Australian Jazz

[RDK]

In fact use your e-music credits on these two small big band recordings:

Wonderful!

Just wanted to thank Bev for this recommendation. Never would have heard of this excellent group otherwise!

[A Lark Ascending]

In fact use your e-music credits on these two small big band recordings:

Wonderful!

Just wanted to thank Bev for this recommendation. Never would have heard of this excellent group otherwise!

Everyone who has chanced those two has been well pleased. Try and find the two Jamie Oehler's 'Double Drummer Group' discs - equally as exhilarating. Not on e-music - Jazzhead only seem to put up some discs.

[clifford_thornton]

I thought we mentioned Andrew Speight before; guess it was in a different thread. Aussie transplant now living in San Francisco. He was the director of the jazz dept. at MSU when Jim and I were there in the late '90's. Pretty ridiculous what he can do with the horn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8LjTzLvxsw

Any relation to guitarist Ed Speight of Graham Collier Music?

I have the two Bernie McGann albums on Emanem. They're pretty nice.

[A Lark Ascending]

I owe Kenny Weir for introducing me to this music nearly ten years back and I'm still playing those discs and adding to them.

Wondering if any posters from that neck of the woods have any recent suggestions.

Australian jazz is much easier to access now - a lot up on iTunes, e-music and Amazon_mp3.

[johnlitweiler]

The web site sima.org.au is a good place to start when looking for Australian jazz. Quite up to date now. It used to post reviews by John Clare, who is a thoughtful critic, and included my "Bernie McGann on CD" survey article, but those are gone from the site now.

Sandy Evans is a forceful inside-outside post-Coltrane tenor saxist and quite an inventive composer - she composed "Testimony," a musical homage to Charlie Parker set to poems by the American Yusef Komunyakaa, among other things. That's not on CD but some of her other, more personal work is, in various Oz groups she leads or plays in. Including Ten Part Invention - Terry Martin brought them to the 2004 Chicago Jazz Festival. Some really fine veteran musicians on that band.

Kenny, is there an outside/ free-jazz / free-improvisation scene in Oz? Also, a few years ago I heard various kinds of pop-Asian folk-jazz-fusion musics from Oz musicians like Evans and Lloyd Swanton, including the very minimalist trio The Necks. These things are often attractive but unfamiliar to me, so they seem more distinctive that the more Western jazz-rock fusions I've been hearing. How popular are these in their native land?

(Judging from what I've read by Stuart Nicholson, he is totally uninterested in organic developments in jazz. So he's really comparing U.S. fusions with other countries' fusions. Novelty per se seems to be a positive value to him.)

[A Lark Ascending]

The names I keep coming back to are Andrea Keller, Jamie Oehlers, Paul Williamson and the 'contemporary trad!' Allan Browne.

Thanks for that Ten Part Invention recommendation, John. I have a trio record by Sandy Evans but nothing else (just played that tonight - superb record). There are a couple of discs on Amazon.mp3/e-music I'll chase up.

On that jazz meets Asia front I've been very impressed by a group called Way Out West:

Peter Knight - trumpet

Paul Williamson - saxophones

Dung Nguyen - modified electric guitar/dan bau/dan tranh

Howard Cairns - acoustic bass

Ray Pereira - percussion

Dave Beck - drum kit and percussion (tracks 5 and 6)

The blurb for the 2nd album goes:

The Effects of Weather is the alluring new album from celebrated cross-cultural sextet Way Out West.

Following on from the critically acclaimed Jazzhead debut Old Grooves For New Streets, The Effects of Weather delivers a captivating collection of jazz inflected melodies infused with sounds from Vietnam and grooves from West Africa. In addition, the album draws on a diverse range of influences, from the minimalism of Steve Reich to the dirty blues of the Mississippi Delta are also featured here. This is not a difficult second album.

Trumpeter/composer Peter Knight and Vietnamese traditional music virtuoso Dung Nguyen are at the heart of this remarkable collaboration. Nguyen, continuing to astound listeners with his multi-instrumental talents, has incorporated the gorgeous sounds of dan nguyet (Vietnamese mandolin), the dan tranh (Vietnamese zither) with his modified electric guitar.

Together with world-renowned West African percussion specialist Ray Pereira, explosive saxophonist Paul Williamson, earthy acoustic bassist Howard Cairns, and young firebrand drummer Rajiv Jayaweera, Way Out West are pioneers of a truly new sound Inspired by the cultural vitality and diversity of not only Melbourne but of Australia.

To my ears, they are far more successful than some other things I've heard in a similar area from Europe. The musicians know how to improvise and the drumming/percussion is thrilling. The blues alluded to is hilarious - if Howlin' Wolf had been born in Hanoi...

Confusingly, there appears to be both a trumpet Paul Williamson and a sax Paul Williamson.

Edited May 23, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Been re-exploring my Australian jazz records over the last couple of weeks. Whilst hunting around came across this sad news:

Australian Jazz community mourns death of drummer and composer Allan Browne

It also mentions that the much mentioned Bennetts Lane Jazz Club has closed. Read a lot about that place whilst investigating. 

