PREVIEW
Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival 2023
It is appropriate that this year’s Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival will feature a live-streamed symposium bound to provide insights into a key feature of this year’s comprehensive program at The Jazzlab in Brunswick– vocalists.
On Saturday 9 December, in a live-streamed session moderated by Australian pianist Andrea Keller – Head of Jazz and Improvisation at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music – vocalists Michelle Nicolle, Gian Slater, Nina Ferro, Kate Kelsey-Sugg, Nilusha Dassenaike, Shelley Scown and Harriett Allcroft will discuss approaches to their careers in music. The title of their discussion is Vocalists in the Improvising World.
Vocalists are prominent at MWIJF this year, including overseas artists Teri Roiger (USA) and Lara Bello (Spain).
To close the festival on Sunday 10 December, Teri Roiger will celebrate the music of American jazz vocalist and songwriter Abbey Lincoln (1930 – 2010), drawing on material from her 2012 album Dear Abbey: The Music of Abbey Lincoln. Roiger’s husband, bassist John Menegon, who has arranged these songs to suit her voice, will be joined by Hugh Stuckey on guitar and Ronny Ferella on drums. Expect heartfelt, exciting music that swings.
As the final artist featured in a triple bill of vocalists on Saturday 9 December, singer/songwriter Lara Bello – born in Granada and now based in New York – will join Nathan Slater on guitar, Christopher Hale on bass and former Melburnian Rajiv Jayaweera on drums in a quartet fusing flamenco, Arabic melodies and Mediterranean roots with African and Latin American rhythms.
The triple bill that night will open with a quintet featuring 20-year-old jazz vocals student from Monash University, Ruby Glynn, joined by Harper Dawson alto saxophone, Monty Price guitar, Meg Davidson double bass and Pat Skarajew drums.
A powerful and deeply moving tribute to women from Australia’s past and beyond will follow with vocalist Ilaria Crociani’s Connecting the Dots (Italy/Melb), also featuring Mirko Guerrini on piano, accordion and sax, plus Niko Schäuble on drums and Tom Lee on double bass. Crociani weaves together narratives of hardship, vulnerability, resoluteness and redemption to paint an uplifting picture of resilience and hope.
The vocal feast begins on opening night, Sunday 3 December, when New Frontiers recipient for 2023, vocalist and guitarist Maeve Grieve, will perform a set of new, original compositions blending jazz and folk styles. Having recently completed her final year of Jazz and Improvisation at VCA, Grieve will be joined by Sarah Anderson violin, Noah James mandolin, Elly Blackham tenor saxophone, Erin Sherlock trumpet, Brad Bellard piano, Jethro Anderson bass and Alex Siderov drums. New Frontiers is the award given to a leading graduating female / non-binary final year MCM jazz improvisation student.
On Wednesday 6 December – before heading overseas – vocalist, composer and arranger Mim Crellin will provide preview of a coming EP Only A Setting Sun recorded with Danish guitarist Morten Duun, as well as pared back arrangements her debut album All Our Little Boxes. Along with Duun, Crellin’s quintet will feature Flora Carbo woodwinds, Sam Anning bass and Kyrie Anderson drums.
On Friday 8 December vocalist Nina Ferro will join Isaac Moran on guitar in Distance, a tribute to American singer and songwriter, Emily King, whose composition Georgia was an inspiration to her while living and performing in London. King’s material has been a constant at Nina’s shows ever since.
In the second set that night, Tasmanian born vocalist-composer Elly Hoyt, who recently returned from London, will present “My Nightingale” – new music Inspired by a poem by holocaust survivor Rose Ausländer. These compositions, exploring Hoyt’s relationship with family, connection to place and the craft of songwriting and storytelling, will also feature vocalists Louisa Rankin and Emma Gilmartin, along with Llewellyn Osborne violin, Hugh Stuckey guitar, Tamara Murphy bass and Mark Leahy drums. Hoyt will also play guitar and ukulele.
Voice will also be a key ingredient in the first concert of a double bill on Monday 4 December, when experimental cross-cultural music duo ZÖJ, comprising Gelareh Pour – originally from Iran – on kamancheh, qeychak alto and voice, and Brian O’Dwyer on drum kit. Pour’s classical background is evident in her evocative interpretations of Persian poetry sung in Farsi. O’Dwyer’s interventions on drums and percussion are impeccable.
In the second set that night, sung and spoken word will combine with Auslan in a moving collaboration, Across Silence, involving the use of vibro-tactile haptic vests which will enable deaf poet Walter Kadiki and deaf actor Marnie Kerridge to receive vibrations across 24 touch points on the body so they can to feel the instruments and music live on stage. Gian Slater will sing poems set to music by Andrea Keller and signed by Amber Richardson. This performance will be extraordinary.
But there will be no vocals – and no chords – in the second set on festival opening night, Sunday 3 December, when Aura launch their second album, Same Sky, featuring Flora Carbo alto saxophone, Audrey Powne trumpet, Helen Svoboda double bass and Kyrie Anderson drum set. These fresh compositions are inspired by deep friendship and musical synergy. Don’t miss this.
On Thursday 7 December the Monash Art Ensemble will continue its work to encourage mid-career artists, nurture young talent and develop broader audiences. This concert will launch the ensembles’ recordings of Cheryl Durongpisitkul’s A Pinky Promise and Andrea Keller’s Circuit Breaker.
In the opening set that night, Sasha Gavlek – bassist, soup enthusiast and queer jazz luminary of Lutruwita (Hobart) will join Angus Leighton tenor sax, Stella Anning guitar and Holly Thomas drums to deliver high intensity rhythmic ideas and soulful improvisation in alt-jazz compositions.
Students and emerging artists will have a chance to showcase their talents in two festival outings.
On Tuesday 5 December, Monash University Sounding Change will feature Monique diMattina along with student ensembles performing two sets with guest drummer Cat Canteri.
And on Wednesday 6 December at 7.30pm, in the first set, tertiary students from Monash University, Box Hill TAFE and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music will play the music of Australian composers as well as classic big band arrangements from the swing era and beyond under the direction of saxophonist, band leader and composer Angela Davis and featuring guest artist Ellie Lamb on trombone.
On the same day, at 11.30am, Melbourne duo Anita Quayle and Nick Delaney will blend electric cello, looping, effects, electric guitar, bass, and live looping in ethereal compositions for Quayle’s Beyond the Lake – an all ages performance.
The festival will provide a jam and hang on Saturday 9 December from 11pm – a chance for female and non-binary musicians and vocalists to play together or just plain hang out and connect with other musicians.
At 4pm on the closing day of the festival, Gender Defying Jazz will bring together alumni and undergraduate students from the Jazz & Improvisation degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in a live performance.
And that’s a wrap. Kudos to Sonja Horbelt for putting together the program, which is dedicated to the memory of Lynette Irwin – brilliant human being and MWIJF artistic director 2003-2022
ROGER MITCHELL
Ausjazz Blog 