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David
Jones Trio
To
start the night off, I let the audience in on the process and the experience,
having quite a chat and a lengthy explanation of the whole concept of
the night. The debut of the David Jones Trio was a night at Melbourne’s
Bennett’s Lane, on 28 September 1999 with Bob Sedergreen (piano/keyboards)
and Evri Evripidou (6 string bass and effects). The whole first set
was one continuous piece, in which even the audience participated with
clapping, and a tremendous energy of support and coming with us all
the way. We had such a good time together that I invited them to perform
with me at a second concert in January 2000 as part of the Melbourne
International Jazz Festival.
I’ve known and respected Bob for 23 years. Bob’s a mighty
and deep player and a great human being, so heartfelt and passionate
about music and people. We played and recorded together when I was 18
in the Brian Brown band for about 2 years in Melbourne. ("Bells
Make Me Sing" was the first album that I ever played on. I can
attribute a lot of my fearlessness in improvisation to the great saxophonist/composer
Brian Brown, who for years had a Sunday night gig at the Commune in
Fitzroy. The spirit of that gig was anything and everything goes!!!).
I met Evri 20 years ago at a Greek Song Festival (back in the days when
he was a guitarist) and we’ve been wanting to play together ever
since! He is an unbelievable bass player, who has the technique of a
classical/flamenco guitarist, whilst also providing all the gutsy and
rootsy foundation of the bass. He is a soul-brother too.
I love this project because it’s so immediate, in-the-moment and
on the edge, with no safety net. Each set is one whole improvised piece,
with no pre-planning or even discussion about concepts. The only discussion
happens at the beginning of the set, with a challenge and invitation
for the audience to "co-create" with us. Let’s face it,
if the vibe’s not happening, the music is not going to sparkle.
So the theme of the David Jones Trio is to surprise the audience with
different concepts and different compositions and material.
In April 2000, we released our Double CD called Intuition, recorded
live with an interactive audience of 80 people at Allan Eaton's Studios
in Melbourne Australia. You can buy the CD from my website by clicking
here.
To
see reviews of Intuition, click here.
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Drum!
featuring David Jones
This
project brings the drums "out the front" again, like Gene
Krupa and Sandy Nelson did in the thirties and forties. I've composed
heaps of pieces for this band. I workshopped extensively with the band
members, and have written according to their strengths and specialised
backgrounds.
Drum! is groove-oriented, and attracts a general public audience (very
family-friendly). It's also great for taking into schools and communities
for workshops and concerts. If you'd like us to come to you, send an
email to me (click here).
With
a gender balance of 2 guys and 2 girls, this is a very appealing event.
The one hour 15 minutes show (no interval) is a power-packed, melodic,
grooving and transporting experience.
To
see more about Drum! click here
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Staff
Drummer for Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (OEK) in Kanazawa City, Japan
Tom O'Kelly is one of my oldest dearest friends, and world renowned
classical timpanist/percussionist. Fortunately for me when I mounted
many European Tours for myself from 1994 to 1998, Tom would invite me
to come to Kanazawa in Japan. From 1994 onwards, I was able to conduct
workshops, play in a local jazz club, and eventually play with the Orchestra,
even as a featured soloist with a concerto for Violin and Drumkit with
orchestra, composed by Loussier. Ten years down the track and I'm travelling
to this beautiful city at least twice a year. It's an amazing and very
rewarding connection. I've had the great fortune of playing with many
famous Japanese singers, saxophonists, pianists, vocal groups, and many
times being under the baton of wonderful conductors, in particular Maestro
Iwaki, Jean-Pierre Wallez and Toshiyuki Watanabe.
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Calm
& Creative Concerts
This
is a ambient and meditative music duo or trio, featuring the multiple
talents of my partner Carmen Warrington (vocussion and spoken word narrations,
meditations and song). Carmen is a marvellous performer with a powerful
presence on stage, and exquisite sounding voice. I play drum kit, Tibetan
and Japanese singing bowls, hand drums, gongs and assorted percussion
and we have created an original repertoire of surprises. The show was
born in Japan in 1997, where we were invited to perform as part of a
Percussion Festival in Kanazawa. We have played many shows since then
at art galleries such as Sydney’s Brett Whiteley gallery, at intimate
performance venues such as Melbourne’s Chapel off Chapel. We are
looking at taking the 1 hour show to regional areas of Australia.
