Release Date: 27 July 2005
www.wangaratta– jazz.org.au
The lineup was announced today for Australia’s premier jazz event, the TAC Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz, which will be staged for the 16th year in 2005, over the Melbourne Cup long weekend of Friday 28 – Monday 31 October.
As fans and musicians have come to expect, the Festival will feature a huge program of performances from leading international and Australian jazz and blues artists. This year’s international guests will include New York saxophonist Oliver Lake (who toured here previously as part of the World Saxophone Quartet), the award-winning Quartet led by veteran Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, rising stars from Sweden, the Esbjorn Svensson Trio (otherwise known as E.S.T.), British jazz singer Anita Wardell and New Zealand saxophonist Roger Manins.
Melbourne-born pianist Barney McAll, last heard at Wangaratta in 2003 with the Gary Bartz Quartet, will return home to lead his own septet, Dreams And Secrets, playing original music inspired by the rhythms and imagery of Afro-Cuban music and religion. Other notable Australian performers will include Ten Part Invention (who performed at last year’s Chicago Jazz Festival), Andrew Robson (who starred at the 2004 Berlin Jazz Festival, after winning the prestigious 2003 Freedman Fellowship), veteran saxophonists Bernie McGann and Bob Bertles, trumpeter Bob Barnard and pianists Mark Isaacs and Bobby Gebert.
In a happy coincidence, both Ten Part Invention and Allan Browne’s Australian Jazz Band will present new compositions inspired by Sydney poet Kenneth Slessor’s ‘Five Bells’.
Other bands performing original, contemporary jazz will include the Aaron Choulai Sextet, Mistaken Identity and Christopher Hale Ensemble from Melbourne, Misinterprotato from Brisbane and Triptych from Adelaide. The more experimental, improvisational end of the spectrum will be represented by Re-MOVE, led by veteran bassist David Tolley, and Pateras/Baxter/Brown, a trio led by pianist Anthony Pateras.
Along with Allan Browne and Bob Barnard, the ‘classic’ end of the jazz spectrum will be represented by The Hoodangers, The Syncopators, Steve Waddell’s Creole Bells, Paper Moon, the Sweet Lowdowns and Blue Drag, while Peter Gaudion will present his acclaimed show, ‘Salute To Satchmo’, to finish the Festival on a high note at the Cup Eve Concert.
The festival’s artistic director, Adrian Jackson, said, “This year’s international lineup is a particularly strong one. Oliver Lake’s trio, with trumpeter Baikida Carroll and drummer Pheeroan ak Laff, will present very adventurous music drawn from the Afro-American tradition. They will also collaborate with Mike Nock, James Greening and Brett Hirst to perform music that Mike, Baikida and Pheeroan recorded a few years back as The New York Jazz Collective, which will be heard exclusively at Wangaratta.
“On the other hand, Tomasz Stanko and EST will present a very European perspective on contemporary jazz. Stanko has been described by some critics as the leading trumpeter in jazz today. He personifies the idea that maximum impact can be achieved with minimum gesture. And EST is regarded as the hottest jazz act in Europe. Their latest album is number 1 in the Scandinavian charts, and they often head the bill at rock festivals.”
He added, “There will also be plenty of memorable performances from the Australian performers, so many of whom can hold their own at any international jazz festival.”
The blues program will be headlined by US guitarist-singer Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart. Blues acts from Sydney will include The Bondi Cigars, Continental Robert’s Blues Party and Jan Preston. Hat Fitz will journey from Queensland to present his raw blues sound, while the Melbourne blues scene will be represented by Jimi Hocking (winner at the 2005 International Blues Challenge in Memphis), Fiona Boyes, Dave Hogan’s Meltdown, Jaimi Faulkner and the sensational young singer, Ella Thompson.
An annual event since 1990, the TAC Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz is one of Australia’s biggest regional events, and has been acclaimed by fans, musicians and critics as Australia’s premier jazz festival. It enjoys Tourism Victoria’s Hallmark Event status, having won the Victorian Tourism Award for Regional events three times, and the Australian Tourism Award in 1999 for Regional Festivals & Events.
The festival’s main program features a schedule of over 90 events at 16 venues, ranging from a Cathedral to the Town Hall, pubs and wineries in nearby Milawa, Oxley and Taminick. A new venue, Bailey’s Of Glenrowan, has been added for the program of free events on the Monday afternoon. Most of these events are covered by the Festival Pass, which offers great value for three days of music, priced at $140 or just $125 for ‘early bird’ orders before 30 September 2005.
For those wanting to make sure they can use their Festival Pass to hear a specific concert, without having to wait in queues, a Reserved Seating option will be introduced in 2005, enabling seats to be reserved for $10 each.
In addition to a great lineup of jazz and blues performers, the TAC Wangaratta Festival of Jazz offers visitors the chance to enjoy the quality wines and gourmet foods for which the surrounding region is renowned, whether at street stalls in town over the weekend or at venues like Brown Brothers Epicurean Centre or the Wangaratta Gateway.
It all adds up to the 2005 TAC Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz being an event that no music lover can afford to miss!
www.wangaratta– jazz.org.au
