SIMA Jazz:Now – Clubnite

For the third Jazz:NOW event on 14 May entitled Clubnite, The Vanguard is transformed into a room of driving rhythms and pulsing soundscapes.

Godriguez is the solo project of esteemed Australian guitarist/producer Dave Rodriguez, who has cultivated an international reputation for his celebrated solo releases and extensive work with his project GODTET. Equally at home in dim warehouses as on concert hall stages, Rodriguez is a musician at the forefront of new Australian music. In this performance he explores his fascination with electronics, presenting a new set of music that integrates drum machines with his rich knowledge of jazz, hip-hop and West African musics. Expect an entrancing, evocative sound journey from one of the country’s most exciting sonic explorers.

Sydney’s cult heroes Bike Thief extract sharp textures and ethereal drones out of a unique range of instruments and analogue tools – the fresh combination of keyboards, samplers, double bass played with drumsticks, drums, and percussion all culminate in an exuberant, redemptive set of infectious dance floor heaters. Felix Bornholdt, Jacques Emery and Alexander Inman-Hislop – 3 celebrated voices on the Australian music scene - will bear you from slow meditative pulses to high-octane rhythmic hockets, breakbeats and jungle, juke and techno inspired tracks. Close your eyes and you’ll think you’re listening to a DJ. Block your ears and you’ll think you’re seeing a jazz trio. Either way, clear the floor – this is music for the club.

Between sets, Ilex will DJ selections to keep your head nodding – sometimes heavy, percussive and industrial; sometimes ambient, textural, intricate and beautiful, but always immersive and transportive.

Says Artistic Director Novak Manojlovic: “The practicing jazz musician is an aggregator; they are keen receptors to their surroundings in both the flux of improvisation as well as how they engage with the changing world. This will be evident when Godriguez rearranges the room with an array of shifting soundscapes and pulses before Bike Thief rekindles jazz music’s long relationship with the dance floor, sieving traditional instrumentation through the prism of Detroit house and UK garage music. Is this the music Duke Ellington would be making today?”

Godriguez – Dave Rodriguez, electronics.

Bike Thief – Jacques Emery, bass; Alexander Inman-Hislop, percussion; Felix Bornholdt, keyboard and samples.