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Post by captain on May 31, 2009 18:06:54 GMT 10
I'm such a scoops I still haven't worked out who Gator is...
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Post by timothystevens on May 31, 2009 20:55:37 GMT 10
I'm so tragically domestic I haven't discovered a workable definition for 'scoops' yet. Although Gator is a personal friend of mine.
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Post by ironguts on Jun 1, 2009 8:09:00 GMT 10
Who is timothystevens?
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Post by timothystevens on Jun 1, 2009 8:17:28 GMT 10
Are you trying to interview me or something?
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Post by ironguts on Jun 1, 2009 8:32:56 GMT 10
Didn't your mum tell you not to answer a question with a question?
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Post by timothystevens on Jun 1, 2009 8:40:01 GMT 10
Believe it or not, she reads this, so she might be able to tell you herself. I forget.
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Post by ironguts on Jun 1, 2009 9:14:53 GMT 10
Oh shit, your mum reads this?!?! Sorry Mrs Tim for all I've said in the past, not that it will change, just sorry. That's the Australian way right?
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Post by vickibonet on Jun 1, 2009 9:38:46 GMT 10
A long, long time ago at Uni at a lecture on journalism the lecturer told us that he liked to start all 'in depth' interviews with artists with exactly that question i.e. "Who is ____?" The lecturer gave an example where he had interviewed Keith Richards and said it provoked some interesting answers as all through the interview Richards kept asking himself that question, searching for the best answer. But then Richards could have just been smashed. |
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Post by ironguts on Jun 1, 2009 9:42:11 GMT 10
He couldn't have not been smashed. So Tim, where is my answer?
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Post by timothystevens on Jun 1, 2009 10:11:49 GMT 10
My current bio, selling myself as a soloist. You'll be sorry you asked.
Tim Stevens
‘Even in a country so richly endowed with superior jazz pianists, Tim Stevens is one of those at the very top of the pile.’
John Shand
Tim Stevens was born in 1971 in Swan Hill, Victoria, had made it to Melbourne by the end of 1975, and began piano lessons at the age of eight. Although classically trained until leaving school, improvisation had been an element of the musical landscape with which he was familiar through acquaintance with an Anglo-Catholic tradition of pipe organ playing and his own propensity for playing by ear (or playing as opposed to practising). As an adolescent in 1980s Melbourne he was always on the lookout for that music that was just a little bit more alternative, albeit within the fairly circumscribed boundaries of independent popular music. The Go-Betweens were better than the Hunters and Collectors – that kind of thing. Jazz came along and was so tremendously alternative he just had to get aboard. Sting made the transition a little easier, encouraged it in fact; Wynton Marsalis toured in 1988 and the path was dimly lit.
After finishing school Tim commenced study at the Victorian College of the Arts, now part of the University of Melbourne, taking piano lessons from Greg Gear and further guidance from Dr Tony Gould. A broadening awareness of what was going on locally, as well as what had contributed to that thing known as the jazz tradition, drew his attention to the flaws in any objective to sound like Kenny Kirkland or Herbie Hancock and, while his admiration for such players subsisted at full strength, he devoted his attention to composition and improvisation that drew on the full range of his musical experiences.
After two years wasted completing a Diploma of Education, Tim returned to the VCA to undertake the crisp new Master of Music Performance degree in 1995-6. This experience was of the utmost importance in reacquainting him with the things he had once upon a time hoped to do, as the environment there was deeply encouraging toward the creative efforts of the individual and emphatic in promoting the benefits of sympathetic collaboration. While doing the Masters Tim took piano lessons from Paul Grabowsky and Joe Chindamo, and even did a little more classical playing, performing in the 4-hands version of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps at the end of his second year.
The PhD followed. Having met the surviving members of the Red Onion Jazz Band in preparation for its final performances at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz in 1996, Tim thought the band’s story should be told and, with the help of an Australian Postgraduate Award, undertook the doctorate in the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne, between 1997 and early 2000. The thesis that resulted traced the Onions’ history, but did so in terms of issues of identity – how the band received and understood jazz music, how it reproduced it, and how it found a place in the traditional jazz scene in 1960s Melbourne. The purpose of the project as it unfolded was to demonstrate the implications of the Onions’ experience for younger generations of improvising musicians working to find their voices in Australia.
Tim is probably known mostly as a trio player, having spent five years and made two recordings with Allan Browne and Nick Haywood (in the trio Browne – Haywood – Stevens) in the 1990s, and leading his own trio now (its three albums have been released on Rufus Records). But Tim Dunn, president of Rufus Records, rang Tim one day in 2000 (when Stevens was living in Sydney) and suggested a solo recording, and the resulting Freehand (2002, RF 058), a program of original compositions and spontaneous improvisations, met with considerable critical praise.
In The Weekend Australian, Ashleigh Wilson described Freehand as ‘delightful’, and continued: ‘Unsentimental yet emotionally arresting, it’s an uncompromising solo debut that lays bare Stevens’s challenging, rewarding and unpredictable movements.’ Shane Nichols, in the Australian Financial Review, applauded ‘a mixture of dynamism, lyricism and exploration wrapped inside unstinting discipline…Always on the way to somewhere, his lines unfolding with spellbinding logic. Though the control of dynamics can be dazzling it’s the rigorous organization of his ideas which takes centre place…He sounds unlike anyone else and is satisfyingly mature.’ ‘Rather than focusing on percussive assaults or other feats of piano prowess,’ wrote Jay Collins in Cadence, ‘the goal is to capture the other side of the spectrum by utilizing a delicate touch, subtle passions, joy and introspection. Most of Stevens’ performances demonstrate his interest in fleshing out melodic concepts, as this is the heart of his experimentations…Stevens’ command of his instrument is particularly impressive when utilizing dynamics and space. [He] successfully accomplishes his goal of improvisation and captures beauty at its essence.’ And for John Napier, writing in Music Forum, ‘His sense of timing, attack and voicing are impeccable…Stevens shows a masterly ability to create logical ongoing structures…a highly developed sense of forward momentum [and] a powerful harmonic skill.’
Tim lives in Melbourne and is married with three children. He teaches a little bit, plays occasionally, continues his research as time allows, but mostly works at bringing up the kids.
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Post by ironguts on Jun 1, 2009 10:23:40 GMT 10
Well thanks Tim, that's a good read. I like this "After two years wasted completing a Diploma of Education". I like the last line too, I can relate to that, except I only have 2 kids. Your next question;
How do you feel about the direction of tertiary education in relation to improvised music in Australia?
Ok, Gator, where's yours? Or let me ask properly.
Who is Gator?
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Post by trumpetguy on Jun 1, 2009 10:40:21 GMT 10
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Post by isaacs on Jun 1, 2009 11:58:13 GMT 10
I'm envious that Tim performed a 4-hand version of Le Sacre. Paul Grabowsky and I did a two-piano improvisation once based on themes from it, but it wasn't as good as the real thing.
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Post by ironguts on Jun 1, 2009 12:10:42 GMT 10
He has 4 hands??? No wonder he has 3 kids, the wife must be happy,,,,
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Post by isaacs on Jun 1, 2009 12:40:35 GMT 10
I like that last post very much Ironguts  |
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