The 2024 Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival (SIWJF) will feature over 60 global and local artists across seven Sydney venues this Spring, from October 24th to November 3rd. Now in its 13th year, SIMA has championed groundbreaking artistic innovation and diversity featuring the leading women in jazz.
Spence and Fujii have been commissioned by the Melbourne International Jazz Festival to present a new Australian/Japan collective – Kira Kira (shine). For this project, Tamura on trumpet and Tony Buck on drums will join them.
The shortlist for this year’s Australian Jazz “BELL” Awards has been officially announced. This year’s crop has been extraordinary, with many great albums submitted in the competition. The amount of talent in this list is overwhelming, and it is bound to make the work of the judges very hard
Alister: “I think the only words we had beforehand were to decide that it would be best to record improvisations together. Apart from that we really discussed very little about the approach that this recording would take.”
The Art Music Awards were announced tonight at the Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne, and included a number of fine Australian jazz musicians.
Internationally acclaimed US pianist/composer Myra Melford, and one of Australia’s most original pianist/composers, Alister Spence weave an extraordinary, unified soundscape in their first musical encounter.
On the eve of an Australian tour and a UK tour, pianist-composer Alister Spence spoke to Phil Sandford about his influences and approach to music.
‘… an intriguing mixture of sound and rhythm…’
“… I find I have to focus on my own contribution and sadly miss some of the great musicians who are playing until after I’ve finished my concerts…”
