A dream team of the vibrant Melbourne Jazz Community responded to Fem Belling’s call to arms, donating their time, talent and inspiration to heal the wounds and help Wildlife Victoria in its life-saving work.
Category: Gigs and concerts
This summer, MONA is hosting a marathon of sorts. Forty-two days of free live music on the lawns at the museum, from 20 December 2019 to 31 January 2020.
” We don’t confine ourselves to particular genres, or traditional interpretations of genres, and we don’t pre-determine too much about the music. All of us love pop, and have listened to loads in our time on the planet. And Brazilian tunes creep in because I find it hard to omit these from any setlist I’m involved in! Aside from that, Stoneflower creates a very gentle, magical sonic palette that doesn’t attempt to prove anything to listeners.”
The event program features three ensembles performing in solidarity with asylum seekers imprisoned under Australia’s watch; Jackie Bornstein’s Jazz and Social Justice, Oscar Neyland’s Wirecutters, and Julien Wilson’s Autonomous Resilience Collective.
Two interviews with Marc Hannaford who is currently touring Australia with his New York Trio. In the first one, the brilliant pianist talks about his life in New York, and his current musical pursuit. In the second, he remembers his trio with Allan Browne and Sam Pankhust, documented in the album Monday Dates.
“Sometimes people just assume that I am not a “serious” musician by my look. I usually play outrageous stuff and vibe them out.”
“We both share similar music philosophies when playing live music, in that as Jazz musicians, we have to listen to each other and dynamically create some music in the moment of performing and go off the chart. Its about taking risks – and that’s where the joy is.”
“The Ball Hanlon Schulz trio is a vehicle for developing pieces that, while fundamentally about facilitating improvisation, sit more in the chamber music world than the jazz paradigm. Of course, neither of us are denying our ‘roots’ – there are pieces in the repertoire that are, in essence, jazz ballads, for instance – but the trio is a space for us to try out ideas that don’t necessarily fit in the context of the music made by some of the other ensembles with which we perform.”
“I’m trying to sing and put something good out into the world. I believe that when people do good,it becomes contagious like ripples in an ocean, and those ripples turn into waves. We just can’t get distracted to all the ugliness going on.”
Few pianists can combine lyricism with a sense of groove the way that Alexander Nettelbeck does – which partly explains the seemingly effortless way that he can shift from ‘straight’ jazz to classical to reggae to R’n’B to every genre and sub-genre, really