Bernie McGann
Bernie McGann (born June 22, 1937 in Granville, now Parramatta City , New South Wales , † September 17, 2013 ) was an Australian alto saxophonist and composer of modern jazz . He was considered the most original voice in Australian jazz.
Live and act
McGann began his music career in the late 1950s as a drummer with the musicians who played at the El Rocco Jazz Cellar in King Cross . In the 1960s and early 1970s, McGann also played with rock and pop groups and as a session musician ; In 1970 he was a member of the soul rock band Southern Comfort from Sydney .
In 1974 he was one of the founding members of the jazz band Last Straw , with whom he recorded several albums. He also played in the 1980s with traveling American musicians such as Freddie Hubbard , Lester Bowie , Dave Liebman , Sonny Stitt ; In 1983 he studied in New York. In 1986 he accompanied the saxophonist Dewey Redman with his trio on his Australian tour, and in 1987 he released his first two albums under his own name on the Emanem label . In 1988 he toured Australia and the United States with the Australian Jazz Orchestra . In the same year he appeared with his trio in London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club , in 1989 as a soloist at the Auckland Jazz & Blues Festival and with the band The Last Straw at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada .
In the 1990s a number of albums followed on the Rufus label, and he continued to work with his own trio and quartet formations, most recently with drummer John Pochee and bassist Lloyd Swanton , in a quartet supplemented by trumpeter Warwick Alder . In 1996 McGann performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Munich Piano Summer Festival. In 1998 he played with the formation wanderlust around the trumpeter Miroslav Bukovsky and the trombonist James Greening . That same year he became the first jazz musician to receive the Don Banks Music Award , which honors musicians who have made a long and lasting impact on the Australian music scene.
The authors Richard Cook and Brian Morton state that McGann's low international fame results from his isolated location in Sydney; nevertheless McGann is a musician of standing and stylistically comparable to Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman ; This is especially true for his two last albums Live at Side On (2003) and Blues for Pablo Too (2005). He died in September 2013 after complications from heart surgery.
Discographic notes
- Kindred Spirits (Emanem, republished on Rufus, 1987)
- Ugly Beauty (Rufus, 1991)
- McGann McGann (Rufus, 1994)
- Playground (Rufus, n. D.)
- Bundeena (Rufus, 2000)
- Live at Side On (Rufus, 2003)
- Blues for Pablo Too (Rufus, 2005)
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 9th edition. Penguin, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-14-103401-0 .
- Geoff Page: Bernie McGann: A Life in Jazz. Kardooraire Press, 1998
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald
- ^ Bernie McGann: a giant of Australian jazz (ABC) , September 19, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | McGann, Bernie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian jazz musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1937 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Granville, New South Wales , Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th September 2013 |