The winner of the 2016 National Jazz Awards was Mike Rivett, with runner up being Troy Roberts, then Jeremy Rose.

“Mike is a strong voice on the saxophone…come and hear him play…he is scary!” -George Garzone. http://www.georgegarzone.com/

Mike has played extensively in the USA, Europe, Japan and Australia-both as a leader and a sideman.  In June 2010 he completed a Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of music.  While in New York he studied with David Liebman, Phil Markowitz, Garry Dial, Chris Rosenberg, John Riley and George Garzone.

Mike is also committed to sharing his knowledge with the next generation of musicians.  He is currently teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.  He teaches saxophone technique, jazz improvisation, triadic chromatic approach, ear training, harmony and composition.

In 2006, Mike was awarded a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to study in New York with Henry Grimes, George Garzone, Joel Frahm, and to attend David Liebman’s chromatic master class.

Prior to living in NY, Mike was based in Tokyo (18months), where he performed with some great musicians: Yoshio “Chin” Suzuki (bass), Tomonao Hara (trumpet) and Haruhiko Takauchi (guitar), Ko Omura (drums) and Mamoru Ishida (piano). He has performed at “The Pit Inn”, “Jesse James”, “Naru”, “Strings” and “The Village”.

In Australia he has performed with James Muller, Sean Wayland, Andrew Gander, Cameron Undy, Greg Coffin, Carl Morgan, Ben Vanderwal, Alex Boneham, Steve Barry, Tim Firth, Mike Nock, Craig Scott, George Garzone, Dave Goodman, Chad Wackerman and Jackie Orszaczky (to name a few) as well as touring with DJ Vadim (Ninja Tunes label.)

Mike is also a co-founder of  “Primpy Records” with their first release on vinyl hitting the stores in May 2009.

Finalists were:

Bernard Alexander
Michael Avgenicos
Flora Carbo
Andrew Crago
Joshua Hatcher
Dave Jackson
Michael Rivett
Troy Roberts
Jeremy Rose
Karl Schmid

This year’s judges are Melissa Aldana, Barney McAll and Chair Jamie Oehlers.

As is the case every year the finals are broadcast live on ABC Jazz and for the first time there will be a live Facebook feed from ABC Jazz. So if you want to see and hear the video, this is the place to go

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