Fringe Guide 18, Lalah Hathaway Jazz Guide 22, The Butterfly Effect 24, Agnes Obel 26, Casey Smith,

LALAH HATHAWAY

Donny Hathaway’s voice has filled up the living rooms, parties and bars of Australian music lovers for the last half a century.

Words by Jess Zanoni

A progenitor of soul, whose influence on contemporary music and performance cannot be overstated, Donny Hathaway never had the chance to tour his music on this side of the world, until the 2022 Melbourne International Jazz Festival gave his daughter Lalah Hathaway a call.

“I’m very excited, because I was unsure if I would ever get over there,” Hathaway admits on the phone, while visiting her mother at home in Virginia. “We’ve been doing these Donny Hathaway orchestral dates in parts of Europe, and some in the States. Most of the arrangements are done by my maestro, Vince Mendoza, who’s a very famous conductor, arranger, composer, musician.”

“I'm always just showing up as me. Whatever the room is, however everyone is dressed, however everyone is feeling. I really do try to make each place like my living room. I will take off my shoes and try to give you the greatest show and the greatest sound possible.”

Widely recognised as one of the greatest living voices of R&B, soul and jazz, five-time Grammy award winning vocalist Lalah Hathaway will arrive in Melbourne this month to treat fans to two, once-in-a-lifetime performances of her father’s music at the Recital Centre with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

The daughter of two singers, Hathaway has carried her father’s music with her throughout her career. Donny Hathaway passed away when she was just 10 years old, but the exceptional resonance of his voice and artistry has always lived on in her own practice. She describes singing his songs as a fully joyful experience. “I’m not really thinking; ‘what am I giving in this moment?’ I know not to start thinking about it because then I’m in a different space,” she says. “I’m really just showing up for the work.” On top of the successes of her own solo recording career, which began with her first album in 1999, Lalah Hathaway has performed and collaborated with the likes of Prince, Stevie Wonder, Anderson .Paak, Robert Glasper and Jacob Collier. Her performance of the song ‘Something’, with contemporary jazz outfit Snarky Puppy, won her first Grammy in 2013. That performance demonstrates her rare ability to sing polyphonically—a technique that allows her to sing more than one note in unison. Hathaway divulges that singing music that she loves, be it her own, her father’s, or other artists’, feels utterly instinctive.

“Even just trying to figure out how to sing a song, or to interpret a story; all of that is a very natural function for me,” Hathaway professes. “Maybe there are pieces of music I have to learn, but even learning that music as a student, having it inside of me, to then give back out becomes a natural function. If there is a definition for being born to do something, that is what it is for me.”

It’s a challenge for Hathaway to piece together a setlist of her father’s music. Varying factors regarding time and atmosphere are a consideration, therefore each performance is its own iteration. What she does know, is that everyone in the room with her at these shows all share the same love that she feels for his music.

“I’m always just showing up as me. Whatever the room is, however everyone is dressed, however everyone is feeling. I really do try to make each place like my living room. I will take off my shoes and try to give you the greatest show and the greatest sound possible.”

On the topic of her father’s enormous cultural impact, his legacy, and the special place his music holds in the lives of so many people, Hathaway believes there are two primary things that makes her father’s music so timeless.

“First of all, his sound—there’s nothing like it. He has an unduplicatable footprint. So many people try to imitate it. I think he has fathered hundreds and probably thousands of singers, some of whom don’t even know that that’s who they sound like,” Hathaway says incredulously. “The second thing is his brutal honesty, with the joy and the pain of his sound. I think that rings true to people. Even on the fast songs, the party songs; you can still eek out both sides of that coin. I think the crucial thing though, is the sound. Nothing sounds like that. Nothing sounds like him.”

Lalah Hathaway will perform with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at Hamer Hall on October 21 and 22, as part of Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

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JAZZ FESTIVAL GUIDE Incredible gigs at Melbourne International Jazz Festival

Words by Christine Lan

MonoNeon

Inimitable, challenging and electrifying, Dywane ‘MonoNeon’ Thomas Jr. is one of the most revered electric bassists of his generation and will bring his progressive blend of southern soul, funk, jazz and blues to the Jazz Festival along with his four-piece band. The Memphis, Tennessee native is one of the most thrilling funk experimentalists and was one of the last musicians to work with Prince. Inspired by pioneers such as George Clinton, Prince, Victor Wooten and Anthony Jackson, MonoNeon delivers a ground-breaking and original style of funk.

