PREVIEW
Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2025
17-26 October

In just over seven weeks, more than 500 artists from 18 countries will be unleashed on 40 venues in Melbourne to play music over 10 days. The full program is now out, which means it’s time to ask – using the name of a powerhouse band led by Blue Note saxophonist Marcus Strickland – WhoAllGonBeThere?

Audiences will answer that by turning up. They know what they like, which is why tickets have sold out for six outings featuring guitarist Bill Frisell (USA) – surely an opportunity too good to miss in such an intimate venue.

My task is to provide a guide of sorts to who will be there, on stage, and when and where, during the festival.

That’s a tall order for a festival that CEO and Program Director Hadley Agrez has described as “the biggest program Michael Tortoni [Artistic Director] and I have ever delivered”. Yes, they do say that every year, but there is a dizzying array of concerts on offer. As an incentive for patrons to dig deep into the program, 36 per cent of them are free.

“It’s also a program that reflects the full breadth of jazz today, from its deep traditions to its most daring frontiers, and it’s designed to be experienced by everyone, whether you’re a dedicated jazz enthusiast or simply curious to explore,” Tortoni said in the MIJF media release.

The variety of musical influences and styles is wide, so it’ll be helpful to approach the program as you would the shelves of a good record store – with your preferences in a back pocket along with a robust sense of adventure. Clearly the festival programming aims to tap into younger fans’ tastes, but artists are also driving this trend. For instance, Grammy-winning saxophonist Gary Bartz (USA) did not want a concert hall show, but a “standing venue with young folks there”. He’ll perform at 170 Russell on Wednesday 22 October.

To kick things off on Friday 17 October, Night Crawl will involve more than 100 musicians across 11 city venues, including a Fed Square triple bill featuring Tenderlonious (UK), DJ Natasha Diggs (US) and cinematic soul exponents Surprise Chef (Aus). Seek out tucked away basements, rooftop bars, laneways to find these free gigs. Expect hypnotic and euphoric rhythms, soulful elegance, nu-jazz, house, broken beat, funk and dreamlike landscapes.

On the penultimate night of the festival, the other mass audience event, Jazz at the Bowl, offers six hours of jazz, soul and swing headlined by Harry Connick Jr performing jazz standards, swing-era classics and soulful originals, along with some of his hits. Bill Frisell will join the line-up, as will Emma Donovan airing her new rendition of soul classics, Take Me to the River.

Grammy winners and nominees are plentiful among international headliners. Fans of vocalists can hear the resonant baritone of Gregory Porter (USA) at Hamer Hall on Friday 24 October and, at 2pm in that venue on Sunday 26 October, youngster Samara Joy (USA) – at age 25 calling to mind Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. That evening, exuberant pianist composer Hiromi (Japan) will present The Piano Quintet, adding her improv to the classical strings of PUBLIQuartet (USA).

In a solo treat, Panamanian pianist composer Danilo Perez will perform at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Saturday afternoon 18 October.

For standing venue fans, on Thursday 23 October 170 Russell will host a bold as brass 10-piece band, with six trumpets, led by Lebanese-French horn player Ibrahim Malouf in a blend of Arabic melodies and jazz improvisation. The following night six-piece band Lettuce (USA) is on the menu at 170 Russell, promising “pure funk euphoria” for dance aficionados.

For those keen to stay on their feet, on Saturday 25 October venue Max Watts will host a double bill of jazz, soul, hip-hop and R&B featuring singer and flautist Melanie Charles (USA), multi-instrumentalist IGNABU (USA) and Paul Wilson Bae in one set and, in another, WhoAllGonBeThere including saxophonist Marcus Strickland and bassist Ben Williams.

The festival is building a reputation for fostering collaborations and commissioning new works. One cross-generational collaboration that promises to stir the soul will be The Eternal Tenure of Sound, in which Gary Bartz joins Australian pianist and composer Barney McAll at 170 Russell on Wednesday 22 October to explore the history and future of Black American music. Strap in for a wild ride.

There are other exciting collaborative projects. On Thursday 23 October at Chapel Off Chapel pianist/electronic artist Joanna Duda (Poland) will join Korean-born vocalist Sunny Kim and inventive bassist/vocalist Helen Svoboda in a world premiere of The Great Reset.

Spontaneity, risk-taking and the magic of first encounters will be on show at Quad Club on Thursday 23 October when Melbourne’s Speak Percussion meets Tokyo’s Banksia Trio on the day of their gig to create the content for their 8pm performance.

There are two commissioned works. On Saturday 25 October at Melbourne Recital Centre, Grammy-winning bassist composer Linda May Han Oh (USA), much loved by Australian audiences, joins vocalist and media artist Pamela Z (USA) and Australian jazz luminaries in Invisible Threads – exploring memory, emotion and shared experience.

