The Hoodoomen
Powerhouse & soulful blues at its best from singer/ songwriter drummer/ guitarist Tim Stout & band
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Tamara Kuldin
Melbourne based melody maker Tamara Kuldin is all about bringing back the sass and sophistication of that vintage era of music with her own modern, sultry yet playful twist.
Enamoured by the romance and sophistication of the golden era of song, acclaimed Australian vocalist Tamara Kuldin has been captivating audiences from Melbourne to Europe with her own playful, sultry and heartfelt interpretation of songs from The Great American Songbook, French chanson classics to lesser known vintage jazz & blues gems.
A lover of storytelling through song, Tamara’s unique and versatile vocal styling has been inspired by a diverse palette of female vocalists such as Doris Day, Cassandra Wilson, Sarah Vaughan and Joni Mitchell. Her vivacity, warmth and vocal prowess has endeared her to some of the finest Australian and international jazz musicians from Kate Ceberano, Joe Chindamo to Wycliffe Gordon.
Tamara knows how to make an audience feel like they’re part of something special, whether singing up a festive storm in a glorious Italian piazza, fronting a jazz orchestra at the Arts Centre or playing one of Australia's intimate jazz clubs. Her natural affinity with audience's large and small has led to invitations to perform at various festivals and venues across the globe from the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre, The Victorian Arts Centre, Stonnington Jazz Festival, Melbourne Cabaret Festival, The Famous Spiegeltent, Birds Basement, MONA (Tas), Morning Melodies at Hamer Hall to Bergamo Jazz (Italy), Paris to Provence Festival, Lovere Back to Jazz Festival (Italy) and more.
Tamara collaborates with musicians on a multitude of projects including 'Nostalgique' which features a multilingual repertoire of song from Edith Piaf's torch songs to Russian folk melodies. It's a music box of European song from bolero, swing, tango, waltz to bossa, 'singing in all shades of jazz, blues and multilingual affairs of song.'
Tamara released her debut jazz album ‘Secret Love’ in 2015, celebrating her favourite tunes- sentimental and sassy- in a gorgeous bouquet of song, featuring gypsy jazz violinist Gerard Vandenbroucque (France).
Her evocative 2017 recording 'LOVE, LONGING AND LULLABIES' garnered wide airplay across Australia, New Zealand and Japan securing her distribution in Asia (available on iTunes/Amazon & bandcamp).
Her new album 'This May Only Be A Dream' released March 2020 features exquisite ensemble of Australia's finest jazz musician (Julien Wilson, Jon Delaney, Tamara Murphy, Nathan Slater, Sam Keevers, Danny Fischer, Steve Grant). Tamara delights in traversing a range of musical genres, which has led to the recording of this stunning collection of songs. Blending gorgeous swampy vintage swing with echoes of the deep south, to Argentinian tango, Tamara also debuts her intimate and evocative original tunes.
Miss her… and you’re missing out.
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Nick Haywood Quintet
The band will be performance an exciting combination of original repertoire alongside unique interpretations of music from a range of genres. The instrumentation of this group, with three wind instruments alongside bass and drums provides lots of room for exploring textures and grooves. Hope to see you there for the first performance of this exciting new band.
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Blue Moon Marquee
Blue Moon Marquee writes and performs original compositions influenced by anything that swings, jumps or grooves. A.W. Cardinal (vocals/guitar) and Jasmine Colette a.k.a. Badlands Jass (vocals/bass/drums) have played for a vast gamut of crowds at jazz clubs, Lindy Hop dance halls, folk venues, blues haunts, hospitals, prisons, markets, motorcycle joints, dive bars and prestigious festival stages.
Colette not only commands the upright bass but also brings the rhythm with her feet on a custom foot drum kit, all while singing in her signature honey-dipped tone. Cardinal’s distinctive and soulful vocals barrel out like a raging bull while his guitar crackles with the swinging energy of jazz-tinged blues.
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Terry Serio
Terry Serio is an Australian actor, director, musician and singer-songwriter. He has played recurring roles in several television series, including Blue Heelers, Halifax f.p. Ocean Girl, All Saints, Young Lions, Home and Away and Janet King. He played the lead in the film Running on Empty.
