Current and recent projects
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, with some exceptional juggling required for parents of young children such as myself with limited childcare hours, the temporary shut down of playgrounds, and a toddler with a resulting TV addiction. Due to venue shut downs, Divergence Jazz Orchestra have not had a chance to perform yet this year, fingers crossed for a new show booked for September!
Despite all this, I’ve been very lucky to sneak in some writing time to work on some new composing and arranging commissions for other people’s projects.
Back in 2019 the brilliant composer/woodwinds improviser Paul Cutlan commissioned me to compose a cross-over work based on an experience of new motherhood for his six piece improvising chamber group Paul Cutlan’s String Project. In March just before lockdown I was thrilled to hear my work Sleep, In My Arms brought to life by the six incredible musicians in the group for Paul’s latest album recording. Can’t wait to hear the whole album later this year when it’s released.
Back in March, the fine musicians who recorded on Paul Cutlan’s new String Project album
In 2018 kids’ rock band The Sticker Club released their debut album Scratch and Sniff on ABC kids, including 5 tracks with my horn line arrangements. I enjoyed working on a new arrangement for them in June for a new single, a lullaby, to feature my good friend Loretta Palmeiro’s beautiful clarinet playing. They recorded the horn parts last week and the new song will be featured on the ABC Kids Radio app - hopefully my two year old will appreciate the new track. I rarely get asked to write for projects like this and I’ve really enjoyed the collaboration with leader Nic Dalton and his team.
I’ve been slowly chipping away at a composition, a vocal feature, for Divergence, while coincidentally working on a trio version of the same piece for Clarinetist Maryanne Piper’s Lilith Night project, another cross-over chamber work, for clarinet, piano (Keyna Wilkins) and trumpet (Rachel Drubetsky).
This week trumpeter Matt Collins, who plays lead in Divergence, has commissioned me to arrange my tune Twerking it Nyabs Style (from the Divergence album Fake It Until You Make It), for his new isolation recording project Sydney Trumpet Quintet. I love writing for five trumpets at once in Divergence, but removing the rest of the big band for an arrangement has been more challenging than it sounds! Matt and his lineup of great trumpeters will be recording their first release, including my chart, over a couple of sessions this month. Other featured composers/arrangers will include Judy Bailey and Andrew Robertson.
Divergence with Chelsea McBride at Sydney International Women's Jazz Festival
Direct from the Perth International Jazz Festival, saxophonist Chelsea McBride brings her harmonically layered, infectiously energetic work to a big band setting under the auspices of Jenna Cave’s Divergence Jazz Orchestra. The native Canadian won theToronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award, and toured her work across Canada and North America. Her debut release as Chelsea McBride’s Socialist Night School took a modernist, orchestral approach to jazz, charting the journey of a daydreaming commuter - a bustling, polyrhythmic jostle of interlocking instrumentation, alive with the energy and distraction of city life.