Solo Performances

Although he maintains a high profile through his trio, quintet and Big Small Band appearances, Mike Nock solo performances and recordings have remained relatively infrequent. With the recent release of his music played by top Australian pianist Michael Kieran-Harvey on MOVE Records and the concert performance by New Zealand's ikonic pianist, Michael Houston, Mike is now planning a new solo recording, to be released later in the year.

Touch, his solo CD, topped the Australian Jazz charts at the time of its release and his two earlier albums Talisman and Piano Solos, received worldwide critical acclaim. As a solo pianist he has toured extensively, including major European tours in 1979 / 1996, several tours of New Zealand and many concert appearances throughout Australia, Canada, USA and Asia.

"... impressed me greatly. Mike Nock was creating very musical things. It won't be long before he'll make a mark."
- Pianist Bill Evans, quoted in Down Beat ( US ) 1970

"Mike Nock's noon performance at BMW Edge for the Melbourne International Jazz festival was a rare opportunity to hear him in a solo setting, and an hour flew by as the pianist's intuition guided him through a mesmerising set incorporating earthy, African inspired rhythms, exquisitely lyrical melodies and a delightful detour into early jazz and stride piano on James P. Johnson's Snowy Morning Blues."
- The Age (Melbourne) May 9th, 2007, Review of Melbourne International Jazz Festival

"Mike Nock is a marvellous pianist"
- San Francisco Examiner (USA) Nov 3rd 2000 (concert review)

"His playing was sublime. A supreme sense of rhythmic invention underpinned the performance."
- The Press, Christchurch (New Zealand) November 30th, 1999 (Review of Solo concert)

"Solo performances by Mike Nock are rare in Sydney, and this one carried an even rarer impression of watching over the shoulder of an artist at work. The pieces in his wide-ranging repertoire were all vehicles for a free association of improvisatory ideas, presented with a blend of humility and magisterial authority."
- Sydney Morning Herald May 29 1999 (Solo concert at S.O.H. Studio)

"Indeed, we're treated to the free rhapsodic flights of one of jazzdom's most expansive minds. Provocative originals alternate with evocative standards. In each, Nock's palpable appeal flows from a lyric gift given shape by a sublime musical intelligence which dances freely."
- Chuck Berg in Jazztimes (US) Sept '95, reviewing Touch.