Features / Music
Distance is no barrier for jazz explorer
Coburg North pianist Barney McAll continues collaboration from afar with New York saxophone legend
Andra Jackson
FROM his home in Coburg North, pianist and composer Barney McAll continues to be a member of acclaimed American jazz group, the Gary Bartz Quartet.
After spending nearly 20 years based in America while playing regular gigs with the group, he moved back to Australia a decade ago. The geographic distance has been no barrier to him still recording and touring with the group – Japan last August and Europe in November.
The enduring collaboration between the pianist raised in Mooroolbark and the New York-based legendary jazz musician who played in Miles Davis’ 1970-71 sextet will be evident when the two perform together in this month’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
For McAll it is a case of déjà vu as he and Bartz were first programmed play together in the very first Melbourne International Jazz festival in 1997.
When Bartz was booked to headline that festival, there was one obvious choice for a local pianist for his backing band. McAll had been the inaugural winner of the National Jazz awards at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in 1990.
As well he was fast making a name for himself playing in singer Vince Jones’ band and accompanying touring US jazz giants such as saxophonist Billy Harper in 1992 and saxophonist Vincent Herring and trumpeter Nat Adderley in 1994.
Bartz was so impressed with the sensibility that McAll brought to his music that he invited him to come to the States and join his band, the Gary Bartz Quartet with US bassist James King and drummers such as the late Greg Bandy. McAll had planned to go to New York anyway so took up the invitation.
Not long after arriving in New York, he was thrown into the deep end, playing on a live recording at the Jazz Standard with the American members of Bartz’s band. The only guidance Bartz ever gave him was to relax on that recording.
“And he’s never said anything since,” says McCall. “He said if you are in the band, then you are in the band.”
McAll has since played on five other recordings with the venerated saxophonist including Live At The Jazz Standard Volume 2’, and Coltrane Rules as well, one still underway with members of Melbourne’s Hiatus Kaiyote, another waiting release and Bartz’s latest release Damage Control.
Asked what is special about the chemistry between them. McAll refers to a comment Bartz once made: “He said that when he played with Bud Powell he felt a type of support in that he could be free in his own ideas. And he said that he felt that with me as well, as soon as he played with me, and that’s why he asked me to join the band.”
He suggests Bartz might also be drawn to his appreciation of modern sounds and sense of funk from absorbing black American music since he was seven.
“It is kind of a mystery that I don’t understand. All I know is that it is a very spiritual thing to play with Gary. There is spirit in the air every time he starts playing.”
For him personally, the relationship with Bartz has been reaffirming: “If someone on the level of Gary Bartz has agreed to have me in his band and play with me since 1998 that means to me that I actually can play the piano and I do have something to say as a musician.
“That is fortifying in an incredibly way that is always with me in difficult situations as a musician so I always feel that confidence thanks to Gary.”
McAll also considers that Bartz taught him “how to tell my story rather than regurgitating things that I learnt or practised. He taught me how to transmute life into music”.
While in America, McAll also played with influential musicians such as jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman, soul and African funk masters Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, and he was musical director for pop star Sia. He also studied sacred Santeria rhythms in Cuba and played gospel music in a local church on Sundays for eight years.
Life in Coburg
McAll moved back to Australia in 2016 after winning the 2015 Peggy Glanville Hicks Composers Trust Fellowship enabling him to live and compose for a year in Sydney.
The following year he settled in Coburg North with his American wife and two children.
Relocating from Brooklyn to Melbourne’s northern suburbs was a massive change from “pretty intense hard living and scuffling”.
“The primary school where my kids went was so peaceful and beautiful and they all had their little hats on and would dance about and run about in the playground.”
But initially he missed not being surrounded by that intense level of funk music and black culture and the very high level of playing of his New York connections.
In Coburg North, however, he was able to find a large enough house to set up a studio. He feels more supported to make his own music here than in America where he was more a sideman.
“I have created my best albums and the best documents of my music in Australia and they are a distillation and combination of everything that I have done.”
The prolific composer has also written four books while teaching at the Victorian College of the Arts. His latest book is on audiation and available online.
McAll is also a regular performer at nearby JazzLab in Brunswick where he fronts a number of different projects he has put together including such as Unforeseen Quintet, Non Compliance Trio and Precious Energy.
Earlier this year, Bartz. 85, who is Professor of Jazz Studies at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio used his sabbatical to slip into Melbourne and record at McAll’s studio with bassist Paul Bender and drummer Perrin Moss from Hiatus Kaiyote, and percussionist Javier Fredes. He also sat in with McAll’s Unforseen Quintet at JazzLab.
Gary Bartz performs NTU Redux/Eternal Tenure of Sound at 170 Russell Street on Wednesday October 22 with Bartz on alto sax and vocals, McAll on keyboards, Rita Satch and Belle Bangard on vocals, Gilly G on guitar, Sam Anning on bass, Jason Heerah on percussion and vocals and Felix Bloxsom on drums. The repertoire includes a re-visualising of Bartz’s early radical NTU Troop music and numbers from Bart’s latest release Damage Control recorded in Los Angeles with McAll and Satch.
Melbourne International Jazz Festival highlight in Brunswick
The JazzLab in Leslie Street, Brunswick, is a major venue for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival which begins on Friday, October 17.
Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez will perform two shows at The JazzLab on Friday, the first with students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at 7pm and then with singer and violinist Fem Belling at 9.30pm.
Then Celebrating Allan Browne (a tribute to the late influential drummer) is on Saturday, October 18 at 7pm followed by New Zealand duo Goldsmith Baynes performing in te reo Maori at 9.30pm. Speedball formed from some of the best musicians to come out of Perth is playing two sets on Sunday, October 22 at 7pm and 9.30pm.
On Monday, October 20, UK’s Tenderlonious plays at 7.30pm. Norway’s Liv Andrea Hauge and her Australian trio perform on Tuesday, October 21 at 7pm with Ivdf from Italy, New Zealand and the UK on at 9.3pm. On Wednesday, New York-based former Perth bassist Linda May Han Oh performs with students from Monash University at 7pm followed by Japan’s Banksia Trio at 9.30. On Thursday, October 23, jazz-rock outfit The Outernet led by keyboardist Phil Turcio perform at 7pm while Open Thread with saxophonist Julien Wilson takes the stage at 9.30pm. US guitarist Bill Frisell and his Trio perform on Friday, October 24 to Sunday, October 26 at 7pm and 9.30pm.
A number of JazzLab shows are sold out but on weekend nights during the festival there is a late night. It is led by the Rookies and has proved extremely popular in past years.
Also in Brunswick, the Ethiopian influenced Black Jesus Experience with yiki yiki (didjeridu) player Sean Ryan are at Howler, 7-11 Dawson Street on Sunday, October 28 at 7pm.
Further information about other shows are available on the Melbourne International Jazz Festival website.
