Paul Mason | NJA Finalist Q&A

The jazz thing started in high school for me. I remember one morning in roll call, a very close friend showed me a recording of Pat Metheny playing ‘Have You Heard’. I was about 13 and had really only been flirting with the guitar up until then. Magic! I was instantly addicted to it.

Oliver Thorpe | NJA Finalist Q&A

When I first came to Sydney as a vocal student, Jonathan Zwartz really took me under his wing, giving me the opportunity to perform with him and introducing me to many great Sydney musicians. In more recent times I’ve been playing (and getting into trouble) with great jazz pianist Gerard Masters, which has been an incredible learning curve.

National Jazz Awards Finalists – Q&A with Matthew Sheens

I was always a fairly unconventional student. I wasn’t interested in reading the dots as a kid, and would learn everything by ear, make arrangements and compose my own pieces. I wondered why in Art class you were encouraged to make your own paintings, but in Music class you were only encouraged to learn other people’s creations.

Andy Butler sitting at piano - black and white

National Jazz Awards Finalists – Q&A with Andrew Butler

Early on I was really into Brad Mehldau and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Rosenwinkel for his tone and compositional sense and Mehldau for his standard playing, which I always found fresh, exploratory and exciting. I never checked either artist out on a technical level, but I did listen prolifically.

National Jazz Awards Finalists – Q&A with Matt Boden

I was lucky enough to have very inspiring teachers in high school and beyond – I distinctly remember one teacher in particular recommending that I buy Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and a live Oscar Peterson disc while we were on a school band trip to ‘the big smoke’ (Melbourne) – these records opened the door for me…