Vince and Paul have been making music together for as long as they can remember. Each will suggest, gently, and with a smile, that the other can be “a bit difficult”; but musically the respect for each other’s skills is unequivocal. Each has carved out remarkable careers and opportunities to get together difficult to arrange. When they did, two nights at Melbourne’s Bennetts Lane Jazz Club generated enough excitement to get them back to the studio for October ‘15s critically acclaimed “Provenance” album. This performance at The Basement offers a rare opportunity to experience the clarity of their musical conversation; one voice, one piano and an unspoken language.
What : Vince Jones & Paul Grabowsky performing
Where : @The Basement, Circular Quay, Sydney
When : 23rd of April, 6:30pm
Click here for tickets and to find out more informations!
About Vince :
Australia’s leading jazz vocalist, Vince Jones, is also a remarkable interpreter and composer of songs in a contemporary jazz style – a style that appeals equally to listeners and his musical peers. As a vocalist he resists showing off technique to the detriment of feel – he’s confident in his musical literacy and sings like there’s nothing to prove. It’s a refreshing approach that gives us, the audience, the chance to be really moved. Vince Jones also plays trumpet and over the years his style has developed a distinctive reserve and subtlety – he plays a little less and draws a good deal more from it than he did in earlier days. A brief, thoughtful solo from Vince is worth a hundred notes played with less discretion.
Born in Glasgow, Vince and his family came to live in Australia when he was 11 years old. He grew up in Wollongong, NSW, listening to his musician father’s collection of great jazz albums, and the feel, style and essence of the music became a natural part of Vince’s world. Starting his jazz performance journey as a bebop trumpet player, the young man had no idea that in 10 years, then 20 years – his superb voice would touch the hearts and minds of many listeners – in Australia and beyond. At 20, Vince began playing the club circuit in Melbourne. He was drawn to R&B music – a genre in which the emotive force of the voice is matched by technical and improvising skills. To a young man steeped in jazz and blessed with a good voice – it was natural to meld these elements together and so began the evolution of Australia’s great jazz vocalist.
About Paul :
Paul Grabowsky is a pianist, composer, arranger, conductor – and is one of Australia’s most distinguished artists.
Born in Lae, Papua New Guinea in 1958, Paul was raised in Melbourne where he attended Wesley College. During the late 70’s he became prominent in the music scene in Melbourne, working in various jazz, theater and cabaret projects.
He lived and worked in Europe and the US from 1980-85, during which time he performed with many jazz luminaries including Chet Baker, Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin. He returned to Australia in 1986 and established a reputation as one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians with such bands as his own trio and sextet, the Wizards of Oz and as musical director for… Vince Jones!