Alister is recognized as one of Australia’s most original, distinctive pianists/composers. With a performing and composing career spanning more than 25 years, his wide-ranging talents have led him to perform with and compose for some of the world’s most respected artists in the areas of contemporary music, improvisation, film and theatre.
In recent years he has devoted his energy to writing and performing with his trio, The Alister Spence Trio with Lloyd Swanton (the Necks) on double bass and Toby Hall (formerly with pianist, Mike Nock) drums and glockenspiel. This celebrated group has recorded five CDs (Rufus Records) and has a growing international reputation.
Their most recent CD, Far Flung (Rufus Records 2012) received a 4 star review in Jazz Journal (June 2013) and was listed in Critics Poll 2013 (January 2014). It was also listed in The WIRE 2013 Rewind – Critics’ reflections by Andy Hamilton as Album of the year. fit (Rufus Records 2009) was voted in the top 15 jazz/improv releases worldwide for 2009 by The Wire, UK. Both Mercury (Rufus Records 2006) and Flux (Rufus Records 2003) received ARIA nominations (Australian Record Industry Awards) for 2004, 2007. The trio toured in U.K and Canada in 2006 and Japan in 2008.
Since performing at The Vilnius Jazz Festival 2009, with bassist, Joseph Williamson (Tobias Delius Quartet, Alex Ward) and drummer, Chris Cantillo (Nils Berg Cinemascope, Lena Nyberg), Alister has returned to Europe and the UK on a regular basis to tour with this lineup. Also performing as a Quartet with saxophonist Raymond MacDonald (Marilyn Crispell, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra).
Festival performances for the Trio include: Vilnius Jazz Festival 2009, Luminous Festival, Sydney Opera House curated by Brian Eno 2009, Tokyo Jazz Festival 2008, International Festival de Jazz de Montreal and Vancouver Jazz Festival 2006.
Alister is a founding member of Wanderlust and a long-standing member of The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO). Alister was also co-leader/composer with the internationally acclaimed group Clarion Fracture Zone for 15 years from 1990 – 2005.
His playing is featured on more than 30 CDs, many of which have either won or been nominated for Australian Record Industry (ARIA) Awards.
Over the years he has played with many of the finest musicians in Australia including Bernie McGann, Sandy Evans, Chris Abrahams, Don Burrows, Dale Barlow, Peter O’Mara, Tony Buck, Phillip Slater, Paul Capsis, Archie Roach and Ed Kuepper (The Laughing Clowns).
Alister has also performed with Satoko Fujii (Japan), Michiyo Yagi (Japan), Barre Phillips (US), Myra Melford (US), Mark Helias (US), Andy Sheppard (UK), Joe Williamson (SWE), Jim O’Rourke (Japan), Raymond MacDonald (Glasgow), Mark Helias (US), Karraikudi Mani (IND).
Over the last 20 years, Alister has toured extensively in Europe, Asia and Canada with The Alister Spence Trio, Clarion Fracture Zone, Wanderlust and AAO, and has performed radio broadcasts for ABC (Australia), BBC (UK), and WDR (Germany).
His talents as a composer are well known in Australia. As well as his own trio and Clarion Fracture Zone, Alister composes for Wanderlust and has been commissioned several times to write for The Australian Art Orchestra and Ten Part Invention.
Tom O’Halloran leads his own original jazz piano trio outfit and conducts orchestras from time to time, composes new classical music, plays wild old analogue synthesizers and even rock guitar. Most recently he has played with acclaimed bassist Robert Hurst (USA), was nominated for a 2012 APRA Australian Art Music award and was a finalist in the 2011 Freedman Foundation Jazz Fellowship – where he was featured at the Sydney Opera House.His overseas performances have included the Houston International Jazz Festival, the IAJE festival in New York, Villa Celimontana in Italy, Dubai, UAE where he played with the Dubai Philharmonic Orchestra, and club dates in New Zealand. Tom has two jazz trio records to his name, released through the Sydney based Jazzgroove Records label. His latest album We Happy Few won the 2009 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Limelight Magazine award for best jazz achievement.
Tom regularly tours Australia with his original jazz trio comprised of Peter Jeavons (double bass) and Daniel Susnjar (drums). Together they have played large venues like the Sydney Opera House and The Promethean Theatre (Adelaide), and also the best jazz clubs in the country – including 505 and The Basement (Sydney), Bennett’s Lane and Paris Cat (Melbourne), and The Ellington Jazz Club (Perth).
