TIP was formed in 1990 as a large ensemble with two trumpets and trombones and was originally called Kelog People playing all original compositions by Walters. After various line-up changes, in 1995 TIP became a guitar, bass, drums trio. With a commercial CD release, touring to South Africa and Europe in 1996, another CD recording and festival appearances. TIP has performed twice at Wangaratta and Montsalvat Jazz Festivals, twice at the Melbourne International Festival and at the inaugural Melbourne International Jazz Festival. After a number of dormant years, TIP resurfaced at Bennetts Lane in 2005, and again with guest Tony Hicks (wind instruments) at Bennetts Lane on October 31, ‘06. Tony Hicks will be joining TIP again in 2007 for the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival.

Ren Walters is the composer and plays primarily electric guitar, offering a personal interpretation of the traditions of the instrument in the rock and jazz idioms.
Niko Schauble plays drum kit and percussion. He places high priority on presenting an original sound, a finely detailed yet raw attack and polyrhythmic complexity. His work as a composer means he is aware of the groups ’sound’ as a whole and the creative power of a unified ‘mood’.
Chris Bekker plays electric bass with the love of ‘the groove’ and a joy in its expressive nuance (especially the fretless bass) resulting in a lyricism and the ability to take this musicality further into the textural soundscape.

They perform original compositions with a large component of group improvisation. Allusions to contemporary musical styles are in evidence without allegiance to any. The result is idiosyncratic, displaying mobility and textural richness.

“. . . . . . with their differing styles, moving in and out of passages of free sound and improvisation, one feels that they are hovering around the edges of music, entering into it at different points to create a communal and genuinely creative sound.” - Charles Force, ‘The Venue’ Bristol U.K

“. . . . . . produced a really crisp set of imaginative material and tantilising playing.” -

‘ Evening Gazette’, U.K

“. . . . . . I can vouch for the degree of imagination and polish of playing involved - inspiring stuff, highly recommended.” - U.K review.

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Stephen Magnusson (guitar), Dave Beck (drums), Frank Di Sario (bass) present a selection of improvisations, original compositions and songs. With the emphasis on long expansive themes and sonic nuances.

Byar (pron. ‘bee-ar’) features Adrian Sherriff, Jeremy Dullard, Jo To and Adam King. Together, they share a passion for the music and sounds of Bali and creative music making. Byar was formed in early 2000 to perform original music and arrangements of traditional Balinese repertoire. The instrumentation of the group encompasses a variety of traditional gamelans including beleganjur (the marching gamelan), kecak (the monkey chant) and gender wayang (shadow puppet music). Byar has performed for the Asialink Centre, the Make It Up Club Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, the Water Water Festival and the La Musica series.

Belinda Woods – flutes
Mark Finsterer – guitar

Acoustic duo, Meter Maid, delves into the depths of sound and space to create an aurora of intricate designs and colours. Underlining the beauty and subtlety of the sounds they create lies an undulating river, an untameable force of motion that will take you along for the ride.

Flautist Belinda Woods is emersed in the Melbourne Improvised music scene. Performing regularly with ensembles such as Bohjass, Meter Maid and the Sunwrae Ensemble. Belinda explores the use of texture and contour within her playing to paint scenes of rich complexity, focusing on the acoustic nature of her instrument.
Currently a PGD student at the VCA, Belinda extends her abilities towards the composed music of the 20th and 21st centuries, the structure and innovation of which she draws into her own improvising and composition.
Current artistic director of the ” Make It Up Club” Improvised music series Belinda plays a major role in supporting and enhancing the development of the local music scene. Her passion for music that is boundless, challenging and left of centre keeps her explorations alive, her desires to create a form of music that is inspirational and exciting, building on the energy of creator and listener alike, transcending the unattainable. This is the force that drives and oils the machine!

Mark Finsterer is a Melbourne based guitarist / composer / improvisor. He performs solo, with his own ensemble The Heterophonics, contemporary music group Metermaid and also in larger formats.

In the last year he has performed at the Spiegeltent, the Make it Up Club, Loop, Open Studio, 303, and various other music venues. He has also toured and played in music festivals in Australia and Europe including The North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague Holland with Tom Lewis and Chris Young.

He is currently working on a CD of original music incorporating an eclectic of electro/acoustic music, which also involves electronic processing. There are many influences in the music, all of which is original and consists of written and improvised parts and also explores texture, tone and occasionally tenacity, from country to jazz to free improvisation.

Formal study includes a Bachelor of Music in Composition at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and a Diploma of Composition from the L’Accedemia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy under the tuition of Maestro Franco Donatoni.

Marc Hannaford (piano), Scott Tinkler (trumpet) and Harry Shaw-Reynolds (drums) explore ‘Rhythmalodics’: three musicians interacting through a common complex rhythmic language. Freedom is achieved
through compositions, either pre-determined or spontaneous. Music to get
excited by.

This trio was formed in late 2006 and began its development at Café 303 as
part of TinklerÂ’s regular Wednesday night performances. This group works off
complex rhythmic patterns and compositions to achieve a common syntax with
which to improvise. The result is focused and original improvised music.

Each member of this group is a prominent exponent of Australian improvised
music. Between them, this group has played with almost all of AustraliaÂ’s
well known jazz musicians. Scott, Harry and Marc are focusing on achieving
great musical freedom through the mastery of their respective instruments.

The Nathan Slater Ensemble is a dynamic trio featuring Chris Hale (bass) and Ryan Menezes (drums). Nathan has developed a unique and strong approach to the nylon string guitar, with influences of flamenco, choro and jazz.