MonoNeon performs at 170 Russell on October 20.

Legacy: Lalah Hathaway Sings Donny Hathaway

Breathtaking soul, R&B and jazz singer and five-time Grammy Award winner Lalah Hathaway will perform in Australia for the first time in a special performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The mesmerising Chicago-born singer has shared the stage with Prince, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock. Gracing our shores to perform the extraordinary work of her iconic father and soul music legend Donny Hathaway, Lalah’s virtuosity and soulful jazz expression will provide a transcendental experience.

Legacy: Lalah Hathaway Sings Donny Hathaway is on at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall on October 21-22. Avant-garde jazz drummer is one of the most inventive, inspiring musicians and has been praised for his astonishing work with Ravi Coltrane, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith and Oliver Lake. The Detroit-born, New York-based music master’s live performances possess a transformative power.

Pheeroan akLaff will thrill at The JazzLab on October 16.

Al Di Meola

Celebrated as one of our lifetime’s greatest guitarists, Al Di Meola is a pioneer of blending jazz with various musical styles, which has earned him numerous awards and worldwide adoration. A prolific composer of over 20 albums as a leader, Di Meola will perform a combination of new material, older classics and compositions from some of his major influences.

Al Di Meola performs at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, on October 18.

Big Saturday

This incredible celebration of jazz, soul and funk is headlined by game-changing New Zealand eight-piece Fat Freddy’s Drop and features sublime funk and soul group The Bamboos, soul queen Emma Donovan – one of the country’s finest singers – and The Putbacks, and the Cat Empire’s multi-talented Harry James Angus and drummer Freyja Hooper.

Big Saturday is on at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on October 15.

Brenda Gifford

Yuin woman Brenda Gifford is a classically-trained pianist and saxophonist whose arts practice is informed by her Country, community and culture. The award-winning and prolific composer will premiere a new work as part of the First Nations Artist Residency Program. Featuring Dhurga language about whales (Moriyawa) and creation stories from her Country, Gifford will perform on saxophone alongside her nephew Joe Brown McLeod (didgeridoo and clapsticks) and members of the Australian Art Orchestra in this amazing new composition.

Brenda Gifford performs at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Primrose Potter Salon, on October 23. Jazz Westside (Maribyrnong)

Jazz Westside features an incredible line-up, featuring Nigerian-born Olugbade Okunade aka GP Saxy – a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who blends Afrobeat with jazz and funk; Ethiopian-born, Melbourne-based jazz saxophonist Solomon Sisay; ten-piece funk group Black Jesus Experience and their trippy, infectious fusion of traditional Ethiopian song, jazz, hip-hop, soul and funk; and Afro-Cuban powerhouse La Influencia, formed by Salvador Persico (Blue King Brown) and Daniel Mougerman (The Bamboos).

Jazz Westside is on at the Footscray Library Forecourt on October 15-16.

Menagerie

Spiritual jazz ensemble Menagerie was founded by guitarist, songwriter and producer Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos, Lanu, Rare Groove Spectrum). The Music Victoria Award nominated 10-piece are inspired by jazz labels Strata-East, Impulse! and Tribe as well as the new wave of jazz marked by Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia, but bring their own unique antipodean stylings. The superb group will perform material from their acclaimed third album Many Worlds (2021) for the very first time, featuring some of Australia’s finest improvisers.

Menagerie will perform at the Darebin Arts Centre on October 14.

Melissa Aldana Quartet

Brilliant saxophonist Melissa Aldana is the first South American and the first female instrumentalist to win the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone competition. Gaining international recognition for her visionary work as a bandleader and prolific performer, the Brooklyn-based tenor player from Santiago, Chile, and her quartet will perform music from her acclaimed debut Blue Note album 12 Stars, which emotively expresses concepts of childrearing, familial forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love.

