REVIEW Sumire Kuribayashi (Japan) on opening night of the MWIJF 2022 Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival 2022 Sunday 4 December – Sunday 11 December The Jazzlab The Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival celebrated the determination by musicians, organisers and audiences to get back out to create, present and enjoy live music. Nobody was under the illusion that Covid-19 had gone away – case numbers were rising – but there was a real sense that hearing music performed in person was important, levels of vaccination were relatively high and the artists were ready. Kudos to those ..read more

SNAP PREVIEW Sumire Kuribayashi on piano at Wangaratta during her visit to Australia in 2018. Image: Roger Mitchell Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival 2022 Sunday 4 December – to Sunday 11 December The Jazzlab, Leslie St, Brunswick Kudos to Sonja Horbelt and Lynette Irwin for presenting what the founder of the MWIJF, Martin Jackson, has described as “one of the strongest programs in the festival’s 24-year history”, starting today for a week. There’s a lot of music on offer, including international talent including pianist and composer from Japan, Sumire Kuribayashi, lots of gigs wit ..read more

Julien Wilson plays a solo in Riverside, an encore.This World take a final bow before inviting MC David Moyle to join in. Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues 2022 Friday 28 October to Sunday 30 October REVIEW Full marks to this festival – not because everything was perfect (it wasn’t), but because it returned, against the odds. Also because of Mark, Mark and Marc, who, in the front row of the Wangaratta Performing Arts & Convention Centre on Friday evening, helped remind me of what this festival with such an august history is all about: experiences. Rich, memorable ones. One Marc lives ..read more

A fractal tree from Dan Tepfer’s “Natural Machines” at Melbourne’s planetarium. Image: Roger Mitchell REVIEW Melbourne International Jazz Festival 14-23 October 2022 Optimism flowed freely in the first Melbourne International Jazz Festival freed from covid-19 lockdowns, pouring into venues filled with animated crowds so gleeful to be waiting with others in anticipation of the live music in store. Surely the musicians, festival organisers, sponsors, volunteers and even hard-working staff at venues must have felt this surge in excitement, the buzz of many collective success stories. Yet as we re ..read more

Well done to winners of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards for 2022, which were presented tonight. Taking home the award for Work of the Year: Jazz was Gian Slater’s Grey is Ground album which marks the artist’s sixth solo release and explores the unknowns and mysteries of day-to-day life. Gian is a prolific vocalist and composer, whose approach incorporates wordless singing and improvisation, song writing; electronics and extended vocal techniques; new music and contemporary composition. She has been a multiple finalist in the prestigious Freedman Fellowship, Melbourne M ..read more

Dan Tepfer at the controls for Natural Machines. Image: Nicholas Joubard PREVIEW Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2022 14-23 October As we ponder life’s imponderables – such as, was Scott Morrison ever sworn in as arts minister? – the launch of this year’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival draws our eyes to the heavens. The festival is back in town for 10 days from Friday 14 October, freed from the onerous constraints of Covid-19 (still here, but largely being ignored) and sporting its first global line-up in three years. That’s great, but what’s immediately intriguing is the prospe ..read more

Jazz in the Square The Main Stage, Fed Square, Melbourne Saturday 30 April 2022 Australian jazz journal Dingo is keen to support and promote the activities of the jazz community nationally, whether that means involving renowned artists in international concert halls or those starting out in their first jam-sessions. So there will be free music from noon until 8pm today at Fed Square in Melbourne to celebrate International Jazz Day 2022. The event will also be live streamed via www.dingojazz.com. The day’s line-up is as follows: Noon Aviana – with Gian Slater  12:20pm Hoodoo May ..read more

Ellie Lamb conducts during the performance of Between Worlds. Image: Roger Mitchell REVIEW Melbourne International Jazz Festival December 2-5 2021 Stories. That’s what music is about, whether those stories are conveyed via a festival, a concert, a suite, a song or a solo. Words, whether explanatory or in songs, can help tell stories. Other stories are passed on without words, conveyed powerfully in notes and passages that stir emotions and provoke responses. The short story of this year’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival is how successfully an October program involving more than 400 artis ..read more

Matt Thomson from New South Wales during his National Jazz Award-winning performance streamed online. National Jazz Awards, 26-28 November 2021 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues Right now online is probably on the nose for many concert-goers keen to return to live music in the flesh. That said, like any virulent viral variant, streamed performances are not going away for a long while yet. There were significant benefits to delivering the work of the 10 finalists at the piano competing for the top three positions this year over three days via a viewing portal provided by Secure Show Tix ..read more

Versatile: Bassist/composer/vocalist Sam Anning will lead his septet of fantastic musicians at the MRC on December 3, 6.30pm. As we leave our long lockdown, tickets go on sale today, Friday 22 October 2021, for the reworked and quite compressed Melbourne International Jazz Festival that will mostly take place over four days from Thursday 2 December. It will provide a welcome burst of live music allowing patrons and musicians to enjoy the experience of live music in the flesh, albeit with constraints of required vaccination, appropriate distancing and masks where appropriate, plus the QR code c ..read more