Jazz in Concert at The Gods 2010
Tues Feb 16 (third Tues)                   Mike Nock's CET Trio (Sydney)
Tues Mar 16 (third Tues)                  Sydney Women's Jazz Collective (Sydney)
Tues Apr 6                                          The Mark Ginsburg Band (Sydney)
Tues May 4                                        The Translators (Sydney)                   
Tues Jun 1                                          Bernie McGann Quartet (Sydney)
Tues Jul 6                                           Chuck Yates Quartet (Sydney/Canberra)
Tues Aug 3                                         The World According to James (Sydney)     
Tues Sept 7                                        Reuben Lewis Quintet (Canberra)
Tues Oct 5                                          Mike Price's Crazy Guitar Ensemble (Canberra)

Wed Nov 3                                         Leigh Barker Quartet (Melbourne)
Tues Dec 7                                          mBASS (Canberra)

Admission $18/$12(conc). Series tickets available for $132 (i.e. 11 x $12) but seats need to be re-booked for each concert on 6248 5538

The Gods Café/Bar is in the ANU Arts Centre (across the quadrangle from the Student Union near Sullivans Creek).

Light meals available from 6pm. Please book on 6248 5538. Patrons who wish to eat beforehand are asked to arrive by 6.30 so that the music can begin at 8pm.

Patrons who want to be sure of hearing particular musicians are advised to have a light meal beforehand to ensure a good seat. 'Non-eating' seats can also be booked however. Seating is limited to 80.


Musicians

Since his first recordings with the Three-Out Trio in 1960-61, Mike Nock has remained at the forefront of international jazz. Currently, Mike is re-exploring the electronic soundscape with CET - the Creative Electronic Trio, and with the youthful talent and energy of  the Waples brothers (Ben on electric bass and James on drums), CET brings a fresh perspective to their music, creating a new sound for a new generation (and continuing satisfactions for older ones!).

Saxophonist Sandy Evans has long encouraged other talented women
musicians to join her at the top of the contemporary jazz field in Australia. All members of this new group have been teachers at SIMA's Jazz Workshops for Young Women. The band includes: Sandy Evans (saxophones), Alex Silver (trombone).Jess Green (guitar), Monique Lysiak (piano), Zoe Hauptmann (bass) and Ali Foster (drums).

The Mark Ginsburg Band comprises Mark Ginsburg (saxophones), Greg Coffin (piano), Karl Dunnicliff (bass) and Tim Firth (drums). It recently launched its debut CD, Generations, which explores Mark's musical roots. Generations was nominated for Best Independent Jazz Album in 2009 by the Association of Independent Records. Mike Nock has described Mark Ginsburg's CD as 'an engrossing musical odyssey, embracing both his cultural heritage and his passion for jazz ... a recording to treasure.'

The Translators is a new collaboration between bassist and composer, Steve Hunter, Ben Hauptmann on acoustic and electric mandolin, percussionist James Hauptmann and flamenco guitarist Damian Wright. Playing original compositions from all members of the band, The Translators have created a unique blend of music that fuses the improvisation in Jazz with the rhythms and harmonies of Flamenco. Their first CD, The Translators, was released last year.

The Bernie McGann Quartet currently features Warwick Alder on trumpet, Brendan Clarke on bass and Andrew Dickeson on drums. Long Australia's most original alto saxophonist, Bernie McGann has featured in the series several times before and needs no further introduction. Neither do his colleagues when you think about it.

Chuck Yates is a legendary Sydney pianist whose playing goes back to the El Rocco in the 1950s. He is accompanied by Ron Philpott on electric bass (a mainstay of the Sydney jazz scene in the 70s and 80s, particularly with the Judy Bailey Trio) and well-known Canberra drummer and teacher, Colin Hoorweg. The Chuck Yates Trio played a fifteen-year gig at The Stag Hotel, Leichardt, finishing in 2009. The group also features tenor saxophonist, James Ryan, originally from Darwin and now well-established on the Sydney scene.

Featuring Australia’s finest improvising musicians, The World According To James has been one of the country's landmark improvised music ensembles for many years. It is the brainchild of joyously idiosyncratic trombonist and composer, James Greening, and features three other living legends of Australian jazz: alto saxophonist Andrew Robson, bassist Steve Elphick and drummer Toby Hall. Their recently released third album, Lingua Franca, features the compositions of Andrew Robson.