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DOMi & JD BECK
To date, if you wanted to learn about DOMi & JD BECK—the internet’s most hyped jazz duo—you had to visit their website, click a rat playing saxophone, and read a story about a 12-year-old physicist (DOMi Louna) and a 6-year-old sheep investigator (JD Beck). Let’s fix that. “My philosophy of life is don’t take shit too seriously,” says DOMi Louna, born Domitille Degalle. And that’s fair. But the vibrant world she and her collaborator have given us demands exploration. Their long-awaited debut album—which will be released by Anderson .Paak’s new label APESHIT in partnership with the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records—is an attempt to bottle their goofy, very virtuosic magic. Their music finds both humor and greatness in harmonic complexity and rhythmic shiftiness, abruptly adopting and ditching tempos, toying with time signatures, and sneaking extra beats into bridges. The collaboration began under silly circumstances. DOMi Louna was a teen protegé at Berklee by way of the Paris Conservatory; JD, three years her junior, had gigged since grade school around his hometown, Dallas—first in producer Jah-Born’s band where he duetted with MPC beatmakers and DJs spinning Dilla. In 2018, they were both invited to join an ensemble performing at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show and played in a room full of blaring instrumental demos, surrounded by a chaotic din. They bonded over gauche keyboard effects and mom jokes, and a more audible jam that night sparked interest in working more. Along the ride, DOMi & JD BECK have sat in with Herbie Hancock and backed Thundercat, Ariana Grande, Mac DeMarco, Eric André, and more. They also co-wrote “Skate” on .Paak’s GRAMMY-winning album with Bruno Mars as Silk Sonic.
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JassHub
Jass Hub is an ongoing event every Monday night, curated and regularly headlined by spiritual free Jazz band - Bohjass.
The Jass Hub features improvised and original music with 3 or 4 bands each week.
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Julie O'Hara
Australian singer, Julie O'Hara is a freelance performing and recording artist from Melbourne.
Julie O’Hara, is a veteran of the Melbourne music scene, performing since the late 80’s.
Julie began her professional jazz singing career as a teenager with residencies enabling her to work with some of the county’s finest jazz musicians. The desire to evolve musically to communicate with her peers began in those early years, inspired by the musicianship around her.
Now an established musician, songwriter and recording artist, Julie has regularly toured Europe, Asia and Australia, playing at jazz and music festivals or performing as a guest vocalist, (The Cat Empire, Hoodangers, The Pearly Shells, Mistaken Identity). Although Julie performs predominantly jazz music, she also writes for pop, bluegrass, hip hop, R&B, neo soul, country and EDM.
Julie writes songs across various genres, having freelanced in different musical scenes for almost thirty years. Julie features on over thirty recordings, including Aria award winning album, ‘Cities’ by The Cat Empire and ‘Midnight Sun’ with George Washingmachine (nominated for a Bell Award for best jazz vocal album). Julie has won numerous song writing awards for jazz, contemporary pop and EDM.
Julie works as a music educator, lecturing in jazz and contemporary voice and improvisation at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University and teaches song writing at Melbourne Graduate School and Monash University.
Julie has a background in Speech Pathology and voice science. Julie has taught singing, song writing and improvisation at NMIT, VCA, Melbourne Conservatoire, Melbourne Polytechnic, Victoria University and RMIT. Julie is currently studying Estill Voice Mechanics and music production.
PROJECTS FOR RELEASE 2022
OUT NOW! 'New Hat' by The Pearly Shells feat Julie O'Hara (purchase at discography/shop)
'Boogie Guarantee' and 'Train' written by Julie O'Hara available as single downloads.
‘Unobtainium’ (contemporary jazz)
'La Grande Soiree' (jazz manouche)
'Boogie Guarantee' Julie O'Hara & The Pearly Shells A collection of O'Hara originals written for the Pearly Shells (R&B swing),
‘Back to the start’ jazz/EDM/R&B/neosoul, programmed and produced by O’Hara including collaborative works with programmer/composers, Gary Deleo & Luke Josive.
O’Hara’s original songs and voice feature on various recordings, her own and of others but this year will debut her first all originals contemporary jazz album, ‘Unobtainium’. The original songs feature bebop, vocalese, Afro Cuban and Latin jazz and neo-soul. Vocal improvisation is an essential element to O’Hara’s writing, exploring ways to feature the voice within the arrangements. Julie is known for her scatting fluency and strong rhythmic sensibilities. Her trio features old friends and colleagues, pianist, Stephen Sedergreen, drummer, Edward York and bassist, Mark Elton. Guest musicians will also feature on ‘Unobtainium’
Anita O’Day Tribute Concert – O’Hara has at times been likened to Anita O’Day, with a similar tonality and rhythmic sensibilities while scat singing. Anita is one of O’Hara’s greatest influences and the tribute features Anita’s career highlights and her incredible life story.
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SHABAKA
Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.
London-born, Hutchings spent much of his childhood in Barbados. Beginning at age nine, he studied the clarinet, playing in calypso bands while studying classical repertoire, often practicing over hip hop beats by artists such as Nas, as well as to the music native to Barbados. He imparted that at the time, “The idea of being a particular ‘type’ of musician who limited themselves by genre was totally alien to me and my peers, it was just about playing with skill and dedication, and whether music moved me or left me cold.”
