Upcoming events

Tord Gustavsen Trio

...returning to Australia after their overwhelming reception at Wangaratta Festival of Jazz '04 and Sydney Festival '06

Tord Gustavsen is a pianist of poetic cast, an exceptionally lucid player with a sure sense of melodic structure and often-astonishing lyrical imagination. With Harald Johnsen on double bass and Jarle Vespestad on drums, this is one of the highest calibre chamber jazz ensembles to emerge from Europe for some years, and beautifully recorded and projected on the prestigeous German ECM label. Winners of the Australian Bell Award for the best International Jazz Album of the Year 2006 ('The Ground'/ECM 1892 4761938). Check their new album (2007) 'Being There' (ECM 2017 1723517) -

visit: www.tordgustavsen.com

'...Tord Gustavsen's Norwegian trio is about less, not more... they have
a miraculous ability to pull you deeper and deeper into their orbit by leaving more and more space, until what you hear is almost nothing more than a memory... There is an uplifting, almost hymnal quality to Gustavsen's writing, and in the hands of these three exceptional players, each tune resonates with the grace and subtle optimism of a wordless prayer...'
Jessica Nicholas -The Age

'...Utterly distinctive and arresting. .. Each and every touch on the keyboard is not just a note being struck, but a carefully sculpted sound of almost breathtaking passion and beauty. .. Gustavsen and his fellow Norwegians breathe some soul and fire into everything they do. The accumulative effect could be described as aural love-making...Unreservedly recommended as one of the key releases of the year...'
John Shand - Sydney Morning Herald

Line-up:
Tord Gustavsen - piano
Harald Johnsen - bass
Jarle Vespestad - drums

www.tordgustavsen.com

Melbourne Jazz International Festival: Sat 3 May - Hamer Hall - 8.00 pm - in double bill with Tomasz Stanko Quartet (Poland) - Book: Ticketmaster 1300 136 166 and online: www.melbournejazz.com

Tomasz Stanko Quartet

“Stanko evokes the spirits of the finest trumpeters dead and living while creating a mood and a voice uniquely his own" - Richard Lehnert, Stereophile, Record to Die For

Line up:
Tomasz Stanko - trumpet
Marcin Wasilewski - piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - bass
Michal Miskiewicz - drums

www.tomaszstanko.com

Tomasz Stanko is at the forefront of international contemporary jazz trumpetism, and holds a status in international jazz circles similar to where Miles Davis was in the seventies.
He is one of ECM's leading jazz recording artists, drawing large concert audiences in Europe and the USA. For two years in a row (2004 and 2005) Tomasz Stanko has won the Australian Bell Jazz Award for the best international album of the year. Stanko's latest recording Lontano (ECM 2006) features three of Poland's finest young jazz musicians, Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michael Miskiewicz, with whom he regularly performs and tours around the world. Tomasz Stanko has been ranking high in the 2005 and 2007 Downbeat Annual International critics polls’ Rising Star Acoustic Group..In the four years since the quartet's much-loved ECM debut album Soul of Things (2003), both the trumpeter and his young band have continued to make their mark. Many miles of touring, on both sides of the Atlantic, have honed their already exceptional group understanding. Their 2nd album (Suspended Night released May 2004) builds upon the conceptual framework established by its predecessor. In September’06 Lontano was released complementing the recording triology of the present Stanko Quartet. In the wake of Soul of Things, Stanko won the first European Jazz Prize, a major new award initiated by the Austrian Government and the City of Vienna.

"Stanko evokes the spirits of the finest trumpeters dead and living while creating a mood and a voice uniquely his own. Yes, you can hear the influences of Miles Davis and Chet Baker at their most introspective and profound, as well as hotter, more rasping traces of Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown... 'Soul of Things' stands shoulder to hiply-slumped shoulder with 'Kind of Blue', and has an even better sound." - Thomas Conrad, Stereophile, Record to Die For

"Tomasz Stanko's release, "Suspended Night," is a masterpiece of minimalist beauty …Stanko and quartet outcool the coolest of the late '50s jazz groups and make it easy to see why he was awarded the first European Prize in jazz last year [2002]." - The Japan Times'04.

Melbourne Jazz International Festival: Sat 3 May - Hamer Hall - 8.00 pm - in double bill with Tord Gustavsen Trio (Norway). book: Ticketmaster 1300 136 166 and online: www.melbournejazz.com

Michelle Nicolle Octet

Australia's first lady of jazz - That's Michelle Nicolle.
Winner: 2001, 2003 and 2004 - Australian Jazz Vocalist of the Year Aria Award - Melbourne based, arranger, band leader and jazz vocalist Michelle Nicolle is Australia's first lady of jazz. With a full ranging marvellous voice, her profile has been rapidly rising and she has become known as Australia's finest jazz singer. Michelle has released 5 beautiful albums, all of which were received with high acclaim. In 1998 at the Wangaratta International Jazz Festival (Melbourne), Michelle won the prestigious National Jazz Award and the judges included the legendary bebop singer Sheila Jordon (USA), and the current Blue Note vocal star Kurt Elling (USA). - "Australian jazz singing doesn't come any better than this" - (The Weekend Australian). In 2003 and 2006 Michelle Nicolle toured around Australia and in 2004 she toured Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. In March 2005 Michelle and her Quartet featured at the Java Jazz Festival and in July 2005 performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and Singapore's Ozmosis Festival. In 2007 tourings thus far have included New Zealand, Turkey, Estonia, Finland and Singapore.

Line-up:
Michelle Nicolle - vocals
Geoff Hughes - guitar
Tom Lee - bass
Ronny Ferella - drums
Gianni Marinucci - trumpet/flugelhorn
Greg Spence - trumpet
Jordan Murray - trombone
Dan Gordan - tuba

"..an exceptional singer... who deserves attention as an original and inspiring Jazz artist." - Cadence Magazine (USA), June 2003

"Michelle Nicolle stands above any other jazz singer in the country."- Weekend Australian, Dec. 2003

"...Michelle impressed from the start with her talents, not only as a vocalist with a very wide octave range but also as an excellent improviser." - Bangkok Post, October 2004

"..an album that confirms Nicolle's place as Australia's best jazz singer." - Sunday Herald Sun, June 2001 (After the Rain review)

"..I can think of no one else who finds, in the modern jazz repertoire, such a sense of pure song." Gilbert Haisman, Evening Post, NZ, Oct'01.

".formidable technique and a staggering range......more interesting than most other jazz vocalists in the country."Rolling Stone

www.michellenicolle.com

Melbourne International Jazz 'All Stars series' : Friday 2 May - Palms at Crown Southbank - 8.00 pm - in double bill with 'Lost and Found (Oehlers, Grabowsky, Beck). book: Ticketek 1300 795 012 and online: www.melbournejazz.com