Tim Pledger Trio with
Jorge Rodrigues and
Harry Shaw-Reynolds

An intimate trio setting involving melodic improvisation through ensemble listening and artistic balance. Throughout his time as leader of “bohjass” Tim Pledger has been involved with many musicians and artists in creating works of relevance and meaning in an increasing atmosphere of negligence and apathy towards deeply felt spiritual artistic statements. With Jorge and Harry Tim delves freely into the existential pot-pourri of the musicians reason.

Tim Pledger : saxophone/clarinet/flute/guitar.

Since graduating from V.C.A in 1997 Tim has released 4 albums with his long running ensemble ‘bohjass’ and 4 as solo electronic artist ‘uncle e.’ Bohjass has played at most major venues in Melbourne and toured interstate. Last years Jazz Fringe was postmarked with ‘bohjass upas militia’s’ indelible brand of incessant minimalism and grandiloquent free rock blowing. Tim regularly plays with a trio setting in ‘The boys’ that explores the jazz blues repertoire of Coltrane, Mingus, Monk and Shorter. His other ensembles include “Sandwich Jesus” delving into iconography through the use of minimal abstracts of vision; “Viaduct”, an audio visual project incorporating live drawing and video art and “Bikeboy”; a virtual rock band linked with overt sexual deviance and tongue in your cheek beligerence.
HereÂ’s what some reviewers have said of TimÂ’s work:
Jeff Pressing (the Age Aust.): ‘Stylistically, Bohjass occupied a nether world of textural blocks that jumped between rhythmic minimalism, free jazz counterpoint and florid unison filigree: trance music meets jazz.’
Ben Watson (the Wire U.K 2001): ‘Then along comes saxophonist, guitarist and composer Tim Pledger and his group Bohjass, and you’re reminded that aching melodies and haunting harmonies can be written down, and that a score can still be a luanchpad for aural poetics.’
Â’maybe whatÂ’s most
admirable is PledgerÂ’s emotional investment in his melodies, his very unpostmodern absence of formal justification.Â’
Ben Watson (hi-fi news U.K 2001): ‘Pledger demonstrates his right to impose his ideas on the rest of the group by delivering amazing sax solos, where he evokes Ayler and Dolphy with just theright amount of detachment and humour to separate himself from the numbskull literalists.’
Ben Watson (Hi-Fi News U.K. 2002): ‘In Techno and Ambient, repetition is often a technique to avoid expression. Here, each beat is driven in with an avidity that is disturbingly sexual; and just when you think you cannot bear it anymore, the ensemble explodes into myriad free-jazz colours. Inspired.’

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Vada is a distinctive, fiery six-piece playing klezmer/hip hop/waltz/Dixie/tango/New Orleans/odd time Balkan jazz consisting of six of Melbourne’s finest improvisers, whose individual work spans many genres and has included performances and recordings with Clarence Penn, Tim Ries, Kate Ceberano, Allan Browne, Andrea Keller, Barney McAll, The Cat Empire, The Bamboos, Virus, The Band Who Knew Too Much, Michelle Nicolle Quartet and heaps more.

This year the band have already recorded a live album and embarked on a project commissioned by the Queensland Music Festival that incorporates a choir from Choulai’s homeland of Papua New Guinea. ‘We Don’t Dance For No Reason’ will be premiered in July.

“Choulai’s colleagues demonstrate an appealing bravado matched by a fierce musical intelligence, and their ability to sweep through the tunes’ constant shifts in tempo and time-feel is impressive to watch - Jessica Nicholas, The Age

“Aaron Choulai is a prodigious talent” - Kevin Jones, Weekend Australian

Eamon McNelis: Trumpet
Carlo Barbaro: Tenor Saxophone
Shannon Barnett: Trombone
Aaron Choulai: Piano/Nord
Tom Lee: Bass
Rory McDougall: Drums

Adam Simmons – saxophones
Ben Carr – saxophones
Joe Talia – drums

New Blood formed in 1998 with a desire to expand their musical concepts and challenge the conventional roles of their instruments - a mix of acoustic hardcore and beautiful lyricism. In 1999 they were awarded the Melbourne Fringe FestivalÂ’s Best Music Award. They released their CD, “Heavy Water” in 1999. In 2000 New Blood toured to Europe, performing throughout Poland, Paris (France) and Rostock (Germany). There have been a couple of different formations including original percussionist, Will Guthrie, though this line up has been consistent since 2000. In Australia they have performed at the Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival, venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Ballarat, Geelong, Albury and Newcastle. Performances have been rare in recent times due to Ben’s relocation to Brisbane. The Big Arse Sunday gig is one of a series of gigs, including the Valley Jazz Festival in April (Brisbane) to celebrate the release of a new CD of material recorded live in Poland. There will be new material performed also in preparation for a 2007 recording.

The premiere of a new sextet, featuring a unique line-up with three of Australia’s most distinctive drummers - Sean Baxter (bucketrider, Lazy), Niko Schauble (Tibetan Dixie, Australian Art Orchestra) and Ted Vining (Ted Vining Trio, Musikki Oy, Oynsemble) - as well as Gideon Brazil, Phil Noy and Adam Simmons forming the triple-barrelled sax section of either all baritone or all alto saxophones. This group has been formed by Simmons to celebrate and highlight the creative forces that each of these musicians harness and to explore the potential of such an unusual combination of both instruments and personalities.

Sean Baxter - drums
Niko Schauble - drums
Ted Vining - drums
Gideon Brazil - baritone/alto saxes
Phil Noy - baritone/alto saxes
Adam Simmons - baritone/alto saxes