Lee Orszaczky, co-leader of the Sydney based music collective MOSAIC, spoke with Bent Notes about his family musical upbringing, including exposure to a broad range of great music; as well as some of his experiences as a music student at the Sydney Conservatorium of music – where he has co-created the MOSAIC collective – a group with an objective to play as much original music as they can.  Lee was inspired towards creating Mosaic when he participated in a workshop led by Sydney based group...

Alastair Kerr, one of Australia’s leading exponents of Brazilian percussion and jazz drumming, visited the Bent Notes studio to chat about his love of Brasilian jazz, the wonderful music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and his addiction to Brasilian Jazz! Alastair told us that Antonio Carlos Jobim was perhaps the most important composer of the 20th century, becoming known for his Bossa Nova music, as well as orchestral works and art music.  The Stan Getz / Jao Gilberto album –  Getz/Gilberto, was...

Saxophonist Jamie Oehlers spoke with Bent Notes about the inspiration he received from hearing and seeing the saxaphone in popular music of the 80’s; and starting his musical journey at school with a year of learning and practicing the flute before migrating to the sax.  Jamie recalls the inspiration he recevied from his instrumental teachers along the way. Jamie described pushing musical boundaries alongside guitarist Stephen Magnusson and drummer Ben Vanderwal.  Those boundaries are in...

Saxophonist, Educator, Researcher and Educational Author Rob Burke visited the Bent Notes studio to chat about how the definition of Jazz has changed ove the years, and how that change has been driven in part by the different diaspora’s  around the world . Rob talks about the challenges of collaborating with the music of other cultures, maintaining the character and life of the music, whilst blending it with the Western approach to improvisation. Barlines and Beyond released their debut...

Michael Tortoni, Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, visited the Bent Notes studio to talk about the team working with him to curate and activate the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, and the superb roster of artists creating music during the 2024 festival. Michael spoke about over 400 artists representing 12 countries, performing in 109 events across 34 venues in and around Melbourne, with a collective tally of 34 Grammy award wins and 99 Grammy award...

Serge Carnovale visited the Bent Notes studio to chat about his new role this year as the Artistic Director of the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. Serge spoke about the range of artists appearing  across the many venues in and around Wangaratta and the venue-based ticketing system introduced this year, as the festival is re-born alongside the National Jazz Awards – this year for Saxophone. This years artist roster includes Vince Jones, Hetty Kate, Mark Fitzgibbon, Ilaria Crociani,...

Harry Mitchell described the philosophy behind his latest album – NOON – when he spoke with David Moyle and Chelsea Wilson on Bent Notes. NOON is created as a collection of songs inspired by Harry’s observations of society’s collectively diminishing attention spans.  The inspiration said to Harry that he should create someting long-form – that can’t be consumed quickly. (recalling the days when you would put a vinyl record on the turntable then sit down to listen for 22 minutes for each...

The Take Note Leader of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival for 2024 is Jazz flautist and composer Erica Tucceri.  Erica visited the Bent Notes studio to chat all things Take Note – an impportant role that addresses the underrepresentation of women and gender diverse musicians in jazz by celebrating and promoting women and gender diverse leaders on stage and in high schools across Victoria. Erica spoke of the joy of meeting so many young musicians when visting secondary schools as part...

Violin player, artist, songwriter and entertainer Xani Kolac described her path to become a professional violin player and entertainer when she was guest on Bent Note recently. Xani reminisces about causing her violin teacher to cry from the beautiful interpretation she gave of Dvorak’s Humoresque, and auditioning for the VCA with her sister playing the bass. Xani spoke about the focus on improvisation and using the effects pedals and other equipment to produce her style of music using her...

Australian born musicians Jody Sternberg (Voice, Sax) and David Lewis (Trumpet, Piano) have lived in France for some years and spoke with David Moyle and Chelsea Wilson on Bent Notes when they visited the JOY 94.9 studios recently as they commenced their 2024 Aussie tour. Jody recalled her journey from Australia where she played sax in her primary school band, to Japan where she was discoverd by an American blues pianist who advised her to audition to study at the Berklee College, before...

When trumpeter and band leader Travis Woods and sousaphone player Jay Scarlett from The Horns Of Leroy visited the Bent Notes Studio they spoke about the way they as a band are inspired by the music and the musicians of New Orleans.  They recalled the immense energy they picked up from watching, listening, jamming and performing with these bands and how this changed their outlook and musical creativity in their own projects, whilst still being conscious of their music being filtered through...

Michelle Nicolle visited the Bent Notes studio to chat with David Moyle and Chelsea Wilson about her brand new album – 10 Live At The Jazzlab. The album was recorded at the Jazzlab by the ABC during the 2023 Melbourne International Jazz Festival and has now been released to the world. Michelle talks about the thrill of performing in ALL RISE with the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis and the MSO at Hamer Hall during 2023; the scat syllables that we hear in scat singing...