At the end of 2011 he performed a two piano duo concert with Graham Wood – complete with two Fazioli grand pianos – at the stunning Government House, Perth. He was also commissioned to compose for the event. The resulting piece was Dissolve, for two pianos, and further explores his ideas of interruption and chromatic saturation, synthesised with jazz interaction and improvisation.
He is part of the exciting new Perth group Memory of Elements, and contributes compositions alongside Jamie Oehlers (saxophone), Carl Mackey (saxophone), Simon Jeans (guitar), Pete Jeavons (bass) and Ben Vanderwal (drums). They performed at the 2011 Wangaratta Jazz Festival, completed a national tour, and have released a self titled album on the Jazzhead label. When living in Sydney, Tom formed the new band Soundgun, comprised of Jonathan Zwartz (double-bass) and Evan Mannell (drums). They also debuted the group at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in 2008, and have recorded for ABC Jazz Radio.
Tom has also been playing in an unusaul trio with Lucky Oceans (pedal- steel guitar) and Ben Vanderwal (drums) where he plays acoustic instruments and analouge synthesizers. A recording is to be released shortly.
He plays a myriad of styles, and recently arranged all the music for the concert series JONI – a Joni Mitchell tribute that was staged at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne and Brisbane, starring Katie Noonan and Wendy Matthews. He has also worked with other industry names such as Pete Murray (Sony), James Morrison, singers Tina Harrod, Ilan Kidron (Potbellez, Universal), Max Sharam, Geoff Duff, Josh Quong-Tart (Home and Away, All Saints), Hugo Race (Bad Seeds), David Campbell, Deni Hines (Sony BMG), Mark Sholtez (Verve label), Rick Robertson (DIG), and other jazz musicians of the caliber of James Muller, Simon Barker, Kristen Berardi, trumpeter Phil Slater, bassist Cameron Undy and 20th Century Dog, Dan Barnett’s Big Band – and has performed at other Australian jazz festivals including the Melbourne Jazz Festival, Newcastle, York (WA), Manly and Coolah Jazz Festivals.
Tom O’Halloran leads the Jazz Piano department at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University, and also lectures in jazz composition and improvisation. He is a regularly commissioned composer, and currently holds a Master of Music in classical composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) from WAAPA.
Phil Slater was born in Wollongong in 1972 and began playing the trumpet at the age of 12. In 1990 he studied music composition at Unversity of Sydney and University of Wollongong. In 1996 Phil moved to Sydney and began playing with various groups, including those of Mike Nock, the Australian Art Orchestra, Dale Barlow, Barney McAll, Steve Hunter, Baecastuff and DIG, as well as international artists Bobby Previte, Vincent Herring, Terumasa Hino, and Nigel Kennedy. Phil has performed at many national and international music festivals, including the Montreux, Copenhagen, Toronto, Montreal, Umbria, Pori, Vancouver, and London Jazz Festivals, and has performed in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, the U.S.A., Germany, Czech Republic and New Zealand. He was a finalist in the 1997 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, was awarded the 2002 Music Council of Australia/Freedman Foundation Fellowship and winner of the 2003 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz National Jazz Award. He is the leader or co-leader of several groups, including Strobe Coma Virgo, Band of Five Names, The Very Interactive Band, and Diagram.
Julien Wilson is an integral part of the Melbourne jazz scene having played a wide variety of musical styles with Chris Tanners Virus, Paul Grabowsky Quintet, the Hoodangers, Mike Nock, 12 Tone Diamonds & Barney McAll.
Winner of the National Jazz Award in 1994 he performs regularly in Melbourne with afro-cuban bands Rumberos & Los Cabrones and is a member of the Australian Art Orchestra, Ishish, Murphy’s Law & the Bennetts Lane Big Band. His long association with guitarist Stephen Magnusson has involved two albums with FESTA, two with multi-national Swiss-based band SNAG, and two releases with assumptions, a free-wheeling trio with drummer Will Guthrie that was nominated for Best Australian Group & Best Contemporary Jazz Album at the 2004 Bell Awards. He studied extensively under scholarship in the USA with George Russell, Paul Bley, Jerry Bergonzi & George Garzone, touring with the Artie Shaw Orchestra and performing with Bob Moses. Julien has held a three year residency at the Cape Lounge in Melbourne’s Fitzroy and has performed at festivals in Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, England, Prague, Germany, China, New Zealand, Italy, and throughout Australia.
His current projects include a trio with Magnusson & Stephen Grant on accordian, a quartet with Magnusson, Philip Rex (bass) & Simon Barker (drums), assumptions, & a new two tenor band with Jamie Oehlers.
