Andrea Keller/Sandy Evans
Personnel
Andrea Keller piano
Sandy Evans saxophone
Sandy Evans and Melbourne pianist Andrea Keller are two of Australia’s finest musicians, distinguished for their profound music and roles as leaders within contemporary jazz.
"Keller is ‘one of the most original – if not the most original – in Australian jazz."
Together Sandy and Andrea have performed in duo at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues, Zephyrs Jazz at Four Winds, and the Orange Winter Jazz Festival. They also collaborated with Silke Eberhard at SIMA’s 2017 Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival.
"Both of us are keen to see more women in jazz and improvised music and have done various things throughout our careers to encourage this."
“There is always something fresh about Andrea's approach to composition, regardless of the style, tempo, orchestration or aesthetic of the particular piece. This makes her stand out as an artist who has a very strong, individual and important creative voice…I'm always very keen to play Andrea's compositions, which are truly sublime”
Keller and Evans have launched educational programs in their respective cities, tailored specifically for young women and gender-diverse musicians, to provide them with learning opportunities.
About Andrea Keller
Andrea is a champion of Australian creative music and a nurturer of emerging musicians, Andrea curates Monday nights at the Jazzlab, runs the educational program Gender Defying Jazz and is Head of Jazz & Improvisation at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.
More information
Interviews, links and more
This review by Jessica Nicholas was originally published in The Age
Sandy Evans, Andrea Keller, Kristin Berardi and Jenny Barnes: Resonance ★★★★
The Jazzlab, February 24
Of all the new projects and ensembles that have been birthed during Andrea Keller’s weekly residency at Jazzlab, Resonance may be the most challenging to nurture and develop. Featuring four musicians who reside in different cities (Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney, and Lucerne in Switzerland), the ensemble has only occasional opportunities to come together, but the members clearly feel it’s worth the effort.
Their performance on Monday marked their debut, just hours after gathering in a studio to record their new repertoire. Resonance – the name of the project and the forthcoming album – explores issues of creativity and gender, and the challenges female artists face while managing competing demands as carers, parents, educators and mentors.
The project is an extension of the existing musical partnership between Keller and saxophonist Sandy Evans. Discovering a profoundly empathetic bond when they performed together, the pair had long planned to record an album, and expanded their vision to incorporate two vocalists: Kristin Berardi and Jenny Barnes.
The freshly penned compositions performed on Monday were all by Keller and Evans, with lyrics drawn from poems that touch on relevant themes. As vocalists, Berardi and Barnes have very different approaches, and the music was specifically written to incorporate their contrasting styles.
Each piece contained a structured section where Berardi interpreted the lyrics, her gorgeously expressive voice alighting on each word with grace and tenderness, and a free section where Barnes offered an improvised response to the poem in wordless sounds and instinctive gestures.
It was fascinating to hear the music shift and dance between structure and spontaneity, as Evans’ lush, sustained notes built into dissonant swirls, Keller’s pinpricks at the piano dissolved into abstract clumps or rippling cascades, and Berardi’s gossamer tones gave way to Barnes’ whispered invocations and primal calls.
While there were moments of propulsion and intensity, the overall mood of the evening was one of intimacy, restraint and – yes – resonance, with all four artists focused on listening, responding and sharing, their spirit of openness resonating with the audience in turn.
Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas
Composed by Andrea Keller
Performed by Sandy Evans (saxophone) & Andrea Keller (piano)
In an interview with the Australian Music Centre, Keller mentions she “wrote a composition especially for this duo. It’s called Missed Opportunities and was written after… I was told the award had already been announced, that I’d won, but had missed the opportunity to go out on stage to accept it from my hero! [Evans] [because] on the night I was in the dressing room with two of my musical colleagues… began sharing stories of our experiences …and that we’ve missed many opportunities because we are women.”
30 October 2018, by Anni Heino.
This November brings together, for the first time as a duo, two of Australia’s best-known jazz artists, pianist Andrea Keller and saxophonist Sandy Evans. We asked the two incredibly busy women some questions about this, as well as their other current projects and commissions.
Indigo Hues – Sandy Evans & Andrea Keller
This beautiful composition by Sandy Evans was performed by her and Andrea Keller at the Windsong Pavilion near Bermagui last October in a rare duo performance. Regarded as two of Australia’s most oustanding musicians, they first performed as a duo in late 2018.
