Hi everyone,
Just thought I’d share a very nice review that the trio’s second album “Crossover” received at All About Jazz:
Described as a “brilliant, lyrical young Melbourne pianist/composer,” Australian jazz pianist Daniel Gassin reveals but a glimpse of his talents on Crossover, as evidenced by the quality of his compositions and the elite caliber of his performance. A follow up to his debut, Roundtrip (Vorticity Music, 2004)—which was rereleased in 2010—Crossover is an enchanting recording of modern jazz, featuring one of the most unheralded young pianist in jazz today. As with his first album, this also adopts the piano trio format, with two new players rounding out the rhythm section.
Joining Gassin on this adventure is Sam Anning, one of the most sought after bassists in Melbourne and named the 2008 Young Australian Musician of the Year. A previous Henry Mancini Fellow at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, Australian drummer Daniel Susnjar does the honors on the skins and sticks. Together, the Daniel Gassin Trio produces an excellent cool and modern jazzy sound, making each piece a keeper, with no fillers, as every tune is worthy of airplay. Opening up in impressive style, Gassin chooses the sizzling up-tempo “Freefall” to introduce his music, instantly grabbing attention with its fiery approach. The pianist goes it alone and plays softly for the first two minutes of the introspective title track, which quickly changes directions and takes the high, hot road to a jazz burner of a tune.
Anning is the featured soloist on “7a Arrondissement,” though drummer Susnjar also takes his turn with a rumble of his own. The mellow, ballad-like “Release” provides Gassin with an opportunity to infuse a classical element into the music, as he delivers yet another strong performance. The brisk, fast-paced and energetic “Middle Man” is one of the finer moments on the album, with Gassin’s runs amongst his best, while Anning delivers more firm bass lines as Susnjar’s splashes and brush work complete the piece.
The music winds down with Enrico Pieranunzi’s “Don’t Forget The Poet” and an absolutely beautiful solo piano performance of Jimmy Rowles’ “The Peacocks.” The landscape of jazz music contains a plethora of piano trio performances, many of which are mediocre, some just plain bad and a few that measure up to an elite standard. Crossover deserves to be elevated into that elite category, with Daniel Gassin the primary reason.
FYI you can view and share the review from the All About Jazz website at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37255
Hi guys,
Well last week I had the pleasure of playing sideman to my usual sideman – the very talented and depressingly young drummer Aaron McCoullough. We did a quick 3-gig tour through his home state of New South Wales.
The first gig was a concert at Aaron’s old stomping-ground the Woolongong Conservatorium of Music. The performance sounded great (recording to follow!) and was well received by a full house of local music lovers.
Next we travelled down to Canberra and played at a very cool venue called the Front – famed for its live music, art gallery, and, probably not least, free wi-fi. We had a great gig there too – it was probably the freeest and most energetic gig of the tour.
We finished off with a gig in Sydney at the 505 Bar, a venue that has recently relocated but has long been a progressive jazz establishment. Whilst it was difficult to top the house burritos as the highlight of the evening, we had a great time playing there as well – jazz fans passing through Sydney should not pass up the opportunity to check out this venue!
Hi all,
Last Saturday was the 43rd anniversary of the passing of the great John Coltrane.
Andy Sugg, whose band I am a member of, put on a special concert to mark the occasion.
The day began with a live-to-air performance of two tunes for ABC Radio National featuring Andy, myself, Ben Robertson on bass, James McLean on drums, Tom Barton on vocals, and Natalia Mann on harp (this was my first ever performance with a harpist!). It wasn’t exactly “unplugged”, but was certainly much more acoustic than what we played later that evening. To check out the live tracks from Radio National (with an interview with Andy on Coltrane in between) go to: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/musicshow/default.htm
That evening the band did a gig at Cape Live in Fitzroy. We were joined by Stephen Magnusson on guitar, and Nadje Noordhuis (who was in Melbourne on a short visit from New York) on trumpet. The concert was reviewed in The Age newspaper – click on the following link to check it out: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/andy-sugg–coltrane-anniversary-concert-20100718-10fxa.html
The band will be playing later in the year at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival – so expect another post about it in early November!
