I’ve always thought thatPhillip Johnston’sapproach to jazz has a kind of cartoonish quality to it. His playing is sneaking up on you, surprising you and exploding like a cartoon dynamite. Other times, it’s like these pistols who, when fired, shoot out a flag that unfolds and writes ‘Bang!’
“I think jazz is the perfect vehicle to explore this historical narrative of the convicts’ journey from slavery to freedom – the founding of Australia was an improvisation in itself, the way that England transplanted itself to the farest corners of the known world, in a land that was foreign to the European surroundings.”
