Keijzer McGuiness Quintet

Very fine contemporary jazz that is certain to please all who are serious about knowing to where the music has progressed – Gavin Franklin, Music Forum

After meeting in Amsterdam, Dutchman Remco Keijzer and Australian Lucian McGuiness have spent three years collaborating long distance, touring Australia at intervals. In March 2009 they launched the album The Seed Habit on Rufus Records. This performance begins a new era for the group as Remco Keijzer immigrated to Australia permanently in mid 2009. In his native Netherlands, Remco led the New Generation Big Band through two CD releases and has taken his own quintet to the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Despite the wanderlust woven in the band’s story, Australia is the musical home of the Keijzer McGuiness Quintet. Much of the music has been written here or on the way to and from here, and the local collaborators have skillfully engaged and coloured McGuiness and Keijzer’s diarchic dialogue. Remco Keijzer’s soulful playing and well-crafted compositions, teamed with McGuinness’s lyrical trombone solos are sure to impress – come and enjoy this great blend of Australian-European jazz.

The persistent use of staccato passages within the compositions builds a tension that is released like a steam valve when drummer James Hauptmann lays down the fattest of grooves or the dual horns intermingle with some delightfully lyrical counterpoint – Peter Wockner, Limelight

Remco Keijzer (tenor saxophone) studied jazz and improvisation at the Hilversums Conservatory, The Conservatory of Amsterdam and The Manhattan School of Music. He’s played with luminaries Dick Oatts, Dave Binney and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, inspired a contemporary big band for emerging composers and added soulful sax to a popular live hip hop act sans samples.

Lucian McGuiness (trombone) studied in Canberra, Amsterdam and Sydney. He plays with the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra and Ben Walsh’s Crusty Suitcase Band, and has performed or recorded with a broad spectrum of artists including Geoff Bull, Shasha Marley, The Herd, The Holland Big Band and Steve Hunter’s Nine Lives.

Matt McMahon (rhodes/piano) leads his own groups and co-leads Band of Five Names with Phil Slater and Simon Barker. He won the National Jazz Award, and the Freedman Jazz Fellowship, and has played and recorded with Dale Barlow, Greg Osby, Katie Noonan, Vince Jones, Bobby Previte, Dave Panichi and Steve Hunter. Tonight, Tom O’Halloran replaces Matt McMahon on piano.

Mike Majkowski (double bass) is one of the new breed of creative musicians emerging on Australia’s music scene. A gifted jazz bassist committed to a wide spectrum of contemporary music: he’s a founding member of the large-scale Sydney-based electro-acoustic group The Splinter Orchestra; a member of The Now Now collective, and works closely with some of Australia’s most highly regarded improvisers – Jon Rose, Chris Abrahams and Jim Denley.

James Hauptmann (drums) grew up in Canberra and studied at the Canberra School of Music. Living in Sydney, he records and tours nationally and internationally in bands including Mark Isaacs, Steve Hunter, Exposed Bone, Blue Juice and Elana Stone.