Hi all,
Well I just recently found out that I have been granted funding from Arts Victoria to record the Sextet’s debut album!
Obviously I’m very grateful for the funding, which will be a massive boost – especially for the recording of a larger ensemble.
The grants were announced by the Premier, Mr John Brumby, last Friday.
To read the media release, click on the following link:
http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/newsroom/11027.html
Cheers!
A big congrats to my depressingly young and multi-talented friend Kate Kelsey-Sugg, who just took out the 2010 Generations in Jazz Vocalist Scholarship Award. Not bad for a piano player!
Kate, if you’re reading this – you still owe me a beer for playing on your audition tape!
On 6 May 2010 I had the pleasure of hearing Ahmad Jamal as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
I must say that I didn’t go to the gig with the highest of expectations. The latest album of Jamal’s that I’d heard, It’s Magic (GroovPool; 2007) was for me quite heavy-handed, and a overall seemed to be a somewhat diluted version of the musical elements to be found in his classic recordings of the late 50s and early 60s.
But, unlike the album of the same name, this gig WAS magic. It was pretty inspiring to see someone aged 79 play with all the freshness, energy, gusto and technical proficiency of someone in the ‘prime’ of their life.
This was quite simply the tightest band I have ever heard on a live performance. Ever. It was interesting to see how Jamal cued sectional development – usually either with a clap of the hands to denote the next section, or a point of the finger to indicate a solo/feature for a particular instrument. In any case the band followed him every step of the way quite impeccably. Especially impressive was James Cammack’s ability to go note for note with Jamal through whatever phrases and lines he played. Herlin Riley swung his absolute butt off from the beginning of the concert to the end, and both his accompaniment and time were ridiculously tight. Whilst not adding a great deal to the performance in my opinion, Manolo Badrena was clearly excellent and sympathetic at the percussion.
After a great set of tunes, the audience were treated to a great version of “Ponciana”, with some typically innovative phrasing from Jamal. This was but one of about four encores – that’s how good this gig was.
So on 4 May 2010 I went to the Melbourne Recital Centre to hear the Charles Lloyd New Quartet, as part of the 2010 edition of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Lloyd’s well-publicised spirituality when it comes to music was again a feature of his musical persona in this performance. Hearing him speak at the gig (and later at one of the Festival’s open discussion sessions) certainly gave me an insight into his concept/idea of himself and his fellow musicians being ’servants’ of the music. As a speaker, Lloyd is also one of the most loquacious and poetic jazz musicians I’ve heard.
As for the music itself, one of the first and main impressions I had was that it could have sounded fairly plain in the hands of lesser musicians. Many of the tunes were very simple in their form, and often quite static both rythmically and harmonically. Fortunately, there were no ‘lesser’ musicians on the stage. Jason Moran gave a glimpse of the depth of his musical knowledge and pianistic ability, and Eric Harland further confirmed to Melbourne audiences that he is arguably a ‘top-5′ drummer (if indeed there even is any argument). Ruben Rogers has absolute gallons of the things that people really look for in a bass player: great time, great feel, and great sound. His use of space was a particular feature of this performance, and he played a couple of really excellent solos to top it all off.
As for Lloyd himself, I loved his saxophone sound, and loved his flute sound even more. The warmth and roundness of the sound really added a beauty to his playing and to the music as a whole. If I had one criticism to make, it would be that there started to be a sameness in Lloyd’s playing style (the fast fluttering up and down his scales) that did become a little repetitive towards the end of the gig.
I recently had the pleasure of doing 3 gigs in Adelaide with some good friends of mine (who are also really good musicians) – Pat Thiele (trumpet), Sam Zerna (double bass) and Aaron McCoullough (drums).
Aside from a dubiously tasteful private joke (which shall remain private), the name of the band also refers to the hard work that we put into preparing some pretty damn challenging repertoire. The tunes were largely 80’s and 90’s compositions by Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland and Jeff “Tain” Watts (so that should really give you an idea of the flavour of music). On top of this, we also performed some original compositions by Pat and Sam, which, sadly, were even harder than the non-originals that we played.
We did gigs at three cool local clubs – Cafe Komodo, La Boheme and the Wheatsheaf Hotel, all of which were well attended and pretty successsful.
