DOUG De VRIES & DIANA CLARK TRIO

Mon 24 Aug 2009 @ 8:00pm

Admission Members $15 Guests $25 Student members $8

Brazilian beats for PJS

DOUG De Vries (guitar), Diana Clark (vocals) and Stephen Grant (piano accordion) are three of Australia’s finest musicians who perform lyrical and fiery originals combining the spontaneity of jazz with the rhythm, romance and intricacy of Brazilian popular song.

Experience the mellifluous beauty of Diana's voice, the rich harmonic versatility of de Vries’ guitar and the sounds of all-round musical virtuoso and piano-
accordionist Stephen Grant.

Doug's impressive history of arrangements and compositions, plus Diana's warm, rich and intimate English/ Portuguese vocals, combined with Stephen's masterful piano-accordion playing create a subtle, mesmerising concert with consummate ease and heart.

They bring good feeling, humour and passion to an original repertoire through cultivating the great traditions of choro, bossa nova, samba and jazz in their compelling
performance interplay.

Both interpreters of Jazz and Brazilian music, both composers in their own right – Diana and Doug have performed together since 1998, recording four acclaimed albums together. Along with their concerts all are widely appreciated for their beauty, elegance and charm.

Diana Clark

From a new generation of outstanding and innovative contemporary jazz and world/folk singers, Diana embraces the world's music with imagination and warmth. She received arts-critics awards for her first two albums with Australian master-guitarist Doug de Vries: A Knot in
the Wood (top 10 Australian Albums for 2003 – Rhythms Magazine) and Three Shadows of Blue (top 10 Albums for 2005 – Cadence Magazine, USA).

Diana is co-founder of the Melbourne-based award-winning vocal/percussion group AKASA (Best World/Folk Album and best song 2000 CARA, USA) and was a finalist in the Australian (Wangaratta) and International jazz
vocal competitions. She won fourth place in the 2002 International Jazz-Connect Vocal Competition with her English lyric and version of the classic afro-samba Canto de Ossanha (Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes).

Highly regarded across Australia and the Pacific for her conducting work with community choirs, Diana created, directed and recorded Australia's first Brazilian choir Borboleta and has published the first choral book of Brazilian vocal scores in Australia.

Diana is the recipient of Australian Arts Council (Government) Grants including a professional development study in Portugal with European jazz
vocalist/lyricist Maria Joao and two study trips to Brazil, where she learned to sing fluently in Portuguese.

In 2006 Diana released her debut solo recording Breathe Into Time – a collection of original songs reflecting the spirit of a life lived from the Australian outback to the culturally rich cities of Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro.

For more about Diana - go to www.di-lark.com

Doug

Doug de Vries, one of Australia’s finest guitarists and composers is also one of its greatest musical exports. His interests draw on the traditions of jazz and tango to English folk and classic/contemporary Brazilian guitar, with deep understanding, musicality and integrity.

He received the Australian Jazz and Blues Award for Australia’s best Jazz guitarist, and has received a Grammy nomination for his live recording with US Jazz-Blues singer, Barbara Morrison Live Down Under.

Since touring Australia and the US with the Australian Jazz Orchestra, Doug has appeared at major festivals and
events in the UK, India, USA, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Brazil. A member of the Australian Art Orchestra for many years, he has been commissioned
to compose a major work for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and has orchestrated several film scores.

Doug’s many acclaimed recordings have increasingly focused on his long-standing passion for South American
music, in particular tango nuevo and choro. He so impressed brasiliero Egberto Gismonti with his interpretations of the composer’s music that Doug’s album Agua e Vinho was released on Gismonti’s own label, Carmo, distributed through ECM world-wide.

Through his joyous exploration of the form, Doug has played alongside many of Brazil's legendary choro musicians and he recorded a joint project with Mauricio Carrilho in Rio de Janeiro. For more - go to www.dougdevries.com

Steve

A remarkably versatile and independent musician, Stephen Grant is equally at home playing contemporary and traditional jazz as well as many other styles of
music.

Born in England, he moved to Australia when young and now stays busy performing on almost any instrument
he can get his hands on. He has played cornet and trumpet with his own New Orleans Six as well as with Allan Browne’s New Orleans Rascals, Steve Waddell’s Creole Bells, The Hoodangers, the Australian Art Orchestra, Niko Schäuble’s Papa Carlo and The Moscow
Circus; trombone with Jazz On Tap; accordion with MOP; saxophone and cornet with Chris Tanner’s Virus and
piano with Tom Baker, as well as alternating roles on bass, trumpet, guitar and piano with the Allan Browne Trio and the Paul Grabowsky Sextet.

An incredibly consummate, tasteful and understated musician, Stephen is self-taught and has played professionally since he was 15, at clubs, pubs and festivals throughout Australia as well as touring in Europe and the Americas with a variety of groups.

Comment

‘De Vries and Clark feel the music of Brazil down to their bones. His guitar is full of romance and her voice is so intimate it could make you blush. Australia may be halfway around the world from Brazil but you’d never know it from listening
to their CDs.’ - Cadence Magazine USA Sept 2005

‘Diana’s voice was seductive and engaging, singing in fluent Portuguese and alternating to English (with) de Vries improvising, doing it all, using an impressive finger-style technique on a seven string guitar. Doug also complemented Di's voice by singing counterpoint
melodies while accompanying on guitar. It was truly a night of splendour from two of this country's finest musicians’. - President Albury-Wodonga Jazz Society

‘Melbourne guitarist Doug de Vries has long been revered for his magical playing and willingness and determination
to explore new sounds and styles. (His) artistry is eloquent, joyous and exuberant.’ - Herald Sun

‘Buoyed by gently vibrant Afro-Brazilian rhythms, Clark's warm vocals can soften the melancholy of a yearning
lyric, or coax the vibrant rhythms around her into a dance of celebration.’ - The Age

‘The best, new true ‘bossa nova’ album comes from Melbourne! Mostly, ‘Three shadows of blue' is a set of Brazilian classics, performed very intimately and in a
refreshingly adult way by singer Diana Clark and guitarist Doug de Vries’. - ‘The Planet’ Radio National, Sept 2004

‘When you can sing in Portuguese, count Nina Simone and K.D. Lang as influences, and are backed by Doug de
Vries on guitar it's hard to go wrong. It also helps that Diana Clark has an amazing voice.’ - The AGE Aug, 2007

Playing Australia

THE Australian Government is proud to be associated with the Doug de Vries/Diana Clark Trio tour through the
national performing arts touring programme, Playing Australia, which gives Australians across the country the opportunity to see some of our best performing arts.