Kristin Berardi Band hits the road for a national tour playing music from her new album, Just as you are with Greg Coffin (piano), Carl Morgan (guitar), Brett Hirst (bass) and Tim Firth (drums)
JK: What’s special about this band?
KB: I think what is special is the music we make. It’s how we all play together, and work with each other. There is a lot of listening, a lot of trust and respect there and so we can all create and be ourselves, with freedom.
JK: You’ve released three albums fairly recently, a band coming together through your win at the National Jazz awards, a trio with Sean Foran and Rafael Karlan and now the Kristin Berardi band. Would you like to tell us a little about each album?
KB: “Just As You Are” was captured a couple of years ago, however life just got in the way from it being released. This is a record of my Sydney based group “The Kristin Berardi Band” which I started when I first moved to Sydney to live. Not long after this was recorded I moved back to Brisbane to live, and have been trying to keep this band going from afar.
This is the band’s second release, and the current line up has been the same for about four years now. Greg Coffin (pno), Carl Morgan (guit), Brett Hirst (bass), Tim Firth and I mainly play my originals in the group, and some standards.
Having drums in this quintet is the most different aspect to the other projects I have going at the moment. It gives it drive and dynamic depth, and some serious swing goes on in this band. With that said though – all these musicians are equally comfortable with the more tonally and lyrically sensitive tunes, and the space they require.
The focus of this album was to capture what this band was producing through these songs as vehicles to connect.
“Hope in My Pocket” is a new trio. We released our first album last year, which was directly a result of an ANZAC Centenary grant, to write music based upon letters, stories and documentation from WW1. The line up is piano, tenor saxophone and voice and we all write and arrange so it’s definitely a “band” rather than a group with a leader. So that album had a definite purpose and feel to the album.
“Where Or When” CD was the second release from last year under my name and was put out by ABC Jazz. This was also recorded years ago, as part of my Wangaratta National Jazz Voice Award prize. I had a free recording session with Mal Stanley, and had already recorded new albums with my Sydney band (Just as you are) and with James Sherlock (Guess I’ll hang my tears out to dry). I decided to record something for ABC Jazz Radio with some of my favourite Australian musicians. We did some jazz standards, some folk songs, and some of my tunes, and since this has been released by the record label we have decided to continue as a group. We are now “Balloons”. Julien Wilson (sax), James Sherlock (guit), Steve Newcomb (pno), Sam Anning (bass) and I, floating around, trying to make people’s ears happy.
So – three very different albums but all coming from a place of honesty, and a hope to ignite the listener’s imagination.
Tuesday 19th April
Brisbane – JMI LIVE, Exhibition St, Bowen Hills
Saturday 23rd April **
Canberra – The Street Theatre
15 Childers St, Canberra CBD
Thursday 19th May
Sydney – Venue 505
280 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Saturday 21st May **
Wollongong – Wollongong Conservatorium Of Music, Winter/Autumn Festival
Murphy’s Ave, Keiraville
Friday 10th June
Melbourne – Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF)
The Coopers Malthouse
Merlyn Theatre, 113 Sturt St, Southbank
