artist
jess green


Jess Green

BIOGRAPHY

Jess Green was born and raised in Canberra, Australia, where she completed a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies (1st class honours). In 2004 she was commissioned to write an original score for the theatre production “Adult Child/Dead Child” which featured at Chapel of Chapel for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. After travels through Europe and West Africa, she arrived in Sydney and has been working as professional musician and guitar tutor for just over a year.

Aside from The Green Septet, Jess performs solo, using voice and guitar and has been a member of the quartet Katook, for 5 years. She is also a member of the Afro beat/Ska outfit “Ataclapse”. Jess has performed at Side On Cafe, Jazzgroove Excelsior, Bennett’s lane, Devonport Jazz Festival, Halfbent festival and Narooma jazz festival. She was a guest tutor this year at SIMA’s young women’s jazz workshops.

INTERVIEW

Q: TELL US ABOUT THE TITLE, “THE SINGING FISH”

Well, I’ve always been attracted to novels and theatre, and the way I approach composing reflects that, I like to create drama! The title track, “The Singing Fish”, started with the Joan Miro painting (so it’s his words- not mine). My Mum had taken my sister and I on a trip to Italy and I came up with the melody whilst sitting in our hotel room, listening to her have a bath. I was imagining a very suave and elegant fish doing a high, operatic warble. When I got home I thought “this has to be played by a saw” and the tune evolved from there.

Q: TRAVEL SEEMS TO BE QUITE AN INSPIRATION TO YOU, WHAT OTHER PLACES HELPED CREATE THE MATERIAL FOR THIS ALBUM?

After I finished Uni i saved up for a big trip O.S. I backpacked around Europe – checking out various folk music and visited a famous jazz festival which had almost every one of my idols performing. London was a big influence also, where I worked for a while and experienced the wild energy of such a huge city. The biggest impact on me was certainly West Africa, where I swapped English teaching for music lessons. That was a dream that exceeded by many times my expectations of joy and learning. It’s not just the way music is felt and performed there but the sights and smells and smiles that surround it.

Q: YOUR MUSIC EMPLOYS A DIVERSE RANGE OF MUSICAL STYLES, CAN YOU DISCUSS THIS?

I grew up listening to a pretty strange mix of music, I studied classical piano for a long time but my favourite records were albums by 80’s rock bands like The Police, Dire Straights, Talking Heads, and crazy artists like Frank Zappa, I also loved musicians that produced crossover records like Paul Simon’s Graceland or Ry Cooder’s Jazz. It was through a love of blues in my early teens that I eventually made it to Jazz and fell in love with the greats like Mingus and Duke Ellington, and contemporary artists such as Maria Schneider, John Abercrombie and Dave Holland.

REVIEW

"The eccentricities are young and innocent. That there are 11 players is a mystery, but I'm glad there are because Jess Green finds effective use for all the colours at her disposal. A highly pleasing guitarist, Green emerges as an unmistakably gifted writer and arranger.

The basis of her writing is the horn ensemble and the textures and Afro/Caribbean-influenced moods of the rhythm section. She can blend saxophones, trumpets and trombone smoothly, but often avoids homogenous-sounding ensembles in favour of voicings that allow all the instruments to sing and vibrate against each other.

The effect might remind some of the Count Basie band playing the blues. The sounds and textures of world music are also here. Most distinctive are the detailing and beautiful use of such colours as Azo Bell's saw and Bill Risby's accordion. Trumpeter Miroslav Bukovsky and trombonist John Hibbard are outstanding among the soloists, giving the music points of shouting power."

REVIEW SMH DEC 2005
JOHN CLARE

ALBUM

THE GREEN SEPTET - The Singing Fish ...And Other Short Stories

JESS GREEN – GUITAR/VOCALS
ZOE HAUPTMANN – BASS
EVAN MANNELL – DRUMS
MATT KEEGAN – TENOR SAX
DAN JUNOR – ALTO SAX
JOHN HIBBARD – TROMBONE
SIMON FERENCI – TRUMPET

SPECIAL GUESTS
BILL RISBY - ACCORDIAN
FABIAN HEVIA - PERCUSSION
AZO BELL -SAW
MIROSLAV BUKOVSKY -TRUMPET

“...Beautifully crafted compositions...”
“...an auspicious beginning...”
John Shand
Sydney Morning Herald June 2005


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