The Reuben Lewis Quintet is led by trumpeter Reuben Lewis and comprises some of Canberra’s finest young musicians. The music explores many styles within the contemporary jazz idiom and features classical, latin and reggae influences. The band aims to compose music that is exciting, honest, adventurous and continually evolving. The group will release their debut CD in early 2010. Its members are Reuben Lewis (trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn), Max Williams (tenor saxophone), Matthew Lustri (guitar), Chris Pound (bass) and Aidan Lowe (drums).

Mike Price, teacher of jazz guitar at the ANU School of Music, collaborates with two of his former students, Carl Dewhurst and Carl Morgan, together with Eric Ajaye (bass) and Mark Sutton (drums). The ensemble will take the audience on a journey through the jazz guitar styles of the last seventy years, starting with early giants like Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, proceeding to the stylists of the 50s and 60s such as Wes Montgomery and George Benson and then finishing with contemporary masters like Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Kurt Rosenwinkel.


The Melbourne-based Leigh Barker Quartet features Eamon McNelis on trumpet, Matt Boden on piano accordion, Leigh Barker on bass and Al McGrath-Kerr on drums. It explores a great range of music drawing on all the greatest elements of Jazz music, from Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Ellington, to the classic small group music of Davis, Coltrane and Monk through to the contemporary Australian and international improvised music scenes. In 2007 Leigh took his group on the road around Australia performing more than 25 concerts to promote the release of his second CD, Off to Moruya, recorded for the ABC Jazztrack program. The band released a third album, Lynnville, in 2008.
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mBASS is a new Canberra group assembled from the cream of Canberra's jazz musicians. It comprises (acrostically by surname) John Mackey (saxophones), Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), Eric Ajaye (bass), Luke Sweeting (electric piano) and Mark Sutton (drums). mBASS was created to explore the vast improvisational possibilities available with such a  depth of talent and international experience. The group's original compositions take many forms, from written melodies to complete improvisation growing from a single idea.

  

Poetry at The Gods 2010
Tues Feb 9     Les Murray (Bunyah, N.S.W)
Tues Mar 9    Ali Cobby Eckermann ( Koolunga, S.A.)
                        Petra White (Melbourne)       
Tues Apr 13   Steve Evans (Adelaide)
                        Carol Jenkins (Sydney)
Tues May 11   Andy Kissane (Sydney)
                        Paul Cliff (Canberra)
Tues Jun 8     L.K. Holt (Melbourne)
                                    90th Birthday Tribute to
                                    Rosemary Dobson (Canberra)
Tues Jul 13     Dennis Wild (Adelaide)
                        Mark O'Connor (Canberra)
                        Adrian Caesar (Canberra)
Tues Jul 27     Dead Poets’ Dinner
Tues Aug 10   Andrew Lansdown (Perth)
                        Michele Cahill (Sydney)
Tues Sep 14    Alan Wearne (Wollongong)   
                        Kate Llewellyn (Adelaide)
Tues Oct 12   Elizabeth Lawson (Canberra)
                        Leon Trainor (Canberra)
                        Jeremy Nelson (Braidwood)
Tues Nov 9     Andy Jackson (Melbourne)
                        Harry Laing (Braidwood)
Tues Dec 14   Joanne Burns (Sydney)
                        Robyn Rowland (Torquay, Victoria)

Light meals are available from 6pm. Please book at The Gods on
6248 5538. Entry fee: $5. Patrons intending to eat are asked to arrive by 6.30 to ensure that the readings can begin at 8pm. Seating is limited to 80 people. To be sure of hearing a particular poet it is advisable to eat at the venue beforehand but ‘listening only’ seats can also be booked.

The Gods Café/Bar is in the ANU Arts Centre (across the quadrangle from the Student Union near Sullivan’s Creek).



Les Murray is almost certainly Australia’s best known and most admired living poet. His latest books are The Biplane Houses (Black Inc) and the second edition of Killling the Black Dog (Black Inc).

Ali Cobby Eckermann is an Aboriginal poet whose first collection little bit long time was published in 2009 and sold out.  The poem ‘Intervention Pay Back' won the Red Earth Poetry Award and was published in Best Australian Poems 2009.  She is now working on a second collection and establishing an Aboriginal Writers’ Retreat at Koolunga SA.

Petra White lives in Melbourne. Her first poetry book, The Incoming Tide (John Leonard Press, 2007) was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Prize. She was a 2008 Fellow of Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, and works as a public servant.

Carol  Jenkins is a Sydney writer. Her first book of poetry, Fishing in the Devonian (Puncher & Wattmann 2008), was short-listed in the 2009 Anne Elder and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.  In 2007 she established River Road Press, which produces audio CDs of Australian poetry.

