On the eve of their Australian tour, Danny Fischer of Spoke finds time to chat about his music and life in NYC versus Melbourne.
JK: What are the differences on the jazz scene in NYC and Australia, obviously the population is different, but do audiences engage in a different way?
DF: I guess context is everything. A bar in New York is a place to meet people, a place to network, a place to be seen. And in those places is where you’ll find a band and quite often a fantastic band playing in the back room usually for very little money. In that back room, you’ll find friends and family who support that particular group. Now imagine that scenario on a grand scale.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Everyone musician who lives in New York is there for a reason. You’re there to be heard, you’re there to be seen, you’re there to be available for that gig. You and everybody else that is.
Then there’s the upper echelon. The places where people do pay money to hear music. The statistically small number who musicians who do get to play at those elite establishments, I think that’s the appeal of New York. Will I be one those people who gets to play at insert established venue.
In my experience it is different here in Australia. Most people who attend a concert actually want to be at the performance, they want to hear the music and that is a very special thing. If anyone pays money (that they’ve worked hard for), to come and hear me perform, i’m stoked. People are people. Sometimes their accent might be different, but if anyone takes the time out of their busy life to come and hear me play, i’m the lucky one.
JK: How does the life of a working musician differ?
DF: The air that I breathe from where I live in Melbourne is certainly different from the air that I breathed from where I used to live in Brooklyn.
I’m spoilt in the sense that I can drive to performances in Melbourne with my drums. I didn’t drive in NY so carrying equipment was a completely different story. One isn’t better than the other.
The convenience of getting to a performance in a car is one thing, but the flip side is maybe I can’t get park close to the venue? Maybe the traffic is horrendous getting to the venue? Maybe the guilt of pollution of driving the car in the first place? Who knows. The other angle is, taking the drum set on the subway is heavy and cumbersome, but I don’t have to worry about parking. Maybe I live on a third floor walk up? (I did at one stage) Maybe I don’t want to take a gig during rush hour because I don’t want to clog up the train carriage with all my equipment. Each to their own.
JK: How did your collaboration on SPOKE come about?
DF: The people and their personalities came first. Let’s be real, you can take your pick from hundreds if not thousands of musicians on ANY given instrument in New York that’s the beauty and the brutality of that city.. Any group with any instrumentation you can possibly think of, you can have in New York. Spoke had a kora player sit in with us two weeks ago. Why? Because he was playing in the band after our set.
I had only been in the city less than a year but I thought about the people that I knew. Everybody wants to play, why else are you there? So in less than a year you can meet a lot of musicians.
This is how small the world is. My dear friend Willow Neilson met a bass player who had just moved to NY at the Cornelia St. Cafe. The next day we played a trio session at the bass players apartment. From the first note it felt great. That’s how I met Dan Loomis our bass player. To make the world even smaller, another friend of Willow’s (from their Shanghai days) had just moved to NY. So the four of us played at Dan’s place and that’s how I met Andy Hunter our trombone player. I met Justin Wood our saxophone player at a recording session. It was a combination of sounds and personalities in my head that I thought would work.
JK: Tell us a little about what the audience will experience at your gig? And the workshop?
DF: I hope the audience will experience hearing a ‘band’, more importantly our band. A working group, something that just sounds like us because that’s who we are. I don’t think we’re better than this group or that group, we are just who we are. We’ve performed a great deal over nine years, we have a large repertoire which we have memorized, we plan our sets, and most importantly we absolutely love playing music with each other.
As for the workshop? If you’ve read through this, come by and listen to Justin Wood, Andy Hunter and Dan Loomis talk. Let them tell you about all the incredible music they’ve played with other musicians from around the globe, and so much more.
