Jazz

Perhaps best known as the trumpet player in iconic Australian band Hunters and Collectors, Jack Howard is also an established solo artist and band leader in his own right. His recording and stage projects such as The Long Lost Brothers, Epic Brass, Bacharach and Beyond have proven to be music lover favourites. Additionally, Jack is an in demand session/tour guy, playing with high profile acts like The Violent Femmes, Rodriguez, You Am I, The Living End and many more. In 2017, he toured the world with Midnight Oil as their multi-instrumentalist. If that’s not enough, in between teaching music at Wesley College, he also recently released a wonderful memoir “Small Moments Of Glory”.

In June this year, Jack delivered another solo album, Lightheavyweight 2, a follow up to 2018’s beat and brass-driven record, Lightheavyweight. Lightheavyweight 2 is different but similar. Written and recorded during our lockdown year of discontent 2021, it’s a local variant, drawing mostly on Jack’s St.Kilda life. Says Jack – “The tunes usually begin with a drum and bass loop or some layered horns and then proceed along very spontaneous lines. There might be a full lyric or just a handful of words. Maybe instrumental. A lot of flugel horn this time around and swirling synths; plus some fine guest appearances from Barry Palmer on guitar, Ed Bates on pedal steel, Paul Williamson on tenor sax and Fiona Leonard on backing vocals.”

Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips caught up with Jack Howard, our musician of the month for July, to chat about his career, gear and the new album Lightheavyweight 2.

Melbourne based songwriter blending the worlds of Folk and Jazz.

Torbreck is a band that composes and performs crazy tunes that blend a myriad of genres ranging from jazz to punk and everything in between. Nothing is off limits, if it sounds good they'll try it.

Georgia Rodgers has fused her many years of playing and learning the guitar with an authentic vocal style.
Leaning into her dynamic guitar playing, she is slowly but surely developing a discography of music that abstains from the stereotypical verse, chorus, verse structure of song writing.

“I’m basically a singer/songwriter,” says Georgia, “but I am more-so taking people on a dynamic journey through a song. With more of an emphasis on a composition as opposed to your typical verse, chorus, verse.”.

Although evident in the music she has released and the live performances she has showcased, she admits that the sound she is creating is a work in progress.

“I’m still kind of finding what sound I want to put out there,” says Georgia, “I’m so much more comfortable behind a guitar than my vocals because I’ve always fallen back onto being a guitarist. I learnt guitar for a long time and then singing just became a part of it, so I depend heavily on that. I can write nice lyrics it’s just the way of how I can best suit that and include the work I’ve done as an instrumentalist as well.”

However, this journey to find a sound she is content with releasing and performing lends to the style of music she creates. The dynamic nature of her pursuit of establishing such a sound is also woven into her music with complexity. A process she pins down to experimenting with layering and ebbing and flowing between stripping a song down and building it up again.

“A lot of it is layering,” says Georgia “So I might play a song live that goes for eight minutes, and a lot of it is a little bit of atmospheric layering and it is kind of floaty and then the next song I might play might start with just the one note, the root note of the chord and then progress into playing the full chord.”

“It’s just stripping back and then including in other songs that layering to build that dynamic and then dropping it down and doing that to draw people in.”

When it comes to her compositions, she also places a significant importance on including any iota of a live resemblance or authenticity that might arise in a recording setting.

“I like a live-ish feel to my songs.” Says Georgia, “I’ve always been very particular in the recording. The next single I’m releasing I want to sound awesome, but if it’s not capturing that live element, I can’t see it as the song. I can see it as a good song, but without that live element, that’s not what I want.”.

In her most recently released single ‘Hold On’, the emphasis on replicating a live sound is abundant throughout the velvety and dreamlike near six minutes. Georgia iterates that minimising the number of vocal takes in conjunction with utilising a damaged guitar pedal resulted in the rich, dynamic and authentic sound.

“The last time I recorded I did one warm-up vocal take and then I did another one and finally one more and after that I was like ‘nup, that’s dead now’, that was the live one. If there is a note that is a bit off, or some element of it being quite live, authentic, or honest I don’t really care.

“So, the start of the song I recently recorded, I had bought this pedal from cash converters, and it was completely a piece of crap and I thought it was awesome. It was leaking battery acid. When I clicked it on it made this cool crackling, almost like a needle on a record sound.

“The engineer ended up asking me if I wanted to cut that out, but I was like ‘no way’. Instantly that was a sound that’s not the song, it was something that can be that authentic, you’re in the room feel. I think it’s hard conveying your songs in the studio.”

For her forthcoming gig at the Wesley Anne on Friday September 30, Georgia has pieced together an arrangement that is set to amplify her dynamic storytelling. A set that is due to fluctuate between a big band supporting her and individual renditions of songs.

“I’ve got a launch for that single ‘Hold On’ on Friday September 30 at the Wesley Anne in Northcote. I’m performing with a band, which I have never done, at least in a rehearsed setting. I’m going to have a few backing vocalists, a cello, a double bass, and a drummer, possibly with some piano too.”