Consequently, after studying clarinet at Guildhall School of Music from 2004-2008, he collaborated on a kaleidoscopic range of projects: recording and/or touring with Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics, Soweto Kinch, Floating Points and Courtney Pine amongst many other bands, as well as being a part of the London Improvisers Orchestra. He’s also composed pieces for the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Ligeti Quartet, and performed the Copland Clarinet Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Britten Sinfonietta as well as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.
Over the course of the past decade, the lion’s share of his touring and recorded work has been with three bands: Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming and Shabaka and the Ancestors. “In these formations,” he shared, “I’ve been able to display a fundamental approach to creative practice in different contexts spanning Afro-Caribbean fusion, London dance music club culture and the rich South African jazz tradition – all within the freedom afforded by the legacy of the American ‘jazz’ tradition.” That approach reflects a mantra he absorbed early in his life.
“My primary school teacher told me ‘the music isn’t hard, just practice it mechanically then relax and let your soul shine through’. This is an adage which I’ve kept throughout my life of learning how the musics and instruments of different cultures relate to my personal vision of sound.”
His musical exploration includes employing a variety of flutes, including the ancient Japanese Shakuhachi, which he started playing in 2020 during the pandemic. “Since then, it has slowly changed the scope of my musical inner landscape and drawn me towards a multitude of other instruments in the flute family,” he explained. “As more flutes have been added to my arsenal including Mayan Teotihuacan drone flutes, Brazilian Pifanos, Native American flutes and South American Quenas, I’ve started to appreciate the underlying principles that cause these instruments to resonate most fully and use this understanding to form a concept allowing me to freely move between instruments.”
On New Year’s Day 2023, in the wake of the release of his 2022 debut EP, Afrikan Culture (which notably featured the artist primarily on flutes), Shabaka announced that beginning in 2024 he’d take a hiatus from playing the saxophone publicly. He clarified in July 2023 on his Instagram page his intention to cease playing with bands in which the saxophone was his primary instrument (including The Comet Is Coming, Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors).
For the flute-forward album Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace, Hutchings tapped into a remarkable cadre of players, including percussionist Carlos Niño and bassist Esperanza Spalding. Vocalists including Saul Williams and Lianne La Havas contributed to “Managing My Breath, What Fear Had Become” and “Kiss Me Before I Forget”, respectively. Floating Points, with whom Shabaka shared a stage with for their performance of Promises at the Hollywood Bowl, provided additional production on the track “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”.
“I invited a bunch of musicians I’ve met and admired over the past few years of touring throughout the United States to collaborate and everyone said yes, which I constantly find breathtaking,” he disclosed. His aim was to gather the musicians at Rudy Van Gelder’s historic studios, which he says “informed the sound of so many seminal jazz albums that have shaped my musical aptitude. We played with no headphones or separation in the room so we could capture the atmosphere of simply playing together in the space without a technological intermediary. After recording hours of inspired interactions, I set to work producing an album from the material.”
When asked about the meaning of the song’s titles, he explained that his previous album’s song titles can be read as poems, respectively. “The narrative aspect of my albums is always intentional,” he explained. “Around the release of the Shabaka and the Ancestors album We Are Sent Here by History, I coined the term ‘sonic poems’ to express how I’m intending the listener to relate to the words associated with the sounds contained on the disc. Each title on this disc was extracted from a longer poem written specifically for the album which only achieved its full meaning in the presence of the music.”
He further relayed that “How the listener interprets the words in relation to the sounds is personal and it’s this subjective unravelling of complex ideas that’s an integral part of the journey I intend to take the listener on. This idea permeated sons of Sons of Kemet’s Black to the Future album whereby each track title reads as a poem. Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace follows in this tradition of titles as symbolising a narrative which is necessarily subjective and expansive in relation to the listener’s experience with the heard music.”
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LANKS
Lanks is the enigmatic solo electronic project of Melbourne musician, Will Cuming.
While continuing to front his seven-piece band Farrow, Lanks is a mature new side project that has allowed him to play freely with traditional folk storytelling in the modern framework of electronic music; taking parts from Radiohead’s intricate grooves, Bon Iver’s vocal layering and Jamie XX’s famed dead space.
His debut EP is a collection of songs that rises and falls in pictures and words, a project that combines cinematic soundscapes with electronic beats and evocative vocal narratives.
Although Lanks is a solo venture, with the 24-year-old writing, performing and recording the EP using synthesizers, guitars, samples and flutes over an intensive three month period, the live sets expand to include three other band members.
Lanks debut EP is available digitally on Bandcamp and iTunes. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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