Spoke are touring Australia and performing at
Friday 31st October – Free workshop, Sydney Conservatorium – 2-4 More info on this and the concert program from the Con below
Friday 31st October – SIMA, Sound Lounge – INFO HERE
Saturday 1st November – Wangaratta Jazz Festival – INFO HERE
Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Studies are presenting SUPER OCTOBER! a series of workshops and performances, all open to the general public
Mike Nock – Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra – Matt McMahon – Andrea Keller
Jeff 'Tain' Watts (USA) – Spoke (USA)
1) Monday October 27, 6.30pm Concert – featuring the Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra with Mike Nock as special guest pianist and composer
2) Wednesday October 29, 6.30pm Concert – featuring Matt McMahon and Andrea Keller in a duo setting on two pianos.
3) Thursday October 30, 10am – 12pm Masterclass – Public drum masterclass with Jeff 'Tain' Watts. Free!
4) Friday October 31, 2pm – 4pm Masterclass – Public masterclass by cutting edge New York quartet, SPOKE. Free!
1) Concert – Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra with special guest composer and pianist Mike Nock – Monday October 27 – 6.30pm. Music Workshop – Level 2
Tix – Adults – $20/ Seniors – $10/ Pensioner – $10/ Full -Time Student – $10
Book online at: https://tickets.cityrecitalhall.com/single/SelectSeating.aspx?p=2339 or purchase from City Recital Hall – Angle Place Sydney – ph: 8256 2222 (booking fees might apply)
Mike Nock – piano
Oliver Nelson – drums | Felix Lalanne – guitar | David Allen – piano | James Heazelwood-Dayle – contrabass
Evan Harris, Mellissa Mony, Michael Avgenicos, Nish Manjanuth, Phillipa Murphy-Haste – saxophones
Ellie Shearer, Greg Chillcott, Frank Dasent, Jono Ramsey – trombones
Luke Stephens, James Power, Charles Casson, Will Endicot, Shota Matsumura – trumpets
One of Australia’s most celebrated youth jazz orchestra’s teams up with one of Australia’s living legends in Mike Nock to present an incredible celebration of Australian music. This concert re-creates the 2005 CD "The Mothership Plays the Music of Mike Nock" and features Mike Nock on piano and arrangements by Sydneys most creative arrangers including Nock. Mike's career has spanned a broad range of contemporary musical styles and he is widely recognised as an important voice in Australian modern music. Based in Sydney since 1986, he previously spent 25 years in the USA, working with many of the world’s top jazz artists. His compositions include orchestral music, woodwind / percussion ensembles, electronic / choral works etc., and have been recorded and performed by a range of jazz and non-jazz performers. Attracting many awards and honours over his lengthy career in 2014 he was awarded the Don Banks Music Award, the most valuable individual music award in Australia. In 2009 he was inducted into the Bell Awards Australian Jazz Hall of Fame and in 2003 presented with the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM). In 2010 a biography of Mike’s life and career was published: Serious Fun: The Life and Music of Mike Nock (Norman Meehan, Victoria University Press). As music director of Naxos Jazz from 1996 to 2002 he oversaw the production of more than 60 internationally released CDs.
“Nock’s ringing iconoclasm pervades all his music, taps a deep well of melody that transcends jazz and informs and ignites his every encounter.” – Fred Bouchard, Downbeat (USA)
Since its inception in the early 70s, the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra has formed an alumni that features many of the leading lights in Australian jazz. Comprising five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, guitar, piano, bass and drums, the “CJO” features many of Sydney’s finest young improvisers. Over the past five years, the standard of Jazz Orchestral studies has developed rapidly with an emphasis on collaborating with, and performing the music of leading international composers such as Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider, Bert Joris, Florian Ross, Jim McNeely, Darcy James Argue, Julian Arguelles and Dick Oatts to expose the students to the leading music and contemporary techniques required to perform Jazz Orchestral music at its highest level. These amazing young players have risen to the challenge on every level, and we aim to continue impressing audiences whenever we perform, with a level of sophistication normally reserved for professional Jazz. The orchestra’s debut national tour in 2013 with Belgian based super composer, Bert Joris, was a tour de force. Conservatorium Jazz Orchestra Artistic Director David Theak has been a tireless advocate for large ensemble jazz in Australia through his work with the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, as a teacher at the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz studies program, convenor of the National Big Band Composition Competition and as guest artist and artistic advisor with the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra. Theak created the ‘Mothership’ as a young member of Sydney’s Jazzgroove scene and is now mentor to scores of emerging musicians nationally and internationally.
