Past Programs
Piano and Keyboard - 2010
Renee Rosnes & Bill Charlap: <em>Double Portrait</em> ( piano-centric weekend )
25/07/2010
It's "a delicate business", there's "a lot of nonverbal communication" & "clarity" is crucial when husband & wife apply 20 fingers to 176 keys. Renee Rosnes & Bill Charlap's loving hands make sublime duo music on Double Portrait, the heart of our piano-focused weekend's 2nd chapter.
Individually, each is one of the finer, more sensitive jazz pianists.
"Bill Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved" said Time magazine.
"Rosnes offers exquisite balances of delicacy and power, witty and weighted ideas, assertiveness and deference" said Down Beat magazine.
Together, they are a very special duo.
A revealing, interview-based article about Renee Rosnes & Bill Charlap:
http://jazztimes.com/articles/18490-bill-charlap-and-and-renee-rosnes
Renee Rosnes site:
http://www.reneerosnes.com
Bill Charlap site, which includes link to audio interview with him & Renee:
http://www.billcharlap.com
Jex Saarelaht: <em>Fiveways</em> ( piano-centric weekend )
24/07/2010
Jex Saarelaht is one of Australia's greatest improvising pianists & you've probably heard him on other people's records, but he's remarkably under-recorded as leader. Chapter one of our piano-centric weekend revolves around Fiveways - Jex's splendid new, 'live' quartet album.
Fiveways was recorded at the 2009 Stonnington Jazz Festival. Its written notes were composed by Jex, who improvises & interacts with drummer Niko Schäuble, saxophonist Julien Wilson & acoustic bassist Jonathan Zwartz.
'Mr self-publicist', Jex is not.
You can discover just a little about him & his new album, here:
http://www.jazzhead.com/cms-jazzhead-records/fiveways--at-chapel-off-chapel-jex-saarelaht-quartet.phps
Mike Nock Trio: <em>An Accumulation of Subtleties</em>
06/06/2010
Aptly titled, The Mike Nock Trio's An Accumulation of Subtleties offers mostly-spontaneous studio conversations, plus concert cuts where they play - & play around with - existing pieces. Pianist Mike & the Waples brothers - bassist Ben & drummer James - make beautiful, intelligent, heartfelt music.
New Zealand-born, formerly US-resident, the Sydney-resident Mike Nock is a significant jazz individual in Australasia ...& well beyond. A superb pianist, he is also a deep & provocative musical thinker. Mike Nock is a noted educator too - one who challenges himself as well as his students & who learns from them, as he teaches them. Mike Nock's next birthday will be his 70th. He'd already lived more than 40 years before the older Waples brother was born.
Mike Nock Official site:
http://www.mikenock.com
Its 'Mike Nock Trio' page links to biographies of James & Ben Waples.
Issue 2 of Extempore - published in May 2009 - has a revealing, substantial interview with Mike Nock.
You can read it - via the 'view past issues for free' prompt - here:
http://www.extempore.com.au
( the current issue of Extempore - which includes a fine interview with Andrea Keller - is only accessible via purchase or subscription )
Hans Ulrik Quintet/ Tim Wilson & Andrea Keller duo
25/04/2010
One instrument is crucial to both featured albums; another is, variously, crucially present/crucially absent. Hans Ulrik leads an all-star Scandinavian quintet on his richly-textured Slow Procession, whilst Life that Lingers finds Australians Tim Wilson & Andrea Keller alone together, live' & in-the-moment.
The oft-hypnotic Slow Procession is mostly a set of compositions by the Danish leader. He plays ( oft-overdubbing & making the studio itself an instrument ) various saxes & alto flute. His colleagues are Danish trumpeter Kasper Tranberg, Swedish bassist Anders Jormin & two Norwegians - guitarist Eivind Aarset & drummer Audun Kleive.
Tim Wilson plays sax & Andrea Keller piano on their 'live' duo album. The compositions are their own, with room for spontaneous musical conversation.
