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
William Risby
Title of the work
One
Performer
Bill Risby
Performance Date
16/8/2024
Venue
2MBS/One
Nominator Statement
This recording was commercially released in early 2024 and was broadcast for the first time on the 16th August, 2024 on 2MBS fm as their album of the week.
It is a freeform improvised piano piece of almost an hours length, recorded in one sitting, on the Australian hand made Stuart and Sons piano.
The music defies category - it treads a fine line between classical and jazz music, with elements of folk. There are moments of technical virtuosity, but never at the expense of the emotional content of the performer.
I dont believe another Australian pianist (or musician) has done a similar work of this scope or depth. It often sounds orchestral in scale.
This music develops at its own pace, as though the composer was waiting to be told what to play. Sometimes the music meanders and becomes meditative, before exploding into fast exciting passages. Sometimes it is percussive and rhythmic, but it always defies categorisation.
I feel as though improvisation before the introduction of modern jazz harmony would have sounded like this. There is depth in the music, as though you have an understanding that the composer has a whole arsenal of modern harmony under his fingertips, yet only reveals glimpses of it as necessary to add colour and emotion to the work.
Bill utilises the full dynamic range of the piano, including all the extended range at both ends of the piano. The piano is thunderous at the low end, and crystalline at the top. This is on full display here, and he uses it to convey his full emotional palette. Some sections build for long periods of time (e.g. 16:00 to 24:00) and could be considered compositions within the larger piece, despite it being conceived as a whole.
There are repetitive single notes (25:00) that seem to signify the passing of time, leading into playful sections that sound almost mediaeval, displaying pedal control and sustain usually found in the music of Debussy.
One builds into a majestic anthemic postlude which becomes more harmonically exploratory, using chords in 4ths and 5ths and favouring the lower register of the instrument, using the rich bass notes found only on this piano. Nearing the end it passes through what seems like an ice passage that has at its distant end a source of light where we eventually are softly taken to our final resolution/destination. This piece sounds like a public grieving, ending with the listener (and composer) finally at peace.
This piano has 4 pedals, and Bill uses them all at various points - sometimes using both left (una corda and soft) pedals with one foot, and either sostenuto or sustain with the right. Because of the dynamic range of the piano, both these left pedals are necessary to bring the piano to a hush that makes its output comparable to a conventional piano.
The fact that this hand made piano exists is a modern marvel, and this performance which utilises everything that the piano can deliver, is a gift, and should be regarded as such, and that is why I have chosen to nominate One. There is nothing quite like it anywhere in the world.
Nominee
William Risby
Title of the work
One
Performer
Bill Risby
Performance Date
16/8/2024
Venue
2MBS/One
It is a freeform improvised piano piece of almost an hours length, recorded in one sitting, on the Australian hand made Stuart and Sons piano.
The music defies category - it treads a fine line between classical and jazz music, with elements of folk. There are moments of technical virtuosity, but never at the expense of the emotional content of the performer.
I dont believe another Australian pianist (or musician) has done a similar work of this scope or depth. It often sounds orchestral in scale.
This music develops at its own pace, as though the composer was waiting to be told what to play. Sometimes the music meanders and becomes meditative, before exploding into fast exciting passages. Sometimes it is percussive and rhythmic, but it always defies categorisation.
I feel as though improvisation before the introduction of modern jazz harmony would have sounded like this. There is depth in the music, as though you have an understanding that the composer has a whole arsenal of modern harmony under his fingertips, yet only reveals glimpses of it as necessary to add colour and emotion to the work.
Bill utilises the full dynamic range of the piano, including all the extended range at both ends of the piano. The piano is thunderous at the low end, and crystalline at the top. This is on full display here, and he uses it to convey his full emotional palette. Some sections build for long periods of time (e.g. 16:00 to 24:00) and could be considered compositions within the larger piece, despite it being conceived as a whole.
There are repetitive single notes (25:00) that seem to signify the passing of time, leading into playful sections that sound almost mediaeval, displaying pedal control and sustain usually found in the music of Debussy.
One builds into a majestic anthemic postlude which becomes more harmonically exploratory, using chords in 4ths and 5ths and favouring the lower register of the instrument, using the rich bass notes found only on this piano. Nearing the end it passes through what seems like an ice passage that has at its distant end a source of light where we eventually are softly taken to our final resolution/destination. This piece sounds like a public grieving, ending with the listener (and composer) finally at peace.
This piano has 4 pedals, and Bill uses them all at various points - sometimes using both left (una corda and soft) pedals with one foot, and either sostenuto or sustain with the right. Because of the dynamic range of the piano, both these left pedals are necessary to bring the piano to a hush that makes its output comparable to a conventional piano.
The fact that this hand made piano exists is a modern marvel, and this performance which utilises everything that the piano can deliver, is a gift, and should be regarded as such, and that is why I have chosen to nominate One. There is nothing quite like it anywhere in the world.