2019 Program
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90+ artists / 20 Concerts & Masterclass 5 world class venues sydneyconjazzfest.com Sydney Conservatorium ofMusic INSIDE FRONT LHS Welcome to the 2019 Sydney Con International Jazz Festival The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is delighted to welcome so many lovers of jazz into the building for our third annual Jazz Festival. Jazz has been at the centre of our curriculum since 1976 and many of our graduates have become key players in the field. It is wonderful then to give our current Professor Anna Reid students, and the public, this great Head of School & Dean opportunity to hear and work with Australia's and the World’s best during the festival! It is extraordinarily exciting watching students’ music grow in new ways when they respond to the voices of other jazz players. We hope to see you at the Festival. Australia is abundant with creative artists who are producing diverse and exciting work, opening up new sound worlds for their audiences. For 35 years, SIMA has been integral in the development of this work, Zoe Hauptmann providing a platform for artists to develop and present their music. That is why we are SIMA Artistic Director thrilled to partner in presenting this important festival which places Australian jazz and improvised music firmly at the fore. We hope that in this program you discover new music while hearing from leading artists from Australian and the world – all within the beautiful venues of the Sydney Conservatorium. — Supporters Media Partner — Page 1 On behalf of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney, it is my pleasure to welcome you the 2019 Sydney Conservatorium International Jazz Festival. This is the third instalment of this important cultural event on the Australian Jazz Calendar, and since its formation in 2017 our festival has placed Australian Jazz, both established and new, at its core. David Theak The Festival was originally formed with five main goals: to present a standalone international artist, to present collaborations SCIJF Artistic Director between International and Australian artists, to present leading artists from around the country that rarely perform in Sydney, to present leading Sydney based acts, and to promote jazz education through the presentation of masterclasses and the CONVERGE series where leading Sydney based student groups are mentored by the country’s best. Our festival team has sought to create an event where the musicians and their art is the primary focus: our concerts are uniquely acoustic in a world where amplification and volume is increasing, our program is inclusive in bringing together many different peoples and sub-genres of jazz together through collaboration and the instigation of new projects and our festival aims to be affordable and accessible, occurring in a singular location, on one day in what we hope is a feast for music lovers. Our festival seeks to provide an increasingly rare opportunity for our incredible Australian Jazz musicians to perform alongside the world’s best and encourages the creation of new works and performances of new ensembles. When we brand it as an international jazz festival, it’s not only the astonishing visiting artists such as Bill Frisell Trio and Billy Childs Quartet that we include under the ‘International’ umbrella but also our own incredible Australian artists that are worthy of inclusion on any international stage, especially our own. Come and join us for a one-day celebration of one of the world’s most vibrant and creative artforms, Jazz. Page 2 — Festival GOLD Pass $150 / $140 conc. / $50 student. Tickets Includes priority entry into all events including the Bill Frisell Trio and the Billy Childs Quartet concerts. Festival Day Pass $100 / $90 conc. / $45 student. Includes entry into all events excluding the Bill Frisell Trio and Billy Childs Quartet concerts. Bill Frisell Trio Concert $69 / $62 conc. / $25 student. Billy Childs Quartet Concert $35 / $30 conc. / $20 student. Morning Pass $40 / $35 conc. / $20 student. Includes entry to all events between 10am - 2pm Afternoon Pass $80 / $75 conc. / $40 student. Includes entry to all events between 2pm - 9pm excluding Bill Frisell and Billy Childs Concerts. Page 3 Festival Schedule — June 2, 2019 Recital Hall Recital Hall Music Music Verbrugghen West East Cafe Workshop Hall 9am Masterclass Masterclass Masterclass 10am Jamie Mat Ben Oehlers Jodrell Vanderwal Masterclass 11am Kevin Hunt Concert Jason Bruer & Concert Hammerhead Concert 12pm Jamie Vanessa Perica Oehlers w/ Syd Con Quintet Jazz Orch. Concert 1pm Coast Concert Concert 2pm Hannah Australian James National Jazz Concert Trio Craig Orchestra Scott Concert Quintet 3pm Sum of Two Parts Concert Billy Childs Concert Masterclass Quartet 4pm BBGG/ Don Was, Melanie & Blue Note Laura Records President Concert 5pm