The
trio form of Calm & Creative Concerts is with the marvellous musician
Evripides Evripidou, who I consider a musical soul-mate, a very spiritual
man who is a true virtuoso. He not only plays 6 and 7 string bass (with
amazing synth effects) but also nylon string acoustic guitar.
To see more
about Carmen and her books and CDs, click here.
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Meditation
Music
I’ve
been a meditator since 1984 (in this lifetime that is!) and one of the
things I love to do as a contribution to the community is to create
and perform ambient meditation music. I work a lot with Carmen Warrington,
who as a meditation artist, conducts guided meditations both at public
events and on recordings. Carmen’s soothing voice and creative
meditation style is very highly regarded in Australia and around the
world, and together we have had the great fortune of being part of some
wonderful events and recordings. I usually play my collection of Tibetan
and Japanese singing bowls, and chimes, gongs and percussion, although
on one CD of meditation music ("Sakash") I play 2 pieces on
synth keyboards!
Some of the event highlights include:
- Longing
for Peace, an interfaith program at Martin Place in Sydney
- World
Peace and All That Jazz, a concert in Sydney for the Llama Gangchen
World Peace Foundation
- World
Meditation Hour series (collaborating live with many Sydney musicians)
- Greeting
the Dawn 2000, for the Melbourne City Council on 1 January 2000
- UN
World Peace Day for the Stonnington Council
- Calming
Down program at the Hawthorn Town Hall with guest speaker/author Paul
Wilson
- Power
of the Mind program at St Kilda Town Hall
- The
Missing Peace, with guests James Morrison, David Hirschfelder, Jane
Rutter, Michael Johnson, Evripides Evripidou, Christine Sullivan,
Michael Westlake (www.themissingpeace.com.au)
Some
of the meditation recordings that we have made (available on both CD
and cassette) include:
- Peace
Of Mind – commentaries plus music including the title track featuring
the Tibetan and Japanese singing bowls
- Lights
of the World
- A
World of Relationships, commentaries plus music
[Both of the above have been broadcast in full on ABC Radio, and feature
guest artists including Daryl Pratt and Paul Cutlan]
- Today
I will ... meditations to make your life calm and creative
[click here to find out more about this CD and Carmen's best-selling
inspirational books www.calmandcreative.com.au]
- Sakash
– music only (including compositions by Sam McNally and David
Jones)
If
you are interested in finding out more about the philosophy and meditation
techniques that I study, click
here to go to the Brahma Kumaris website.
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David
Hirschfelder and DJ
http://www.davidhirschfelder.com/
David and I were
co-creators of Pyramid, the jazz-fusion group of the late 70's early
80's. We toured with Bob Venier and Roger McLaughlin to North Sea Festival
and Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1983, amongst other gigs. We were honoured
at the Montreaux Festival by being called on to play a second performance
by public demand. Claude Nobbs, the festival director announced that
he'd never done that before in the history of the festival. Pyramid
was the revelation of the festival and the news spread throughout Europe,
and the BBC interviewed us about our original approach to music.
Once returning to Australia, the group disbanded and the players went
their separate ways. After 20 years, David and I are playing again together
in duo-mode. It's a sheer joy for me to play in this format with David.
We totally improvise the night, just acoutic piano, piano accordion,
drums, singing bowls and assorted special percussion. David being such
an accomplished composer (with a host of movie scores to his credit
including Elizabeth, Shine and Strictly Ballroom) and amazing pianist,
and myself being totally into
composition in real time, this event becomes almost like film music,
and certainly is not without depth and humour.
Watch
this website for gig details, or click
here (and put your State eg. NSW in the subject window) to be added
to my email gig list, which will keep you up to date with my appearances
in your state.
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Ambient
Groove www.lyrebirdmusic.celestial.com.au
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Fiona
Burnett Trio
www.fionaburnett.com
click
here for a review of 2003 concert at Side-On Cafe in Sydney
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The
Quartet (with Tony Gould)
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Rupert
Guenther & DJ
www.rupertguenther.com
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James
Morrison
www.jamesmorrison.com.au
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Christine
Sullivan
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Magesh & DJ
www.magesh.net
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Tree
Tree
took root in 1994, and is a trio of Kevin Hunt (keyboards), Steve Hunter
(bass) and me on kit. I first played with Steve in a band called Playdiem
which released a self-titled album. Steve is an extraordinary electric
bass player who plays with an intense and unrelenting spirit –
a true master of the instrument. Kevin and I have also played in many
musical situations and I just love his infectious enthusiasm and passion
for layers, textures and surprising sounds. Kev brings deep emotion,
joy and beauty to anything he plays. Steve and Kevin are old buddies
who have been playing together for many years. Tree is a very dynamic
band that covers a wide spectrum of music from classically influenced
composition, right through different cultures and textures to Latin,
jazz and even rock-fusion. Performances are always an intense experience.
