With more than seventy performances on offer, the 2021 MIJF provided a clear-eyed snapshot of jazz in Melbourne. The rapaciousness with which contemporary jazz cherry-picks from an array of musical genres means that Amos Roach’s traditional instruments, Horatio Luna’s infectious afrobeat, Tamil Rogeon’s electrified viola or I Hold the Lion’s Paw’s brand of electronica all have a role to play in future directions of jazz.

Because the festival was compressed into a four-day event, one could do little more than navigate the most propitious route through the maze on offer. That inevitably led to difficult choices that involved my skipping some very exciting performances, including Spirograph Studies, Luke Howard, Barney McAll, Torrio! and others.

The quartet Aura, comprising Audrey Powne, Kyrie Anderson, Flora Carbo, and Helen Svoboda (replaced by Tamara Murphy in the image), playing at the Melbourne Recital Centre as part of the 2021 Melbourne International Jazz Festival (photograph by Duncographic)

For my part, the festival kicked off on Thursday evening with an hour-long performance by Aura at the Primrose Potter Salon. An all-female quartet, Aura is made up of some of the most exciting new voices on the Australian jazz scene: saxophonist Flora Carbo, trumpeter Audrey Powne, drummer Kyrie Anderson, and bassist Helen Svoboda (who, for this performance, was replaced by Tamara Murphy). With a line-up mirroring Ornette Coleman’s classic quartet, Aura’s music reveals a band in thrall to the harmonic revolution wrought by Coleman in the early 1960s. Throughout, bass and drums locked tightly, creating complex rhythmic patterns, while the front-line of sax and trumpet floated freely, unconstrained by the music’s tempo. ‘Peaks’ kicked off with a jaunty bass line over which Powne’s trumpet loftily hovered, the piece gradually rising to a free-for-all. ‘Disassociation Daze’, with its backbone of solid groove, demonstrated the quartet’s flexible approach to rhythm, even as it underhandedly morphed into a minimalist sound piece. Carbo’s playing stood out, her light, fluid tone recalling that of Lee Konitz’s, while Anderson’s drumming, full of shifting patterns, ensured the music never stayed still. 

The following evening, bassist Sam Anning launched his much-anticipated new album Oaatchapai at the Melbourne Recital Centre. His septet – trumpeter Mat Jodrell, saxophonists Carl Mackey and Julien Wilson, pianist Andrea Keller, drummer Kyrie Anderson, and guitarist Theo Carbo – reads like a dream line-up, delivering the bassist a rich musical palette with which to interpret his new compositions. Adhering to the album’s trajectory, Anning opened with ‘Tjurunga’, a miniature tone poem that acts as a scene-setter for the album’s title track, an extended tour de force, driven by Carbo’s stark and spiky guitar and Wilson’s anxious and brooding bass clarinet. ‘Giant Pebbles’ paid homage to the lush, orchestral compositions of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus, its refrain filled with romantic flourishes, even as it transformed into a cacophony of bristling horns. Anning ended with ‘Saccade’, a piece spun from a recurring motif engineered by Jodrell’s trumpet. For its denouement, Wilson cut loose with a blistering tenor solo, constructing a wall of sound that merged with an electronic feed of Anning’s spoken word.

The Sam Anning Septet playing at the Melbourne Recital Centre (photograph by Duncographic)

Next up was an hour-long solo performance by Sydney pianist Mark Isaacs, whose crystalline touch was enhanced by the intimacy of the Salon. That Isaacs’s music is not better known can perhaps be accounted for by his long career of genre-hopping between jazz and classical worlds. For this concert, he performed a series of ‘extemporisations’, entirely improvised pieces in which he wrestled melody and song out of silence. Seated at the piano, intensely focused, he radiated a near-palpable tension as he struck the first note of each piece. Engaging every element of his instrument, including the inside strings, Isaacs ranged widely, producing deep rumblings, cascading runs, and melodic flights. There were faint echoes of Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, but equally Isaacs’s touchstones can be traced to Debussy and Ravel. There is an overwhelming sense that this music has been birthed from deep introspection and a lifetime’s mastery of his instrument. Only at the end did Isaacs relax and stray from his wholly improvised approach, finishing with a dazzling version of Ravel’s ‘Ondine’.

