Since 2011, The Street has put a spotlight on jazz when it began developing a national forum around jazz in Australia’s capital city through bringing leading jazz artists together in Canberra and creating endless possibilities for new audience experiences and expectations.
I am happy to say the new Divergence Jazz Orchestra album – cheekily and tartly titled ‘Fake It Until You Make It’ – is here. And I want to shout about it.
As assured and fully-formed as ‘The Opening Statement’ was, the three years between it and the new one has added an even greater depth and daring to Jenna Cave’s writing and the band’s entirely apt and sympathetic reading (in all senses) of her charts.
The binding quality of Ellen Kirkwood’s music and her collaborations is that is consistently has one foot firmly in jazz and the other trailing in the waters of a tangy broth of blues, rock, gypsy swing, klezmer, reggae and you-name-it.
From the media release Sydney based Saxophonist, Ruth Wells (Sirens Big Band), presents a concert to raise funds for projects in aid of Syrian refugees […] Read More
Jenna Cave and Paul Weber’s Divergence Jazz Orchestra is one of Australia’s keepers of the big band flame. More power to them.
And now we have their (astonishing) debut, The Opening Statement.
I have never heard jazz like Marc’s – the intricate rhythms are mesmerising, the improvisation continually surprises, the blend of heritage and innovation full of wit and amazement. This is a true musical mind finding its own new path.
In fact, on the band’s debut, Theseus and the Minotaur, Kirkwood has taken on a hell of an idea: the Greek legend of Theseus and his battle to the death with King Minos’ monstrous cannibal creature, the Minotaur. The band tell the story over five linked pieces, with narration by Ketan Joshi.
The Jann Rutherford Memorial Award was founded in 2005 to assist in the professional development of an outstanding young female jazz musician. The Award is named in honour of the late jazz pianist Jann Rutherford, and is funded by private donations.
“The show serves for a moment of escapism, where we get to dress up and play a person that would otherwise no longer exist. The interesting twist though, which makes me realise how far we’ve come since the 1940s, is that an all-female band would never have been dreamed of in that era.”
LIVE MAYHEM is more than a document of the toughness and smart writing of James Ryan’s Sonic Mayhem Orchestra. Like all truly worthwhile live albums it stands on its own as a valid document of this unique ensemble.