2) Concert – Andrea Keller and Matt McMahon in a duo setting.
Wednesday October 29 – 6.30pm, Conservatorium of Music (Music Workshop). Free
Matt McMahon – piano
Andrea Keller – piano
Multi-award winning pianists Andrea Keller and Matt McMahon first performed in a duo setting on the album "A Castle For All" – a 2008 album which features Andrea's compositions, all written for the Hush Collection in support of children's hospitals. They had an opportunity to renew this association in a March 2014 concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre and will now perform again at the Sydney Conservatorium. The program will include original pieces and works by Mike Nock and Barney McAll.
3) Public Masterclass with Jeff 'Tain' Watts (USA)
Masterclass by one of the world’s leading jazz drummers
Thursday October 30, 10am-12pm VH. Entry by gold coin donation
One of the most in demand jazz drummers in the world today, Jeff initially majored in classical percussion at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University, where he was primarily a timpanist, followed by enrolment at the Berklee School of Music, where he pursued jazz studies alongside such talented players as Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Greg Osby, Aimee Mann, Steve Vai and Marvin "Smitty" Smith. Jeff joined the Wynton Marsalis Quartet in 1981 and proceeded to win three Grammy Awards with the ensemble. Watts left Wynton Marsalis in 1988. After working with George Benson, Harry Connick. Jr. and McCoy Tyner, he joined the Branford Marsalis Quartet in 1989. Jeff has worked in the film and television industry as both a musician on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and as an actor, Rhythm Jones in Spike Lee’s "Mo Better Blues". Jeff joined Kenny Garrett's band after returning to New York in 1995 after three years in LA on the Tonight Show. Watts also continued to record and tour with Branford Marsalis as well as Danilo Perez, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Kenny Kirkland, Courtney Pine, Geri Allen, Alice Coltrane, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Ravi Coltrane.
Jeff has an extensive discography as a side-man, as well as six albums as a leader:
"Citizen Tain" (Sony 1999),
"Bar Talk" (Sony 2002),
"MegaWatts" (Sunnyside 2003)
"Detained, Live at the Blue Note" (Half Note 2004) and
"Folk's Songs" (Dark Key Music 2007)
"WATTS" (Dark Key Music 2009)
Jeff was the producer for "Bar Talk", "Detained" Dark Key Music releases, "Folk's Songs" and "WATTS".
Along with explosive power, blinding speed and mastery of complex rhythms and time signatures, Watts brings a rare sense of elegance, tried-by-fire composure, and a gritty street funk to his music. His artistic ingenuity expresses itself in his incomparable technique, sweltering sense of swing, and an extraordinary ability to imbue his music with majestic grace and elegant repose. A true jazz innovator, Watts never fails to deliver the percussive magic that has been his trademark since his emergence on the contemporary jazz scene.
