Performance jazz studies need performances! But Covid has created dissonance. So, bringing jazz students to improvise together is to be heralded and embraced.
In April between lockdowns, UNSW brought their Advanced Jazz Ensemble and their Jazz Orchestra into the Io Myers Theatre for an evening of magic. Two big bands extending convention and making the music their own.
Melodies float over one another while improvisers negotiate shifting forms. Unrestricted rhythms and ambiguity. High energy funk grooves with Indian Karnatic influences. A big band reimagines Radiohead classics and builds to big Balkan brass with an off-kilter oompah! Original compositions. Jazz standards (Ornette Coleman, Johnny Mandel). Modern classics (Linda May Oh, Jan Hammer, Ellen Kirkwood).
This Saturday (25/9) at 7pm, Keith Pettigrew will curate selections from the UNSW Polyphonica performance on Emergent Jazz on 2MBS Fine Music Sydney.
You’ll hear it on 102.5FM, Fine Music on DAB+, or streaming live or listen on Demand on the Emergent Jazz program page.
What’s not to love?! Emergent Jazz, 7pm this Saturday!