Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Join us for a very special evening of originals and standards by two of our greatest living jazz pianist/composers: Mike Nock and Mark Isaacs.

Mark Isaacs: 8.30-9.30pm

“Every sound has such sublime musicality that Isaacs’s middle name could be ‘Nuance'” SYKE ON STAGE

Solo piano improvisation – both for recordings and in concert – has had an important place in Mark Isaacs’s output over 40 years, and he is greatly looking forward to returning to his favourite Australian jazz venue for a brand new installment in this special medium.

Mark’s recent projects as a composer, pianist and conductor in classical music have seen him conduct the premiere of his Chamber Symphony at City Recital Hall, conduct the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra in a concert of his orchestral compositions, as well as touring and recording in duo with distinguished classical flautist Melissa Doecke. He recently completed composing his second symphony and this year has also performed duo improvisation concerts with classical/jazz saxophonist Loretta Palmeiro in the duo “Some of Two Parts”.

In jazz, his long career has seen him collaborating with some of the most legendary international jazz artists including Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Vinnie Colaiuta, Adam Nussbaum, Jay Anderson and Bob Sheppard. He has led many celebrated groups in Australia including trios and his Resurgence project, has toured widely internationally including major festivals like Tokyo Jazz Festival and Pori Jazz and released many internationally-acclaimed recordings that have been twice nominated for the ARIA Award.

“There is a sophisticated musicality at work that is special and rare” PAT METHENY

Mike Nock: 10.00 – 11.00pm

New Zealand born pianist/composer Mike Nock is one of the acknowledged masters of jazz in Australasia.  Although he maintains a high profile through his trio, quartet, Noctet and various collaborative projects, Mike’s solo performances and recordings have remained relatively infrequent. Mike’s early solo recordings Touch,  Talisman and Piano Solos, received worldwide critical acclaim.

As a solo pianist he has toured extensively, including major European tours in 1979 / 1996, several tours of New Zealand and many concert appearances throughout Australia, Canada, USA and Asia.

“His playing was sublime. A supreme sense of rhythmic invention underpinned the performance.” – The Press, (New Zealand, review of solo concert)

Mike’s reputation rests partly on his imposing international experience which includes some twenty-five years working in the USA with many of the world’s top jazz musicians such as: Coleman Hawkins, Yusef Lateef, Dionne Warwick, and Michael Brecker, to name a few. He was the leader of the 1960’s seminal jazz-rock group “The Fourth Way.” He also has a large catalogue of critically acclaimed, internationally released recordings, and a substantial body of original compositions in print and on recordings.

In 2009 he was inducted into the Bell Awards Australian Jazz Hall of Fame and has won many prestigious awards.

In 2010 a biography of Mike’s life and career was published: Serious Fun: The Life and Music of Mike Nock. (Norman Meehan, Victoria University Press)

“Nock’s ringing iconoclasm pervades all his music, taps a deep well of melody that transcends jazz and informs and ignites his every encounter.” – Fred Bouchard, Downbeat (USA)

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on (02) 9211 9442 or by email to foundry616@gmail.com

Featured artists

• Jazz/improvisation by Mike Nock
• Jazz/improvisation by Mark Isaacs