Melissa Aldana Quartet perform at The JazzLab, on October 21-22. Melbourne International Jazz Festival runs from October 14 – 23.

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THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

After a long hiatus, the return of a beloved band can feel like a rush of energy that’s been kept dormant for too long.

Words by James Robertson

Credit Kane Hibberd

Cult classic Brisbane hard rock outfit The Butterfly Effect have released this energy since their return to the Aus-rock stage, which has been lauded by fans and critics alike. Since reforming with the original line-up, consisting of lead singer Clint Boge, guitarist Kurt Goedhart, bassist Glenn Esmond and drummer Ben Hall, in 2017, the band have toured relentlessly, only slightly hampered by the arrival of the pandemic.

During that time, The Butterfly Effect have been hard at work on a new album, recently released in the form of IV, their fourth studio release. About to embark on a nationwide tour in support of their new release, the band have found a way to reconcile their past grievances to prove they are still one of the best hard-rock acts in the country.

You’d think that after so long since a new album the band would have lost some of their spark, but lead vocalist Clint Boge doesn’t think so. Even after “14 years between drinks, you’d think that something would’ve changed, but it didn’t. It stayed exactly the same.”

That old familiar feeling may not have changed, but the ways of achieving that success certainly have. “The only difference this time,” says Clint, “is that we didn’t have Glenn in the room, as he lives in Sydney. So it was just the three of us in the room.”

Back in 2012, the band was in turmoil, with Clint Boge leaving the group after heated resentments grew too hot to handle. It was not the most amicable of departures, but now the band have been able to push past their old grievances.

“We’ve kind of crossed a bit of a bridge with each other,” says Clint. “All part of the reconciliation effect. Putting our trust in each other a bit more. We also took criticism a lot better than we ever did before.” The new album is “wrapped up in getting back together, not thinking we ever would make another album again.” The hiatus was vital for this work to see the light of day. “Having that long break from each other since 2012 was really important,” says Clint, “because everyone was really invigorated, the energy was really good in the room, we were getting along better than ever. [And] it’s all rolled up in this new album. We’re just as proud of our effort to get to this point.”

Miraculously, the length of time and disparate musical elements have only helped elevate IV.

“To me, it actually sounds more cohesive on this album, which is weird because it was written in chunks, bits and pieces, and we recorded it in different studios, with different producers, and separately too. We did things in our own time. We didn’t feel pressured and stressed.

“Getting this album out after such a long time has been a release of energy. That pent-up thing of looking back at those old demos and thinking how much good stuff was there and how much I’d love for people to hear it.

“There’ll always be some memory like ‘Do you remember when so-and-so did a nudie run past that 7-Eleven in Adelaide?’ and everyone will laugh. There’s a lot of great memories and you get to relive that. We get to be kids again for a little while every night.”

Clint can’t wait to spread that love that he thinks their fans deserve on tour. He can’t wait to “get to to give everyone cuddles, when we’re standing at the merch desk, which is always a treat. But someone did bring this up the other day, saying we should be careful we don’t get sick. I hadn’t thought of that! So fingers crossed everyone comes to the shows healthy and no-one’s going to dribble on me.”

After so long between albums and a touring hiatus on top of that, The Butterfly Effect have come back in a big way and the band are more stoked than ever to share their new music on stage with their fans. “We feel extremely grateful and honoured that we get to keep going,” says Clint.

“Not only just as a legacy act, which we kind of are, but I think to have new music out there is really cool too.”

The Butterfly Effect are playing Northcote Theatre on October 13 and 14 with special guests Thornhill and Caligula’s Horse. IV is out now.

There’s a ghostly and celestial air to Agnes Obel’s ethereal vocals, poetic lyrics and enthralling soundscapes. Obel’s poignant music exhibits such an affecting and healing quality that a biologist and sound engineer asked her to compose pieces for a new depression treatment that they developed involving sonic waves. The Danish-born, Berlinbased singer-songwriter has long been interested in depression having witnessed her father’s own experiences. This made writing songs for the depression clinical trial in Denmark an easy and inspiring decision.

