by Monash Art Ensemble
Local label Jazzhead reaffirms its commitment to emerging Australian jazz artists with two releases over the last month that feature students from the Monash University School of Music. First we heard the New York Sessions that brought together students from the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music with the Faculty of Jazz and New York University.
The second Jazzhead release with Monash connections is ‘Variations’ by the Monash Art Ensemble. For this album Paul Grabowski has composed a series of works, in the form of a suite, that takes compositional inspiration from some of the 20th century’s most influential composers such as Messiaen, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis and Coltrane while also looking back to the baroque period with references to JS Bach and Marin Marais.
The artistry on this CD shines through. After so many years working with the Australian Art Orchestra it is clear that Grabowski knows his core team of musicians well and the compositions and variations here play very much to their individual and collective strengths. Referencing works than span centuries for the first part of this CD, and then drawing from the disparate languages of the indigenous Yolngu people of northern Australia and the free-jazz forebears of the players for the latter piece ‘Tall Tales’, might appear to be a recipe for a fragmented mess. Instead the collective spirit of performance and of musical conversation between the players makes ‘Variations’ an album to savour from start to finish.
Owen McKern
Program Manager
PBS 106.7
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