Melbourne pianist and composer Andrea Keller and her Quartet performed at the Moers Festival in Germany in May. Music writer John Clare was asked to provide a brief resume of Australian jazz and improvised music for the program, which is reprinted below.
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Deep in the information age, and with little travel undertaken by sea, the title of historian Geoffrey Blainey’s 1960s book The Tyranny Of Distance is not so pertinent today, but distance is still a factor in Australian music. Most of the major tendencies in contemporary jazz and improvisation generally can be heard in Australia, and while the country is not hopping with musical equivalents of the radical mutations that Darwin found in isolated places, there are certainly twists and inflections that are uniquely Australian.
And in truth there are some quite original directions. The Necks trio has been acclaimed as such internationally, and such variations and extensions of their hypnotic improvised minimalism as Triosk and the various bands led by trumpeter Phil Slater have a powerful and quite unmistakable presence. Slater’s bands are sometimes acoustic, but like Triosk, they also use electronics in ways that move them away from the texture of the Necks. They also rise to peaks of a more aggressive energy, sometimes in a rather massive orchestral “rush”.
There are other influences at play, and some of these can be traced back through the various bands led by pianist and composer Paul Grabowsky, the remarkable but now dormant Clarion Fracture Zone with its three major composers – Sandy Evans, Tony Gorman and Alister Spence – the jazz/world music bands Wanderlust and The catholics (led by Miroslav Bukowsky and Lloyd Swanton respectively) , the eclectic trad/modern bands led by drummer Allan Browne, and the still very active veterans Bernie McGann (alto saxophonist and composer) and drummer John Pochee – both original stylists, who, like the late Joe Harriott of England, developed an approach that moved into freer areas pretty much independent of Ornette Coleman.
The McGann and Pochee influence can still be heard in young players, and the same can be said with regard to the outstanding tenor saxophonist and composer Mark Simmonds, who unfortunately is no longer playing.
Simmonds led a number of bands whom he coached, bullied and inspired to create a powerful sound and concept, and this has been a point of departure for one of his sidemen, trumpeter Scott Tinkler, whose huge, unique sound, energy and invention can be quite overwhelming. Another Simmonds/Tinkler/ Slater sideman who has created a highly distinctive approach is drummer Simon Barker.
Paul Grabowsky has ventured the opinion that Tinkler and Slater are the most important trumpeters in the world today! The tyranny of distance prevents my making a realistic comment, but they stand with anyone I have heard recently in person or on record. Grabowsky has also told me, `You know I really believe that Bernie McGann is one of the great alto players of all time.’ I received this without qualm.
A strain whose influence is hard to assess is that of saxophonist Julian Wilson, guitarist Steve Magnusson and piano accordionist Stephen Grant (who plays trumpet and piano elsewhere). This is a kind of drum-less chamber jazz, but with rather haunting folk and world music influences. These influences are also heard to most pleasing effect in the band Way Out West, in which Dung Nguyen’s modified electric guitar sets Vietnamese pitching against the ensemble.
Melbourne pianist/composer Andrea Keller’s projects include arrangements and improvisations on a series of Bartok’s Mikrokosmos.
The influence of contemporary and Viennese-school classical music can be heard in a group of Brisbane virtuosi, who have assembled under various names, including Artisans Workshop. This influence and many others can be heard in Paul Grabowsky’s Australian Art Orchestra (in which some of the Artisans crowd play). This is one of two major long-established improvising larger ensembles, the other being John Pochee’s Ten Part Invention, which is dedicated to Australian composition.
A lasting influence on non-jazz improvisation are the players and composers who have assembled under such names as Mind/Body Split and Machine For Making Sense. They include Rick Rue, Chris Abrahams, Jim Denley, Tim O’Dwyer and Clayton Thomas (who runs the successful Now Now improvised music festival). This field is also represented in the What Is Music? festival.
Pianist/cellist/composer Roger Dean came to Australia from England to head the Australian Heart Foundation, and soon formed a local counterpart to his band Lysis (**AustraLysis** of course), which moves in jazz, non/jazz and electronic areas.
Australia has two important jazz festivals. They are The Melbourne Jazz Festival and The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. The latter is a more impressive forum for Australian contemporary jazz, and while the former has brought us some very big names (Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, for instance), Wangaratta has imported musicians that are not household names but many of us feel ought to be: Oliver Lake, Tomasz Stanko, etc.
Both festivals lack representation from young internationals.
The Jazz Now Festival in the Sydney Opera House Studio is much smaller but remarkably impressive in terms of both local and international music. Young American drummer James Black has appeared in a free, jazz oriented manifestation. The annual Freedman Jazz Fellowships in the same excellent venue have become brilliant concerts in themselves. The Pinnacles concerts in Brisbane are an excellent forum at the very contemporary end.
Distance can still tyrannise in terms of direct international contact, but it can also be seen as a catalyst. Melbourne pianist Tony Gould has noted that American musicians visiting the Wangaratta Festival are initially bemused that we do things a little differently, but soon warm to la difference.
