SO

This quartet was formed in late 2018 as a vehicle to play swinging, straight ahead jazz in a classic format. The king of the tenor saxophone, Dexter Gordon was chosen as a touchstone for the project’s sound, and the majority of the material the band perform are Dexter’s original compositions. Some new original material has been written in that vein particularly for this group.

Dexter was one of Julien’s first inspirations when he started playing saxophone as a teenager. “A teacher gave me a cassette tape of the music from the movie Round Midnight, and listening to Dexter on that album and watching him in the movie was a pivotal moment. The breadth of the musicianship on display on that album is astounding, and the modern 80’s take on the classic music of the 50s and 60s made a deep impression. One of the first tunes I learned to play was Devilette, from the album Both Sides of Midnight, a live recording from Copenhagen in 1967. I’ve always loved Dexter. His tone and timing and delivery is the epitome of everything that jazz, and particularly the tenor sax should be in my mind. When we first played these songs together the band remarked on what great vehicles all the tunes are.”

Julien, Philip & Danny have a long relationship spanning many groups. They’ve played together many times as a trio, and with musicians including Barney McAll, Josh Roseman, Gil Askey and James Carter.

Mark Fitzgibbon is possibly the finest proponent of swinging, hard bop, jazz piano that Australia has produced and together the band happily inhabit and revel in the great river that is the lifeblood of mainstream/modern/swinging jazz.