Alex Stuart returns from Paris, accompanied by some of Australia’s top jazz musicians, to launch his new album Place to Be. Alex moved to France in 2005 after graduating from the Australian National University School of Music in Canberra.
His Australian tour follows the album’s launch in May at Paris’s iconic Sunset Jazz Club. The album, released by the French label Gaya / Abeille Musique, has received an enthusiastic critical response there. For example, France’s Nouvelle-Vague magazine described it as ‘balanced to perfection … one of the best jazz albums of the year – 5 stars’, while national radio station France Musique presented it as a feature album and praised it as ‘an absolutely superb album … music that shimmers’.
In Australia, ABC Jazz made it a ‘Feature Album’, while The Australian’s John McBeath praised it and gave it 4 out 5 stars.
Since arriving in France, he has immersed himself in Paris’s jazz scene and its rich and varied musical cultures and, in a residency in India, in the Hindustani classical tradition. He is now well recognised in Europe, especially after releasing his 2010 album, Around, and winning the prestigious 2011 ‘Révelation’ prize at France’s largest jazz festival, ‘Jazz à Juan’. Meanwhile back in his home country, in 2013 he was nominated for the Freedman Jazz Scholarship.
Alex says: ‘I always love these opportunities to come back to Australia, whose influence filters into my music in many ways. It has directly inspired several of my compositions, most recently the Place to Be track ‘Cuttagee, Wapengo’, which is based on fond memories of the NSW Far South Coast.’
Alex describes Place to Be as an ‘ode to cultural openness’, ‘I find inspiration in many places. These include the jazz tradition, contemporary jazz, African and South American grooves, rock and post-rock, Indian and Balkan music, Australia, life in Paris’s 19th arrondissement, the sea and surfing and much more.’
Alex will be touring with a Quintet in Melbourne, Sydney, the NSW Far South Coast and Canberra, while in Tasmania he will be touring with a quartet.
Alex Stuart 2014 Tour Dates:
| Alex Stuart Quintet: | Alex Stuart: Guitar, compositions |
| Julien Wilson: Sax | Miroslav Bukovsky: Trumpet |
| Jonathan Zwartz: Bass | Tim Firth: Drums |
Tuesday 21st October, Melbourne Jazz Cooperative, Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, Melbourne
Wednesday 22nd October, Venue 505, Surry Hills, Sydney
Saturday 25 October, Wollongong Conservatorium of Music
Sunday 26th October, Zephyrs, Four Winds Windsong Pavilion, Barragga Bay, (near Bermagui), NSW
Monday 27th October, The Street Theatre, Canberra
| Alex Stuart Quartet: | |
| Alex Stuart: Guitar, compositions Nick Haywood: Bass |
Matt Boden: Piano, OrganAlf Jackson: Drums |
Thursday 30th October, The Nightowl, Hobart
Friday 31st October, The Wharf, Ulverstone, TAS
Saturday 1st November, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart
For more information contact:
Roger Stuart, Concert Tour Manager
T: 02 6493 4550 / M: 0409 477663
By Gemma King.
French at Melbourne 
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