'the adventurous label'
The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD

Personnel:
Allan Browne drums
Nick Haywood acoustic bass
Tim Stevens piano

AU$25.00 incl postage

Personnel:

Remco Keijzer tenor saxophone
Lucian McGuiness trombone
Matt McMahon rhodes/piano
Mike Majkowski double bass
James Hauptmann drums

AU$28.00 incl postage

The Keijzer McGuiness Quintet 'The Seed Habit' RF079

Audio samples:   Pigis    Apple S    Ballade de Conservatoir

Dutchman Remco Keijzer and Australian Lucian McGuiness normally reside hemispheres apart, but they brave long haul flights and carry-on restrictions to join musical forces whenever possible. In 2009 they launch the album The Seed Habit on Rufus Records (thru Universal). The disc is the product of three years collaboration in Australia and The Netherlands, and was recorded in Sydney in 2008.

Jazz is transitory. It twists, turns, strikes and moves on – just like the Keijzer McGuiness Quintet, and the music on their infectiously toe-tapping début release. A tenor and trombone combination like Keijzer & McGuiness is hard to beat - a sleek, humanistic sound curls up inside your ear and expands your mind.

Among the best young players in their hometowns, Keijzer-McGuiness gigs soar melodically, with gutsy engagement between personnel; a spectrum of youthful energy, soul, breadth and vigour.

This album delivers the key contribution of the jazz tradition: great playing to make your toe tap and your head bounce. Better still, it doesn't fall into the trap of over-seriousness. Sounds like fun.

Remco Keijzer (tenor saxophone)
Remco studied jazz and improvisation at The Hilversums Conservatory, The Conservatory of Amsterdam and The Manhattan School of Music. He’s played with luminaries Dick Oatts, Dave Binney and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, inspired a contemporary big band for emerging composers and added soulful sax to a popular live hip hop act sans samples.

Lucian McGuiness (trombone)
Lucian studied in Canberra, Amsterdam and Sydney. He plays with the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra and Ben Walsh’s Crusty Suitcase Band, and has performed or recorded with a wide variety of artists including Jim McNeely, Shasha Marley, The Herd, The Holland Big Band and Steve Hunter.

Matt McMahon (rhodes/piano)
Matt leads his own groups and co-leads Band of Five Names with Phil Slater and Simon Barker. He won the National Jazz Award, and the Freedman Jazz Fellowship, and has played and recorded with Dale Barlow, Greg Osby, Katie Noonan, Vince Jones, Bobby Previte, Dave Panichi and Steve Hunter.

Mike Majkowski (double bass)
Mike is one of the new breed of creative musicians emerging on Australia's music scene. A gifted jazz bassist committed to a wide spectrum of contemporary music: he’s a founding member of the large-scale Sydney-based electro-acoustic group The Splinter Orchestra; a member of The Now Now collective, and works closely with some of Australia's most highly regarded improvisers - Jon Rose, Chris Abrahams and Jim Denley.

James Hauptmann (drums)
James grew up in Canberra and studied at the Canberra School of Music. Living in Sydney, he records and tours nationally and internationally in bands including Mark Isaacs, Steve Hunter, Exposed Bone, Blue Juice and Elana Stone.

Personnel:

Dave Jackson alto sax
Abel Cross acoustic bass
Alex Masso drums

AU$25.00 incl postage

Trio Apoplectic 'Sofia' RF080

Audio samples:  Sofia    Texas/Sofia   

Trio Apoplectic demonstrate with remarkable consistency that it is possible to sound contemporary - freshly minted in fact - play freely interactive improv- isation, and create pure melody. Their position in Australian jazz is all but unique, in that they can evoke at the same time the effortless lyricism of the West Coast cool school and the freedom of post - Ornette Coleman jazz. 

The pellucid sound of Dave Jackson's alto saxophone has been likened to that of Paul Desmond of Dave Brubeck Quartet fame, but the differences are as interesting as the points in common. Playing them in juxtaposition only accentuates the distinctiveness of Jackson's contemporary voice. What they share is an ability to avoid licks and develop freely running ideas in lines that unfold almost like Bach, with atmospheric echoes of Debussy. 

Bassist Abel Cross and drummer Alex Masso can accompany these flights immaculately and discreetly, but even in this role they are part of a free three-way dialogue that is completely engrossing. Bass and drums are so melodic and tonally beautiful that they can move seamlessly into the foreground with no loss of intensity and feeling. The trio can swing lightly, blithely, but with a mounting intensity, and they can create fields of limpid beauty. This aspect is very much to the fore on Sofia, their new CD. 

A number of the opening melodies are slow, poignant and languorous. But races of speed and biting passion can spring up within these slow expanding panoramas. Sometimes bass and drums create a busy, delicate texture under Jackson's floating sustained notes, and sometimes they interact explosively.  There are a couple of fast, quirky tunes that create a quirky, dancing and supremely happy momentum. This is very accessible music. It is time for a wider audience to join the cognoscenti.

The three have known each other for some time, and you can feel that friendship and intuitive understanding in the music. You can also hear youth. This is to be savoured, yet it is certain that in later years they will still be developing - in the way of great musicians in their maturity. Start now with these brilliant musicians and see where it takes you.

Get their first CD on the Rufus label. It is a delight. This is another step. Sofia fills the room with tranquility and light, beauty and passion - enhanced by the superb recording quality achieved by young engineer Richard Belkner.