From electro-popping whimsy such as ‘Rotovibe’ – a collage of scratch-mixed ideas – to the entirely acoustic pieces such as ‘Special When Lit’ – a beautifully measured sound-river featuring his current band of Matt Penman on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums – Slave To The Machine Vols 1&2, has an over-arching cohesion that belies the fact this music was recorded over a 5-year period, from 2007 to 2012.
Ultimately, the questions, the searching and the transformation that results is connected to the Art Orchestra’s aim not just to reconstruct something… it’s to find a new way of making music with the Young Wägilak Group.
The Freedman Jazz Fellowships provide Sydney audiences with a mini-festival each year that features music by artists hoping to bring their exciting projects to life. We talked to the 2012 finalists about their projects and what the Freedman means to them and to the broader jazz scene in Australia.
“Every day I do some music of some kind because I need to, like I need to eat food. No big deal, I just get on with it. Because of that it becomes over time quite natural to just play and explore your own things.”
Willow’s latest release Lightbulb Life has been in my headphones for the last few days. It’s a sound window into an exotic location, an insight into a city and its people through Willow’s ears.
Review by Phil Sandford: The quintet format has proved an enduring one in jazz and this excellent album shows that it still provides a powerful vehicle for creative compositions, solos and group interaction.
“…I have been trying to work on finding a balance between the experimental, improvisational elements and the more functional melodic, harmonic worlds that I love exploring…”
“To the marvels enfolded within this album, airwaves, there is literally no end…”
Nock’s story may not be quite one of rags to riches: few jazz stories end in riches, whatever garb they began in. But it is a boondocks-boy-made-good tale, an against-the-odds tale…
Each year since 2005, in the month leading up to the jazz festival in Wangaratta, Miriam Zolin interviews the finalists in the National Jazz Awards. […] Read More
