Jazz guitarist Quentin Angus left his home in Eden Valley, South Australia to pursue his dream of playing the music he loves in the city that never sleeps: New York City.
Now based in Harlem, Quentin has had the opportunity to develop his playing by immersing himself in the rich jazz history the city holds. “I used to live across the street from a club called Minton’s, which has been around since the ‘40s, and it was actually the primary club where bebop was supposedly meant to have emerged,” Quentin says.
“Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie would be playing in the big bands downtown and they would play from 7pm till 1am then they would travel uptown and jam at Minton’s from 2am till the morning, and that was when they would just jam over the same chord progressions, and that was where bebop emerged.”
Growing up in Eden Valley, Quentin says he always knew that if he wanted a career in music, he would have to leave his rural hometown for greener pastures. After gaining his degree in Adelaide, he set his sights on what is for many jazz hopefuls, the greenest pasture of them all. “If you want to be a jazz musician, New York is still the best place to be in the world, in terms of just being exposed to other players,” he says.
“Seven days a week you can go out and not only be able to see world-class performances, but you have a huge list of different performances you can go see. As well as that, you can play with these people; you can do jam sessions or hire them for gigs, so it’s a very inspiring space to be because you can see so much music and also have the opportunity to play with these people.”
Quentin returns to Australia in June for a national tour with his group, the Quentin Angus Trio featuring drummer Ari Hoenig and bassist Sam Anning. The tour will also include Quentin’s debut at some of the country’s premier jazz festivals. “I’m super excited about the tour for a couple of reasons,” Quentin says.
“The first is that although I’ve toured Australia before, this is going to be the first time I’ve played the big festivals, like the Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne International Jazz Festivals.
Ari Hoenig
“Also, the drummer I’m bringing with me, linking back to living in New York and playing with all these amazing musicians, bringing Ari Hoenig with me is going to be really special as well. I’ve been a fan of his music for so many years, to be playing with him is pretty ridiculous, now that I think about it,” he laughs.
Quentin concludes his Australian visit with a recording session, out of which he hopes to produce his next full-length album. Moving away from technically stringent approaches, Quentin says his songwriting has become based more in emotion than theory. “An overarching thing is that my albums up until this point have been very intellectually based,” he explains.
“I’ve been thinking about particular musical things like polyrhythm or metric modulation as a basis for my composing, but now, as of late, I’ve been going the complete opposite way because I feel like I’ve explored that enough.
"So now I’ve been writing a lot more melodic and, I don’t want to say simple music, but I’ve been thinking about family and returning to Australia.”
Quentin Angus Tour Dates
Sun 5 Jun - Perth International Jazz FestivalMon 6 Jun - Brisbane International Jazz Festival @ JMI Live
Tue 7 Jun - Smith’s Alternative Bookshop (Canberra)
Wed 8 Jun - The Wheatsheaf Hotel (Adelaide)
Thu 9 Jun - Melbourne International Jazz Festival