THE LONG WAY
This is a thing that began with a decision taken around 2013 when I was at the tender age of 50.
The decision was, to take a leap of faith and ask better musicians than I to play with me.
I’d been previously afraid to. It’s taken me a career’s length to pluck up the courage,
and I went a very roundabout way of getting there, battling personal demons and doubts
and being perhaps too comfortable in the professional zone in which I operated.
It has taken other people’s faith, encouragement, support, generosity, time and expertise
to bring these three projects to fruition.
“The long way”compilation album represents a taste from each project, plus another special song.
SOLACE
An imagining is the result of
an active imagination at work.
Four people with hyper-active imaginations operating concurrently, with acute awareness of each other, can potentially create stunning and significant imaginings.
With the potential for almost unlimited variations. Composition, initially conceived by one person, then interpreted by four, becomes a collective imagining,
like a group improvisation...
but with a more formal structure.
That's how we created "Imaginings".
TONY GOULD
Pianist and composer Tony Gould is one of Australia’s most respected musicians.
His career has embraced many styles
of music, not least jazz and other improvisatory musics in addition
to traditional and contemporary
classical musics.
He gives many concerts each year and for 50 years he has been involved in an extraordinary number of recording projects both as pianist and composer. Tony has been at the forefront of music education in Australia via various tertiary institutions in Melbourne and throughout Australia.
IMOGEN MANINS
Cellists Imogen Manins is rare amongst players of her instrument. Trained by
the great Nelson Cooke she now moves freely from classical repertoire to improvised genres, and treats both areas
of music-making with a wonderful
finesse and artistry.
She has become too, a wonderful composer and arranger of music for improvisation, from original works to pieces adapted from some of Australia's greatest artists, among them
Ross Edwards, Nigel Westlake
and Michael Atherton.
BEN ROBERTSON
Jazz double-bassist Ben Robertson graduated with distinction from the Improvisation stream of the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia 1987 where he was awarded both the Gwen Nesbitt scholarship and the Mensa award for musical excellence.
There he developed a reputation for musical excellence and melodic inventiveness leading to many and varied professional opportunities as a performer.
Ben has extensive experience in a wide variety of musical settings, with recording studio credits of over 60 jazz and commercial CD releases.
GEOFF'S TRIO
Geoff’s Trio, the brain child of Geoff Beasley with musicians Lachlan Davidson,
Brett Rosenberg and Simon Starr forming the trio, is a Jazz Standards group formed
in Melbourne, Australia.
I had always wanted to record a standards album because the tunes are fantastic and I enjoy exploring and dismantling them.
It works better with particular people and two of my favourite musicians to play with are Brett Rosenberg and Simon Starr. Music with these musicians is always diverse, unpredictable and exciting.
That’s what Geoff’s Trio is.
BRETT ROSENBERG
Brett was born into a musical family and always had a strong interest in composing for film. Early on he took private lessons in composition from Brian May (Mad Max), who encouraged him to go and further his studies in Los Angeles. He went to LA in 1990 and took classes in Film Scoring at UCLA. Since then Brett has scored countless films.
Brett has not only composed music for film but also television (such as Snake Tails) and advertising campaigns including Reece Plumbing, Nike, Sussan and Heinz.
SIMON STARR
Simon Starr has been performing, recording and touring since 1993. With his deep love of all types of music and hyper-intense focus, Simon's grooves and idiosyncratic melodic invention have featured in every type of music,
both here and overseas.
Starr has featured on over 50 recordings as a bassist, including those that feature his compositions and arrangements - 7 with his co-operative group Frock, 1 with AJME, 2 with the National Living Treasures,
2 with the Adam Simmons Quartet.
GEOFF BEASLEY
Geoff Beasley, the namesake of Geoff’s Trio is a well- respected Composer and Arranger for Film. Geoff has had an interesting career also working as a stage manager and sound engineer for the likes of Humphrey B Bear, The Flintstones, Mr. Men, Betty Boop, Popeye, Casper.
Geoff also set up Songshop Productions in October 1987 and continues to manage this venture almost 30 years later.
As a composer, performer, producer
and sound engineer, Geoff has produced various works for Radio, TV and
Corporate Video products.
POWERPOINT
This album contains tunes that
I wrote between 1998 and 2019.
Some for unLokked, some for students,
some for fun and some for this album.
I gave up trying to write cool, clever jazz tunes years ago and acquiesced to the truth that is,
I can only write simple music.
If I can’t sing it then it doesn’t work for me.
Though some of this music has deeper levels of complexity, the grooves and the melodies are basically simple and in 8 bar sections.
It’s just how they come out.
GERRY PANTAZIS
As one of Australia's sought after drummers, Gerry has performed and/or recorded
with artists including Tommy Emmanuel, Bachelor Girl, Guy Sebastian, Anthony Callea, David Campbell, Doug Parkinson, Lisa Edwards, Peter Cupples, Olivia Newton John, Stylus, Silvia Paladino, The Seekers
and Roachford (UK).
Touring has also been a part of Gerry's career which has seen him travel around Australia and the world doing various projects such as clinic demos for the Roland Corporation (travelling to Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines)
KIM MAY
Kim has a long and impressive list of performance credits to his name, including fusion outfits Loose Change (with Virgil Donati, Joe Chindamo and Mark Domoney) and Gnomes of Zurich (Jack Jones, Virgil Donati). He has played with Jazz giants
such as James Morrison and Randy Brecker. Pop acts including Olivia Newton John, Anthony Callea and Tim Campbell.
Kim’s musical theatre stints include bass duties on Dirty Dancing, The Boy from Oz
and King Kong.
