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.
“Any place can fit our music, any place can be the right place for an experience like this. The music itself creates inner spaces in each listener.”
When the decision was made to move to an all-online mode of delivery, the Festival reached out tokey organisations across the nation. What came back was unreserved enthusiasm, generosityand drive to make things happen.
“I think the main link for both [Mike Nock and Sam Anning] is trust and respect. We respect each other and the music and we trust that the choices made are being made for the benefit of the music, its beauty and its communication.”
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.
“It is very hard for me to put a label to my music as I think its sort of a hybrid of genres. Coming from a classical background, I know that there is the classical influence in there, there’s the folk element coming from my cultural background – both as an Armenian and Lebanese – and of course there’s also the jazz influence, the harmonies, the improvisations and the approach in the composition process.”
“My journey in jazz and improvised music has been all working out so well ever since I moved toAustralia.As a foreigner in the country and an international student, I felt very fortunate and thankful to be welcomed by the safe, family-like environment of the Australian jazz scene. So many generous musicians and friends shared their knowledge without hesitation and encouraged me to explore my own sound and ideas. Even when my work doesn’t turn out so well, there has been no judgment, but continuous trust and support.”
“It’s an endless competition; you’re always competing for gigs, and competing to play in different bands or going for the same awards; and there are always people out there trying to judge you; it’s a fact of life and a fact of the music scene. People are going to be judging you and the best way to go is to be yourself. I can’t do more than that.”
Sandy Evans was inspired by these images of reality and reflection, so she started composing what turned out to be musical responses to them. “I like to think of harmony in relation to colours”, she says, describing her approach. “Other times it was the structure of the photos that I reacted to. There are certain mirror images, so what I did was take some melodic ideas and reverse them”.
“There is undeniably an underrepresentation of women across all aspects of the music industry. You can’t be what you can’t see.”