Jeff Tain Watts has received the following Grammy awards
(1986) Wynton Marsalis for Black Codes From the Underground performed by the Wynton Marsalis Group
(1987) Wynton Marsalis for J Mood performed by the Wynton Marsalis Group
(1988) Wynton Marsalis for Marsalis Standard Time – Volume I performed by the Wynton Marsalis Group
(1993) Branford Marsalis for I Heard You Twice the First Time performed by the Branford Marsalis Group
(2001) Branford Marsalis for Contemporary Jazz performed by the Branford Marsalis Quartet
4) Public Masterclass with SPOKE (USA)
Creative New York based quartet present an improvisation masterclass
Friday October 31 RHW 2pm – 4pm
Andy Hunter – trombone
Danny Fischer – drums
Dan Loomis – bass
Justin Wood – saxophone and flute
SPOKE draws strength and integrity from the point where its members unite. With each band member coming from a rich background of musical experience, the band is distinguished not only by their instrumental virtuosity, but by a strong emphasis on composition and group interplay. Through years of performing together, the ensemble has arrived at a deep level of anticipation and musical synergy on stage, and brings their audiences upon an exciting musical journey, rich with dramatic musical storytelling and infectious grooves. And most of all, the band imparts and shares the joy and fun woven integrally into their music and friendship. In recent years, the members of SPOKE have performed at major festivals and venues on every continent except Antarctica, including such countries as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, Holland, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Martinique, Morocco, New Zealand, Oman, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Slovenia and Spain, along with such diverse artists as Richard Bona, the Mingus Big Band, T.S. Monk, and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra just to name a few.
What the critics' say…
* Spoke’s eponymous 2009 release was singled out for special praise from Paul Blair at Hot House Magazine, who called it “ONE OF THE MOST INVENTIVE RECORDS I’VE HEARD ALL YEAR.”
* New York City’s All About Jazz picked Spoke as a top-ten release in 2009, and said:
The thought that went into the set’s twelve pieces is literally mind-bending… freestanding, differentiated chapters in a series of detailed stories that are anything but traditional… its standards and targets are set far higher than the norm. – J. Hunter, All About Jazz [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review_print.php?id=32907]
Spoke Member Bios:
Andy Hunter’s music and sound were forged in and inspired by New York’s vital Jazz, Salsa and World Music scenes. He has toured and performed around the world with high profile artists such as the Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, Richard Bona, Nnenna Freelon, T.S. Monk’s tentet, Dave Holland’s Big Band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. He spent much of the past decade based in New York City working with bands ranging from the Birdland Big Band and Fat Cat Big Band to the Bjorkestra, Snarky Puppy, or in other styles, Cuban music with Ochun, Tipica Novel and Nu Guajiro, Colombian folkloric music with La Cumbiamba and Chia’s Dance Party. He has appeared on Saturday Night Live, and performed at most major music venues in New York. Since the end of 2012 Hunter has been a member of the WDR Big Band based in Cologne, Germany and currently tours and records regularly with the band. (www.hunterandy.com)
A new presence on the New York jazz scene, Dan Loomis has already become one the most in-demand bassists of his generation. Called “a forceful and creative bass player” (Cadence) “double-teaming you with style and substance” (All About Jazz), Dan has created a stir with both his powerful bass playing and his vision as a composer/bandleader. Dan has toured extensively through the US, Canada and Europe with his groups The Dan Loomis Quartet (DLQ), The Wee Trio, SPOKE, and as a sideman with T.S. Monk, Joel Frahm, and the Ernesto Cervini Quartet. (www.danloomismusic.com)
Justin Wood grew up in frozen Northern Maine, which might account for his warm sound and “spark-spewing solos that showcase the alto’s best qualities” [All About Jazz]. Living in New York City for the past decade, Justin has established a presence as a highly versatile and always unique voice on the saxophones and flute. Outside of SPOKE, Justin has recorded and performs with several notable ensembles at venues ranging from Lincoln Center and the Jazz el Parque festival in Bogota, to le Poisson Rouge to many of New York’s small, vital neighbourhood venues.
Danny Fischer left a huge gap in the music scene of his native Melbourne, Australia when he relocated to New York in 2004. A 2002 review called Danny “possibly the most in-demand jazz drummer in Melbourne, having worked with a long list of Australian and international musicians including Barney McAll, Gary Bartz, James Williams, George Colligan & Paul Bollenbeck…” Since relocating to New York, he has been in demand as a sideman, having just recently returned from a tour of Australia with Kurt Rosenwinkel and Barney McAll and has performed at Radio City Music Hall alongside Patty LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Diana Ross.
