The Italian Cultural Institute is pleased to present the latest album of songs by Italian-Australian singer-songwriter Ilaria Crociani, Connecting the Dots, in a jazz concert featuring some of the most extraordinary artists on the Australian music scene such as legendary pianist Paul Grabowsky, saxophonist Mirko Guerrini and drummer Niko Schäuble.
The concert will take place on November 29th at the Lazy Bones Lounge Restaurant and Bar, 294 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville, with entry at 7pm and performance at 8.30pm.
Produced and published by the prestigious ABC Jazz label and enthusiastically received by national and international specialist critics, Connecting the Dots is a collection of original songs with which Crociani offers us an all-female anthology of nine stories. Remembering and celebrating not only Australian women of the past, the album brings together tales of hardship, vulnerability, resolve and redemption to paint an uplifting picture of resilience and hope.
Born from the discomfort of adapting to her new life as an immigrant in Australia, the album also represents the main result of a journey of discovery and personal reflection which led its author to appreciate with greater awareness and fullness the importance of listening to other people’s life stories as a path that is both therapeutic and personal growth.
Ilaria Crociani, a Florentine native, has lived in Australia for a decade. She studied piano and alto saxophone at the Florence Conservatory, eventually discovering her true passion: singing. She collaborated for years with various combos and big bands in the Tuscany area, also participating in various Italian and European festivals in the early 2000s (among others, Umbria Jazz and Tarragona Jazz Festival). A former lawyer of the Florentine bar, she rediscovered her vocation for music after moving to Australia. Leader and lead singer of the Radiosuccessi jazz quintet and the Extasy Morricone septet, Ilaria has in recent years performed and recorded alongside some of the most renowned musicians on the Melbourne scene such as pianists Tony Gould and Paul Grabowsky and lutenist John Griffiths. She has won numerous awards during her career as a musician (Teatro Politeama Pratese, International Competition for lyricists 2012-2014, Songwriting Competition USA 2020, 2023). After moving to Australia, in addition to participating in the 2021 Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Ilaria was awarded an ABC Classic and Jazz Composer Commissioning Fund and a 2021 Arts Grant from the city of Melbourne. Among the Australian record productions, the album Evergreen stands out, a small collection of children’s songs with bilingual lyrics in Italian and English, composed and recorded on a commission by ABC Kids Listen.
Pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, Paul Grabowsky is one of the most illustrious Australian artists. Born in Papua New Guinea, Grabowsky grew up in Melbourne. In the late 1970s he came to prominence in the Melbourne music scene, working in various jazz, theater and cabaret projects. He lived and worked in Europe and the United States from 1980-85, during which he performed with many jazz luminaries, including Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin. Returning to Australia in 1986, he established himself as one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians with groups such as his trio and sextet Wizards of Oz. He has won seven ARIA Awards, two Helpmann Awards, several APRA and Bell Awards and a Deadly Award. He was the Sydney Myer Performing Artist of the Year in 2000 and received the Melbourne Prize for Music in 2007. In 2010 he was the winner of the Australian National University H.C.Coombs Fellow. He is currently a professor at Monash University and director of the Monash University Academy of Performing Arts and the Monash Art Ensemble. In 2014 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to music and arts administration.
Mirko Guerrini was born in Florence in 1973. He studied piano, saxophone, classical composition and jazz music at the Cherubini Conservatorium in Florence, as well as jazz saxophone with Dave Liebman in New York. Award-winning, eclectic and multi-instrumentalist, composer and conductor, he has 21 albums to his credit as a solo saxophonist and leader of jazz ensembles. He currently leads the Mirko Guerrini Horizontal Quartet (Andrea Keller, Tamara Murphy and Niko Schäuble) and is co-leader of the acclaimed group Torrio! with Paul Grabowsky and Niko Schäuble. As an educator, Guerrini is an Adjunct Fellow and Teaching Associate at Monash University, and an adjunct teacher at Melbourne University. He also teaches saxophone and clarinet and directs Big Bands of all levels at various colleges in Melbourne.In 2020 Mirko Guerrini received a Dean’s Sessional Commendation at Monash University for “outstanding contribution to teaching and learning in the Faculty of Arts”. He has been invited as a visiting professor at UTAS Hobart in Australia and at the Banff Center for Performing Arts in Canada (2010, 2012), and was a speaker at the “Musical Perspectives” conference at Warwick University, Warwick, UK in 2012.
Niko Schäuble is a German-born, Australian award-winning drummer, composer, producer and audio engineer with a career spanning the entire range of contemporary notated and improvised music. He started playing the piano at the age of 4 and the drums at the age of 11. His first forays into audio recording came on a 4-track machine in the late 1970s. He has performed with some of the world’s most important artists, including Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Sam Rivers, Lee Konitz, Dewey Redman, Enrico Rava, Greg Osby, Arthur Blythe, Palle Mikkelborg, Paul Grabowsky, Trilok Gurtu, Karaikudi R. Mani, Deborah Conway and Archie Roach. His work as a musician and composer is documented in over 60 albums. He has taught jazz and film music composition at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Melbourne Polytechnic and has been a lecturer at the ANU, UTAS, WAAPA, the Universities of Adelaide and Queensland, the JIB (Jazz Institut Berlin) and the Sommerakademie der Landesmusikschule Berlin. In 2012 he founded Pughouse Studios, where he has produced more than 150 albums.
Lazy Bones Lounge Restaurant and Bar, 294 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville
Entry: $20 +booking fee
Door/Restaurant: 7:00 pm
Concert: 8:30 pm
Bookings: https://lazyboneslounge.com.au/
