'What I want is the fire!’ Lee's search for this fire was always evident in the various music traditions that he studied, loved and fused throughout his career. He led several jazz bands in Melbourne and Sydney from late 1950s through the 1980s and was at the forefront of introducing vibrant jazz interpretations of classical pieces.
Alan Lee was emphatic that ‘whether it's John Coltrane's Blues Minor from Africa Brass or Backwater Blues by Leadbelly, I want the emotion, the gut-wrenching pain, the cry from within!' This search for emotional expression is movingly evident in his Studio 5 Live session, recorded with his quintet in September 2004.
PBS brings you Alan Lee Quintet’s original set in its entirety on December 19 on Jazz On Saturday for the final session from the Studio 5 Rewind series for 2020.
Studio 5 Live is proudly supported by our mates at Mountain Goat.
