From Christchurch to Boston, from San Francisco to New York, Nock’s seven-decade career has seen him play with an enormous breadth of musical luminaries including Yusef Lateef, Art Blakey, Johnny O’Keefe, Dionne Warwick, Michael Brecker and Miles Davis, before returning to Sydney in the 1980s to teach at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Here, he spent thirty years sharing his knowledge while balancing a prolific career of composing, recording, and touring.
Nock has more than forty albums to his name and has featured as a player on over a hundred others. Since he began taking piano lessons with his father at the age of eleven, Mike Nock’s affinity with the keyboard has been evident. Determined to continue his musical development after his father died suddenly, Nock continued his lessons with Ngāruawāhia pharmacist Bert McNamara.
In 1957, while living and playing in Auckland, Nock developed formative relationships working with the rock ‘n’ roll singer Johnny Devlin, drummer Tony Hopkins and trumpeter Kim Paterson. Nock ultimately wanted to get to the USA and figured the best way might be via Sydney, leading to his stint as a stowaway. At age eighteen and hungry for gigs, he quickly embedded himself in the local scene, forming the Three Out Trio with bassist Freddie Logan and drummer Chris Karan. They became a popular jazz group in late fifties Sydney, where they played relentlessly, and their 1960 EMI Columbia release Move sold like hotcakes.
When Nock learned he had successfully gained a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in the USA, the Three Out Trio planned a tour to England, playing for their passage, and spending a few months performing in Europe before Nock moved to Boston to study. With little money or support, Nock was forced to hustle for gigs while studying, and quickly established himself in the local jazz scene.
His undeniable talent soon found him picking up gigs with local luminaries, becoming an integral member of Yusef Lateef’s band in the early sixties. Lateef’s band leadership and the band’s timeless post-bop improvisational jazz had a profound influence on Nock.
Their style afforded them a high profile in the US scene. Nock relocated to the West Coast in 1967 and formed The Fourth Way, an American jazz quartet. They played primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area through the early seventies, releasing three albums to critical acclaim, with music composed by Nock for the rock division of Capitol Records.
Their first LP (1969) became a sampler’s secret paradise with pilfered breakbeats and flourishes from the release later appearing in the ‘90s and ‘00s work of many era-defining DJs, such as Diplo. The Fourth Way was celebrated as a pioneer of fusion jazz groups, mixing jazz with rock music while playing amplified instruments, performing at the prestigious 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival as the opening act for The Miles Davis group. The Fourth Way was on fire that night and Davis was upstaged by the young San Francisco musicians. Legend has it that Davis reportedly lamented, “Man, I’m never going on second again.”
Nock moved to New York in the mid-seventies where he stayed for the next ten years, releasing Magic Mansions (with Charlie Mariano), In, Out and Around with Michael Brecker, Climbing with John Abercrombie and Tom Harrell, Succubus with Alex Foster, as well as two solo albums, Piano Solos and Mike Nock Solo (recorded in Australia).
A standout release from this period is his trio record, Ondas, released on the prestigious jazz label ECM. His return to the Antipodes in the mid-eighties did nothing to slow down his creative output, with a successful Sydney teaching career at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (now the Sydney Conservatorium of Music) accompanying multiple releases with The New York Jazz Collective and albums with young Australian musicians. Nock has already received a variety of accolades.
He was inducted into the Australian Jazz Hall of Fame in 2009 and presented with the Don Banks Music Award in 2014. He will be inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the 2024 APRA Silver Scroll Awards on Tuesday 8 October at St James Theatre, Wellington. At eighty-four, Mike Nock is still very active. His most recent solo piano album, Hearing, was released in 2023 on ABC Jazz and is a testament to his continued contemporary jazz prowess. He is also finding time to contribute to a planned documentary and, as ever, is looking forward to a slew of upcoming live performances on his calendar.
Mike Nock was Barry O’Sullivan’s special studio guest on A Jazz Hour on 2MBS Fine Music Sydney on Friday, August 30th, at midday. You can hear the interview on demand from our website or on the 2MBS App.