Sydney International Women's Jazz - Festival 2014

Sydney
International
Women’s Jazz
Festival 2014

Presented by
The Sydney International
Jazz Festival and

Sydney
International
Women’s Jazz
Festival
Artistic Directors’ Welcome
Joanne Kee and Peter Rechniewski
Artistic Directors

Welcome to our third Sydney International Woman’s Festival. Once again,
we look forward to your joining us for this special program which showcas-
es the depth and diversity of women band leaders, composers and players.
   It is with much pleasure that we introduce Dee Alexander, an exponent
of the famous jazz tradition generated from Chicago, to our shores for
her Australian debut. We welcome back Lisa Parrott and Sarah Mckenzie,
wonderful examples of the strength of our artists who now reside in the US.
Plus we have a specially commissioned work by Andrea Keller, a CD launch
from Hannah James, influences from Cuba with Gai Bryant’s big band and
the verve of Ellen Kirkwood’s new band Fat Yahoozah and a bit of jazz hip
hop to liven up the mix.
   The festival promises a range of music to inspire and delight, offering
you access to jazz that is fun, intelligent and highlights the talents of these
great artists. Enjoy.

Welcome and How to Book
Sydney’s International Women’s Jazz Festival
is attracting interest from jazz lovers around
the world. In its short three year history it has
firmly established itself as a unique event with
the best female jazz musicians from home and
abroad celebrating jazz from around the globe.
We invite you to take a look at what’s on offer for
our 2014 festival.
To Book:
The Sound Lounge
visit sima.org.au or call 02 9351 7940
Foundry616
visit sima.org.au or call 02 9211 9442

For all your festival needs, head to
www.sima.org.au

Dee Alexander (USA)
8:30pm Wednesday 5th November @ Foundry616
8:30pm Friday 7th November @ Foundry616
8:30pm Saturday 8th November @Foundry616

The 2014 Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival is proud to present
the Australian debut of the great Chicago jazz singer Dee Alexander. From
the first few notes you know you’re in for a treat. Dee’s flawless intonation,
interpretive brilliance, intrepid improvising, and command of a wide range
of genres places her as one of America’s premier vocalists. She is celebrated
in her home town as one of the finest jazz singers in the world today. Since
the release of her 2009 album Wild Is The Wind, Alexander’s name appears
in the programmes of prestigious European and American jazz festivals.
The album sparkles with brilliant singing on standards and Alexander
originals. Her style underscores her lineage of, and inspiration from the
great African American jazz singers such as Sarah Vaughan and another
Chicago native, Dinah Washington. Her contralto voice has power, range
and a lush, velvet quality that we associate with Vaughan. Dee is fearless in
taking risks to bend the material, to the contours of her own imagination.
Her highly anticipated Songs My Mother Loves is being released to coincide
with the Festival. For her performances at the SIWJF Dee is accompanied
by her musical director, pianist Miguel de la Cerna.

Dee Alexander (voice) Miguel De La Cerna (piano) Brett Hirst (bass)
Tim Firth (drums)

Hannah James Trio Triliphony launch
8:30pm Thursday 6th November @ Foundry616

The Hannah James Trio invites you to join them as they embark on a jour-
ney of sonic intrigue and musical storytelling. Featuring soaring melodies,
explorative solos, shape-shifting rhythms, cinematic textures and musical
twists as told by bassist Hannah James, Casey Golden and Edward Rod-
rigues. They invite you to join them for the launch of their latest album
Triliphony, which was recorded live earlier this year at the Sound Lounge
and was supported by SIMA and APRA.
   Hannah James was the 2011 recipient of the Jann Rutherford Award for
women in jazz. Since the formation of her group in 2011 she has performed
extensively throughout Australia including the Wangarratta Jazz Festival,
the Capitol Jazz Project, Sydney Women’s’ International Jazz Festival,
the Jazz Groove Summer Festivals, Brisbane Powerhouse and Bennett’s
Lane, releasing her debut album Effigy in 2012. Now carving a firm place
in the Australian music scene, Hannah is a sought after musician who has
performed with artists such as Katie Noonan, Sandy Evans, Alister Spence,
Don Burrows, Bob Barnard, Dale Barlow, and Miroslav Bukovsky.