Steve Evans was born in Adelaide and spent a couple of years in Canberra in the late 1990s. He is a lecturer in English at Flinders University, teaching Literature and Creative Writing. His books include: Luminous Fruit (Bookends Books, 2003)
and Taking Shape (Five Islands Press, 2004)

Andy Kissane's latest collection of poetry is Out to Lunch (Puncher & Wattmann, 2009). He won the inaugural Publishers' Cup Cricket Poetry Award in 2009. He is currently working on a book of short stories and a fourth book of poetry.

Paul Cliff has published three collections, most recently The Impatient World (Five Islands Press, 2002). He has won the Two Fires Festival poetry prize and has been a runner up in the Rosemary Dobson Poetry prize.

LK Holt's first poetry collection, Man Wolf Man, won the 2009 Kenneth Slessor Prize. Her second collection, The Creature & Other Poems, is forthcoming in early 2010. She is the publisher of John Leonard Press and editor of Blast: Poetry & Critical Writing.

Rosemary Dobson turns 90 this year. Her works include Collected Poems (Angus & Robertson 1991) and Untold Lives and Later Poems (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2000)

Dennis Wild has recently moved from Canberra to Adelaide. He is a well-known storyteller who has recently published a chapbook of poetry, Just North of Bewilderment, (Picaro Press, 2009)

Mark O’Connor’s  latest collection, Pilbara, was released late last year from John Leonard Press. Mark is also well-known as an environmentalist and is a qualified marriage-celebrant. His collected poems,The Olive Tree was published by Hale & Iremonger in 2000.

Adrian Caesar has published several books of non-fiction as well as four volumes of verse. His latest poetry publications are High Wire (Pandanus Press, 2006) and Take Five (Shoestring Press, UK, 2008)

The Dead Poets’ Dinner (Tues July 27) is a well-established Canberra event where poets and poetry lovers meet to present a couple of poems by their favourite dead poets to an appreciative audience. It will include a substantial two-course meal, including espresso coffee, for $25. There is no entry fee. Bookings directly to The Gods on 6248 5538. Reading order is on a ‘first-in first-served’ booking sheet on the night but not everyone needs to read.

Andrew Lansdown is a Western Australian poet, essayist and novelist. He has published sixteen books and six chapbooks. His most recent poetry collections are: Fontanelle, Little Matters (a gathering of 89 haiku and senryu), Consolations(80 tanka) and Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems.

Michelle Cahill’s books include The Accidental Cage and Poetry Without Borders (ed.) Her work appears in many Australian and international journals. ‘Vishvarupa’, her sequence on Hindu gods, was highly commended in the 2009 Blake Poetry Prize.

Kate Llewellyn is the author of twenty books, eight of them poetry. She is the co-editor of The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets. A book of essays on her poetry is due out in 2010 published  by Wollongong University Press

Alan Wearne is the author of the verse novels, The Nightmarkets and The Lovemakers, as well as his most recent poetry collection The Australian Popular Songbook. He courts the historical, narrative and satiric muses and believes this courtship to be reciprocated. Originally from Melbourne, he now works in Wollongong and lives much of the year in Fremantle.

Canberra poet, Leon Trainor has had several books of poetry and a novel published. His most recent collection is Before Afterwards (Indigo 2009).

Elizabeth Lawson is a widely published Canberra poet who won the ArtsACT David Campbell Poetry Prize in 2005 and appeared in Best Australian Poems 2008.

Jeremy Nelson lives in Braidwood. His collections, mainly on the internet, include Transmutations, Beyond Silence, The Smooth Stone and Homecoming (www.jeremynelson.bigpondhosting.com)

Andy Jackson has been recently published in journals such as Blue Dog, Thylazine and Going Down Swinging, awarded grants from Arts Victoria and the Australia Council, and won the 2008 Rosemary Dobson prize for an unpublished poem. His collection, Among the Regulars, is forthcoming through Papertiger Media.

Harry Laing is a poet, comic performer and creative writing teacher from Braidwood. His second poetry collection Backbone is due out this year. Together with Nicola Bowery, he teaches PoetryAlive workshops which aim to immerse people in poetry for a day or weekend. He also runs voice workshops.

Joanne Burns is a Sydney poet with more than a dozen collections published, the most recent being an illustrated history of dairies (Giramondo 2007). A CD of her reading has been released by River Road Publications.  A new collection, amphora, is forthcoming from Giramondo this year.

Robyn Rowland’s New and Selected Poems will be published in 2010. Her Silence & its Tongues (Five Islands Press 2006) was runner up for the 2007 ACT Judith Wright Poetry Prize. She has read her work in Ireland, Portugal, Turkey, Serbia, Greece, the USA and the UK and been featured regularly on ABC Radio National