REVIEW Andrea Keller’s Transients I (Australia) Gary Bartz Quartet (USA/Australia) Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre, Friday 3 June 2016 7.30pm As Gary Bartz tells it, John Coltrane knew about him before he knew about Coltrane. Coltrane was working with R&B singer and saxophonist Bull Moose Jackson for two weeks in Baltimore and, when their second week was cancelled, they came to a jazz session at … Continue reading SADNESS LEAVE THIS PLACE

  PREVIEW: Paul Grabowsky’s Moons of Jupiter, Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, 8pm, Monday 30 May, 2016 If you don’t pale at the full force of Scott Tinkler‘s trumpah, or the extraordinarily rapid bow work of Erkki Veltheim, or the colossal keyboard antics of Paul Grabowsky, this music is for you. Not that there are not periods of lower intensity. But this is a monumental work … Continue reading DO YOU LIKE YOUR MUSIC STRONG?

NEWS Australian Jazz Bell Awards 
2016 shortlist The Australian Jazz Award winners and the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame recipient will be announced at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards on Monday 20 June at Bird’s Basement. The Bells, named in honour of one of the greats in Australian jazz — the late Graeme Bell, MBE AO — have a prize pool of $40,000. Each category title this year … Continue reading BELL AWARDS COMING SOON