Jazz Articles about Barney McAll

Barney McAll: Flashbacks

by Russ Musto
May 18, 2009

The subtle synthesis of diverse influences into an original style is the hallmark of authentic artistry. Australian-born pianist Barney McAll, who has performed with artists as disparate as Groove Collective and Gary Bartz and absorbed the rhythms of Santeria on numerous trips to Cuba, achieves such a fusion on Flashbacks, leading a band featuring guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and percussionist Pedro Martinez, along with trombonist Josh Roseman, saxophonist Jay Rodriguez, bassists Drew Gress and Jonathan Maron, drummer Obed Calvaire and others. ...

Barney McAll: Flashbacks

by John Kelman
April 16, 2009

Keeping up with the wealth of talent around the world is a challenge, but when it's someone as talented and distinctive as Australian pianist Barney McAll, it's well worth the effort. In addition to film scoring, McAll has built a small but substantial discography and reputation of merit over the past decade by exploring many junctures--Afro-Cuban music and spirituality meeting with a modernistic jazz sensibility that's colored with traces of fusion and electronics, elegant classicism and urban groove. Despite its ...

Barney McAll: Dynamic Pianist And Composer

by AAJ Staff
April 7, 2009

Composer and pianist Barney McAll is a leading light of the new Brooklyn--the New York borough that is the fount of much that is new in jazz. The spectrum of McAll's music is wide, ranging from mood-setting jazz ensemble recordings to electronica. But it all comes down to the notes, and their relation to each other. As McAll says about growing up with and learning music, “If you have a piano in the house that's a start." Organic music is ...

Barney McAll: Flashbacks

by Mark F. Turner
April 7, 2009

Since moving from Australia to NYC in 1997, pianist/composer Barney McAll has created an impressive resume that includes work with Gary Bartz, Billy Harper, Maceo Parker, Josh Roseman, and David Binney. But it may be his projects outside of jazz, in particular with independent film scoring-- Motherland Afghanistan (Aubin Pictures/PBS Independent Lens) and Sacco and Vanzetti (Peter Miller/Ken Burns Florentine Films) and other works--that seem to shape his fertile imagination. It's not surprising that Flashbacks, his fifth recording as a ...

Barney McAll: One to Watch

by AAJ Staff
March 6, 2009

This interview was first published in 2001. All About Jazz: First, if you don't mind, tell me some other biographical details (where did you study?)

Barney McAll: I was born in Melbourne Australia. I started playing piano at seven years old. My older brother John, was very influential on me playing, as he is a great pianist and composer.

I can remember playing games in my head and just playing piano for ...

Barney McAll: Release The Day

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2001

Having performed music throughout his entire career that started in his teens--and mostly in his native Australian continent in conjunction with singer Vince Jones--keyboardist Barney McAll has absorbed numerous influences to develop his own style. Now at the age of thirty-three--and “Thirty Three" happens to be the title of the first track on Release The Day --McAll has blended on this CD all of those world-music styles into a synthesis that consistently promotes the spiritual feel of the music.

Barney McAll: Release The Day

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2001

Having performed music throughout his entire career that started in his teens--and mostly in his native Australian continent in conjunction with singer Vince Jones--keyboardist Barney McAll has absorbed numerous influences to develop his own style. Now at the age of thirty-three--and “Thirty Three” happens to be the title of the first track on Release The Day --McAll has blended on this CD all of those world-music styles into a synthesis that consistently promotes the spiritual feel of the music.