Alister Spence

Musical Director and Composer 'Soak'/ Piano, Keyboards

photo credit: Matthew Stanton

Alister is one of the most outstanding pianists and composers in contemporary jazz in Australia.  In recent years he has devoted his energy to writing and performing with his trio, The Alister Spence Trio.  This group was nominated for Best Australian Jazz Ensemble 2004 at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.  They have recorded two CDs of Alister’s original music,  Three is a Circle in 2000 and Flux in 2003 both on Rufus Records, distributed in Australia by Universal Music.  Flux was nominated for Best Jazz Album 2004 at the ARIA (Australian recording Industry) Awards.  The trio was featured on the ABC documentary series on Australian jazz called The Pulse in 2001. Three is a Circle was released in Japan in January 2003 on the Earth Spirit Label.

As well as this he co-leads internationally acclaimed group Clarion Fracture Zone.  He is a member of  Wanderlust and the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO).  Alister’s playing is featured on more than 30 CDs, several of which have won ARIA awards.  Over the years he has played with many of the finest musicians in Australia including Bernie McGann, Sandy Evans, Don Burrows, Dale Barlow, Peter O’Mara, Tony Buck and Phillip Slater.  Alister has also performed with several overseas artists; Mark Helias (US), Phillip Johnston (US), and Sting.

His talents as a writer have been well recognized with several compositions featuring on Bernie McGann’s 2001 Aria winning CD Bundeena. He has also been commissioned to write for Wanderlust, the Australian Art Orchestra and Ten Part Invention with his work being featured on Passion (ABC Classics) by the Australian Art Orchestra and all of Wanderlust’s four CDs.

In more recent times Alister has composed music for film.  His work for and collaborations with celebrated film director Ivan Sen have won many accolades. Together they have completed the soundtrack to Ivan’s first feature film, Beneath Clouds, which was released with the Dendy group in June 2002. The score for Beneath Clouds was nominated for the Best Score at The Film Critics Awards 2002 and the Australian Film Industry Awards 2002.

Other film projects include writing the music for Dhakiyarr versus the King directed by Tom Murray and Allan Collins which won Best Film at the 2004 Sydney Film Festival and has been selected in competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2005

Alister has toured extensively in Europe and Asia with Clarion Fracture Zone, Wanderlust and the AAO, and has performed for radio broadcasts for ABC, BBC, and WDR (Germany).  He is a graduate of the Jazz Studies course at the NSW Conservatorium and has studied in New York with Cedar Walton and Andy La Verne. He has also had lessons with Mulgrew Miller (USA) and Benny Green (USA).

He also lectures part time at UNSW University in Jazz Performance and Arranging.

You can visit Alister’s website at www.alisterspence.com

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

Alister Spence Trio: Flux Rufus Records Nominated for ARIA Award 2004 Best Jazz Album
Alister Spence Trio: Three is a Circle Rufus Records
Clarion Fracture Zone: Blue Shift 1990 ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album
Rufus Records VeraBra Records, Germany
Clarion Fracture Zone: Zones on Parade Rufus Records 5 Stars Downbeat
Clarion Fracture Zone: What This Love Can Do Rufus Records
Clarion Fracture Zone: Less Stable Elements Rufus Records
Nominated for ARIA 1997 Best Jazz Album
Clarion Fracture Zone: Canticle Rufus Records
Wanderlust: Wanderlust 1993 ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album
Rufus Records, released on EMI Europe
Wanderlust: Border Crossings Rufus Records Laika Records Europe
Wanderlust: Song and Dance Rufus Records
Wanderlust: The Full Bronte Miro Records
Australian Art Orchestra: Into the Fire ABC Records
Australian Art Orchestra: Passion ABC Records
Andrew Robson: on ABC Records Nominated for ARIA 2003 Best Jazz Album
Carl Orr: Seeking Spirit RooArt Records
Jeremy Sawkins: Toys Rufus Records
Alison’s Wonderland: Once Upon a Timelessness New Market Music
Craig Walter’s: First Light Rufus Records
Monica and The Moochers: Too Darn Hot RooArt Records
Monica and The Moochers: Cotton On The Breeze RooArt Records
Mark Taylor: Shakedown Rufus Records

PRESS QUOTES

This is jazz at its most violently inventive and sublimely addictive. Give us more.
Review of the Alister Spence Trio at The Harbourside Brasserie, Sydney 1999.  Drum Media

The Alister Spence Trio provide a formidable musical experience…one of the most illuminating, moving musical entities I’ve ever encountered… the three members play so that the melody is always the prime component, never rushing into the music, always allowing the songs space to breathe.
C Pearce, Drum Media

His piano glistened with personality, vitality and invention
John Shand Sydney Morning Herald, 27/11/00

When I hear a brilliant jazz piano at stretch I think of a sunny morning outside Kyoto.  That’s where this very special Trio takes me, and they ought to be heard outside the jazz world.
John Clare CD Review, Sydney Morning Herald, 9/12/00

Expressing a style based on mainstream and integrating free form and new sensations that remind us of Paul Bley, it would be no exaggeration to say that Spence’s intellectual taste, and the fact that he doesn’t get caught up in ritual or tradition, highlights an outstanding personality, and that indeed he is fully rivaling the pianists who have brought about the present boom in piano trio music.
Swing Journal, Tokyo Japan, March 2003

Three become one in a magical merge of musical mastery.
Jessica Nicholas, The Age, Melbourne, Sept 2002

This is the sound of the hammer striking the nail right on the head sweetly, every time.
Shane Nichols review of Flux, Financial Review November 2003

Beautiful. Spence’s piano vocabulary is very distinctive, his playing very fine, with rhythmic excitement and melodic beauty entwined.
John Clare, Sydney Morning Herald, December 2003