The band started as the Steve Hunter Trio in 1995, and soon became a
three-way co-operative in 1996. It’s the best way to run a band
of 3 leaders!
We play original material and we all compose for the group. Improvisation
plays a huge part in our music. As you can see, improvisation is a feature
of most of the groups that I play with – improvising with structures
and "group composition in real time" is my favourite way of
playing!!!
Note: Improvisation doesn’t have to mean jazz – it can happen
in any style/genre of music.
We independently released our first self-titled album in 1996 (click
here to purchase a copy) and in 1999, ABC Records released our second
album "Love and Logic" with guest artists James Muller (guitar)
and Andrew Robson (sax). In the Green Guide Melbourne Age review of
1999’s best music releases worldwide, Tree’s album was listed
as one of the best jazz albums of the year.
We have toured Australia extensively.
A
new CD is planned for early 2005.
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Sam
McNally Band www.sammcnally.com
What
can I say about my dear friend Sam? He is one of the most dedicated,
hard-working musicians I know. He is extremely passionate about producing
high quality recordings and live shows. His background is so extensive
that I’d need to devote another whole website to him! Suffice to
say I played on Sam’s first record release in 1978 called "First
Chance" – and Sam has re-released this recording on CD this
year, available through Vorticity Records. It was so interesting to
revisit my own playing from that time (’78) and hear how much my
own "distinct voice" was already formed at age 19. In 1980
and 1981 Sam and I toured and recorded with John Farnham. Tommy Emmanuel
was also in John’s rock band of the time, and played on Sam’s
"First Chance" album too. We were also part of a fantastically
memorable tour with Stevie Wonder in 1981. An amazing rocking time-period
for me.
Since then, Sam and I have played many shows together. Sometimes I’ve
come in as guest drummer, or as a band member. I’m featured on
all of Sam’s CD recordings, one of which is a live recording at
the Basement, Sydney Australia.
Watch this website for gig details, or click
here (and put your State eg. NSW in the subject window) to be added
to my email gig list, which will keep you up to date with my appearances
in your state.
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Zomba/Bruton
Music
In
1996, I played on some tracks for Art Phillips, a prolific composer/guitarist,
for a company called Zomba, and the producer for these sessions was
the managing director of Zomba Australia, Stuart Livingston. Zomba Worldwide
has various companies and arms, one being the production and distribution
of Library CDs (specific use music for documentaries, films, ads etc).
I met Stuart originally in 1981 and had admired his brush playing on
drums for years with the Don Burrows Quartet. So to make a connection
again was a joy. He suggested we do some projects together through Zomba,
the first being a percussion album for worldwide release. The project
was heaven on earth for me, recording during the day for 2 weeks, with
quite a considerable budget. The brief I was given was for a series
of 2 and a half minutes tracks of contemporary ethnic percussion, all
acoustic. I went into the studio with sketches, and laid down 19 drum
tracks in one day. In the same day, I started to layer tympani, marimba,
vibraphone, exotic hand drums etc over these drum tracks. When it came
to mixing weeks later, on Stuart’s suggestion we started to take
the drum tracks out of the mix. Most of the tracks worked extremely
well without the foundation drum track. It was a great way to record,
having the energy of live drums as the core compositional tool. Some
of the tracks, we left the drums as one of the major components. I’ll
be bold and say it’s my best work to date. Thanks to Stuart and
Adrian Bolland, the masterful sound engineer (also previously a kit
drummer), this project set me on the path of wanting to do a similar
album for commercial release. The album is called Percussion World,
and I’m happy to say it is doing really well. The second project
with Zomba was a co-write with another bass buddy, Leon Gaer (originally
from LA). It was a bass and drums album called Rhythm Plus, which features
a spectrum of different grooves and settings for the bass and drums
to come to the forefront. Both CDs are available for multiple use through
Zomba Music.
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