“one of the most exciting musicians in the country. Like certain of his tenor-saxophone forebears – Evan Parker, Gato Barbieri – Wilson tends to reach climaxes quickly. But having got there, what sets him apart from many other short-fuse improvisers is the ability to sustain those peaks with undiminished fervour for substantial periods.” Sydney Morning Herald
Artists
Matt Keegan
Cameron Undy
Dave Goodman
Chris Cody is one of Australia’s foremost jazz pianists and has performed and recorded around the world. He began his musical career as a classical pianist in Australia, after being a finalist in the Roger Woodward Piano Scholarship at the age of 14. He gained a Bachelor’s Degree in music from the University of Sydney, and the Licentiate of Trinity College, London, with high distinction, for classical piano performance. He performed solo and chamber music at venues including the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Town Hall.
His musical versatility found expression in a wide variety of work situations, and he began to play with some of Australia’s leading jazz musicians such as James Morrison and Don Burrows. He played and composed for numerous musical productions in Sydney, worked with conductor Simone Young, and also wrote and directed the popular jazz cabaret 31 Celestial Flavors, that enjoyed repeat sell-out seasons in Sydney. He formed his own jazz quartet playing in local clubs, festivals and for Australian television and radio.
After gaining the Diploma in Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium and the Jazz Action Society Award for Best Jazz Composition in 1989, he left Australia to perform and tour in the USA and throughout Europe with international stars including Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Sunny Murray, Herb Geller, Stephano di Battista, Frank Lacey, Graham Haynes, Rhoda Scott, Marcel Azzola and Yves Robert. Cody recorded with numerous artists before forming his own highly successful group in Paris – the Chris Cody Coalition – and recording his debut album in 1996, released to international acclaim.
Returning to Australia in 1997, he performed at Australia’s leading jazz venues and festivals including The Basement, Bennett’s Lane, Manly and Wangarratta Jazz Festivals. He formed an Australian version of the Cody Coalition featuring Sydney’s finest jazz musicians and recorded the CD Oasis on Naxos Jazz, receiving glowing tributes from press around the world. Cody was a regular guest on radio programs, including Jazztrack, ABC FM, the 2BL Morning and Afternoon Shows, and The Planet (ABC). Chris Cody taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the Bachelor of Music program, as well as giving masterclasses at universities and conservatoriums around Australia, including the University of Sydney and the Australian Institute of Music. He also co-founded and directed the Sydney School of Piano. His music was selected for the in-flight jazz programs of several international airlines including Qantas. Chris also wrote music for theatre and cinema and appeared performing in the film Dr Jazz at the Sydney Film Festival. Chris was a featured guest and performer on numerous TV and radio programs around the world including France 2, Bernard Pivot, ABC TV and SBS TV. He hosted his own jazz radio program in Sydney, Dr. Cody‘s Hip Transplants and in his spare time was a surf lifesaver at Bronte Beach.
Since his return to France in 2000, Cody has performed at numerous clubs and festivals around France as well as in England, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Cuba, Austria, Algeria, Morocco, and Sweden. He was commissioned to compose and perform a suite of pieces for the inauguration of the Australian Music Centre in Paris and also composed and recorded the music for the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Moliere’s Don Juan at the Sydney Opera House. He has recently performed and recorded his own compositions for Radio France, France Culture, France Musique, ABC and SBS TV, and has been a featured guest of Claude Carrière’s national program Jazz Club on France Musique. He has also worked as a regular collaborator with the psycho-acoustic research team at IRCAM, Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music.
Chris Cody recorded a new CD Midnight Tide (Cristal/Harmonia Mundi), with top American trombonist Glenn Ferris, released to international acclaim in 2003, and recently released Conscript (Nocturne, France), also with Glenn Ferris, receiving further accolades from press around the world. He continues to perform and record at major clubs and festivals throughout Europe and Australia at the head of his own group and as pianist with other leading ensembles.
His recent work includes performing for festivals in Marciac, Munich, Derry, Stockholm, Paris Quarters d’Ete, Melbourne, and Sydney. He has co-produced a documentary, “Paris Ville de Musique”, on music in France for Australian television, and has written the music for various short films and theatre, as well as creating and performing music for the American Academy of Dance Paris. Chris Cody most recently received a US Department of State Federal Award to tour Algeria and is currently preparing a new album of his recent compositions.
Cody’s music reveals not only his deep love of the jazz and classical traditions, but also the influence of contemporary French and African musicians he has encountered in Paris, and its warmth, sense of space and humour touch a wide and diverse public around the world.
