姓名： TheJoFabroQuintet 英文名：- 性别：男 国籍：- 出生地：- 语言：- 生日：- 星座：- 身高：- 体重：-
CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN JAZZ MUSIC
Jo Fabro – Vocals
Aaron Flower – Guitar
Greg Coffin – Keys
Brendan Clarke – Bass
Miles Thomas – Drums
NEW ALBUM SET FOR RELEASE
- 27th JULY – 2013
“Right from the get go, you’re listening intently. Such a welcoming warm full sound, that just snuggles over you like a warm blanket on a cold night. I simply love this new Jazz offering from Sydney Soulstress Jo Fabro. Listen up…. she’s the real deal! ” – Emma Pask
The release of the debut album from The Jo Fabro Quintet sees renowned Sydney vocalist Jo Fabro step firmly into the spotlight of the Australian Jazz Scene.
Set for release at Sydney’s Sound Lounge on the 27th July 2013, this new album is a collaboration between Jo and some of Australia’s premier jazz musicians, Pianist Greg Coffin (Greg Coffin Trio, Kristen Berardi Band), guitarist Aaron Flower (The Alcohotlicks), bassist Brendan Clarke (Bernie McGann Quartet, Mothership Orchestra), and drummer Miles Thomas (Gerard Masters, Pen Island). The album also features a guest appearance from world renowned bassist Steve Hunter.
It has been a busy few years for Jo, who only recently released her second album with her soul band. This new, self-titled album marks a change of direction for the Sydney singer, moving firmly into the world of contemporary jazz music. “I have these two sides to my music”, says Fabro. “The soul and the jazz, but jazz music is definitely my first love. It’s what I grew up singing, but I didn’t want to make a jazz album until I really felt ready to do so”.
Jo first made her mark in 2005 when she was named as a finalist in the National Jazz Awards competition. Since then she has been in high demand playing at venues such as The Darling Harbour Jazz Festival, The Manly Jazz Festival, The Sound Lounge, 505, The Vanguard and the Basement.
This Upcoming release draws on Fabro’s experiences, a combination of tunes written over the past 7 years, as well as songs written specifically for this recording. The album is firmly rooted in the jazz genre, with hints of soul and blues music, which Fabro sights as an influence in her musical tastes.
The new album, and subsequent tour feel like a coming of age for Fabro. “I have spent a few years looking for the right combination of musicians and tunes for this band,” says Fabro. “It really feels like everything has come together for this record”. “There are a few tunes on this album that I have had around for a while, and it’s really nice to find a good home for them on this album”.
“Genuinely charismatic and even a little unnerving. Here is a full blown talent.” – John Clare
Review of The Jo Fabro Quintet @ The Soundlounge
Feb 1st, 20011 – Review By John Clare
This was the first of SIMA’s Artists In Transition series, which “aims to support professional jazz musicians beyond emerging stage to further develop their careers to professional practising artists.”
In 2007 Singer Jo Fabro launched, an impressive debut album of originals and classics in the soul idiom, called Save My Soul (Birdland Records). Her soul-inclined Jo Fabro Band has performed in Tokyo, the Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz and many venues in Australia. The night under review was the first public appearance of her jazz band, which is certainly a brilliant one, comprising Greg Coffin (piano), Ben Hauptmann (guitar), Brendan Clarke (bass) and drummer Cameron Reid.
Fabro towers over her musicians – except Reid, who is seated anyway. She is quite a beauty, but an unusual one. Amazon Warrior Queen suggests itself, but this is at odds with her disarming casualness and dry humour.
“As you know,” she announced, “most musicians are philosophers.” A certain scepticism hovered in the air. “They’re always broke,” she explained. Ah, there is a logic there. It is her music which should concern us, but all singers have to at least try to present themselves in an engaging manner, whether they want to or not. Fabro doesn’t really have to try. She is a natural.
And a natural, often gripping singer. Her first song, an original called Circles, was sung with dramatic power over a rock shuffle that was held back like a coiled spring and punctuated by bluesy, funky chords and accents. It all vibrated ominously. Greg Coffin’s piano solo sprang from this bluesy bed in a dance of combined intensity and bright joy.
Fabro’s words were very sophisticated – by which I mean intelligent rather than chic. As on several subsequent songs, including the standard You Don’t Know What Love Is, Fabro held power in reserve, hunting out the emotions with dynamic shifts that relied on timing more than sheer volume. Her voice on this material was full and smooth – plush. When volume was released the voice seemed capable of infinite expansion, and you could almost feel the night air parting around it as it soared. And sometimes it contracted to a track of light that slithered about like a star’s reflection on a black pond. Variations circled and returned to hit a kind of nerve of pleasure; hitting it repeatedly, leaving it and returning. Phew. This was genuinely charismatic and even a little unnerving.
If there was any doubt that Fabro could sing virtuosic jazz, those went out the window as she flew at breakneck pace on Once I had A Secret Love.
At the end of the first set, Fabro let it rip on a blues of her own devising. Her volume was now pushed up until the rafters rang, so to speak, and her voice took on a certain torrid, raking glare such as some soul and funk singers are employing today. Ben Hauptmann did not change his posture as he began to sprint on his guitar solo, but sonically he stood up on the pedals and the landscape streamed by like a river. Everyone in fact played at a very high level indeed but I have to say that each one of Brendan Clarke’s bass solos was a remarkable spontaneous composition. Now, in the second set some laziness of intonation was evident, and if one is to quibble, on Love Is there was here and there a tendency to add a dramatic extension to the line where none was needed. But…I’m a reviewer.
I have to quibble occasionally. Fabro’s songs were exceptionally good. Roadside Assistance was a classic tale of urban daffy distress – waking everyone up in a shared house early in the morning in order to get the keys she had left locked inside, rather that paying the NRMA to come out and start the car. Touches of phoney bathos – eg “Oh, come to my aid!” were fantastic.
Here is a full blown talent.
