| "This is world class contemporary music performed by some of the very best exponents in this country" John Mc Beath, Adelaide Advertiser, 01/09/03 | |||||||||||||
Sandy Evans Trio |
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:: interview with craig pearce :: picture gallery :: reviews :: technical requirments :: select quotes :: gigs "The trio has sparked a new raft of material from Evans, who beyond her prowess on tenor and soprano, has long been a pre-eminent composer. These pieces exemplified a strength of hers which is all the more valuable in the trio context: the sheer breadth of her compositional ideas." Sandy Evans trio, Reviewed by John Shand, SMH 9/7/01 This trio sees eminent saxophonist and composer Sandy Evans delighting in the freedom of the classic saxophone trio format with her imaginative rhythm section of Brett Hirst and Toby Hall. The trio will be touring Australia in 2010 with the assistance of a grant from Sound Travellers and the Australia Council. Coinciding with the tour will be the release of a limited edition EP The Edge of Pleasure available from Birdland Records. Regular performances in Australia, two European tours and the release of their CD Not In The Mood have established the band's reputation as one of the finest in the country. With the trio, Sandy renews her long association with outstanding drummer Toby Hall. Sandy and Toby are known for their exciting work together in bands such as Clarion Fracture Zone and The catholics. Completing the line up is sensational bassist Brett Hirst. The trio has performed at JazzFest Berlin to a sell out audience and at The Pori Jazz festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival. We have toured jazz clubs in Europe and North America includingStadtgarten, Cologne, Unterfahrt, Munich, Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Jazzclub Neue Tonne, Dresden. 'Sandy Evans is a real knockout' Matthias Creutziger, July MEIER The trio has appeared for many of the leading jazz organisations in Australia including - Sydney Improvised Music Association, the Perth Jazz Society , Jazz South Australia, The Melbourne Jazz Co-operative, the Morpeth Jazz Festival, The Wangaratta jazz Festival, The Bellingen Jazz Society, The Jazzgroove Association, Devonport Jazz Weekend, Bungendore Jazz Festival and The Valley Jazz Festival in Brisbane. The trio has presented two successful collaborations with guest musicians : for SIMA with bass trombonist/shakuhachi player from Melbourne Adrian Sherriff and for The Kowmung Music Festival with pianist Alister Spence. 'The way art is meant to be...' Shane Nichols (www.allaboutjazz.com) When the Sky Cries Rainbows In Canberra and Brisbane the band will be featuring a new sextet work with local guest artists. The suite was premiered at The Sound Lounge in Sydney on December 10th 2009 with Alister Spence, Phil Slater and James Greening. It was presented at the Melbourne international Womens Jazz Festival shortly after with the Festival Sextet featuring Andrea Keller, Xani Kolac, Shannon Barnett, Tamara Murphy and Sonja Hobelt. Sandy writes “The starting point for my creative expression in this work is the image of the breathtaking spectrum of colour that often fills the sky after a storm. To me, this is a symbol of the profound sense of hope that can occur after a time of intense grief. I hope to create a work that incorporates the power and architectural unity of large scale form with the spontaneity of small group interaction and improvisation.” This piece was commissioned by the Australia Council and will be recorded by ABC Jazztrack in 2010. Hear some soundbytes from the Sandy Evans Trio CD 'Not In The Mood': International TouringThe group toured Canada and Europe in July 2004. Enquiries about the group's availability for future tours are welcome. Bookings > The trio also toured Europe in November 2002, with the support of the Australia Council, where they performed to a sell out audience at the prestigious JazzFest Berlin. Their itinerary included
'Sandy Evans is a real knockout' Matthias Creutziger, July MEIER 2003 Australian ConcertsSince its debut at The Australian Jazz Festival in Canberra, the trio has appeared for many of the leading jazz organisations in Australia including - Sydney Improvised Music Association, the Perth Jazz Society , Jazz South Australia, The Melbourne Jazz Co-operative, the Morpeth Jazz Festival, The Bellingen Jazz Society, The Jazzgroove Association, Devonport Jazz Weekend, Bungendore Jazz Festival and The Valley Jazz Festival in Brisbane. They have also performed in Brisbane, Lismore, and Armidale. 'The Sandy Evans Trio confirmed why it is an important voice in Australian contemporary music and deserves the opportunity for more exposure on the international stage.' Garry Lee, The West Australian 27.8.2003 The trio presented two successful collaborations with guest musicians
The band recorded their first CD Not In The Mood in 2002. The CD is distributed by Newmarket Music. Buy the CD from Newmarket Music > 'The way art is meant to be....The whole album is a joy.' Shane Nichols, (allaboutjazz.com, Oct/2002) Sandy's composition 'The Seed of Delight' from Not In The Mood was a finalist in the APRA Award for Most Performed Jazz Composition in 2003. The trio performed at The APRA Awards at The Four Seasons Hotel. BookingsTo book the trio contact Sandy direct on:
