Tag: Simon Barker

Interviews Posted on

Chloe Kim: ‘Jazz and improvising are just another way of living life’

“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.”

Album Releases, Reviews Posted on

Album review: The Bitter Suite (Paul Grabowsky Sextet) by John Shand

Just as the album’s title is both brooding and punning, so the music is in a constant flux of what, were it writing, we would call ‘tone’. Grabowsky can seem to create a pastiche of an idiom out of which a deep truth will grow in the improvising, while a more solemn-sounding piece will spawn sly asides and dramatic jolts from the players, or perhaps contain an unexpectedly curdled harmony.

Festivals, Interviews Posted on

Interview: John Mackey

My brother, Carl Mackey, a sensational saxophonist, and I, grew up listening to the sounds of jazz. When everybody else was listening to Molly Meldrum’s Countdown in the 1970’s we were listening to John Coltrane’s ‘Countdown’. My father gave me John Coltrane’s 1957 album, ‘Rise and Shine’, aged 8, and this transformed my life…

Faceless Dullard cover
Reviews Posted on

Faceless Dullard (Hannaford, Tinkler, Barker) | Review by John Clare

These magical buoyancies rise from a persistent, intricate conversation of remarkable cohesion and purpose. Propositions are advanced and tested, sometimes at the same dynamic level, sometimes breaking into sensational bursts of energy. And for long stretches it all moves beyond conversation as if three lines of counterpoint are being written simultaneously by a single composer.