[Misterioso]

Reviving an old thread:

Alister Spence Trio - Not everything but enough

[Misterioso]

US-Australian co-production:

Alister Spence / Myra Melford - Everything here is possible 

[Misterioso]

In anticipation of seeing them live later this week:

The Necks - Unfold (Ideologic Organ, 2017)

 An enthusiastic review of The Necks recently appeared in the New York Times:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/magazine/my-obsession-with-the-necks-the-greatest-trio-on-earth.html?referer=android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, Misterioso said:

In anticipation of seeing them live later this week:

The Necks - Unfold (Ideologic Organ, 2017)

 An enthusiastic review of The Necks recently appeared in the New York Times:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/magazine/my-obsession-with-the-necks-the-greatest-trio-on-earth.html?referer=android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

Great band, very good album. Luckily they like Cafe Oto In London so I've seen them a fair few times and will do so again in March. Always a scintillating live experience, enjoy!

[Clunky]

It must have been the mood I was in, but I recall being underwhelmed when I saw the Necks - probably about 10 years ago. Tedious - would sum up my experience. Perhaps I should give their music a second chance.

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, Clunky said:

It must have been the mood I was in, but I recall being underwhelmed when I saw the Necks - probably about 10 years ago. Tedious - would sum up my experience. Perhaps I should give their music a second chance.

I'll hazard a guess you're not the only person who's had that reaction to them. I suspect they're a bit of a Marmite band. The music tends to be a slow burn, often involving repetition of key motifs, and if you're expecting Jazz you'll not get any. Certainly the converts make for very enthusiastic audiences (probably drowning out any naysayers )

[Misterioso]

8 hours ago, Clunky said:

It must have been the mood I was in, but I recall being underwhelmed when I saw the Necks - probably about 10 years ago. Tedious - would sum up my experience. Perhaps I should give their music a second chance.

Yes, I also can imagine such a reaction. There are similar reactions posted in response to the NYT article I linked earlier. Probably depends on what you are expecting, they are certainly not playing in the tradition. But give them another chance, Unfold is the right place to start, my favorite Necks album so far. Quite fascinating to hear the extensive soundscapes that can be produced with these three instruments. Unlike previous vinyl I got from The Necks, Unfold is perfectly pressed. Friday will be my first live experience with The Necks, I will report back.

9 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Always a scintillating live experience, enjoy!

Thanks, very much looking forward to this!

[mjazzg]

The live experience may well feel different to Unfold as they always play two 45 minute (or thereabouts) improvisations. Unfold is fairly untypical as a Necks album in that it has shorter pieces - music sounds much the same but in smaller chunks. It's that (slow) development over the longer time frame that really stands out as a live experience.

The contrast between their studio albums, especially over the last five or so years, which tend to include overdubbed instruments beyond the trio and their live albums (all of which reflect the longer timescales) which are all just piano, bass, drums is really interesting and instructive about their overall approach. I tend to enjoy the live recordings more than the studio. In fact, Unfold might be my favourite studio recording by them

[Misterioso]

22 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Luckily they like Cafe Oto In London

Indeed:

Tony Buck: "It also seems we're always at Cafe Oto in London and the crew there and audience make us feel very much at home. Always a highlight."

From http://australianjazz.net/2018/01/necks-balance-among-three-us-just-perfect/.

 

[mjazzg]

Thanks for posting that interview, an interesting read. I noticed that when asked about who would join them in a quartet they didn't mention Evan Parker with whom they did play as a quartet at Oto. I'm not aware of any other musician who's played with them

[sidewinder]

The Necks are coming up at Turner-Sims in March. Umming and ahhing as to whether or not to go..

[LWayne]

Saw The Necks locally last year. Two sets of imaginative,improvised, music. Highly recommended!

LWayne

[Misterioso]

A short heads-up for Australian members: I just saw on Peter Brotzmann's homepage that he will be touring Australia between April 28 and May 4, 2018. Yes!

[mjazzg]

Now that will be different to The Necks 

Another great live experience.

[OliverM]

Enjoy your concerts. Saw them 3 times in the last two years and they always performed magic. It's hard to say what's happening, and even which one of the three I prefer individually (though I am very fond of Chris Abrahams' playing), good thing we don't have to choose. I like them on record too, but don't have my own copies yet, might get the Necks box on Rer Megacorp.

[mjazzg]

For Necks fans, let me highlight Tony Buck's recent solo album 'Unearth'. Very good and with a distinct Necks flavour.

[Misterioso]

12 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Now that will be different to The Necks 

Another great live experience.

Yes, I am so happy to see this announcement. These will be Peter Brotzmann's first Australian concerts since 2010. You are really lucky to have Cafe Oto in London. I lived in London for a couple of years in the past but unfortunately a few years before Cafe Oto was established.

10 hours ago, OliverM said:

Enjoy your concerts.

Thanks!

[Misterioso]

The Necks were great and very unique! As usual, they played two sets, each for about one hour. Chris Abrahams started the first set and Lloyd Swanton the second. That's probably the one thing they decide in advance. I liked both sets but preferred the second. When I closed my eyes, I often had the feeling of witnessing a much larger ensemble, they generate a big wall of sound. All members are very impressive and I particularly liked Lloyd Swanton's playing. He used the bow in the slower passages of both sets and switched to plucking when they took off. Highly recommended experience.