“Heart and soul has audience enthralled.” – Sydney Morning Herald.
This group features some of Australia’s finest jazz musicians with Chris Cody, Sandy Evans, Lloyd Swanton, and Loretta Palmeiro. Beautifully recorded by Tim Whitten and mastered by Michael Lynch, the album also features beautiful artwork by Maya Cody and design by Tim Kliendienst.
This new music explores freedom in individual and collective roles through original compositions and improvisation.
Sandy Evans, Lloyd Swanton, and Chris Cody have played together for many years. Cody recorded several very successful albums with Swanton, including Oasis for Naxos Jazz and his last two albums Astrolabe and The Outsider. They have also worked with Tessie Overmyer for several years at different venues and festivals. Their recent music together has premiered to enthusiastic response from audiences and critics.
In Cody’s numerous compositions, he’s been influenced by a variety of sources that reflect his experiences and emotions. He lived in Paris for 22 years working with musicians from diverse backgrounds around Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and this has inspired his recent work. In this collaboration he further develops his leadership and compositional skills, writing new pieces for the group that alternate with free improvisation.
“I’m very proud to release this recording with these exceptional musicians. The music we play when we come together is organic, intuitive, exciting, open, without boundaries. We love the journey each piece takes us and the audience on.
I bring various classical, gospel, African, and French influences to my music. There are minimalist and trance elements in Lloyd’s work with the Necks, and Sandy has long explored Indian music in her music. Tessie is strong in both jazz and avant-garde improvisation.
As we play without a drummer, we have added more rhythmic roles to our individual and group playing while enjoying the extra space. The group has found interesting ways to exploit the various possibilities of piano, saxophone, and bass using extended techniques. We combine my compositions with free group and solo improvisations to take the listener on a truly imaginative journey.
I describe the aesthetic of the album as a fairly organic blend of compositions and solo improvisations, individual and collective pieces, based around honest storytelling and imaginary soundscapes and journeys. This journey could take place from dawn to dusk, or over many weeks, or could be imaginary travels. For the solos, I gave the musicians instructions on different moods, recorded three solos each, and then took the one that best suited the eventual order. I used them as introductions or palette cleansers between the more structured compositions.” – Chris Cody.
“Full of music and talent.” – Le Monde, France.
“A piano style that enthuses is luminous and breathes …very inspired… a remarkable pianist.” – Jazz Hot, France.
“Free flowing, inspired, high revving, hugely evocative, elegantly layered, wonderfully lithe and sinewy… rampant lyricism, opulent ensemble harmonies.” – John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald.