Mike Nock + Hamish Stuart + Julien Wilson + Jonathan Zwartz - This World

A 2019 release - in stock now

THIS WORLD is the stunning debut release from a brand new collaborative band formed by four of Australia’s most established and celebrated improvisers. Exceptionally recorded in pristine high definition stereo and produced with meticulous care it features a diverse program of nine exciting new compositions, all created specifically for this album.

In December 2018 they gathered in the basement of a cosy inner-Sydney restaurant to play two sets of jazz standards for an intimate but enthusiastic crowd. It was Nock’s first gig after a six month break and the joy and vitality of his return to live performance was palpable. Despite having enjoyed established relationships with each other in a variety of formats this marked their first performance as a quartet and the four-way chemistry was immediately evident.

Six months later they performed four consecutive shows in Sydney immediately followed by two days recording at Sony Studios with engineer Ross A’Hern. The result is THIS WORLD. The shared history and personal connection between them is present in every note.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS: Individually they have worked with some of the greatest musicians in the world: Coleman Hawkins, Pharoah Sanders, Hugh Masekala, Yusef Lateef, Hermeto Pascoal, Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker,... All four players have a strong sense of tradition and history but are equally known for having one foot firmly planted towards the future.

New Zealand born pianist/composer Mike Nock (ONZM) is one of the acknowledged masters of jazz in Australasia. Based in Sydney since 1986, he previously spent 25 years in the USA. He is a recipient of the Don Banks Music Award and in inductee of the Australian Jazz Bell Awards Hall of Fame. Mike has released a plethora of critically acclaimed albums under his own name on many international labels including his own label FWM.

Jonathan Zwartz (also originally from NZ) and Sydney native Hamish Stuart form one of Australia’s great musical partnerships. For 30 years they have run the Starfish Club together along Sydney’s eastern beaches and are the first-call rhythm section for a who’s-who of the Australian music industry and international touring acts. Their simpatico and hook-up is legendary. Zwartz' own albums regularly top best-seller lists and have won numerous awards including an ARIA, an AIR Award and a handful of Australian Jazz Bell Awards.

Melbourne saxophonist Julien Wilson has been awarded almost every major accolade in Australian jazz, including the National Jazz Award, The Freedman Fellowship for Jazz, an APRA/ AMCOS Art Music Award, and a “Bell” Award for Australian Jazz Musician of the Year. Since the mid-'90s he has maintained strong relationships with many Sydney musicians and regularly performs there.

From a forthcoming review:

"Overall, This World seems intent on evoking that very complexity – the delight and the ache – of living life in this world. With its laconic tempos and breezy tranquillity, it joins several other recent albums, such as Sam Anning’s Across a Field as Vast as One and Jonathan’s Zwartz’s The Remembering and Forgetting of Air, that point to a distinctly Australian approach to jazz. In striving for mood over pyrotechnics, these musicians have constructed a sound world out of simple melodies, clean lines, and subtle arrangements. In a nutshell, This World is a sublime album performed by a quartet of stellar improvisers. Enough said."

Des Cowley - Rhythms magazine

Mike Nock - piano

Hamish Stuart - drums

Julien Wilson - tenor saxophone

Jonathan Zwartz - double bass

Recorder by Ross Ahern at Sony Studios, Sydney June 29th & 30th 2019

Mixed and Mastered by Helik Hadar

SMH Review 8/2/2020

This album's existence was written in the stars. Having made music together in myriad groups across three decades, tenor saxophonist Julien Wilson, pianist Mike Nock, bassist Jonathan Zwartz and drummer Hamish Stuart have finally formed a quartet.

All four contribute compositions to this debut, lending it such range that the fraught, euphoric, challenging, rewarding business of being human really seems to have been condensed into music. The intensity of collaboration makes the pleasure that they share in each other's playing palpable, giving the results a singular glow (amplified by impeccable production).

This radiance, most obvious in Wilson's sound, is just as evident in Nock's open-hearted lyricism, and in the way Zwartz and Stuart, as complete a rhythm section as Australia has produced, narrow and expand the statement of the grooves. While Nock's Old's Cool sounds rather like a rope-in from another project, the rest coheres superbly, with Zwartz's limpid And in the Night Comes Rain leading to the bluesy lope of Wilson's Riverside, and Stuart's haunting Any Heart leading to Nock's simultaneously sad and playful Aftermath. They launch it at the Australian Institute of Music, February 8.
John Shand