Aaron Blakey is a jazz pianist originally from New Zealand.
Before moving to Sydney, Aaron spent three years living in Japan as an active pianist on the Tokyo Jazz Scene. The Aaron Blakey Quartet will be presenting a variety of original tunes that Aaron has composed, based on various experiences from his times in Auckland, Tokyo, New York and Sydney, as well as some cool standards.
Aaron will be joined by Mike Rivett, James Heazlewood Dale and James Waples. Each of these wonderful musicians brings their own voice to the tunes.
Look forward to a fantastic night of music!

Aaron Blakey (piano)
Mike Rivett (tenor sax)
James Heazlewood Dale (bass)
James Waples (drums)

www.aaronblakey.com

Mike Majkowski, bassist extraordinare, home from Berlin for a couple of weeks.

James Waples, one of the great drummers on the Sydney scene.

Dale Gorfinkel, Melbourne vibes player, for his first Colbourne Ave show.

All three incredible improvisers, masters of invention, creators of instruments and sounds previously unheard.  But above all: musicians who listen first then play, who respond as fast as the music can change,who build layers of textured sound onto entrancing, shifting rhythms.  I love it.

Francesca returns with a quartet - James Waples on drums, Alex Boneham on bass, and Nic Verdanega on guitar.

Originally from Indonesia (In 2005, she led her quartet in the Jakarta International Java Jazz festival) but currently based in Sydney, Francesca Prihasti is now studying under Mike Nock at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and recently played with Dale Barlow in his sidewomen project.  It's the first time we've had the pleasure of hearing most of these young musicians - James Waples (drums), Alex Boneham (Double bass) , Nic Vardanega (guitar), Chris O Dea (Sax), and Simon Ferenci (trumpet) - it will be a great six piece band plaing Francesca's original compositions and new arrangements of standards

Jackson Harrison piano trio

Winner of the 2006 National jazz award for piano, Jackson Harrison is one of Australia's finest and original jazz pianists. Recently returned from touring Asia and  recording a solo piano album, Jackson brings his band to Colbourne Ave for what is sure to be a spellbinding night of music.

Chris Abrahams, James Waples, and Mike Markovski - maybe the most creative improvising trio in Sydney.  totally UN-composed, completely free jazz by three of sydney's free-est improvisors.  Despire their differences in age and history, they clearly understand each other well enough to climb around each others sounds.  ROIL mesmerise you with the way they surge together then careen apart, ramming textures and harmonics against each other in ways that would be totally destructive in less competent hands.

I just found this overview of Mike's playing, by John Clare.  he quotes ROIL's last gig at Colbourne Ave:

"More recently I heard him in Roil ... The room has a wonderful sound, so good in fact that even when Majkowski played glissando patterns by vooming the palms of his hands on the wood of the bass I thought he was using amplification, but they were all playing acoustically. “How do you do that?” I asked. “A lot practice,” he said. “And the room. Actually I’ve done a lot of work on projection.” Using the bow and, simultaneously, rapid fingers down near the bridge, Majkowski created a maze of high notes and interacting harmonics that took my breath away. Also pings, pops and chattering. The instrument was singing and crying like several voices, and in fact he sometimes projected his own voice into it.

As with The Necks, so with Roil- in this regard at least: it is misleading to say there are no solos, but brief focus on one instrument can be the result of the others suddenly dropping in volume rather than the one shouldering itself into prominence. The isolated instrument suddenly has a kind of supernatural presence. There are a number of Australian contemporary jazz bands in which such a “solo” would be entirely in context. Others of course where it would not be seen to be serving the music."

[John Clare, sima.org.au/2010/10/14/profile-2-mike-majkowsk]

and then he quotes Mike:

“In this regard jazz is dead. But when I play with a trio like Roil I feel I am really playing jazz. In our rehearsals we just play. There’s no verbal dialogue, or very little. There’s no leader. No one is worried about playing over anyone else. We are solving the musical problems in the moment. We got together in 2007 and we weren’t talking about playing gigs. We just enjoyed playing together. Playing no one else’s music."

Back in NZ from several years living in Boston, James Wylie is a saxophonist/clarinetist involved in microtonal music and active in many styles including improvised music and jazz, contemporary classical and bluegrass. In this project he will present a woodwinds/bass/drums trio exploring a program of new and borrowed compos...itions and improvisations hinting at themes from Federico Fellini to Hank Williams.

Joining him will be two of Australian Jazz’s rising stars - Alex Boneham (James Muller Trio, The Vampires, Steven Barry) on bass and James ‘Pug’ Waples (Mike Nock, Bernie McGann, Jackson Harrison Trio) on drums.
www.jameswyliemusic.com

the exploration of sonic soundscapes
the flow of cascading rhythms
the pathway into unknown territories

David de Vries - Guitar
James Waples - Drums
Brendan Berlach - Saxophone
Spike Mason - Saxophone

Roil is a collaboration between pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Mike Majkowsk, and drummer James Waples. Since forming in 2007, this Sydney-based trio has been developing their own approach to jazz improvisation. There is a controlled elegance to Roil’s music — not that this precludes the energetic. The music has an eddying quality that moves between group utterance and multi–stranded counterpoint, a weaving of textures that coagulate to form unified phrases before dispersing once more into the churning invention. ’Meaning’ is its first release and was recorded in one uninterrupted session on 2 April 2008.

Roil