MIJF and the Australian Art Orchestra have co-commissioned First Rhythms, featuring First Nations Artist in Residence Adam Manning, a Kamilaroi composer, percussionist and painter. The work, to be performed at MRC on Sunday 19 October with AAO musicians, reimagines clapsticks as vessels of cultural memory and connection to Country.

A new work to be aired at the festival is Mad Vantage (Night Cat, Monday 20 October) – a fusion of nu-jazz, prog-metal and electronic sound design by multi-instrumentalist SOLUNE (Selene Messinis).

For fans of deep listening, on Monday 20 October The Jazzlab will host British saxophonist, flautist and band leader Tenderlonious in a reinterpretation of John Coltrane’s album Africa/Brass, after audience members have listened first to a hi-fi playback.

And Night Cat will host a 16-piece ensemble on Saturday 18 October when Australian violinist, composer and producer Tamil Rogeon leads a foray into cosmic jazz, Brazilian choro, orchestrated soul and deep house.

Since the days of the Stonnington Jazz Festival under the guidance of Adrian Jackson, Chapel Off Chapel has been a favourite venue. This year audiences will get bang for their buck with two concerts showcasing Jeremy Rose’s Sydney label Earshift. In a triple bill on Tuesday 21 October, pianist composer James Bowers will air music from My Quartet Album; Visions of Nar trio will deliver delightful sonic landscapes (check out Daughter of the Seas on Bandcamp); and guitarist Hilary Geddes will unveil her new work, Redleaf with a quartet.

The following night, a double bill will feature Yolnu songman Daniel Wilfred with Paul Grabowsky and Peter Knight in Raki, fusing sacred songs with contemporary sound, as well as Infinity II, with Rose in a quartet offering long-form improvisations that explore motion, impermanence and collective intuition.

Chapel Off Chapel will also offer Singapore’s “King of Swing” Jeremy Monteiro in a 16-piece big band (Saturday 25 October), Italian piano grand master Rita Marcotulli in a quartet (Monday 20 October) and Gary Bartz in conversation with Barney McAll (Thursday 23 October).

For the many fans who love to get up close and personal with the musicians, the MIJF Cub Sessions at The Jazzlab hold great appeal. The sold-out Bill Frisell outings take up three nights – Friday 24 October to Sunday 26 October – with 7pm and 9.30pm sessions, followed by the late night jams once again featuring The Rookies (yay!), who will invite guests to sit in from 11pm each night from 17-19 October. Entry to the jam sessions is free.

Students have an opportunity to shine in two concerts – on Friday 17 October Danilo Perez joins young talent from Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and, on Wednesday 22 October, Linda May Han Oh will play alongside Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance students from Monash University.

Overseas visitors to the club will include Aotearoa (New Zealand) jazz pioneers Allana Goldsmith and Mark Baynes in their Australian debut (Saturday 18 October) and Japan’s Banksia Trio – fresh from Blue Note Tokyo (Wednesday 22 October).

Norwegian pianist Liv Andrea Hauge will debut her Australian trio with Chloe Kim on drums and Jaques Emery on bass (Tuesday 21 October), and Open Thread will unite Canadians Peggy Lee and Dylan van der Schyff with Naarm favourites Julien Wilson and Theo Carbo (Thursday 23 October).

Artists from New Zealand, UK and Italy team up in lvdf to fuse electronic, indie, dance and classical influences (Tuesday 21 October).

Not-to-be-missed concerts for fans of Australian jazz will be Celebrating Allan Browne, marking 10 years of missing the beloved drummer, composer, poet and mentor (Saturday 18 October) and two high-octane outings by Speedball (Sunday 19 October).

In the remaining club sessions, progressive jazz-rock collective The Outernet will air music from their debut album The Light and the Fury (Thursday 23 October), while award-winning Fem Belling will premiere her Hormesis Project with an all-string ensemble (Friday 17 October).

Slightly out of town, but well worth the trip, will be Nat Bartsch teaming with the Monash Art Ensemble led by Paul Grabowsky to present Acceptance Does Not Mean Surrender – a piece which invites reflection, resilience and hope in the face of climate collapse (Sunday 19 October at Monash University Music Auditorium).

That’s almost a wrap, but the festival website has details of free and family events, including Big Band Saturday (Saturday 18 October), Jazz on Film, Inside Out: Jump Jive, Jazz (final four days), Jazz Westside (Sunday 19 October) and Footscray Sunday Sessions (26 October, 2pm-6pm), plus two nights of free music in the Grazeland Takeover at Spotswood (17-18 October).
With all these choices to make, and armed with some idea of the artists on offer, the question audience members have to answer themselves is: WhoAllGonBeThere?

ROGER MITCHELL