The Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra (JMO) have teamed with the talented, award-winning guitarist James Muller, for an east coast tour this November.
The JMO are a 17-piece jazz, big band who formed in 2003 to play a Christmas party. David Theak – the orchestra's artistic director and saxophonist – has since experienced many highlights performing with the JMO. “At the Sydney Festival this January, we played with an amazing artist called Maria Schneider, she's a multi, Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor,” he says.
“She came down to Australia to work with us specifically and so we spent three or four days working with her and then we did a concert at the end and that was definitely one of the band's highlights.”
“Mum's quite a gregarious type; she used to have a lot of parties at the house, so there was always musicians playing.”
Once David starts thinking about it, all the highlights come flooding back. “We played with a guy called Darcy James Argue. We had a tenth anniversary a couple of years ago and we toured around Australia with him, and we played with Chris Potter too, he's probably the world's greatest saxophone player; we did a tour with him a couple of years ago.”
The Orchestra's reputation has seen them play at a number of Australia's biggest, jazz clubs and festivals. “We've been really lucky in the last, few years to do some pretty, big gigs at the Sydney Festival and Melbourne International Jazz Festival. It's great to play sort of obscure, original, big band music. But you know, to quite a few people that side of things has been really encouraging and lots of fun as well,” David says.
As a member of one of Australia's leading jazz orchestras, David has a respected insight into the local, jazz scene. “It's really, really strong. We've done a lot of international collaborations over the years with the world's leading jazz composers and artists and they are all unanimously impressed by the strength of the Australian jazz scene and the quality of the musicians they're working with.
“Lots of Australians are living in New York, which is sort of the centre of jazz and they're all doing really well, so it's a really strong, healthy scene by world standards.”
The son of a jazz singer, David's mum played a major role with his appreciation of jazz. “Mum's quite a gregarious type and she used to have a lot of parties at the house, so there was always musicians playing and as I got older we used to have jam sessions at all her parties and stuff like that.”
David's enthusiasm for performing live is clearly evident when you talk to him; and he is looking forward to the band's next string of shows, which he describes as dynamic. “It's very dynamic, we treat it like an orchestra, so it has some quiet and tender moments and lots of beautiful orchestrations using all the instruments of the orchestra, and some really interesting and unique arrangements.
"But also really powerful as well, so it's a very dynamic performance. We cover a lot of emotional and sort of sonic territory, so yeah audiences generally find the performances to be quite interesting and engaging,” he says.
He is equally enthusiastic about James Muller, the orchestra's guest artist for this tour. “He's a phenomenal musician and we've had his music arranged by one of the world's leading composers. So, hopefully what the audience gets to hear is a really exciting, well-rounded performance that hopefully they will be talking about for awhile to come.”
Written by Mardi Reason
Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra Tour Dates
Wed 4 Nov - The Street Theatre (Canberra)Sun 8 Nov - The Basement (Sydney)
Fri 13 Nov - Brisbane Powerhouse
Thu 26 Nov - Unorthodox Church Of Groove (Newcastle)
Fri 27 Nov - Bruce Gordon Theatre (Wollongong)