Hannah James (double bass) Casey Golden (piano) Edward Rodrigues
(drums)

Sarah Mckenzie Quartet (USA)
CD launch We could be lovers
8:30pm Friday 7th November @ The Sound Lounge

“Sarah McKenzie is a musical marvel. She sings with the kind of phrasing
that only a true jazz singer can come up with while her groove of the piano
is the stuff that makes people want to play jazz” James Morrison.
    Pianist, vocalist, and composer Sarah McKenzie is “already in full
possession of an individualistic voice,” DownBeat Magazine. She has been
described as an Australian national treasure, whose album Close Your
Eyes won ‘Best Jazz Album’ at the 2012 ARIA Awards. She has performed
throughout Australia and Europe, and toured with Michael Bublé, Chris
Botti, John Patitucci, and Enrico Rava.
    Now based in Boston, Sarah had the honour of being invited to perform
her own material with The Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. After her highly
praised performances at Melbourne International Jazz Festival, the Um-
bria Jazz Festival, The Boston Arts Festival, and Stonnington Jazz Festival,
she has been invited to play the Monterey and Wangaratta Jazz Festivals
in 2014.
    Sarah just graduated from Berklee College of Music on a full tuition
scholarship. Her forthcoming album, We Could Be Lovers, was produced
by Brian Bacchus (Gregory Porter) and will be launched at this exclusive
Sydney performance. Find out why Sarah is making her name on a global
stage. An outstanding musician, if you haven’t had the pleasure to hear her
live, book fast as this will be a sell-out.

Sarah McKenzie (voice) Hugh Stuckey (guitar) Alex Boneham (bass)
Hugh Harvey (drums)

Jazz Hip Hop Freestyle Jam
11:00pm Friday 7th November @ Foundry616

Taking a walk on the wild side, experience a funkier edgier underground
sound at this late night Jazz Hip Hop Freestyle Jam taking it into the early
hours with a special line-up of women MCs and singers for SIWJF. Perfor-
mances by: Dawn Laird, Natalie Slade, Ines, Alice Terry, Iresh with a
killer band and look out for other, very special guests.
   The Jazz Hip Hop Freestyle Jam was created by Danny Felix and started
almost exactly a year ago during the 2013 SIWJF. The leading event of its
type in Australia, this jam has played host to special international guests
including US saxophonist Greg Osby who has worked with numerous major
Hip Hop artists. Osby said it was the best thing of its type he has heard.
2013 SIWJF featured artist, Eri Yamamoto and her band also couldn’t resist
sticking around at the Foundry to listen after their own performance.
   What’s the secret? Good young jazz musicians with a love for, and deep
understanding of Hip Hop. As well as exciting rappers, MCs and singers
taking a “no barriers, we recognise only music” attitude. When these musi-
cians, singer and word artists come together, the music is intense, the rap-
ping inventive, often incantatory, and the atmosphere ecstatic.

JAZZ in the Courtyard
Ellen Kirkwood’s Fat Yahoozah
with guest artist Lisa Parrott (USA)
FREE EVENT

2:00pm Saturday 8th of November @The Seymour Centre Courtyard

Embracing the many colours of the jazz spectrum, Fat Yahoozah, led by the
outstanding Ellen Kirkwood has lush horn sounds, African rhythms and
an absolutely infectious ability to make you want to move. This fantastic
band’s sound has been described as worldly dance beats with fat horn
action! They will be joined by Lisa Parrott as a special guest artist on the
baritone saxophone. Make sure you catch this free event.
    Ellen Kirkwood is one of the rising trumpeter/bandleaders/composers
on the Sydney scene. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium Jazz Stud-
ies course, In 2012 Ellen was awarded the Jann Rutherford Memorial Award
and produced a work with to rave reviews with her band Captain Kirkwood
of an extended composition ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’.
    Ellen has composed for, and is a member of The Sirens Big Band as
well as Matt Ottignon’s dynamic Ethio Jazz fusion sextet Mr Ott where
her compositions as well as her bright, open tone contribute to the band’s
distinctive sound.

Ellen Kirkwood (trumpet) Ruth Wells (saxes) Simon Ferenci (trom-
bone) Serge Stanley (sax) Dave Sattout (guitar) Jess Dunn (bass) Evan
McGregor (drums) Special Guest Lisa Parrott (baritone sax)

Lisa Parrott Quartet (USA)
In concert and conversation
7:30pm Pre-concert conversation
8:30pm performance Saturday 8th November @The Sound Lounge

