Charlotte Mclean is no stranger to performing having graced the stage at the Brisbane Jazz Club (BJC), performed with The Australian Voices, as well as a playing a recent set at Lock 'n' Load.
Now she's taking the plunge and releasing her debut album, ‘Knocking Bird’, with the help of a few industry friends. While her album launch show at the BJC will feature four of her friends, ‘Knocking Bird’ was completed with the help of just one of them. “Eight out of nine [songs] are originals and the last one is a standard called 'After You've Gone'. It's with Toby Wren, a guitarist I've been working with,” Charlotte says.
"We wrote one of the tunes together, that's called ‘Toby's Song’, then the standard 'After You've Gone'. Then the other seven are all originals that I've been working on for the past six months. It's got jazz, R&B and pop influences, but it's mainly a jazz album.”
Although she's no stranger to the spotlight, Charlotte didn’t want the album artwork to be focused on her, so she came up with an alternative. “For the artwork, I didn't so much want to have pictures of me in the booklet, I wanted people I knew to be a part of it. So I got a couple of my students and Toby's kids and my cousins kids to do the artwork for it, so they could be a part of the booklet. I just want this album to be as honest and raw as possible.”
Recent times have been incredibly constructive for Charlotte as a musician having graduated from the Jazz Music Institute. As well, she started teaching full-time. She credits this good fortune to the changes in her musical life. “I guess you meet different people and different influences. Using different types of music has really helped me to grow as a musician, and I really wanted to try out different styles and write things that put me out of my comfort zone so I could expand myself musically.”
Charlotte's eager to keep her musical career moving, with plans to move interstate to expand her contacts and resume. “My first plans are to finish this album. I really want to go to Melbourne and work on my music there, that’s the next goal. I'm looking to work for as many different people in as many different places as I can.”
Written by Daniel Conaghan
The Charlotte Mclean Quartet launch ‘Knocking Bird’ at the Brisbane Jazz Club Friday July 18.
Charlotte McLean Tour Dates
Fri Jul 4 - The Point (South Bank, Brisbane)Fri Jul 11 - The Point (South Bank, Brisbane)
Sun Aug 24 - Jazz Upstairs (Brisbane)
