Tag Archives: Bell Awards

YOU TUNES — TIM ROLLINSON TRIO

Posted on July 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

CD REVIEW

Rollinson — You Tunes

3 stars

THERE are no rough edges to Rollinson‘s second outing as leader after 1997’s Cause + Effect in a different trio plus guests. The founder of popular ’90s acid jazz band DIG (Directions In Groove) is joined by bassist Jonathan Zwartz and drummer Hamish Stuart, fresh from their work on dual Bell Award-winning album The Sea.

On seven originals, three by the trio and one standard, guitarist Rollinson uses distortion and other pedals to float smooth, fluid layers into an often busy mix including soft lyricism with a reflective feel, some bright, stabbing rock-infused riffs and harder, more emphatic musings. The opening Before is too brief, but closer After is a rich, thick gravy with some deliciously deep rumblings.

File between: Bill Frisell, Stephen Magnusson
Download: White Lion Brow, After

ROGER MITCHELL

This review was published in the Sunday Herald Sun liftout Play on July 18, 2010

Leave a comment

Posted in CD REVIEWS

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

JAZZ BELL AWARDS 2010

Posted on April 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

AWARDS NIGHT AT BMW EDGE
The winners:
The winners: (from left) Hall of Fame inductee Bob Barnard, Kristin Berardi, Stu Hunter, Jonathan Zwartz and Allan Browne.

Congratulations to the 2010 winners of the Jazz Bell Awards:
Jazz Ensemble of the Year – Jonathan Zwartz – The Sea
Jazz Song of the Year – Jonathan Zwartz – Epic
Young Australia Jazz Artist of the Year – Linda Oh
Classic Jazz Album – Sam Anning, Allan Browne & Marc Hannaford – Homage
Contemporary Jazz Album – Stu Hunter – The Gathering
Jazz Vocal Album – Kristin Berardi – If You Were There

James Sherlock with Kristin Berardi
James Sherlock, recently returned from Queensland, accompanies Bell winner Kristin Berardi at BMW Edge during the awards.

Leave a comment

Posted in GIGS

Tagged , , , , , ,

DARK EYES — TOMASZ STANKO QUINTET

Posted on February 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

CD REVIEW

Dark Eyes

(ECM Records)
****
POLISH trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, whose albums Soul of Things (2003) and Suspended Night (2004) were gonged by Australia’s Bell Awards judges, once said he loved the “extremely great melancholy mood” of Antonioni’s film Il Grido.
Stanko’s sublimely mournful playing is a brooding presence in this restrained outing, as he welcomes two Finns — pianist Alexi Tuomarila and drummer Olavi Louhivuori — and Danes Jakob Bro on guitar and Anders Christensen on electric bass to explore his hauntingly simple, moving compositions — including a reworked Last Song — and two by his film mentor, pianist Krystof Komeda.
The mood lightens in Grand Central and an upbeat finish to The Dark Eyes of Martha Hirsch (inspired by an Oskar Kokoschka painting), but Stanko’s plaintive and grittily soulful horn is paramount.
That said, Tuomarila’s lyricism and Bro’s subtlety combine perfectly with the grounding of Christensen and Louhivuori.
In Dark Eyes lies sombre satisfaction.

DOWNLOAD: The Dark Eyes of Martha Hirsch
FILE BETWEEN: Chet Baker, Miles Davis

ROGER MITCHELL

Review published previously in Sunday Herald Sun, Melbourne

Leave a comment

Posted in CD REVIEWS

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,