“She has developed that most prized of qualities – an original voice on her
instrument.” Peter Jordan, Sydney Morning Herald
   Considered the most important female saxophonist to emerge on the
Australian jazz scene since Sandy Evans, Lisa’s talent was recognised by
band leaders such as John Pochee, Paul Grabowsky and Lloyd Swanton
who invited her to join their bands Ten Part Invention, the Australian Art
Orchestra and The catholics, for specific projects. She won the Mo Award
for Best Female Jazz Performer in 1991 and ‘92, was placed third in the
National Jazz Awards for saxophone at the 1994 Wangaratta Jazz Festival.
More recently she was placed 5th in the 69th Downbeat Reader’s Poll.
   Moving to New York in the late 1990s Lisa is busy with club and festival
appearances, tours as well as teaching. Her music is represented on nearly
30 CDs recorded here and overseas, the most recent of which The Awabakal
Suite is a project with her sister, bassist Nicki Parrott.
   Join us for a pre-concert talk as we hear about Lisa’s career and life in
New York City as a jazz musician. This exclusive Sydney performance has
her teaming up with long time musical buddies for what we know will be a
night of unforgettable music. Presented by arrangement with the Wanga-
ratta Jazz Festival.

Lisa Parrott (saxes) Carl Dewhurst (guitar) Cameron Undy (bass)
Simon Barker (drums)

Gai Bryant’s Palacio de la Rumba Big
Band feat. Roman Justo Pelladito (CUBA)
8:30pm Sunday 9th November @Foundry616

Exuberant, passionate with fire and finesse, Gai Bryant’s 18 piece big band
has found inspiration in traditional Cuban music and jazz.
    On a recent visit to Cuba to research rumba styles for her Master’s degree
project, Bryant met percussionist Roman Justo Pelladito Hernandez, who
is an expert in Cuban rumba and is a founding member of the prestigious
Conjunto Folclorico Nacional de Cuba as both a percussionist and dancer.
He has been an expert source for Bryant as she adapts traditional Cuban
folkloric music styles: rumba, danzon, bolero and tonada for big band.
    Palacio de la Rumba merges the cream of Sydney’s Latin and jazz music
communities. The combination of musicians has allowed Gai to combine
complex rhythmic layering with the excitement of strong jazz solos.

Roman Justo Pelladito (percussion) Gai Bryant, Paul Cutlan, Craig Walters,
Peter Farrar, Rich Maegraith (saxes) Warwick Alder, Eamon Dilworth,
Darryl Carthew, Tom McElvogue (trumpets) Martin Taylor, Colin Philpott,
Danny Carmichael, Jeremy Borthwick (trombones) Alister Spence (piano)
Jeremy Sawkins (guitar) Brendan Clarke (bass) Fabian Hevia (drums)

BIG BAND WORKSHOP 11:00am Saturday 8th of November
@The Sound Lounge

Gai Bryant and Roman Justo Pelladito will be hosting a workshop focusing
on Cuban Rumba styles. For more information including bookings, head to
www.sima.org.au

The Komeda Project
Andrea Keller/Miroslav Bukovsky Octet
8.30pm Wednesday 12th November @Foundry 616

We are delighted to present this new work, specially developed to premiere at
the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival. Andrea Keller and Miroslav
Bukovsky have been working on a project inspired by the music of Polish jazz
pianist Kryzstof Komeda. While reasonably well known to cinema enthusiasts
as the composer of the scores to Roman Polanski’s films Knife in the Water,
The Fearless Vampire Killers and Rosemary’s Baby, Komeda’s importance as
European jazz pioneer is still not well known outside of his native Poland.
    This project is a response to, and reinterpretation of, some of the music of
Komeda by two leading Australian jazz composers and instrumentalists of
Eastern European heritage who have been strongly influenced not only by
the music Komeda wrote, but by the spirit in which he wrote it. Through this
project they seek to give new voice to the spirit of freedom in Komeda’s music.
    Komeda inspired European jazz musicians to examine music of their own
tradition and heritage (folk, classical and popular European melodies), rath-
er than rely on American sources for their playing and compositions. A fine
jazz pianist, he was initially inspired by the hard-bop players of the 1950s but
by the mid-1960s the “European turn” in his music was clearly discernible
and can be heard on the ground breaking album Astigmatic The British critic
Stuart Nicholson called it “marking a shift away from the dominant American
approach with the emergence of a specific European aesthetic.”

Andrea Keller (piano) Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet) Erkki Veltheim (vio-
lin) Andrew Robson (saxophone) James Greening (trombone) Ben Haupt-
mann (guitar) Jonathan Zwartz (double bass) Evan Mannell (drums)

STUDIO C
                   Available for Hire
                Recording and Rehearsals

YouTube Video                                   Image credit - Jeannie McInnes

Contact - Steve-Marc McCulloch
programs@finemusicfm.com
Phone - 02 9439 4777
72-76 Chandos Street,
St Leonards, NSW, 2065

                                       MORE
                                       THAN A
                                       THEATRE

E V E NT S

REH E A R SAL
S PACE

CO NFE REN CE S

For venue hire enquiries visit www.seymourcentre.com/venues

Getting Here
The Sound Lounge and The Courtyard are both situated at The Seymour
Centre Theatre, Cnr City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale.
Parking is available at the Theatre car park entrance via Shepherd St.
   The Seymour Centre is accessed via Train (Redfern or Central Stations)
or Bus (422, 423, 426, and 428).

