NOMINATION: Work of the Year - Jazz
For an original Jazz work of any instrumentation, including improvisatory composition.
A work is defined as a single complete musical composition, or expression. This includes music with movements or sub-works (i.e. song cycles), installations, and real-time compositions (improvised music).
If you believe your work to be nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
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Nominee
Jessica Carlton
Title of the work
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
Librettist(s) or source author(s)
Emily Dickinson
Performer
Jessica Carlton
Performance Date
16/11/2024
Nominator Statement
I nominate Jessica Carlton's performance and recording of Hope is the Thing with Feathers from her newly released album Ekphrasis for Work of the Year (Jazz) because this piece exemplifies a magical union between melody, harmony and words in which Jessica has created a masterful, emotional and haunting work which speaks directly to the listener.
Jessica is a trumpet player and composer who displays authenticity, honesty and vulnerability in her improvising and compositions. Hope is the Thing with Feathers is a piece that clearly demonstrates these two facets of her musical and artistic abilities in a unique and personal way.
Jessica takes the poignant and beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson and sets it to music, the melody encapsulating her sense of musical sensitivity and the ability to create melodic and sentimental phrases which resonate and provoke the listener to be drawn into the meaning of the poem as well as the composition and performance.
Along with the dark yet hopeful harmony which gives space for the melody and lyrics to breathe, the performance by the talented musicians deliver Jessicas composition with honesty and sensitivity which the poem inherently calls for.
The spaciousness of the accompaniment provides a bed for Alliras breathy and soulful voice to soar as Jessica and Jamie Ohlers (Tenor Saxophone) delicately weave melodic ideas creating a plethora rich textures and timbres throughout where they join together before Jessica takes centre stage with her melodic, airy and haunting solo. Jamie then performs his solo and they join together in a majestic and uplifting improvisation before Allira brings the melody back in as the listener is reunited with the words of thee beautiful poem which launch the tune directly at the start.
This work is heartfelt and sincere and Jessica demonstrates a sensitivity and honesty in the composition and performance of this piece which I feel is a rarity and deserves acknowledgement and appreciation from the musical community and public at large.
Nominee
Jessica Carlton
Title of the work
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
Librettist(s) or source author(s)
Emily Dickinson
Performer
Jessica Carlton
Performance Date
16/11/2024
Jessica is a trumpet player and composer who displays authenticity, honesty and vulnerability in her improvising and compositions. Hope is the Thing with Feathers is a piece that clearly demonstrates these two facets of her musical and artistic abilities in a unique and personal way.
Jessica takes the poignant and beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson and sets it to music, the melody encapsulating her sense of musical sensitivity and the ability to create melodic and sentimental phrases which resonate and provoke the listener to be drawn into the meaning of the poem as well as the composition and performance.
Along with the dark yet hopeful harmony which gives space for the melody and lyrics to breathe, the performance by the talented musicians deliver Jessicas composition with honesty and sensitivity which the poem inherently calls for.
The spaciousness of the accompaniment provides a bed for Alliras breathy and soulful voice to soar as Jessica and Jamie Ohlers (Tenor Saxophone) delicately weave melodic ideas creating a plethora rich textures and timbres throughout where they join together before Jessica takes centre stage with her melodic, airy and haunting solo. Jamie then performs his solo and they join together in a majestic and uplifting improvisation before Allira brings the melody back in as the listener is reunited with the words of thee beautiful poem which launch the tune directly at the start.
This work is heartfelt and sincere and Jessica demonstrates a sensitivity and honesty in the composition and performance of this piece which I feel is a rarity and deserves acknowledgement and appreciation from the musical community and public at large.