The 2025 Melbourne International Jazz Festival again left the jazz audience spoilt for choice, leaving them with some hard choices to make between so many international and local acts.
Category: Festival Reviews
Gregory Porter’s performance at the the Melbourne International Jazz Festival once again demonstrated that he is such a consummate musician. From the moment he sang the first note, that deep mellifluous baritone voice of his drew the listener in.
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The show was loud, celebratory, deliberate — it was the kind that reminds you what live music does to the human system. Ibrahim Maalouf made everyone in the club dance, sweat, jump and sing. “Sorry to those who came to listen to jazz,” he grinned near the end.
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Another message the festival conveyed was that while in recent years, the jazz world has lost some of the giants of jazz such as Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Ellis Marsalis and most recently Quincy Jones, jazz is being revitalised by players such Blanchard and harpist Brandee Younger, singers such as the innovative Jazzmeia Horn and Nicole Zuraitis, and drummers like Antonio Sanchez, who following his well-timed accompaniment to the film Birdman, showcased a dynamite solo.
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The classically trained Brandee Younger impressed with her technical dexterity across the harp but also with her jazz feel and strong rhythmic sense.
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I have had the good fortune to make it to Jazz in Marciac a number of times, including 2019. This is some of what I experienced in the Chapiteau.
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A cohort of inspired, inspiring women took to the stage, one by one sending out a War Cry, singing songs of Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln and Sharon Jones – along with their own originals, all songs that describe what it means to struggle, to fight back, to do your bit to create social change, one note at a time, one verse at a time.
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There were over 70 performances to choose from, so even without the big international names in the line-up, it was outstanding value for pass holders. The tightly packed schedule meant catching complete sets was the biggest challenge.
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” This year’s Festival program was put together smartly by Jazzgroove to get all the flavours of jazz rubbing up against each other and to pleasantly jolt by contrast.”
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Over the 10 day duration of the festival I’d encountered orthodox jazz rhythms, experimental jazz and music that you could argue was not jazz at all. Had I selected a different schedule of artists, I may have had a totally different festival experience altogether, such was the variety of shows on offer.
