The Necks have taken out the APRA Award for Most Performed Jazz Work for their composition Mosquito.
The work comes from the trio’s most recent album of the same name. This is the second year running The Necks have won the award.
The Necks are Chris Abrahams (piano/keyboards), Tony Buck (drums/percussion) and Lloyd Swanton (bass).
APRA determines the winner of the Most Performed category “by performance activity, as reflected by earnings, according to APRA’s statistical analysis for the relevant 12 month calendar period”.
Writing in The Guardian in January 2005, reviewer John L Walters described the piece thus: “The edgy Mosquito is built around what sounds like a looped recording of percussion and piano. Nothing revolutionary about that, except that this little dialogue has no obvious pulse: it’s the sort of inspired moment you might hear at a performance of improvised music. What The Necks do is to seize this moment and continue it for the duration of Mosquito. As they layer up the other elements – piano chords, simple pedal notes on bass, pulsing cymbals – the work becomes more angsty, profound, forward-moving and exciting. You can listen intensely to their music, but you can also let it wash over you, and I recommend both options.”
Read the whole review:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/ ontheedge/story/0,,1400122,00.html
Jazz Australia: This is the second year running you have won the award. Any ideas why The Necks – as opposed to more mainstream artists – have achieved this level of popularity?
Lloyd Swanton: I actually think we are quite mainstream. More and more people seem to “get” us these days. The huge rise in trance and related dance musics over the last decade or so has certainly helped our cause. Once people sniggered when we played one motif for long periods of time, but I think people are now realising that a large percentage of the world’s music is actually just like
that. I deeply love jazz; always will, but it’s my feeling that its complexity often works against it more than its protagonists realise.
JA: What are your recording and touring plans for the next 6-12months?
LS: Things are a bit up in the air right now because I’ve gone and reproduced.
Being a bit new to this baby caper I don’t know how I’ll handle the music/family juggle when the kid arrives, so I’ve asked that we take a bit of a sabbatical. But there’s a few things in the pipeline – our customary lap of Australia next Jan/Feb; that will probably include another of our Melbourne Town Hall organ concerts. The one we did last year was huge! We sold out the room. It’s really something playing to 1200 people with a 10,000 pipe concert organ.
There’s also a chance of a movie score around then, some interest in Canada in June/July, and we’re planning our next Europe tour for November next year, which may include dates in Israel and Greenland as well as the more familiar ports of call. But as I say, it’s all up in the air right now. Maybe I’ll just stay at home and play on the living room floor with the kid.
The other project that’s always a possibility is working through our massive archive of concert recordings and releasing a few more. Maybe this is something that would mesh with parenting a little better than overseas touring.
JA: When can fans of The Necks expect another album?
LS: Our 13th album Chemist is released on June 17th. In Australia that’ll be on Fish of Milk through Shock, and in Europe/USA/Japan, it’ll be on
ReR/megacorp, who have released our last five albums. There’s actually three
tracks on this one, and a lot of guitar, which is quite a new sound for us.
JA: Any other comments?
LS: Just a big thank you to everyone who’s supported us over the years. We’ve been together 19 years now, and it’s been quite a journey. When we started The Necks, as a private jamming band, we had no idea it was going to go around the world, so every new stage has been a fresh wonder for us, and it’s been such a joy sharing the music with everyone.
More information:
APRA Awards
www.apra.com.au
The Necks
www.thenecks.com
Photo: Lloyd Swanton
Photo courtesy of Cees van de Ven.
See more of Cees’ jazz photography:
www.flickr.com/ photos/jazzcase
