Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

As unforgettable as hearing your first symphony orchestra in a concert hall, hearing exhilarating jazz and improvised music in an intimate live club environment is an essential experience for music students.

Our concerts introduce students to pivotal jazz styles across traditional and modern periods. From stage craft to composition, ensemble work and aural skills, students will gain valuable insights into Australian music, the creative process of improvisation and music as a vocation.

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Hear funk bass lines, big sax solos, break beat rhythms and African drums when jazz, soul and world music collide. In this program SIMA presents Mister Ott, a six-piece Afro-jazz ensemble which draws world music, 60s and 70s soul and jazz together with traditional five-tone scaling and Ethiopian vocals to create a vibrant interpretation of contemporary jazz today.

Inspired by Ethiopian artist Mulatu Astatke, saxophonist Matthew Ottignon has assembled Sydney’s finest musicians together. Eastern mellismatic scales and hypnotic trance-like rhythms head to head with seriously solid funk grooves.

Everywhere he’s been, Matt Ottignon has soaked up the local music culture, collaborating with resident artists and creating new music. Not ‘world music’ in the accepted sense, Matt’s original compositions for MISTER OTT comprise an amalgamation of native melodies from many sources, blended with the free-form improvisation and syncopation for which African-pedigreed jazz is renowned. For more information about Mister Ott click here.

**Schools can book using the SIMA booking form on the event website.**

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on (02) 9036 6292 or by email to admin@sima.org.au

Featured artists

• Presented by Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA)
• Jazz/improvisation by Matt Ottingnon