Sandy Evans OAM

Tenor and Soprano saxophone, composer

photo credit: Matthew Stanton

**Winner of the Inaugural Bell Award For Australian Jazz Musician of The Year 2003**

Sandy Evans is an internationally renowned saxophonist and composer with a passion for improvisation and new music. Sandy was awarded an OAM for her work as a musician in 2010.

She leads the Sandy Evans Trio, and co-leads the internationally acclaimed Clarion Fracture Zone. She is a member of the Australian Art Orchestra, Ten Part Invention, The catholics, austraLYSIS, Kim Sanders and Friends and the saxophone quartet SNAP. In 2004, together with composer Tony Gorman she launched the critically acclaimed 8 piece ensemble GEST8.

Sandy recently recorded a 60 minute extended jazz composition “When The Sky Cries Rainbows’ for The Sandy Evans Trio and special guests Phil Slater: trumpet, James Greening: trombone and Alister Spence: piano. The work was recorded for ABC Jazztrack and will be released in 2011

Sandy has a keen interest in Indian classical music inspired by the AAO’s Adrian Sherriff and mridangam maestro Guru Kaaraikudi Mani. In January 2009 she travelled to Chennai, India, with the assistance of an Australia Council study grant to study Carnatic music with Guru Mani and B.V.Balasai. Sandy is currently undertaking a Masters at Macquarie University, researching Carnatic jazz intercultural music. She has recorded a CD with Sruthi Laya as part of her research. Sandy toured with Five Elements in 2010.She collaborates regularly with Sydney-based Indian musicians Sarangan Sriranganathan and Bobby Singh.

With percussionist Tony Lewis and koto player Satsuki Odamura, she co-leads the innovative world music trio Waratah. Sandy is a member of the Bulgarian folk-jazz fusion group MARA! She is a featured soloist on Andrew Robson’s CD of music by Thomas Tallis “Bearing the Bell”.

Sandy delivered the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address for the New Music Network in December 2008.

Her composition “Testimony” about the life and music of Charlie Parker with poetry by the Pulitzer prize winning American poet Yusef Komunyakaa has been a highlight of her career. Testimony, commissioned originally by ABC Radio, was premiered by the AAO in the Concert Hall at The Sydney Opera House for the Sydney Festival in January 2002.

She has composed a major work commissioned by the Sydney Opera House: The Beatitudes, for the Sydney Children’s Choir, 6 vocal soloists and a 25 piece ensemble of young musicians.

Sandy is a graduate of the Jazz Studies Course at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. She has also studied in the US, Germany, Hungary and the UK with the assistance of an Australia Council study grant. She is an experienced teacher and inaugurated a Jazz Improvisation Course for Young Women run annually by SIMA. She was the director of this course until 2010.

She has toured extensively in Australia, Europe, Canada and Asia. Some highlights have been the Chicago Jazz festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, WOMAD, the Brecon Festival, the Outside In festival, the Edinburgh Festival, Montreal and Vancouver Jazz festivals, the Knitting Factory (NY) the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, the Manly Jazz Festival, Sydney and Melbourne Jazz Festivals, the Brisbane Biennial, the Adelaide Festival, Jazz Yatra (India), the Sidmouth Folk Festival and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. She has toured Russia, China, Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Germany, Finland, Singapore, Taiwan, India, Fiji, Western Samoa, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Hong Kong. She has been featured in several television programs for the ABC and Scottish television as well as radio broadcasts on the ABC, BBC and WDR (Germany). She appears in the Australian jazz documentaries Beyond el Rocco and Dr Jazz.

She has been featured on over 30 albums.

You can visit Sandy’s website at www.jazz-planet.com/sandy