The Friday evening ended with a barnstorming performance by Julien Wilson’s Stock at the Recital Centre. Having heard this quartet on many occasions at Northcote’s Bar 303, I wondered whether they would founder in the stately expanse of the Elizabeth Murdoch Hall. I need not have worried. Spread out equidistantly across the large stage, Stock unleashed their powerhouse energy, sucking us into the music’s orbit. Wilson’s ear-splitting tenor sax was on full display, streaking across the dense soundscapes constructed by Craig Fermanis’s guitar and James Gilligan’s dancing bass lines. Drummer Hugh Harvey anchored the thunderous performance, channelling a sustained rhythmic pulse from start to finish. The highlight came with an extended new piece, ‘MetaBata’, fashioned out of a solidly incessant groove, over which Wilson’s tenor screamed and hollered, ratcheting up the heat, resulting in sheer sonic delight. Elsewhere, Wilson paid homage to the late saxophonist Mark Simmonds, ending the concert with ‘Weeping Willow’, Stock’s regular finale, a majestic high-octane number filled with rapturous energy, which crested wave after wave to a point of exhaustion.

On Saturday evening, Ellie Lamb premièred their new large-scale composition ‘Between Worlds’ at Jazzlab in Brunswick. The piece was commissioned as part of the festival’s Take Note program, a ground-breaking initiative designed to address ‘the underrepresentation of women and gender non-conforming people in jazz’. Lamb’s commission, the third in the series following on from previous recipients Claire Cross and Holly Moore, was framed as an extended suite in six parts, scored for octet, exploring themes of identity, the experience of living between genres and genders, and ‘a future unhindered by labels’, as Lamb succinctly put it. Lamb opened the suite with an unaccompanied trombone solo, their warm and mellifluous tone on full display, before being joined by a frontline of brass and wind. Drawing upon an enviable roster of musicians, including trumpeter Niran Dasika, saxophonists Flora Carbo and Shaun Rammers, pianist Selene Messinis, and drummer Maddison Carter, Lamb’s finely etched charts emphasised ensemble phrasing over individual solos – though Rammer’s energetic overblowing at one point was a standout. Throughout, Lamb accentuated instrumental colour and texture as a means of heightening the emotional impact of the music, comparable to the work of Gil Evans, Maria Schneider, or Vanessa Perica. ‘Between Worlds’ seamlessly navigated a range of moods, fluctuating between joyful and wistful, reflecting Lamb’s personal experience of dysphoria and euphoria. The final section of the suite, resounding with jubilation, felt hard won, with Carter’s second-line drumming and Rammers’s clarinet evoking the exultation of a New Orleans parade. The rapturous audience response to the work clearly attested to the significance of Lamb’s achievement, a genuine highlight of the festival.

Niran Disaka and Ellie Lamb performing at the Jazzlab as part of the 2021 Melbourne International Jazz Festival (photograph by Jackie Dixon)

The festival closed on Sunday night with two markedly varied but stellar performances at Jazzlab. Composer Johannes Luebbers unveiled the second part of his 10 x 10 x 10 project, a series of ten compositions designed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his Dectet. Each piece was written in dialogue with a musician in his ensemble, and intended to highlight their playing. ‘Jack O’Lantern’ was an outstanding showcase for Paul Williamson, the trumpeter twisting and bending his notes as he constructed complex rhythmic lines, dense and snaking. ‘Contrarian’, a feature for pianist Andrea Keller, arose directly from her love of the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Part folk-lullaby, Keller’s sparse notes, played gently in the upper register, unfurled haunting and dream-like.

Saxophonist Angela Davis, fronting her quartet, delivered one of the festival’s final performances at Jazzlab, providing a preview of her forthcoming recording The Maximilian Project, commissioned by the ABC. Davis’s music, based upon simple motifs and themes, was ravishing in its delivery. Her alto sax tone is a marvel, warm and lyrical, deserving comparison with the great Paul Desmond. Ably supported by guitarist Stephen Magnusson, bassist Frank DiSario, and drummer Patrick Danao, Davis’s compositions, melodic and spacious, appeared to revel in their sheer beauty, recalling elements of the music of Bill Frisell and Charles Lloyd.

It would have been simple to have cancelled this year’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Instead, it will be looked back upon as the festival that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Despite being delayed by nearly two months, and compressed into just four days, it turned out to be a celebration of Melbourne’s jazz community, offering artists their first opportunity in a long time to perform for live audiences. Tellingly, the absence of international acts meant the spotlight was squarely on local musicians. I suspect many first-time attendees discovered what we’ve long suspected – that jazz in this city operates to a standard that would be the envy of any city in the world. In the end, enforced insularity may just have facilitated new insights and understandings, opening possibilities we’ll carry with us into the future. 

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival ran 2–5 December 2021.