Bonnie plays drums and percussion and writes and sings. Peter plays strange ethereal noises through the saxophone. Luke plays beautiful wandering passages on the piano.

They have great song ideas like "When you think somethings in D and its not in D but it has a D and you did pilates in the morning" and "Dark Slow Scary One".

Together they are Crossover.  Soft, lyrical, complex songs that take you across landscapes and into strange lands.

She has some beautiful new songs on her soundcloud site., some recorded at Colbourne Ave  Listen to them one rainy afternoon : https://soundcloud.com/bonniedrums

TQM4F1 premiered at the 2016 Tectonics Festival in Adelaide in March. The quintet's members have been collaborating as part of Splinter Orchestra for many years.  Whilst the influence of their beloved larger band of improvisers is obvious, TQM4F1 have forged something new in the smaller format that sets their music apart,  

Cor Fuhler’s preparations on piano often melding with Tony Osborne’s electronic and natural voice sounds whilst Bonnie Stewart introduces percussive textures.  At the forefront of prepared saxophone in Australia are Jim Denley and Peter Farrar, extraordinary then that they are also both at the core of this formulation.  

TQM4F1 are an unpredictable bunch, creating sounds that alternately wash over the audience in great waves of kinetic energy and then diminish to almost imperceptible and fragile articulations.  Don’t miss this great concert when the group will play 2 sets of their unique sounds for the Colbourne Ave. audience. 

At Colbourne Ave, we have a half-arsed kind of tradition where on the anniversary of the first gig we ever put on (it was Bill Risby) we have a jazz tribute night to a pop band. Kind of like Frisell plays Lennon. Or Eckleberg plays Jackson.

It’s Thursday the 25^th of Feb, and we’re doing Joni Mitchell (almost a year since the aneurysm from which she's still recovering). Three songs per musician, no song twice, more interpretations than covers. There will be moments of genius from :

Spike Mason (and Barney Wakeford)
Leonie Cohen
Bonnie Stewart
Jonny Maddox
Bill Risby
Joseph Zarb

and they'll be playing, in chronological order of publication :

And we leave the last work to Chaka Khan, who in an interview a couple of months ago said :

See, Joni Mitchell, she's actually funky, she just doesn't know it, and I'm bringing that forward. The jazz is in there. You get her, but I've slowed a lot of the stuff down because a lot of the lyrics - she's a very fast singer, so sometimes it's hard to catch her words - but I think she's so relevant

Bonnie Stewart is an Irish jazz drummer, composer, and singer-songwriter.  It's pretty much the perfect combination - she plays drums like a singer, she composes like a drummer, she leads her band with the song as the focus. She likes Monk and Bebop, she's studied jazz in Dublin and New York, she has some of Sydney's most creative improvisers in her band.  Also she's an excellent human being.

Here's a video shot from under the piano at a jazzgroove gig.  you can't even see bonnie - most of the video is Peter Farrar standing still.  But the music is great.

Peter Farrar - alto saxophone
Luke Sweeting - piano
Bonnie Stewart - drums & percussion

Bonnie Stewart has always been drawn to the innovative style of angular melodies, unusual forms and jagged rhythms of Thelonious Monk's music. In her project, "Criss Cross", Bonnie uses these aspects to inspire original compositions as well as new arrangements of Thelonious Monk's tunes. Bonnie infuses Monk’s quirky bebop compositions with her own melodic and rock influenced free-improvisation style, creating a new contemporary dimension to Monk's music.

Since completing her BA(Hons) in Jazz Performance in Ireland, composer and drummer Bonnie Stewart furthered her studies at the School of Improvised Music in New York.
Originally formed in her home town of Dublin, Bonnie is excited to bring “Criss Cross” to life in Sydney with a fantastic local line up.

Simon Ferenci - Trumpet
Peter Farrar – Alto Sax
Luke Sweeting – Piano
Thomas Botting – Double Bass
Bonnie Stewart – Drums


To listen, here are some clips from a live performance at Bohemian Grove!

https://soundcloud.com/bonniedrums/promo-crisscross