Hue Blanes Trio Invites: Mat Jodrell

Hue Blanes Trio Invites is a night curated by Michael Tortoni and Blanes himself. The framework idea is for The JazzLab’s own working house trio on the first Tuesday of every month, the Hue Blanes Trio, featuring Danny Fischer and Sam Anning, to work with their favourite feature artists, primarily being horn players in this case.

The feature artist Mat Jodrell is an internationally renowned players but we are especially lucky to have them based right here in Melbourne (for the moment).

Expect deeply personal works, both original and arranged with each solo artist leading the journey. At the beginning of Spring this Quartet will play new and old music, diving into the depths of both simplicity and complexity combined with a focus on melody.

So come and get cozy, and bring your ears and your eyes, you’re going to need them.

Hue Blanes Trio:

Hue Blanes – Piano

Danny Fischer – Drums

Sam Anning – Bass

Featuring Mat Jodrell!

Mat Jodrell

Trumpeter Mat Jodrell is one of the most exciting voices in Jazz today. He has recently returned to Australia after having lived in New York City for the past eight years, performing around the city and teaching at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music.

During his time in the States, Mat was a regular member of many ensembles, all of whom he has recorded with. They include Miguel Zenon’s ‘Identities’ Ensemble, Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project (both Grammy nominated in 2016), Lucas Pino’s No Net Nonet, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Miho Hazama’s M-Unit, Kenny Werner’s ‘No Beginning, No End’, Pedro Giraudo’s Expansions Ensemble, Jon Batiste Band, the Birdland Big Band, the Bill Mobley Big Band, the Dan Jamieson Big Band and many others.

Since relocating to the US Mat has had the opportunity to perform with the likes of Benny Golson, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Buster Williams, Hubert Laws, Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, James Spaulding, Carl Allen, Terri-Lyn Carrington, Bill Watrous, Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, Darcy James Argue, and Josh Roseman to name but a few.

Between 2008 and 2012 Mat performed regularly on Broadway with the shows ‘Hair’ and ‘After Midnight’ and continues to work with legendary singer Paul Anka with whom he has toured throughout Europe, Russia, Asia, South America and the Middle East.

Hue Blanes

Born in 1984, Melbourne, Hue grew up in the small Victorian town of Healesville, where he began his musical life playing local fetes, concerts and festivals. He received a scholarship to study at the Victorian College of The Arts Secondary School (VCASS), and graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Music Performance and the prestigious Billy Hyde Music Prize for outstanding achievement.

Hue’s teachers have included some of Australia’s finest musicians — Bob and Steven Sedergreen, Andrea Keller, Tim Stevens, Tony Gould, and most recently Fred Hersch and Jason Moran.

His career has been characterised as not fitting into a box. He has been involved in a myriad of genres and musical projects, all with the ultimate purpose of improving his playing and understanding of music. He writes jazz and classical music, tragicomic songs about love, dying, and world conspiracies, and plays jazz standards, classical scores and spiritual hymns he finds at second-hand bookstores.

Hue has played at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) for four consecutive years, from running his own projects to collaborating with other artists. At this year’s MIJF, he premiered ‘Things that have been said’, as part of being awarded the 2017 Young Elder of Jazz Award.

In 2016, he received a commission from Melbourne ensemble PLEXUS to compose a piece for piano, violin and clarinet. This new work ‘The Sun, the Moon and the Planets (2016)’ premiered in PLEXUS: Propulsion on 6 December 2016 at the Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre.

He received multiple 2016 Green Room nominations for his comedy show ‘Hue Blanes and the Moon’ directed by Travis Cotton. The show premiered at the 2016 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and went on the road to the 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

In 2017, Hue premiered ‘Blow the man down’, a work for baritone and piano commissioned by the Boroondara Arts Council. This song cycle was written in the traditional Lieder opera style to explore themes of loneliness, longing and the miraculous mundanity of being human.

Hue was the winner of the 2018 Lucerne School of Music International Jazz Piano competition. Currently based in the Netherlands, Hue is expanding on his previous work around the musicality of language. Hue is signed to Pound Records.

Ticketing Information

Please read carefully:

• Online Ticket Price: Concession – $25 / General Admission – $30
• Door Ticket Price: Concession – $30 / General Admission – $35