“I started to read a lot about the mind and the brain,” says Obel, “and the different theories, because we don’t really know what depression really is. I’ve been reading a lot about the neurosciences and psychology, and trying to understand the psychology of music. I’m finding it very inspiring that you can use music and sound to get the brain out of these destructive loops that develop when you have depression. “There’s something about biology and the mind and how little we know about our brains that I find really inspiring, and I can totally see some parallels with music. There’s also the element that we don’t really understand our minds, but we also don’t understand music and why music has such a strong effect on us, which is all part of the puzzle and riddle we have understanding our consciousness and our brains and our minds.”

Obel worked on these depression treatment pieces and the new songs for her forthcoming album shortly after giving birth to her daughter. Her husband Alex Brüel Flagshad creates the music videos for her songs. “Every time she was sleeping, I could work a bit on this depression music,” says Obel. “While I was pregnant, making music was a completely different experience. I was working with a concept for a new album and I had to throw it all away, because I had this new experience of being pregnant and having all this biology and life happening in my body that it just changed everything that I was making.”

“It’s been a huge experience to make music while being pregnant. I had no idea it would be this different. “I feel that each album is like a huge mountain that I’ve climbed – you learn so much in the process,” Obel continues. “It’s a huge chunk of my life because I make everything and I even mix it myself. With Citizen of Glass, I learned about synthesizers – there’s a technical side that I learn with each album and then there’s a personal side that I can see when I listen back.

“My father died in 2014, so Citizen of Glass and Myopia were about handling the personal. When you’re making the album, you’re not aware of it, but when I listen back I can sort of see I’m dealing with a lot of those things. When I made

Citizen of Glass, I could barely touch upon it because it was too sad, but when I made Myopia I could really write about it – it takes some time for me to even write a song about it, because it’s too much. The profoundly moving Island of Doom is about her father and how he lives on in her head while Broken Sleep deals with the relationship between sleep problems and a fear of death. “It’s kind of strange because I realise I don’t really talk with anybody about it and then you work on music and that’s the conversation with yourself,” AGNES OBEL Obel muses. “I think for me it’s really good to process this and take some time to. Now I also Captivating singer-songwriter Agnes Obel reflects on grief, motherhood and writing have a little daughter and like anybody who becomes a parent, you experience music for depression treatment. this new fear of something happening to your child. I can also get overwhelmed like ‘oh Words by Christine Lan my god, what if this happens?’. This was around the time when I was thinking about the fragility of my daughter. Every time I was playing piano, I feel that it went away.” Obel’s discovered that there is meaning in being creative that cannot be found in anything else and it’s the journey itself that matters. “I’m super lucky I’m able to do some work that is actually healing me through these difficult moments we all have in our lives, but I don’t really think you can think of music as always [like this]. “I’m totally not working with music to heal myself, but it’s sort Credit Alex Bruel Flagstad of a by-product I found along the way.” Agnes Obel will perform at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on October 13.

PARVYN

Words by Jacob McCormack

Lead vocalist of psychedelic outfit The Bombay Royale, Parvyn Singh commenced the pursuit of a solo project in the latter part of the previous decade.

Following her long-awaited debut album Sa – a whirling combination of classical Indian music, rhythmic vocals, psychedelia and electronica, Parvyn has been thrilled with the response she has received both in Australia and globally.

“This is the first time I’ve had full creative control over my own project,” says Parvyn. “With The Bombay Royale, we did three records, and it was kind of a collaborative process with all 11 members of the band that were getting together and doing the songwriting. This was very different in that it was personal to me.”

There are a plethora of moments throughout the LP that spotlight the authenticity of Parvyn’s music, the fusion of her potent and extensive Punjabi lineage, inclusive of the art that has come before her and the experiences she had being a part of the only Indian family that attended her primary school.

“When I sing, I am trying more and more to make sure it comes from an authentic space, of my experience, because my experience is unique,” she says. “Being born in Australia but with a very strong Indian cultural background, a Sikh Punjabi is the specific cultural background where I come from.