Riffz2000 Concert The Arthur Washington Concert Sexytet Concert 6pm Angela Mezza Davis w/ Ginsburg Matt Harris Ensemble Trio Concert 7pm Mat Jodrell w/ Josh Meader Concert Quartet Bill Frisell Trio 8pm Festival Concludes 9pm International Artists Australian artists Masterclasses ConVerge Artists of Tomorrow w/ mentor International Artist — Bill Frisell Tri o Bill Frisell — guitar Thomas Morgan — contrabass Rudy Royston — drums & cymbals Separately Ticketed Event $69 / $62 conc. / $25 student. or entry with Festival GOLD Pass. Concert — 7.30pm – 9pm Verbrugghen Hall Described as musical chameleon and shining light of Americana, New York-based Frisell has collaborated with pop icons such as Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Sting & Brian Eno along with jazz luminaries John Scofield, Ron Carter, Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden, combining sonic mastery with jazz, country, folk, rock, blues, pop, avant-garde, and more, whilst always maintaining a uniquely identifiable sound. With bass player Thomas Morgan (Paul Motian, Dave Binney Quartet) and drummer Rudy Royston (Branford Marsalis, The Mingus Big Band), Frisell’s music is a spellbinding sonic journey of new music from his latest albums alongside reimagined ‘Frisell’ classics. Bill Frisell is a multi -Grammy award winning guitartist and composer whose career has spanned more than 35 years and includes many celebrated recordings and collaborations with artists at the cutting edge of the jazz world genre. Internationally renowned as an Artist of great ingenuity and vision, Frisell’s recorded catalogue has been described by Downbeat as “the best recorded output in decades” and includes a phenomenal breadth of musical expression ranging from original Buster Keaton film scores, to arrangements for extended ensembles with horns and strings; to albums with Nashville musicians, solo albums, a collection of traditional American folk songs and originals inspired by them and two trio albums with jazz legends, Dave Holland/Elvin Jones and Ron Carter/Paul Motian. Frisell’s latest album for Okeh (SONY) ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ emerged from a project that germinated at the Lincoln Centre during Bill’s tenure for the Roots of Americana series. Down Beat Guitarist of the Year for ten consecutive years, Bill Frisell has been hailed as “the most innovative and influential jazz guitarist of the past 25 years” by the Wall Street Journal “Plays guitar like Miles Davis plays trumpet” – The New Yorker. “Frisell has had a lot of practice putting high concept into a humble package. Long hailed as one of the most distinctive and original improvising guitarists of our time, he has also earned a reputation for teasing out thematic connections with his music... He has drawn recent, long-form inspiration from the rural portrait photography of Mike Disfarmer and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927... There’s a reason that Jazz at Lincoln Center had him program a series called Roots of Americana for its coming season.” – New York Times “unforgettable themes are the real draw here, reconfigured with ingenuity, wit and affection by Frisell and a terrific group.” – Jazz Times International Artist — Billy Childs Quartet Billy Childs — piano and composer Danya Stephens — alto saxophone Alex Boneham — contrabass Christian Euman — drums & cymbals Separately Ticketed Event $35 / $30 conc. / $20 Student OR entry with Festival GOLD Pass Concert — 3.30pm – 5pm Verbrugghen Hall Quadruple Grammy winning composer and pianist, Billy Childs, has a reputation as the foremost American composers of his era. Touted as possibly the most distinctly American composer since Aaron Copland he has successfully married the musical products of his heritage with the Western neoclassical traditions of the twentieth century in a powerful symbiosis of style, range, and dynamism. A native of Los Angeles, Childs grew up immersed in jazz, classical, and popular music influences. A prodigious talent at the piano earned him public performances by age six, and at sixteen he was admitted to the USC School of the Performing Arts, going on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition. By his early 20’s Childs was already an in-demand performer in the L.A. jazz scene before he was discovered by trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard, with whom he embarked on a successful performing and recording tour. Childs recorded and performed with a number of other influential jazz musicians including J.J. Johnson, Joe Henderson, and Wynton Marsalis before landing a record deal with Windham Hill Records in 1988, where he released four critically acclaimed albums for the label. For his SCIJF performance he leads a quartet of some of the worlds brightest young musicians. Simultaneously with his recording career, Childs has occupied a parallel