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From Here
Alex Siegers
Label: ABC Jazz
Released: 2024
Duration: 00:49:46
Views: 768
Tracks
Colours of My Dream; Eliza Aria; Diggers Rest Brian; Somebody’s Daughter; Love Me Sweet; Spirit Song; Why Should There Be Stars; Three for All; Intersection.
Personnel
Album Description
From rising star vocalist Alex Siegers, From Here is an album of truly Australian jazz
standards, featuring classic tracks from across six decades, several recorded here for
the first time.
Introduced to Australian and New Zealand jazz by her teacher, the late Kerrie
Biddell, Siegers was excited when Tim Nikolsky released the first iteration of the
Australian Jazz Real Book - but also frustrated that so many of the classic tunes in it
were so difficult to access in recorded form. This album, says Siegers, is a first step
towards remedying that lack, and building the core of the Australian jazz canon.
'From Here is my postcard to the world about my beautiful home, Australia. From
Cockerawombeeba Creek near Wauchope, NSW to Tangambalanga, VIC, just past
Yackandandah and Baranduda; our tiny native bees and our towering tallowwoods;
our egalitarian spirit and lovable larrikinism; our art, literature and design, the kitsch
and the classic. I love it all. We have a deep and complex history, and so many
incredible stories to share.'
The album opens with a classic tune from Australian jazz matriarch Judy Bailey:
Colours of My Dream. Bailey recorded it in 1976 with Denise Keene singing the
vocalese; this is the first recording since then. Another key woman in Australian jazz
is Sharny Russell: she's represented here with Siegers' yearning 7/4 rendition of
Somebody's Daughter. Kerrie Biddell, one of this country's greatest musical story
tellers, wrote delightfully whimsical lyrics (featuring a lemur called Len, a worm
called Harry and a penguin called Doug!) to Col Loughnan's instrumental classic
Three for All. This vocal version has never been recorded - until now.
Siegers also treats us to her own vocalese to Brian Brown's 1958 tune Digger's Rest
(named after a band colleague of Brown's), transforming it into a sparkling account
of the first controlled powered flight in Australia, performed by Harry Houdini in
1910 at Diggers Rest in rural Victoria. Bernie McGann's Spirit Song is arguably the
best-known Australian jazz standard of them all. Catherine O'Brien created and
recorded her gentle lyrics for it in the late 90s; this is the first time they have been
recorded since then. Bryce Rohde's exquisite ballad Why Should There be Stars is
an Australian premiere recording in this version featuring Kaye Lawrence Dunham's
soulful lyrics.
And the montuno Cuban feel of Bob Sedergreen's 1970s classic Intersection, with
lyrics by Judy Jacques, offers what Siegers calls a light-hearted, even cheeky, take on
the concept of an Australian jazz standard. The album also includes original jazz
treatments of two popular Australian classical tunes: Elena Kats-Chernin's Eliza
Aria, reimagined by Siegers for a lower, earthier vocal line, and Carl Vine's Love Me
Sweet, its optimistic vision of love given a more sinister turn by Siegers' subtle
reharmonisations.
Album uploaded by Alex Siegers
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