Melbourne Drummer, Composer and Artistic Director of the Melbourne Women’s International Jazz Festival, Sonja Horbelt visited the Bent Notes studio to chat all things 2023 Festival with David Moyle and Paul Gardner.  The festival runs from December 3-10, 2023 with most events schedueld at The Jazzlab. Sonja spoke about the legacy and the memory of the late Lynnette Irwin, for many years the backbone of the artistic direction of the festival, and the person to whom this years festival has...

Cheryl Durongpisitkul spoke with David Moyle on Bent Notes about the work involved in preparing for the debut of her new suite for 12-piece improvising ensemble that channels her own personal experiences of loss, grief  and healing. As the Take Note leader for 2023 for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Cheryl was commissioned to compose this work as well as visit secondary schools across Victoria, as part of the festival’s activities to address underrepresentation of women and...

Katie  Noonan‘s ELIXIR project kicked off in 1997, with their goal to explore the relationship between text and sound and celebrate great Australian poetry. The current line-up for the trio is National Jazz Award, ARIA Award winning and Freedman Jazz Fellowship finalist saxophonist/composer Zac Hurren, Freedman Jazz
Fellowship winning and National Jazz Award finalist guitarist Ben Hauptmann and 5 x ARIA, AWMA, AIR and APRA award winning musician Katie Noonan.   Their new Album – A Small...

Emma Pask was discovered at a school concert gig by multi-instrumentalist and entertainer James Morrison – a week later Emma was invited to tour with the James Morrison Big Band – and the rest is history! Hear Emma talk about that amazing experience and much more in this podcast from Bent Notes, including Trombone player, arranger and band leader Ed Wilson, the necessity to get on with achieving items off your bucketlist without undue delay, performing with wonderful musicians, all with a...

Award winning composer Vanessa Perica is launching her 2nd Jazz Orchestra album as part of the lineup for this year’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival. The 1st album, Love Is A Temporary Madness, was named one of the best Australian albums of 2020 by The Guardian, winner of the Best Jazz Album at the Music Victoria Awards, ‘Work of the Year’ at the APRA Art Music Awards and Australian Jazz Bell Awards, and was nominated for the prestigious Australian Music Prize. Vanessa spoke about...

Australian composer and pianist Paul Grabowksy AO and Chinese-Australian composer, performer and pioneer of modern guzheng music Mindy Meng Wang chatted about the empathy, cultural awareness and conversation necessary to create new music crossing boundaries between different muscial cultures. Mindy plays the Guzheng – a chinese instrument similar in look and sound to a Zither, and has collaborated throughout her career with musicians from different cultures. Hear the conversation in this...

Ruth Rogers-Wright began her career in London where she was one of the leading artists in the “New British Jazz” movement, before migrating to  Australia.  Her band in London included two Aussie ex-pats – pianist Mark Fitzgibbon and vocalist Nichaud Fitzgibbon. Ruth was introduced to the music of Nina Simone while in London and saw her perform live a number of times.  These experiences formed part of the inspiration for Ruth to put together a show about Nina and her music. In this podcast...

Stella Miiles Franklin was an Australian author, activist and feminist, leaving an endowment behind celebrating Australian Literature in the form of the annual  Miles Franklin Award.  However, Stella was much more than an author! Inspired by the dramatic and exciting life story of Stella Miles Franklin, Melbourne based composer, vocalist and pianist Monique diMattina has written a new musical – STELLA – about the life of Stella Miles Franklin. Monique has developed the music and script to...

Ericka Ascenzo visited the Bent Notes Studio to chat about the upcoming release of her latest composition – IN TIME. Erika says that her vocals are a tribute to the Jazz greats, and that her songwriting pays homage to the Soul classics. Hear what Erika has to say about her music, and hear her in a fabulous in-studio  performance of two of her compositions – BOUND (Erika’s first single as an independent artist in 2020) and Erika’s new single IN TIME, accompanied by guitarist Tavis...

Melbourne based guitarist James Sherlock visited the Bent Notes studio to chat about the value of awards to up and coming musicians, how he listens to music, and his brand new Trio album The Verb not the Noun – his first trio album since 2010. While in-studio James played Live-To-Air a piece from the new album , and discussed performing with his trio consisting of Bass Player Sam Anning and Drummer Danny Fischer. The launch of The Verb not the Noun, referencing the fact that music is an...

When Pianist and Composer Luke Howard was guest on Bent Notes he spoke about working in both the Comtemporary Classical and Jazz worlds as both composer and pianist, and being drawn back into the musical world after starting a career outside of music. With Story Telling at the heart of his music, Luke spoke about his contemporary classical composition created during COVID lockdowns called ALL OF US, based upon a book called THE PLAGUE, written in 1947 by French novelist Albert Camus. Luke...

Inspiration for Stephen Hornby’s +F:rst Sunn+ project came out of Lockdowns, when Stephen found himself with time to think and work without interruption. The result is the debut album for his +F:rst Sunn+ project.  (Yes, Stephen also talks about that spelling . . . .) Hear Stephen talk about the project, as well as his interest in writing in text form about music, in this podcast from JOY 94.9. Stephen Hornby was guest of Bent Notes on Sunday July 16, 2023 Bent Notes – 2 hours of Jazz and...