Throw in some wine-tasting (which was an unmitigated success!) and it was a pretty damn fun tour.
To see some excerpts of our gig at the Wheatsheaf hotel, click on the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdVbAwa9N7U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c21EG_BVGE
Cheers!
So on March 16 2010 I heard the Branford Marsalis Quartet.
Unfortunately the concert was at Hamer Hall, and accordingly the sound was no good at all. It really is a room made for ‘classical’ music, and the powers-that-be in jazz events programming really need to give up on this venue as soon as possible. Not only was the room its typical reverby self (turning any attempt at drumming into a wall of washy cymbal sound), but you couldn’t distinctly hear the saxophone or double bass. Moreover, I had the impression that I was observing a performance very far away; rather than feeling like I was “in” the sounds that were being created. This is one of my absolute pet hates when it comes to listening to music (whether live or recorded). As a result, I couldn’t really take anything away from the gig as far as saxophone or bass were concerned. That’s a fair travesty when you’re talking about Branford Marsalis and Eric Revis.
Fortunately we were able to hear the piano, and Joey Calderazzo certainly had a really good night. He sounded great both on ballads and up-tempo tunes, and pulled out some beautiful and well constructed solos.
The drums were an interesting aspect of this gig – with young prodigy Justin Faulkner coming into Branford’s band recently in place of Jeff “Tain” Watts, who’s left the band to do his own thing. Faulkner’s performance, interestingly, got a lot of mixed reaction from the local drummers. Some liked him, although others were less than impressed, and one particulary scathing critic said that he had “failed the crotched (that’s a quarter note for you Americans) test.” Personally I thought he was an incredible talent who had a great feel and more than a little bit of Tony Williams in his playing. My only criticism would be that his soloing seemed to be more about creating a wall of sound with his amazing technique, rather than actually improvising over the individual tune that he happened to be playing.
One thing for sure is that the band sounded totally different without Tain. Listening to that gig made me realise how critical he was to the sound of that band; I would go as far as saying that his contribution to that particular sound was the most important of any of the band members – including Branford himself.
I was also a little disappointed with the repertoire – too many delicate classical-influenced ballads (although they did play a Purcell tune which was extremely nice) and not enough of the butt-kicking hard-swinging stuff that I’d hoped to hear. Of course, the hall that they were playing in dictated this to a large degree also. Branford was quite diplomatic in this regard, saying that the room was “screaming out” for the softer tunes, which certainly was a nice way of saying that trying to play hard swinging jazz in that room would sound shithouse.
Less diplomatic was an off-the-cuff comment from Branford at the beginning of the gig when he said how happy he was that the weather was warm. He said that as a result of the warm weather, his Australian tour had gone from really bad to really good. Does that mean that other than being able to get into shorts for the first time in a long time, he wasn’t particularly interested in coming and playing in Australia? I’d hope not…
On 5 March 2010 I had the privilege of seeing arguably the best jazz quartet on the planet, led by arguably the greatest living jazz musician and composer on the planet.
Having seen the band once in Paris in 2004, on a day when Wayne wasn’t particularly “on,” I was eager to hear them again and see how it would be this time.
The first thing that gave this concert every chance to be good was that it wasn’t at Hamer Hall (which should be renamed Lamer Hall when it comes to jazz performances there). Instead it was at the Palais Theatre and the sound was really very good.
Everyone in the band was definitely on in this concert. Shorter’s trademark sound (both on tenor and soprano) was really happening, as were his ideas. Danilo Perez showcased his amazing harmonic vocabulary, and John Patitucci was his generally amazing self on double bass. Brian Blade (possibly my favourite drummer currently living) was a highlight for me with his unbelievable sense of time combined with his usual earnest intensity. And did I mention the fact that he managed to flay the living hell out of the drums, without ever getting in the way of his colleagues or sounding anything less than perfectly musical and tasteful?
Wayne Shorter was quoted in The Age newspaper as saying that the band’s music was about “the eternity of life.” That is no small statement, but he and his band absolutely lived up to it. Personally, I think that all great music has an “epic” quality about it, and Shorter’s music had gallons of it. Without doubt the best gig I’ve heard this year.
