of Golden’s music is its un-jazzness. And the new work takes this further into new timbres.
The shortlist for this year’s Australian Jazz “BELL” Awards has been officially announced. This year’s crop has been extraordinary, with many great albums submitted in the competition. The amount of talent in this list is overwhelming, and it is bound to make the work of the judges very hard
“I came to better understand Coltrane; he often sounds like a preacher. I aspire to have this effect on people, than just show off my chops”.
“When you’re playing with someone you admire, you might be worried if they’re enjoying what you’re playing – or if you might not live up to their expectations”.
