Rai Thistlethwayte – a bit mongrel-ish

‘I guess maybe I can’t decide what I like, I just like it all, and although that is hard to ‘market’ to the world, it’s true to me, so I’m a mongrel.’

Barney McAll’s creeping unease

Barney McAll’s Graft is a suite of music that looks at technology and the bizarre affect it is having on human connection. It is a wild musical sound painting reflecting the ever increasing ambiguity between virtual and real.

Joshua Kyle – excited by possibilities

“I started writing lyrics to instrumental tunes as a way to practise writing original songs. I was struggling writing melodies and lyrics at the same time so I started doing them independently, then really enjoyed the challenge of matching these existing melodies to lyrics.”

Trevor Watts and Veryan Weston in Guelph

Trevor Watts – in his own space

“Every day I do some music of some kind because I need to, like I need to eat food. No big deal, I just get on with it. Because of that it becomes over time quite natural to just play and explore your own things.”

Review: Moments in Time (Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike)

Review by Peter Kenneally: “It’s all driven along by and part of the rhythmic net around it: when this happens, and it does often, the album draws you in and entrances you.”

Tamara Murphy

Creature feature – Tamara Murphy on the Young Elder

“I guess I consider myself an ‘intuitive’ composer in that everything I’ve written so far seems to have been written in a slightly different way. I don’t have one method – one approach of sitting down and writing in a particular way. “

Recent News

Scott Tinkler Quartet: Red Door

Scott Tinkler Quartet at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne on April Fools Day, 2005

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Gian Slater receives Creative Fellowship

Musician Gian Slater receieved an early career fellowship in the first round of creative fellowships under the new Federal Government’s Creative Australia Artist Grants initiative.

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ANU School of Music – changes cause concern

Recent changes to the ANU School of Music in Canberra have created a dismayed buzz in the Australian jazz and improvised music community. We’ll keep you posted, but here’s some information and a petition… ANU School of Music announcement – press conference The press conference video on the ANU School of Music website: music.anu.edu.au/news/proposed-changes-anu-school-music-bachelor-music-degree Opinion [...]

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Gian Slater sings Belinda Moody’s ‘Sleepy Head’

‘Slumber’ composed and arranged by Belinda Moody, performed by Moody on bass, Gian Slater on vocals, Colin Hopkins on piano, Phil Collings on drums, and string quartet.

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Planet Lloyd – Lloyd Swanton on RN Daily Planet

Lloyd Swanton Photo: Holimage

I am so lucky, as a musician, to have to extend my listening in the way that doing the research for presenting a radio show does. And I also deeply enjoy the two hours week when I’m actually doing Mixed Marriage, and the Planet at this point, when I can immerse myself in incredible music going out over the airwaves.

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2012 Bell Awards winners

2012 Bell Awards announced

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The Necks – unseen footage from ‘Beyond El Rocco’

An outtake of The Necks, in their early days, performing for Kevin Lucas’s film Beyond El Rocco.

Tilman Robinson – ‘A Winter’s Night’ on an autumn afternoon

“The idea of ‘first chapters’ – short little narrative gestures that leave you hanging for more – ties in nicely with my recent resolution to write shorter pieces. With this in mind I was able to create ten short unrelated pieces corresponding to each of what I call the ‘narrative chapters’.”

UNESCO International Jazz Day Concerts

Logo UNESCO Jazz

Musicians all over the world will celebrate UNESCO’s inaugural International Jazz Day on Monday 30 April 2012. Here are some Australian events you might like to attend…

Barney McAll record development session at 58 Northsix/Metta Soundlabs

Pianist Barney McAll in a record development session with Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, Drew Gress on bass and Obed Calvaire on drums at 58 Northsix Media Labs in Brooklyn.

Willow Neilson’s Lightbulb Life

Lightbulb Life CD Art

Willow’s latest release Lightbulb Life has been in my headphones for the last few days. It’s a sound window into an exotic location, an insight into a city and its people through Willow’s ears.

Farewell Ken James

black and white photo of Ken James

He was a wonderful composer, arranger and bandleader in his own right as well as being a great teacher.