Hans Ulrik's site: http://www.hansulrik.dk
Tim Wilson's site:
http://www.timwilsononline.com
Andrea Keller's site:
http://www.andreakellerpiano.com
Marc Copland ( solos / duos...first of two Copland-centric shows )
18/04/2010
Marc Copland is a true poet of the piano, for which ( as an adult, professional ) he forsook the saxophone, 'disappeared' for 10 years, then reappeared as a great improvising keyboardist. Tonight's program revolves around this 'piano whisperer', solo & in duet.
Copland is one of the most probing & one of most sublimely lyrical pianists. His 'touch' is extraordinary; that is true of his feet as well as his hands.
Marc Copland site:
http://www.marccopland.com
Its 'interview with Marc' prompt yields very revealing fruit.
Vijay Iyer Trio: <em>Historicity</em>
27/02/2010
Jazz's most celebrated 'emerging' artist is a US pianist whose parents are from India. The most highly-acclaimed 'piano trio' set in many moons, Vijay Iyer's Historicity is highly adventurous, eminently accessible, exciting, intelligent, eclectic.
Not a few tracks are 'covers', with the original tunes & emotional essence still present. But this trio has surprising, fresh perspectives on ( for example ) a Stevie Wonder protest song & a Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim classic from West Side Story.
There is no cornball 'world music' posturing, but Iyer's very individual music is uncommonly worldly. Its roots are in Indian classical as well as in American, European & African jazz, classical & pop.
On hearing our featured album by Vijay Iver, double bassist Stephan Crump & drummer Marcus Gilmore, The New York Times' Ben Ratliff exclaimed, 'Presto! Here is the new great jazz piano trio!'
Vijay Iver's own, very rich site:
http://www.vijay-iyer.com
It links to many articles & includes - on its front page - a good video explanation of what Historicity is about, backed up by performance.
A dense but very revealing interview with Iyer :
http://www.jazz.com/features-and-interviews/2008/7/20/in-conversation-with-vijay-iyer
An Indian article about him:
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts/the-wizard-of-jazz
<em>Trains/'Trane</em>: Bobby Hutcherson's <em>Wise One</em>/ Graham Wood's <em>The G Train</em>
30/01/2010
Our Trains'n'Trane show features two inspiration sources & two quintets. Veteran American vibraphone virtuoso Bobby Hutcherson was just a boy with a fake moustache when he met John Coltrane; Australian pianist Graham Wood has recently ridden the steel rails in Japan & the USA.
All pieces on Wise One were either composed by John Coltrane, or memorably interpreted by him. They are beautifully refreshed by Bobby's horn-less quintet: himself, pianist Joe Gilman, guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Glenn Richman & drummer Eddie Marshall.
Graham Wood's The G Train is a set of his own compositions, plus 3 spontaneous but coherent group improvisations. Graham's colleagues are trumpeter Matt Jodrell, saxophonist Carl Mackey, bassist Sam Anning & drummer Daniel Susnjar.
Discover more about Bobby Hutcherson's new album here:
http://www.kindofbluerecords.com/bobby-hutcherson-wise-one
Discover more about Bobby Hutcherson here:
http://www.answers.com/topic/bobby-hutcherson
Graham Wood's site:
http://www.grahamwood.com.au/Home.html
Allen Toussaint: <em>The Bright Mississippi</em> ( revisited )
16/01/2010
Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi is dignified, elegant, intimate, playful, quintessentially New Orleans. At 71, one of the fathers of contemporary R&B, soul and funk plays the piano sublimely, as he and some younger friends creatively address his jazz forebears.
As songwriter, arranger and producer, Toussaint is one of pop music's all-time greats - a key person, but usually 'behind the scenes.' Post-Katrina (which destroyed his home) Toussaint has been the focus of more attention and is enjoying new opportunities. Toussaint says now of Katrina, 'I accepted it not only as a drowning but a baptism.' He has never previously made an album remotely like The Bright Mississippi. Its initiator and producer Joe Henry hand-picked the other players. Clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, drummer-percussionist Jay Bellerose, upright bassist David Piltch and Marc Ribot(playing acoustic guitar) comprise the core group. Pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonist Joshua Redman each play an exquisite duet with Allen.
The story behind this album is here:
http://www.nonesuch.com/artists/allen-toussaint
To discover more about Allen Toussaint, this is a well-linked starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Toussaint