Pianist and composer Chris Cody has performed and recorded internationally for the last 25 years while based in Paris. He has headlined at many international festivals including Paris Quartiers d’Eté, London, Rome, Brussels Jazz Marathon, Marciac, Nantes, Ascona and Algiers and at a vast array of concert venues throughout the USA, Europe and Africa. He has worked with many outstanding international musicians including Rick Margitza, Roy Hargrove, Glenn Ferris, Carla Bruni, Annie Whitehead, Tina Arena, Michel Jonaz, Rhoda Scott and Herb Geller.
With eleven CDs of his music released on international labels he has received glowing reviews and featured on radio and television around the world, and has collaborated on over thirty other albums.
His compositions have been commissioned for the inauguration of the Australian Music Centre Paris, as well as for the Sydney Theatre Company, American Academy of Dance, Pillow Book Dance Company Pittsburg, and other French and American theatre companies, and he has composed the music for eight films, and several TV and Radio documentaries.
He was a member of the judging panel for the 2014 Freedman Fellowship, Australia.
“Magical!” Piano Magazine, France
“Exhilarating … a feast of melody… an inspiration never at fault” JazzHot, France
“Full of music and future!” Le Monde, France
“A marvellous climate, between subtle arrangements and vast spaces of improvisation…” Jazz Magazine, France
“Very luminous jazz!” Télérama, France
“This is jazz that takes off for the heights” Figaroscope, France
“A European sensibility with a nod to Debussy” Rolling Stone
“Splendidly rich and varied” Jazzwise, U.K
“A performance full of colour, humour and rhythmic movement.” Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
“A fine mix of superior technical talent and youthful inventiveness” Variety USA
AWARDS :
2010 US Department of State Federal Award, Tour of Algeria
1999 Finalist Australian National Jazz Awards
1995 Finalist Tremplin Jazz Val d’Oise
1989 Best Jazz Composition, Australian Jazz Action Society
1989 Jack Chrotowsky Prize for Jazz Piano
1979 Finalist, Roger Woodward Classical Piano Scholarship
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY :
Chris Cody Octet: Astrolabe, CCM
Chris Cody, Not My Lover, Wave Music
Jon Handelsman, Spirit House
– Bremner Duthrie: Kabarett 33 (pianist, arranger, producer)
– Paddy Sherlock, Electric Chop Shop (pianist, arranger)
– Tuesday Warren Luminescence Quartet: One Drop of Water
– Tuesday Warren Luminescence Quartet: Si Seulement
– Jocelyn Moen, La Rouge Qui Bouge, (pianist, arranger, producer),(Roadsign)
– Wendy Lee Taylor, Compilation, Jewel, (Smoove Records, Japan)
– Chris Cody Coalition, Conscript (CHC001, Nocturne, France)
– Wendy Taylor: Lets Do It , pianist, arranger (Crystal CDM 16)
– Freyja: This Girl (pianist, arranger, producer), FR626
– Chris Cody Coalition with Glenn Ferris: Midnight Tide (Cristal/Harmonia Mundi)
– On The Corner: Four (Amrap)
– Chris Cody Coalition: Music for Don Juan (STC 501)
– Elisabeth Green, Biodiversity, (UWS BD02)
– Chris Cody Coalition: Oasis (Naxos 86018-2)
(APRA nomination for best jazz album 1998)
– The Many Faces of Naxos Jazz (Naxos 86040)
– Chris Cody Coalition (Quoi de Neuf Docteur 032)
– Skander Guetari : Alwan (Bynzart, SG06131928)
– Gervais Koffe: The African Diaspora (Forest)
– Caroline Lynn: The Shaman’s Kiss (Newmarket 3113.2)
– Paddy Sherlock and the Jump Jive Five: The Louis Jordan Show
– Paddy Sherlock and the Swingin Lovers
– Jeff Hoffman: Good Thing (MDM 101)
– Beigel Daisy Toasts (Virgin France)
– Stefan Hugye: Sympathisers (Xopf 020)
Concerts
with Carla Bruni, Michel Jonasz, Tina Arena, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Rick Margitza, Rhoda Scott, Herb Geller, Glenn Ferris, Stephano di Battista, Yves Robert, Sonny Murray, Jason Marsalis, Marcel Azzola, Enrico Macias, Stéphane Belmondo, James Morrison, Barry Altschul, Frank Lacy, Annie Whitehead, Ari Brown, Graham Haynes, Sarah Lazarus, Steve Lehman, Dave O’Higgins, Joe Lee Wilson, Daniel Yvinec, François Théberge, Paris Jazz Orchestra, Lisa Simone, Caneiro Edmundo, Alfredo Rodriguez, Brice Wassy, Rasul Siddik, Wayne Dockery, George Brown, Fabio Morgera, Sangoma Everett, Peter Gritz, Prakash Sharwal, Amar Sundy, Carl Schlosser, Larry Gillespie, Jean-Loup Lognon, Jean-Jacques Avenel, Vic Pitts, Gordon Brisker, Don Burrows, Sandy Evans, Adrian Mears, Tim Hopkins, Miroslav Bukovsky, James Greening, Phil Slater, Julien Wilson etc.
