THE ANDY BUTLER LARGE ENSEMBLE (7pm)
Andy Butler is a 21 year old pianist and composer based in Canberra. He graduated from the Australian National University with first class honours and the Bernhard Neumann Memorial Prize in 2011, where he studied piano with Matt Thompson and composition with Miroslav Bukovsky. Andy is one of the most sought-after pianists in Canberra, and has performed alongside a number of leading Australian musicians including Jamie Oehlers, Miroslav Bukovsky, Jonathan Zwartz, Mike Price and John Mackey. He has performed at the Canberra International Music Festival, The Australian National Academy of Music, last year's Capital Jazz Project, The Llewellyn Hall, Government House and at the opening of Tropfest.
In 2011 Andy is studying with Steve Newcomb as part of the Australia Council's JUMP program. The Andy Butler Large Ensemble was formed to perform music that Andy has composed during his study with Steve, and features fifteen of Canberra's best jazz musicians. Andy's compositions for the group aim to achieve a compelling co-existence between improvised and notated musical ideas, and endeavor to incorporate a range of influences from within and out of the jazz world.
BERNIE MCGANN - 75th BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY (8:15pm)
"Tough, authentic, post-bop with a Sonny Rollins twist." Downbeat (USA)
Widely recognised as one of the most important artists Australia has produced in the 20th Century, saxophonist Bernie McGann has been described as "one of the glories of Australian music" (Sydney Morning Herald). Bernie McGann is indeed one of our most celebrated and original jazz musicians with a unique alto saxophone style which, over his 50+ year career, is as well recognised in Europe and the US as it is here in Australia.
McGann first came to prominence as part of a loose alliance of modern jazz musicians who performed at the famous El Rocco Jazz Cellar in Kings Cross, Sydney in the early 1960s. McGann's daring playing and stark emotionalism marked him as a serious soloist and together with his striking compositions, he became a leading and accomplished jazz figure over the following decades.
Four of his albums have won ARIA awards and a MO Award and he has received the prestigious Australia Council Don Banks Music Award as well as touring overseas extensively and playing with such world-class artists as Sonny Stitt, Dewey Redman and Dave Liebman. He also has his own biography Bernie McGann: A Life in Jazz by Geoff Page.
He has attracted wide critical acclaim here and abroad:
'Bernie McGann's sound is exciting and physical, as heated as any post-Coltrane modernist.' Jerome Wilson, Options Magazine (USA)
'The originality is as striking as ever-bursting with energy, emotion, and luminous with melody.' John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald
Street 1 - reserved | Duration - 110 minutes with interval.
BERNIE MCGANN + ANDY BUTLER LARGE ENSEMBLE Last Played
CAPITAL JAZZ PROJECT PRESENTS THE TWO-FOR-ONE NIGHT BERNIE MCGANN - 75TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY + ANDY BUTLER LARGE ENSEMBLE