Sandy Evans Trio The Ultimate in Improvised MusicSandy Evans Interview by Craig N Pearce (Drum Media) Sandy Evans, more than most, has a detectable instrumental voice. She also possesses compositional abilities that she is able to effectively apply to a variety of settings. This, allied to her warm, engaging personality and strengths as a role model not just to female musicians, but to all aspiring jazz players, make her that very, very rare entity: a national treasure. The highlight of Sandys year to date would have to be the premier of her major work Testimony: The Legend of Charlie Parker, at this years Sydney Festival. It was rapturously received by audiences and critics alike, and opened many peoples eyes, I would imagine, to her truly world class talent. The breadth of imagination apparent in Testimony, and the vision and determination it would have taken to get the production to performance is just about too difficult to even conceptualise. Yet even in its grandest moments, Testimony betrayed the intimacy and unique sense of humanity that Evans brings to all of her work. This sense of intimacy is given a more consistently tangible outlet through the release of her trios first album, Not In The Mood (Newmarket), which features bassist Brendan Clarke and drummer Toby Hall. Sandy plays tenor and soprano saxophones. The trio was formed in January last year. Sandy explained to me why she wanted to work with these two musicians in particular, when just about any jazz player in the country would have been lining up to work with her. "We seem to be a good balance of personalities and musical backgrounds," she says. "I first got to know Brendan through working with him in Kristen Cornwell's Quintet. He has a great sound, feel, ears and imagination. I am also very taken with the way in which he allows the music to develop spontaneously while remaining strong within the form. I've had the pleasure of working with Toby for quite a long time (mainly in Clarion Fracture Zone and The catholics). He is a very versatile musician. This is important to me as I write quite varied repertoire. He has a very strong jazz background which is a great asset to the trio and he views jazz as a living, evolving music without limitations. He is very receptive, plays with a great groove, a beautiful sounding kit and a warm, enthusiastic and supportive energy. He has a huge heart and that shines out of his music. "To me the trio has always appeared to be the perfect size for an improvising group. Communication is one of the greatest joys in improvised music and I feel that in a trio its possible for everyone to maintain direct contact with everyone else all the time. To me this is a kind of ultimate in improvised music. "I also like the space and freedom of the trio. The colours of the drums and cymbals take on added meaning for me in this context as there is so much room for them to breathe. I enjoy the implied harmony of the counterpoint between bass and sax. There are a lot of different ways you can think about approaching a melodic line when there are just the two of you. Ive always loved Ornette, Dewey and Don Cherry with Charlie Haden in this context and felt like exploring it further. I've also been inspired by the trios of Bernie McGann, Sonny Rollins, Andrew Robson and Back Door." Talking specifically about Not In The Mood itself (the title can almost be read as an anti-jazz statement, as so much of its wet past has been about mood and a certain sappiness which comes with that), Sandy says her aims for it were to capture an, "Abundant energy and joy of life. The essence of each composition they are all quite different and have their own meanings and language that reflect many of the different areas of music that I have been interested in. (E.g. Late Coltrane, standard jazz, folk, free music, punk jazz, blues, ballads, African music). "I have not especially set out to create something new here, but rather to create an environment where the three of us can interact as freely and deeply as possible while having fun. There are some ideas that are a little different such as in Snake Gully, where I play only extended techniques on the soprano multiphonics and false fingerings. In The Bridge of Eternal Youth we explore folk ideas from Eastern European music, incorporating a radical accelerando over the whole course of the song. While this is a common device in Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian music, using it on a tune with this kind of melodic structure is something new. The title track is quite polytonal in its approach to melody, but does this in a way that relates back to the blues. This is not dissimilar to some of Steve Coleman's music, but is done here a little bit differently. There are also some unusual rhythmic groupings in the melody that reflect the influence of South Indian music." |
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