Selected Festivals
Festivals of London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Marciac, Derry, Dars Es Salaam, Festival de Francophonie, Stockholm, Europe Youth Festival, Antwerp,, Marseille, Fête de la Fraternité, Les Rendez-Vous de L’Erdre, Ascona, Nantes, Le Havre, Quartiers d’Ete, Musiques à Bagatelle, Jazz Balade, L’Art 2000 Paris, Xopf New Music Basle, St. Tropez, Mégeves, Viasse, Man Ray Festival, Deauville, Martin Luther King, UNESCO Charlie Parker, Marcoussis, St. Cergues, St. Gilles Croix de Vie, Pau, New Music Festival Paris, Arts et Mouvants, France, Sydney Festival, Wangaratta, Newcastle, Manly, South American Music Festival of Sydney, Australian Music Festival, Australian Music Convention, Bach and Beyond, Australian International Music Show, etc.
Matt McMahon is a pianist/keyboardist /composer based in Australia. He leads his own groups and co-leads “Band of Five Names” with Phil Slater and Simon Barker. Matt won the national Jazz award in 1999, and the Freedman Jazz Fellowship for 2005. He has played/recorded with Dale Barlow, Greg Osby, Phil Slater, Joe Tawadros, Katie Noonan, Vince Jones, Bobby Previte, Dave Panichi, Steve Hunter, Jazzfolk, Guy Strazz etc, and played concerts and festivals throughout Australia and Asia.
Matt will be releasing his first solo album in 2015. He will also be presenting Part II of the Paths & Streams project, for which he was awarded the Freedman Jazz Fellowship.
H released his second album, Ellipsis, with his trio – Jonathan Brown on the bass and Simon Barker on the drums, playing mostly his pieces. The Sydney Morning Herald said “after about 15 years on the scenehe released his first solo album, “Paths and Streams”, .It was one of the half-dozen best releases of 2006. Now “Ellipsis, the first release by his long term trio finally emerges and it is stunning… the music is as good as any current piano-trio jazz.” John Shand
The Necks are an experimental jazz trio from Sydney, comprising Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass guitar and double bass. The band play improvisational pieces of up to an hour in length that explore the development and demise of repeating musical figures. The band’s 17th album Open was released in late 2013.
Their soundtrack for The Boys (1998) was nominated for ARIA Best Soundtrack Album, AFI Best Musical Score and Australian Guild of Screen Composers Award. They have also recorded soundtracks for What’s The Deal? (1997) and In the Mind of the Architect (three one-hour ABC-TV documentaries, 2000).
Awards
The band won two ARIA awards for the albums Drive By (2003) and Chemist (2006).
George Golla AM (born 10 May 1935 in Chorzów, Poland) is an Australian jazz guitarist who commenced a long-term working musical partnership with clarinetist/flautist/saxophonist Don Burrows in 1959 that continued for almost forty years.
On 10 June 1985, Golla was made a Member of the Order of Australia, For service to music. In 1987, The George Golla Orchestra won the inaugural ARIA Fine Arts Award category of ‘Best Jazz Album’ for Lush Life.
He toured frequently throughout Australia and at times with international guest support artists such as vibraphonist Gary Burton in the early 1970s. He has had a long association with Brazilian musicians including Luis Bonfa and extensive performance of and many recordings of Latin American-/Brazilian- influenced jazz, including the acclaimed Bonfa Burrows Brazil (The Orchard).
He appeared at both the Montreux Jazz Festival and Newport Jazz Festival in 1972, and has performed at many Australian festivals. He is a frequent contributor at the annual Frankston International Guitar Festival.
Golla continues to perform in and around Sydney where he resides, touring interstate and internationally and recording. He has appeared at many workshops locally, nationally and overseas
Jazz Journalist/Writer
Samuel Cottell is freelance jazz journalist and writer based in Sydney. He currently writes for several jazz publications and is completing a PhD researching the music of Tommy Tycho, at Sydney University. When he is not writing about jazz he plays piano and writes music arrangements.