Foundry616 is located at 616 Harris St, Ultimo.
   Foundry 616 is a 5minute walk from Central station and Railway Square,
an interchange where buses go to and from the CBD. Cross George St and
walk down Harris St to the corner of Mary Ann St.
   Street Parking is available on and around Harris St from 6pm.

Please visit www.131500.com.au to plan your trip.
All venues are access friendly. When booking your tickets, please inform
staff of any special access needs.

Food and Drinks and all that Jazz…
There are delicious and atmospheric eateries close by to grab a pre or post-concert
drink or dinner. For the Seymour Centre, search for The Duck Inn, Thai Hai,
The Rose Hotel or any of the many bars and restaurants in the Newtown precinct.
Foundry616 has a chef in house and a delicious menu. Dinner and show options
available for an additional $25 on your ticket. Book online sima.org.au or by call-
ing the Seymour Centre, 9351 7940. For dining options near Riverside Theatre,
we recommend Church St in Parramatta. For eateries close to VJs try Victoria St
in Chatswood. Guests of Silvermere will be treated to a sumptuous four-course
lunch as part of the lunch and concert package ($100 per person). To book contact
Cathy on (02) 4757 3311 or email to mail@silvermere.com.au.

Acknowledgements
Sydney International Jazz Festival Board
  Brett Boon (chair), Grahame Campbell, Peter Rechniewski, Prof. Di Yer-
bury, David Theak, Joanne Kee.

Sydney Improvised Music Association Board
  Prof. Di Yerbury, Peter Jordan, Kirsten Downie, Raphael Tarazy, Alex
Masso, Paul Ruiz.

Festival Team
   Joanne Kee (Joint Artistic Director and Artistic Partnerships Manager.
SIMA), Peter Rechnewski (Joint Artistic Director) Nicola Sinclair (Festival
Coordinator) Marissa Maait (Festival marketing coordinator) Elizabeth
Greig (Festival publicist) Vanessa Chalker (SIMA development) Ron Cleaver
(Book Keeper) Ross A’Hern, Guy Dickerson (Sound) .

Credits Elizabeth Grieg Public Relations, Peter Curran, Warren Mathews
and all our volunteers who generously donated their time and efforts.

Thank you to all of our festival partners, donors, artists, volunteers and
audiences – we could not do it without you.

November Festival Planner
WEDNESDAY 5    DEE ALEXANDER (USA)
               8:30pm, Foundry616 ($45/$40/$30)

THURSDAY 6     HANNAH JAMES TRILIPHONY Album Launch
               8:30pm, Foundry616 ($25/$20/$10)

FRIDAY 7       SARAH MCKENZIE QUARTET (USA)
               8:30pm, The Sound Lounge ($35/$30/$20)
               DEE ALEXANDER (USA)
               8:30pm, Foundry616 ($45/$40/$30)
               JAZZ HIP HOP FREESTYLE JAM
               11:00pm, Foundry616 ($5)

SATURDAY 8     ELLEN KIRKWOOD’S FAT YAHOOZAH
               featuring LISA PARROTT
               2:00pm, Seymour Centre Courtyard FREE
               LISA PARROTT
               7:30pm in conversation
               8:30pm concert
               The Sound Lounge ($35/$30/$25)
               DEE ALEXANDER (USA)
               8:30pm, Foundry616 ($45/$40/$30)

SUNDAY 9       GAI BRYANT’S PALACIO DE LA RUMBA BIG BAND
               8:30pm, Foundry616 ($35/$30/$20)

WEDNESDAY 12   THE KOMEDA PROJECT
               ANDREA KELLER/MIROSLAV BUKOVSKY OCTET
               8:30pm, Foundry616 ($35/$30/$20)

Sponsors
 MEDIA PARTNERS

 VENUE PARTNERS                  DESIGN PARTNERS

 GOVERNMENT SPONSORS

                    PO Box 55,          Join SIMA today
                    Broadway NSW 2007   SIMA also relies on the generosity of
                    Ph: +61 290366292   its members and patrons to keep jazz
                    www.sima.org.au     alive. Join or Donate to SIMA online at:
                    admin@sima.org.au   sima.org.au or 9036 6292.