Steve Barry came second in the Wangaratta Jazz Award last year.  Francesca didn't make the final.  They are both great local players, delicate and pure and simple, abounding with skill but never playing for show.

Steve Barry and Aaron Blakey, two New Zealand-ish pianists we have taken for our own.  Both are composers of beautiful tunes from personal experience.  Both are versatile technical players with a great feel for the keyboard.  And both know how to tell a story through a tune, to leave an image of the composition which lasts after the specifics have been forgotten.

Steve has played for us a dozen times, but never solo.  Aaron and Steve jam together all the time.  Come and hear the new generation of great jazz players.

Winner of the 2013 Bell Award for Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year, Steve Barry returns to Colbourne Ave with his trio to celebrate the end of a national tour. Joined by Tim Firth and Tom Botting, the trio have been on the road over the past month promoting Steve’s debut album and exploring a range of original material and unconventional standards with a unique fluidity and rapport. Check out Jessica Nicholas’ review of their recent gig at Bennetts Lane in Melbourne.

Steve’s debut self-titled album was released in December 2012 through Jazzgroove Records and has quickly gained high critical acclaim.

Steve Barry – piano
Tom Botting – bass
Tim Firth – drums

www.stevebarrymusic.com
www.stevebarrymusic.bandcamp.com

Jackson’s quartet does everything well, and most importantly, they do it well together... These are tunes that know how to serve up a melody as the main course, then cast out lines throughout the song so that the melody lingers long after the quartet has developed it into something quite different... These are tunes that have two feet in the present, but can draw their lineage in direct thick lines to the past. And, best of all, these are tunes that are so easy to enjoy, even when the music isn’t simple. A sense of the effortless, from a quartet that plays seamlessly as one...
NY Blog -birdistheworm-

...a highly melodic flow - a hallmark of the album - stated in piano and alto unison with, again, the alto solo flowing into a phasic solo, rising and falling in silvery cycles.
John McBeath - The Australian

...Jackson displays an attractive bright tone and confident attack, and builds his solos with admirable fluency...
Adrian Jackson - Rhythms Magazine.

It's great to hear Dave and Sean playing so well with such a good NY rhythm section. The music is very impressive in the best way... It’s another step up for Australian Jazz.
Mike Nock.

The album is a hugely promising debut and sees Dave quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting young jazz musicians on the Sydney scene.
Eastside Radio.

http://www.davejacksonmusic.com/

One of those perfect, rare duets that work so well in the Cafe Church space and are almost impossible anywhere else.  Following on from Spike and Matt's sax/piano duet, this piano /trumpet duet will provide the perfect environment for these two best mates to bring everything they have to the music.  Original, improvised, new Sydney jazz.

Steven Barry

Eamon Dilworth

“Steven Barry, a young New Zealander, has brought his dazzling skills as a pianist and composer to Sydney. He shrugged aside cliche, deployed scintillating articulation, and gave his colleagues such ingenious raw material as the Bartok-inspired Clusters. Boneham's solos were a lesson in how vigour may be harnessed to sensitivity, while Firth layered rhythmic puzzles into the grooves without rendering them academic, and soloed with panache...” John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald

Steve Barry crossed the ditch in early 2009 and has quickly become one of Sydney’s most sought-after pianists, having worked with many prominent Australasian and international artists including John Hollenbeck (USA), Theo Bleckmann (USA), George Coleman Jr. (USA), Arun Luthra (USA), Tricia Evy (FRA) and the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra.

Joined by the heavyweight rhythm section of Alex Boneham on bass and the incredibly sympathetic Cam Reid on drums, the Steve Barry Trio focuses on lyrical melodies, deep grooves and group interaction, and demonstrates a unique collective rapport.

Steve Barry (piano) Alex Boneham (bass) Cameron Reid (drums)

Judy Bailey, possibly Australia's most influential living jazz musician.  Steven Barry, possibly her most promising student.  We will have two grand pianos and Judy and Steve will trade the solo and duet piano pieces they have prepared for a concert at the conservatorium next month.

Eamon sat in for the last song of Steven Barry's set last December.  I had hoped for a year to hear his trumpet at Colbourne Ave, and it didn't let me down.  He's moving to Europe in March, so this concert - a set by the Steven Barry trio + Eamon, followed by a whole set of duets between Eamon and Steven - will be his last for a long time.  I love it already.

with Cam Reid (drums) and Alex Boneham (bass)

Steven arrived at the Sydney Con from Auckland last year, with nothing but the shirt on his back and the blessing of Roger Manins.  he's travelled far though, winning awards including Most Outstanding Musician, Best Pianist and Best Composition at the Tauranga International Jazz Festival, and being fawned over by the likes of us.

this is the best young jazz trio in sydney.
let's call it a christmas party.

The best young piano trio money can't buy.  But you're welcome to make a bid...