“It’s a very specific place that I’ve come from but being in Australia 30-years-ago in a society where my family was the only Indian family that went to my primary school; that perspective is my own.” Ultimately, Parvyn says the artistic life she leads is a means of inspiring others towards a more fulfilling existence: “I want to see people have a more sustainable life, get out of the rat race, and enjoy what we’re doing on a day-to-day basis. So often I see people and they’re not happy and they’re on the hustle and charge constantly. Have we forgotten what life is about? Have we forgotten that we’re meant to enjoy it along the way as well?”

Parvyn is playing as part of West Set Festival, which runs from October 14-30. Sa is out now.

KSEE IRIS

Words by Sidonie Bird de la Coeur

On ‘Follow Me’, Ksee Iris shines a light on the complexities of self-forgiveness.

A raw and vulnerable exploration of mental health, ‘Follow Me’ is the latest single from Melbourne-based indie-pop artist, Ksee Iris.

A drop-out of the Australian Institute of Music, Ksee Iris’ deeply personal lyricism draws from his own experiences with mental health. “I suffer from a couple of different disorders,” he told us. “I’ve got post traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder and Aspergers - it’s a bit of a trifecta.”

‘Follow Me’ is a relatable and transparent single about growth and accountability, a topic that’s rarely discussed in music. “It’s about the feeling that you’ve done something wrong by someone - but you didn’t mean it, it happened because of the mental state that you were in.” “I had an experience with my ex-girlfriend, where she could see that I was struggling and she really tried to help me [...] but the more she did the more I seemed to pull her down into my world.” ‘Follow Me’ asserts that the journey towards self-forgiveness starts with emotional honesty. “If people hear something in the song that resonates with them, they should start talking about it - getting it out definitely helps you start to move forward.”

“What I want people to know is that it’s okay to admit these things - it’s ok to admit to being the person you were and it’s okay to express it.”

The single itself is professionally produced by Stuart Stuart, the ARIA-nominated mastering engineer known for producing Sheppard’s global hit ‘Geronimo’ and for spearheading The Veronicas’ career.

“I sent him a track that I had recently written and he basically went like ‘yep. That’s the one - let’s do something’.”

His single launched at The Palm Royale in Richmond on October 1 and you can listen to it now on triple j and Spotify. ‘Follow Me’ was also made with the much appreciated support from friends; Letizia Colombo, Ashton Wastney and Tibo Menut.

‘Follow Me’ is out now. Check it out by heading to Ksee Iris’ triple j page. This article was made in partnership with Ksee Iris. RTO 3600

National Theatre Drama School

Est 1936 | Director of Drama Dr Jo Loth

LAUNCH YOUR ACTING CAREER

Applications Now Open for 2023

The Advanced Diploma of Acting (10884NAT) is a nationally accredited, threeyear, full-time professional training course that prepares students for careers as actors and performance makers in theatre, film, television and new media.

First Year – CONNECTING Learn to connect with and trust your own instincts, tune into your instrument (through voice and movement training) and develop connections with your ensemble. Your first year will culminate in two studio-based performances: a selfdevised solo work and a script-based play production. Second Year – EXTENDING Extend into heightened performance forms, group devised work, screen acting technique and producing skills. Performance skills will include Shakespearean text, fight combat and clowning. Working with industry experts, you’ll learn advanced screen acting techniques in preparation for your third year showreels. Third Year – HONING Prepare yourself to embark on your professional career. Throughout the year, you’ll be mentored by performance making experts to develop a new work. You’ll work on showreels and perform in a mainstage production with a leading industry director. You’ll graduate from the program with a series of professional headshots, showreels, professionallevel performance experience and your own creative work.

Image from left: The Changeling – dir. Harry Haynes. Dredge – dir. Katie Cawthorne (Both photos by Cameron Grant). Showreels – dir. Danielle Carter (photo by Danielle Carter).

ENTRY IS BY AUDITION ONLY. ACT NOW!

Applications close 18 November – International students 1 December – Australia and NZ

For curriculum outline, information on how to apply and the auditions process please visit: nationaltheatre.org.au/drama 29 108884NAT / RTO 3600